From the book Mileage Pro by Randy Peterson and Tim Winship:

To understand award redemption we need to take a step back to 1981. When frequent flyer programs were invented, every seat on the aircraft was available to members each and every day. No blackout dates or capacity controls existed. The price? Awards were set at 40,000 to 50,000 miles for a seat in coach class.

By 1988, programs began to offer new awards at lower levels that at the time started at 20,000 miles. These lower level awards came with restrictions limiting the number of free seats per flight.

Today, nearly 83 percent of all awards are at the lower, more restricted level. Nonetheless, the fact remains that 100 percent of airlines seats daily are available for award redemption at the original, higher level (40,000 to 50,000 miles) – a category often referred to as ‘any time’ awards.

Award Alternatives

·        Do not get hung up on free airline travel. Consider purchasing a ticket and applying your miles to a hotel room. (DealerMiles note: Also, many airlines are starting to offer “mileage malls” where members can spend their miles on merchandise from magazine subscriptions to plasma screen televisions)

·        Combine paid and award travel

·        View companion awards and upgrades as viable alternatives to free awards

Best Ways to Redeem Your Miles

·        You have heard about planning early for frequent flyer award redemption. Now try this: Plan late. Airlines are getting better at releasing seats at the last minute for award redemption. (DealerMiles note: At least one airline, United, is now charging higher fees the closer you book your award ticket to the flight day).

·        Codeshare an award. With airline alliances, sometimes airlines only have half the plane to give away as awards since their codeshare partner owns the remaining seats. Because one airline will only see their available seats, try asking about their codeshare partner’s free seats.

·        The family plan. Most people do not have enough miles for the whole family to fly for free and often purchase a ticket for one of the kids to go along on the vacation. Tip: Whenever you have to purchase a ticket along with an award, transfer your award to a family member and fly on the purchased ticket yourself. Why? You will replenish your miles. Another trick for using miles for a family vacation is to use miles from one of your frequent flyer program’s partners. Perhaps you can get only a single award seat using your SkyMiles on Delta. Try using your Continental or Northwest miles for other seats on the same Delta flight.

·        Mini awards. Both American and Continental offer weekend awards to cities for fewer miles than normal. Fly out late on Friday or Saturday and return Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday. While restrictions to apply, you can claim an award for as few as 7,500 miles. Nearly every member we spoke to did not even know these special award offers existed but they do!

·        Know the best days to travel. The chart below indicates the good and bad days to travel, depending on your destination:

·        Go where no one else has gone (yet). The secret is to look for new routes opening up. Those seats have not yet been available for either ticket sales or award redemption, which means everything is available. Read travel news about an airline’s “second daily flight” or their newly released “winter schedule.”

·        Book an award by segments. Because of the “hub and spoke” system that most major airlines use, the problem with getting a free ticket is not that the entire route is booked, but that a single segment of the award request is unavailable. You may want to try to book each segment separately, and once done, ask the airline to combine them for a single award.

·        Pick up the phone. Many programs have worked hard to convince members to book their awards online. The unfortunate problem with this is that most programs have faulty online award booking systems. Most do not include the inventory for their airlines partners. Most do not intelligently reroute a member through various hubs or city pairs. Most do not identify the problem with an award request such as a single segment not being available. Most do not allow you to register and be notified later on if a seat becomes available. Because of these limitations and more, we have no problem suggesting that if you have any problems booking an award online, you take the request to the phone line and try to work out the award through a reservation agent. Although most programs will now charge you for this, we feel it is worth the cost.

·        If all else fails. Most program members only know how to “talk coach” when redeeming their miles – and for good reason as coach miles tend to go further. But if you are spending 40,000 to 50,000 miles for a coach award because none of the 25,000-mile awards are available, it is time to “talk first class.” Here is why: In the Northwest WorldPerks program a saver award is 25,000 miles. A “Rule Buster” award is 50,000 miles. Did you know that a saver first class ticket is only 45,000 miles? That is right. When coach is not available ask about the availability of a saver first class award before paying double miles for coach.

DealerMiles would like to thank Mr. Peterson and Mr. Winship for permission to use this excerpt from their book Mileage Pro.