Common Mistakes To Avoid When Redeeming Airline Miles

Making mistakes is part of the learning progress, and this is definitely the case when it comes to using your airline miles. Even the most frequent of flyers can often slip up and which will result in a less comfortable flight, inability to travel or extra charges. Since we’ve made (or know someone who has made) most of the mistakes, we can easily to tell you what to avoid in order to avoid having the same experience as us. These are the most common mistakes to avoid when redeeming airline miles.

1. Relying Only On An Airline’s Website

This may seem like the most obvious one to experience travelers, but a lot of my friends and family members often moan about the non-availability of reward seats on the dates that they want. American Airlines, Delta, United, U.S Airways and many other major airlines are culprits when it comes to not showing reward seats on their website. A lot of the time the partner airline doesn’t appear on the website either, and when it does, the site may not be showing all of the available routes. One of the best tips we can give you is to call the airline directly.

2. Depending Solely On A Phone Agent

Just like the airlines website, phone agents are not always on point either. So many of them don’t understand routing rules or are unsure on how to search for award inventory on a specific partner airline. Sometimes I’ve experienced the phone agents are unwilling to search multiple dates and end the call by saying “there’s no availability”. If you’re not satisfied with your answer, then your next strategy should be to hang up and call again. Never assume that a phone agent knows more than you do.

3. Avoid Searching Segment By Segment

Another major mistake is to avoid is booking complicated itineraries with multiple stops. There may have been times when the website didn’t price the award seats correctly or didn’t list all the flight options or some reason or the other. These reasons may be:

i. Can’t combine two or more partner airlines in one search
ii. Can’t combine a lower level business class flight with a low level economy flight to price the ticket
iii. The ability to “force” the user into the airline’s own metal

There are a lot of websites who let their users search segment by segment with the “Multi- City” search, but just to have all my bases covered, I usually end up searching for flights individually. Later, if I can’t make the website properly join the flights, I’ll just call and book the tickets. This way I have the exact flights, and routes that I want in order to get the most out of my airline miles. With all the information ready, I can easily spoon feed the phone agent as well.

4. Not being Flexible With Dates

Airlines have a proper system that determines which flights can be made available for award seats, while some dates may never be available. If you have rigid travel plans, then chances are you may find yourself unlucky when it comes to award seats. Even if you’re flexible by a single day, you’ll be surprised at the difference it may make.