I will make two more suggestions:
>1. Try to route the award tickets with the minimum number of segments, hence minimising the fuel surcharge. Again, by my calcs an award ticket ISA-BNE-PER and return should be around $150 per ticket in charges.
Thanks NM I really appreciate your trying to help and it's very nice to see someone offer some constructive advice.
We got told that by the girl on the ticket counter .. those were the only available segments though.
>2. If you find yourself flying so much for work that you don't want to fly for pleasure/holidays, why not redeem some of those points for upgrades on the flights you are already taking. Upgrades are a way of reducing the balance of useless points without incurring any extra fees and charges. And if you are flying anyway for work purposes, you might as well enjoy the trip a little more. Or are you always flying in business/first class anyway?
Yes its always business for my wife. She is platinum with SC's comming out her backside. We went to Canada last xmas and used some to upgrade to business that was nice but it really put the icing on the cake about flying for fun for us .. it was a cough of a trip even in a fat seat.
Once there it was nice of course but no ... no more flying for us for pleasure for about 10 years .. we might forget about how we hated it so much by then.
Funny thing is I am a pilot
but the only time I actually enjoyed being up the back was when a kind captain gave me the jump seat into sydney on an A320 airbus one night. Now that I don't mind paying for ! (pre september 11 of course)
>If you don't see these as helpful suggestions, then I will consider this thread troll-fodder.
Dude at the risk of repeating myself I am not ever going to be happy about the changes made to the FF program. Thanks for your input though !