Flying used to be fun. Now, we call it “riding a bus in the sky”.
“Flying used to be fun. Now, we call it “riding a bus in the sky”.”
Flying is still fun for me, unless I’m in coach. Then again, no matter where I’m sitting, I’m usually getting paid for it, so that makes all the difference in the world.
“Airline tickets have been a major expense for us with kids in college so far away. Can’t get much of a break becasue a lot of times the kids can’t be sure of schedule until last minute. I lost a ticket that way, and decided to just take my chances late”
What has completely saved our butts, with our kids going to school over 2,000 miles away who are really wishy washy, is airmiles. I LOVE airmiles, even if they have raised the number that it cost to go anywhere. We put everything on our Amex to get Delta miles, get new credit cards to get the bonus, and try to only fly on Delta or partner airlines. We can book the kids at the last minute, change/cancel their tickets with no fee (with medallion status), the kids get upgraded often, and it is wonderful. There is so much flexibility for them to change their minds, go somewhere else, stay an extra day, whatever. I don’t remember the last time we paid for a ticket for them. They ALWAYS change it, and instead of being irritated, it’s no big deal.
Agreed! FF miles were the best when DH was a FF business traveller. He is not anymore!
That is a bummer, thumper. Nothing better than collecting lots of miles for your kiddos to use, while you’re sipping a glass of wine in first class, on the companies dime. Well, I can think of a few things better, but what a deal for the road warriors!
Now we collect Southwest points. We get at least one free ticket a year…each
I wonder how many points it takes to get a ticket with SW, we’ve occasionally collected the points for years, but never used them for a ticket. I hope they don’t expire.
@busdriver: Past the 24 hours now. DH called 2x during the 24 hour period (but he isn’t as bulldog as I can be), and supposedly the customer rep talked to a supervisor who gave “permission” for the vouchers… but he never spoke with the supervisor directly. He asked if the vouchers will be transferable, and they said yes, but we won’t know until they come in about 3 weeks. If so, I’m hoping several people in my family might be able to use them over the year. If not, perhaps Ebay or Craigs list… never tried that before! What’s the typical discount? I’d personally be cautious about buying someone else’s voucher over the internet, so not sure how easy that would be.
@kjofkw When I sold our voucher on ebay, I used PayPal for payment and emailed the voucher number to the person. If you do a search on ebay for airline vouchers and then check the “sold listings” box on the left side menu bar, you can see what people had sold their vouchers for.
Well, I guess a voucher is better than nothing. Perhaps you need to find somewhere fun to go, just to use the voucher!
Funny to see this now. I just saw on the news (was it last night?) a story about a mom checking out airfares with her baby on her lap. Baby reached over and hit the “buy” button and it was a real hassle for mom to cancel the transaction. I think they had to get TV news involved before they would cancel it.
Well, at least the baby didn’t buy an 80K car on Ebay!
When DS was in college, he flied AA exclusively. When you live close to AA’s hub, it is not easy to avoid AA. We are fully aware it costs more to fly AA.
We had more complaints about the land travel than the air travel. That CTLimo services gave us a lot of headaches in the past.
However, other family members chose to fly SW mostly in recent years.
My take on AA is that they are abiding by the regulations by offering the hold option. Personally, I much prefer this over paying and then canceling within the 24-hour window if I decide I don’t want the reservation. Using the hold can be a great way to to go if fares are fluctuating - hold the fare, check again the next day. If fare is lower, establish a new hold while letting the first one expire, and so on.
While AA’s policy may not be the norm, it does offer advantages. I wish all airlines offered a “hold” option.
Re Southwest points, they expire if there’s no activity on the account for 24 months.
Nice to know about SWA’s policy. I remember their old policy that just totaled flight segments for a 12 month period and then you started over. We never earned anything! Maybe now we will 
cincy gal, you bring up a good point. I think the issue is KNOWING the policy. I thought the 24h cancel rule was the law and could see myself falling victim to situation the OP is in. I appreciate knowing…I agree, nothing wrong with AA’s policy–it’s just that it’s different from the option (didn’t know there were the two options until this thread) that just about every other airline elected.
I even love flying in coach. I have such a stressful daytime job that sitting aboard an airplane in any cabin means I am uncontactable and have no decisions to make beyond “red or white? Chicken or beef?”
I recently received eVouchers from AA and they are transferable, so your best bet might be trying to sell them on ebay for a small loss. I didn’t get the vouchers until I went above the worker who basically said she couldn’t do anything since we were in Mexico. All I wanted was first class seating to Dallas after they changed our flights and made us fly all over the country on different airlines to get home that day. She had room in first class, but who knows why she wouldn’t honor my request. The eVouchers the supervisor gave us probably cost more than just putting us in first class, but I don’t have plans to go anywhere in the next year so not much good to me either. But talking to the supervisor in Dallas did get me something so it never hurts to try when a worker won’t budge.
GMT, that is because you live in Asia, where the red and white flow more readily, and there is actually food available. II still like flying but like it much more on Thai or other Asian airlines. Though I was on a brand new Delta plane recently with individual screens and a large selection of movies, so certainly a step up from the typical experience.
To the OP, sympathies. I can very easily see how this happened. American does not thrill me either. Though their CC offers sure have a lot of miles attached to them!
Even for domestic economy flights w no food & no free booze, the bar has fallen really low. As long as I don’t have a suicidal pilot, I’m good.
We should set up a cc points trade system here. I’ll trade American points and southwest points for Delta points.