Feedback from the Frontlines of Travel
"In April I checked with Delta to find the status of 3,923 miles. Since I seldom fly Delta they sit pretty dormant. At that time, they indicated that they will expire in December, '08. And they told me that there is a program to convert Delta SkyMiles to Hertz points at the following conversion rate: $.01 per point plus $25 processing fee to transfer to Hertz (for a grand total cost of $64.23 to convert them to Hertz points).
"Now as I call back to take advantage of this offer, I'm told that I can only convert Hertz points to Delta points (of course opposite of my desire!!).
"Could you shed any light on this, and how I might accomplish my desired goal." [Michael G. - Farmington Hills, MI]
[FrequentFlier.com replies - I'm not aware of any options for converting Delta miles to Hertz points, or vice versa. Can you provide more info on what you were told by the Delta agent?]
"I have noticed that the airlines have made huge changes in the amount of miles one needs to redeem for travel.
"For the last ten years I have always been able to fly to Europe and South America for 55,000 miles round trip. Now the same routes will cost me 85,000 plus miles. It looks like the loyal customer just had an increase in fees of 100%. I have not found any articles about this. Maybe you would like to research the truth about the changes in airline mileage programs. The airlines claim that the recent changes are making the programs more flexible. That is not the truth, they just doubled the price." [Marco M.]
"The airlines are in the same boat you are. They are paying the same outrageous charges for their fuel, at a much larger scale. Apparently it's now every man and woman for themselves while oilcan George, Dick and their close circle of friends make billions at our expense. Maybe if the airlines were major contributors we'd all be in better shape, but alas, they don't feed the Washington coffers the way the energy minions do. So don't expect any help from the governing powers, too much energy money in their bank accounts." [George W.]
"Of course the airlines can:
" - Charge a fee for award tickets
" - Raise the miles needed for a flight (or better yet, no available seats except for double miles)
" - Do anything they want with a reason or without - every airline will of course follow suit - what are you going to do about it? get a private jet? they only run about $9,000 per hour.
"Why do they do this? Because they can.
"The supermarkets can charge $10 a quart of milk (delivery trucks use fuel, you know). Pharmacies/drug companies can raise needed prescription meds to any amount (e.g. those $3 a pill to $20 a pill). They don't because there are so many available to the public and the reaction by the masses would be so overwhelming, there would be turmoil in the streets.
"But airlines - the companies are invisible. There are walls and walls separating them from the people who would complain - and besides, they don't have to. They can and will raise prices, fees, charges to as high as the public will tolerate. The attitude (except for the people who absolutely cannot afford it) is "whatever, there's nothing I can do about." And it will continue until it reaches the ceiling where a vast percentage of people will just not be able to pay for flying. The day is coming.
"Some say let's go back to regulating airlines. It wouldn't help. The Congress is too beholden to the lobbyists. The lobbies who are powerful enough are not interested in this. They are only interested in their own areas: NRA - gun control; AARP - senior benefits & commissionable products; AMA - doctors & hospitals; Labor unions - wages and working conditions; and the list goes on.
"After all, we see gasoline at $4 plus a gallon. Less people are driving but when the price hits $20 per gallon and no one drives passenger cars - watch prices drop.
"But not to worry about oil. President Bush is probably going to go back to the oil industry then everything will be OK -- Huh!" [Mort - NYC]
Until next week...
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