United Airlines, I hate you deeply.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Definitely should not cost you $80 just to use your miles, are you sure you have that right? I've redeemed miles/points for flights on AA, United, and Southwest and the only fee you should be paying is the 9/11 fee($6 per flight). Maybe a 'close to date' fee if you're redeeming for a flight that's very soon, but that's regardless of whether you're using miles or not and I don't think AA does it.

[lukethedrifter]

I haven't found a scenario where buy ff miles makes sense in any sort of way. Ends up same as go birds and I think that's the issue.

I just cashed in miles to take me and the youngun out to SF for Spring Break and no crazy fees since I didn't try to buy miles.

[go birds]

Well i've since closed out the window cause i said F that, but at checkout it read:

Total Miles Used: $12.5k
Total Processing Fees:~ $80
Total Owed: ~$80

That was the total if i had enough miles.

Buying an extra 2K miles made sense because it is ~$60 so i was under the impression I'd be buying a $60 ticket. but there was a $30 processing fee to buy miles, so now the total is $90.

Maybe I'll run thru the process again later and research it more, but it seemed pretty cut and dry at the time.

Edit: this is a copy/paste from the checkout page

Taxes and Carrier-Imposed Fees:
All award travel requires the government taxes/fees, and carrier-imposed fees when applicable, from $80.60 per person per award

and upon further research, $75 of that is for the fact the flight is expedited. Ok. Makes sense now. Still seems a bit obscene. The $30 processing fee to buy miles is still ridiculous as hell though, imo

[lukethedrifter]

a courtesy fee so that you can buy overpriced miles in order to get a free trip.

[Freed Roger]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danielreed/ ... orrow-too/

For the second time in five weeks mighty United Airlines, the world’s second-largest carrier, has been brought to its knees by a “technical glitch” that promises to impact more than half-a-million travelers today at the height of the busiest travel period of the year.

The cause of today’s disruption is an as-yet-unexplained “network connectivity” issue. Based on news reports and information posted, in most cases second-hand, by passengers who have spoken with United pilots and passenger service staff it appears that the system used by United to calculate the weight of cargo, bags and passengers so that it can be properly distributed about the aircraft is not working. Weight-and-balance is a critical part of the safe operation of commercial jets.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

I should have known better. But the Huntsville -> Denver -> Medford connection in 6hours was too enticing . So I booked it to get home for the holidays.
First, the boarding passes that the United web site printed for me lacked the last letter of my last name. So, even though I'm TSA preapproved, TSA still could not let me pass. They said to go back and have United issue new ones. United personnel said that would be $75 to issue new. I never heard of such a thing before and was livid.
Instead of that degradation, I opted to be degraded with a full TSA Pat down and luggage search. At least that was free.
I am now waiting on the tarmac while they fix a fuelling issue that will put us in one hour late. Too bad I had a 40 minute connection.
So when I get to Denver I'll find out what the next F*ck You from United will be.
It's my own damned fault. I knew better but thought I'd roll the dice .
Sucks to be me.

[Tim]

If you don't mind riding a school bus in the air, SOUTHWEST ain't bad

[Joe Shlabotnik]

If you don't mind riding a school bus in the air, SOUTHWEST ain't bad

I love southwest. In fact I usually drive two hours to Nashville so I can take it to Portland and then Alaska to Medford. But this was a one way so I rolled the dice.

Rest of story: I got to the Medford gate minutes after they shut the door. Then up comes another passenger from the Huntsville flight with an airport employee that let us on. He just told me it was a personal friend he recognized!
Lucky beats good.

[IMADreamer]

Maybe this would be a good time and place to ask this. We are thinking of going to Europe next year. As you guys know I'm a complete Hoosier and I've never flown before. I'm not afraid to I just love driving and I think the journey is half the fun of a trip. Obviously we can't drive to Paris so this means it's time to for me to fly. I dread the idea of being on a plane with 200 strangers and having to poop in a tin can. Yeah I know these are the things I think about.

So economy is like a grand round trip. Economy premium is double. Business is 6k and First class is 9k. First class seems absurd and business seems kinda crazy but whats the difference between economy and economy premium? Basically it's half a day on a freaking air plane so I kinda don't mind ponying up for more comfort on what amounts to a once in a lifetime trip anyway. Well probably.

[lukethedrifter]

Maybe this would be a good time and place to ask this. We are thinking of going to Europe next year. As you guys know I'm a complete Hoosier and I've never flown before. I'm not afraid to I just love driving and I think the journey is half the fun of a trip. Obviously we can't drive to Paris so this means it's time to for me to fly. I dread the idea of being on a plane with 200 strangers and having to poop in a tin can. Yeah I know these are the things I think about.

So economy is like a grand round trip. Economy premium is double. Business is 6k and First class is 9k. First class seems absurd and business seems kinda crazy but whats the difference between economy and economy premium? Basically it's half a day on a freaking air plane so I kinda don't mind ponying up for more comfort on what amounts to a once in a lifetime trip anyway. Well probably.

The only thing I care about is leg room. So I suffer. I have flown transatlantic first class twice. Wife's dad donated miles for upgrade. It was awesome but I'm not going to blow my whole vacation budget on getting there.

Not sure what economy premium is. Oh and I got a better deal using a travel agent even though I only got flight and rental car.

One more thing, Icelandair has a cool deal where you can make a stopover in Iceland for a few days.