Back in the summer, when I already knew I would be going to Indianapolis for the National Missionary Convention, I received an offer for a Delta SkyMiles American Express card. Just by signing up, I'd wind up with enough Frequent Flyer miles to get a free trip anywhere Delta or its partners fly. That included Indianapolis. So I signed up and got the miles.
But when the time came for me to swap my miles for a ticket, it turned out that Delta has two tiers of Frequent Flyer tickets. One, the SkySaver type, requires only 25,000 miles, and I had 27,000. The other type, the SkyChoice, requires 50,000 miles. I could get the SkySaver flights to Indianapolis, but every single return flight was a SkyChoice flight. I couldn't use my Frequent Flyer miles to get my ticket without paying for the difference--over $400, when a normal round-trip ticket cost $253. So I bought my ticket to the Convention using real money like normal people do.
But now that I'm done flying places, I still have all those Frequent Flyer miles, which have now built up to just over 49,000 miles, and they expire at the end of 2008. I went to the Delta website to see about round-trip tickets to Indianapolis, just to compare and see if they always do the SkyChoice-only thing on the return trip, which would qualify for Bait-and-Switch if they did. But if I were to fly there in January, I could do it for 25,000 points, round-trip. So what probably happened for the Convention was that all the SkySaver seats got taken early.
By the end of January, I should have enough FF miles for two round-trip tickets on Delta's route system. But starting in June, I'll be driving around the country in an RV with my mom and won't need to fly anywhere.
I just saw my brother and his family over Christmas. I'll be seeing my mom and my sister in June. These Frequent Flyer miles feel like they're burning a hole in my pocket, and for the first time in quite a while, I don't have anywhere to go.
I hate it when that happens.
3 comments:
Don't you hate when that happens?
If you don't have to use the miles I believe you can donate them to the military. America supports you dot mil will direct you to proper organizations that will take your FF miles so soldiers or their family can use them. Might be worth looking into so they don't go to waste. I hate waste.
JT,
Yes, I know about the military donation. I'd just like to be able to use one ticket for myself, after all the trouble I've gone to using this card.
Delta never seems to have any Saver mileage tickets both ways. I believe that they paln it that way.
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