Use ’em or lose ’em: Frequent-flier airline miles

And now, with a number of airlines publicly disclosing discussions about mergers, airline mileage is on the threshold of being devalued yet again.

Some quick background:

The inducement for so many of us to join these programs was that first 25,000-mile mileage award level, which promised us a free domestic coach ticket. Now, in almost all cases, when you go to redeem your award, you’re told that there are no seats available at 25,000 miles, but the airline might have them at 50,000 miles.

Under most state laws, that constitutes a violation of the bait-and-switch laws. For example, if I’m a car dealer and I want to sell you a Camry, I must list the vehicle identification number of that Camry and how many other Camrys I have for sale. That way, when you come into the dealership I can’t tell you there are no Camrys available and then try to step you up to a Lexus. But the airlines, under deregulation, practice this every day with their mileage programs.

Then, you can lose your miles. United, for example, now deletes all your miles after 18 months of inactivity. (It used to be 36 months.) And two months ago, Delta announced it was making even fewer seats available on popular flights, even for loyal customers willing to redeem double the miles to get that “free” ticket.

Want the real insult? Assuming an airline does, in fact, redeem your mileage for a ticket, the actual average cost to the airline to do so is slightly more than $23. That’s it. Just $23. Now you can understand how wildly profitable these programs are.

And it’s only going to get worse for consumers. Without regulations or government supervision, the airlines continue to change the rules. And while many airlines allow you to search up to 330 days out to redeem your mileage, the reality is that on many flights there’s no availability nearly 11 months out.

So what can we do?

Some attorneys (who are frequent fliers themselves) are suggesting a class action lawsuit, charging the airlines with essentially running an unregulated lottery with their frequent-flier programs.

For some folks, including at least one legislator, the idea is simply to give up on mileage. A bill just introduced in the Washington State House of Representatives would allow people to sell their unused miles. This isn’t likely to happen, but it does reflect the growing frustration out there.

My advice, if you want to successfully redeem your miles:

For starters, think alternate airports, and even more important, alternate routings. Want to go from Los Angeles to Hawaii? Instead of trying to redeem miles from LAX to HNL, think LAX via Las Vegas or Phoenix and then Honolulu. Then think partner airlines. All the major airlines have strategic alliances with international carriers. Want to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo? Think JAL and their One World partnership with American Airlines.

Think off-season — Paris in March, Sydney in June, Madison, Wis., in February or even Denver in July.

Don’t think nonstop when redeeming miles. Instead, book frequent-flier tickets on flights with more than one connection (this allows you to find flights with available seats) and on partner airlines.

For example, if you want to fly Los Angeles to Athens, instead of going the normal route: Los Angeles to London and then London to Athens, go Los Angeles to Chicago, Chicago to Zurich, Zurich to Athens.

If you’re flying New York to Hong Kong, go New York to Vancouver, Vancouver to Hong Kong. And finally, if you’re trying to get from Dallas to Hawaii, again, the nonstop will probably not be available for frequent-flier award tickets. Instead, fly Dallas to Phoenix, then Phoenix to Honolulu, and on the return, Honolulu to Seattle, Seattle to Dallas.

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