Executive Travel : Frustrations of Frequent-Flier Wanna-Bes

Frequent-flier mileage award programs may be among the most successful brand-loyalty campaigns ever launched, but they are also a source of frustration for many travelers who can’t always use their points to get where they want to go.

Indeed, Ed Skebe of Manhattan Beach got so fed up with his inability to get a free seat to Bangkok using his reward points on Northwest Airlines that he recently took the carrier to small claims court.

Skebe’s suit, which was dismissed because the judge felt it should be decided in a different court, is the proverbial tip of the iceberg, according to groups that monitor consumer reaction to frequent-flier reward programs.

“We get quite a few letters . . . and they do seem to be increasing,” said Tammy Scheetz, research director for Inside Flyer, a Colorado publication devoted to tracking frequent-flier programs.

Many airlines are raising the level of points required to earn rewards in 1995. At the same time, they have been increasing their capacity controls, which means they are reducing the number of seats designated for reward travel, Scheetz said. Such seat allotments are not governed by any regulations. It is up to each airline to decide how many to release.

“They never will tell us exactly what the allotments are,” Scheetz said. But anecdotal evidence suggests that passengers are having to accumulate more miles and compete for fewer seats.

The International Airline Passengers Assn., based in Dallas, has noticed enough consumer restlessness that it has made the study of seat allotment practices a priority for 1995, said David Stempler a spokesman for the organization. “We’re hearing lots of rumblings about people who go to use their miles and they can’t,” he said.

Although award seats tend to be easily available on domestic routes at off-peak times, it can be tough to nab one on international flights, especially when flights, carriers and frequency are controlled by government agreements. Some routes to Asia routinely fly at capacity.

In Skebe’s case, he initially requested a seat last February for a ticket this month. No seats designated for people using reward points were available on the LAX-Bangkok route, so he stayed on a waiting list until September, when he asked the airline to give him the next available seat.

“There were no seats available for one year,” he said.

Documents Skebe obtained from Northwest Airlines for the small claims case show that there were only 21 days and 50 seats allocated for use by passengers redeeming awards during the entire year.

“I don’t feel it’s fair,” said Skebe, a business consultant specializing in real estate lending and business law. “Whenever you have a reward program, it entails some sacrifice.”

Skebe likened it to a carwash incentive program where every 10th wash is free. “You expect to get in line and get your car washed in good faith,” he said. You don’t expect to have to sit on the sidelines until there’s a break in the traffic.

Skebe was particularly disgruntled because the airline’s advertising pitches made it sound as though you could redeem your points easily and “fly free faster,” he said. The program sounded so appealing that he took two trips to Asia on Northwest and paid more for his tickets than he could have on competing airlines.

He also obtained a Visa card through the airline and joined Diner’s Club to get 10,000 extra miles, he said. “I even switched to MCI to get more miles.”

Last week, still unable to use his points for the trip he’d hoped to make, Skebe purchased a regular-fare ticket to Bangkok, but on Canadian Airlines.

Northwest views Skebe’s experience as an isolated incident. “We very rarely go to court over these things,” spokesman Jon Austin said. Skebe’s problem was compounded by the fact that winter is the heaviest travel period for the Asian marketplace, Austin said.

“These reward programs are a love-hate thing for people,” Austin said. “Everybody likes (them) because they feel like they’re getting something for free. But everybody also wants to use them like they are a first-class, walk-up ticket, and they’re not.”

The frequent-flier seats are allocated along with first-class, business-class and coach tickets and vary according to the market, he said.

The airline is taking steps to reduce consumer frustration, Austin said. For example, starting in February, the airline is raising the number of points required to earn a round-trip coach ticket, from 20,000 miles to 25,000 miles, for most of the year.

“We have peaks and off-peaks,” Austin said. “This is designed to address some of the frustrations by encouraging people to go in times when seats are available.”

Frustrations with reward programs can occur throughout the industry, said Chris Chiames, spokesman for the Washington-based Air Transport Assn., which represents the airline industry.

“The airlines offer the programs, but they don’t guarantee you a seat to a particular location,” Chiames said. “They say you can go with these restrictions. This isn’t a God-given right.”

In international markets, where load factors (the percentage of the plane that is filled when it flies) have been high in the last year, it’s been more difficult to redeem points, he said.

Historically, international load factors are higher than domestic ones because it costs more to run a half-empty flight to Europe or Asia than to Chicago. And some carriers have cut down on flights at the same time demand is increasing.

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That means fewer seats go in the “frequent-flier bucket,” Chiames said. Typically, airlines won’t put frequent-flier seats on flights they are sure they can sell out at full fare, he said. “On some routes, the demand is so heavy only a few seats are made available, and those are quickly snatched up,” he said.

The Asian route in particular is one of Northwest’s most profitable, Chiames said. “So it’s quite likely they’re running very heavy flights.”

The best strategy for frequent fliers is to plan as far in advance as possible and to be as flexible as possible in terms of the route to your destination, Chiames said. If you are making trips to different places, use the free mileage for the destination that has the most availability.

But there are no guarantees.

“This is not a reward,” Skebe said. “It’s a leftover.”