Freedom isn't free ... and neither is a SkyMiles redemption flight

Delta wants $25 minimum every time you take a "free" flight.

http://www.ajc.com/business/content/business/delta/stories/2008/06/27/delta_miles_fee.html?cxntlid=homepage_tab_newstab

 

Someone should take the airlines to court and force them to follow the rules of a business model THEY created.

They made the frequent flier bed, they should sleep in it.

 

I'm not trying to defend Delta, but they weren't free anyway. You already have to pay the taxes on the ticket.

Anyway, to get this thread back on track, Fuck. Delta.

 

I'll pay the extra $25 for fuel. I'd rather have that than them deciding to up the mileage to 37K or 50K for a flight.

 

American is going to start charging $75-150 for 'free' flights to non-domestic locations.

 

Cleveland? Little Rock? Birmingham?

 

Miami, for certain.

 

I'm not surprised about that, the way the airlines are charging for everything these days.
Another frequent-flier horror story: I recently took a flight home to Iowa for my annual summer visit.
I had about 45,000 Northwest miles, and figured that would be enough for a free flight with plenty of miles to spare - normally, 25,000 miles get you a free round-trip flight, with 35,000 miles enough to get you a free round-trip flight with primo flight times/options.
Imagine my surprise when I went to book the flight and found that 25,000 miles were only enough to get you a flight one-way. That's right - the free flights that you used to be able to get with 25,000 miles now cost 50,000 miles.
I wound up buying 5,000 miles for $165 to complete my flight.
In short, not only is Northwest screwing the average flier, it's taking the rusty chainsaw to its frequent fliers and better customers like myself.
Fuck them with a dirty coat hanger.

 

I'm afraid to look, NW loyalists . . . is this largely across-the-board, now?

 

Plus Delta is making it harder to use those frequent flier miles.
I've posted this before, but earlier this year, wanted to fly from Philadelphia to San Francisco. Going the direct way, Philly to Cincy to San Fran, I didn't have enough frequent flier miles.
But I flew Philly to Atlanta to Cincy to Salt Lake City to San Francisco I had enough miles.
Figure that one out.

 

I would normally hear this news and say, "Delta sucks and I'll never fly that fleabag of an airline again," but when I think of it, I'm not sure there's an airline out there that hasn't pissed me off.

I will not pay to check my golf clubs on a trip, so I guess that rules out a couple of choices. I'm not going to pay to reserve an aisle seat or for a glass of juice.

I still have about 700,000 Skymiles, which might be good enough to go from New York to Boston -- if I try to book 12 months in advance.

Oh, how I wish Amtrak didn't take twice as long as driving.

 

I fuckin knew it! I had a bunch of miles saved up and wa planning on a trip to burn 25,000 miles. But I went to book, and it suddenly said the trip would take 50,000 miles instead. I thought maybe I didn't know the plan or what I was doing since it was my first time actually using miles.
Fuck Delta and Northwest. Not sure who that leaves me with though.