Airlines Tweak Rules For Frequent-Flier Miles

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ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.

MELISSA BLOCK, host:

And I'm Melissa Block. If you're a frequent flyer, you're going to find it's harder to use up your miles. With the high cost of fuel, airlines are tightening their frequent flyer programs. Some are requiring more miles for a free ticket. Others are adding fuel surcharges. And overall, they're scaling back the number of seats available for free travel. Tim Winship is publisher of frequentflier.com. That's a Web site for travelers. Thanks for being with us.

Mr. TIM WINSHIP (Publisher, FrequentFlier.com): Happy to be here.

BLOCK: And Tim, why don't you give us some examples of airlines that are requiring more miles, now, to get a free ticket?

Mr. WINSHIP: Well, just in the past few weeks, we have had announcements from Frontier, from American, from Hawaiian, from Alaska Airlines. The trend overall these days is very much in the direction of raising the number of miles required for free tickets, and in addition to that, adding new fees and increasing existing fees.

BLOCK: Yeah, so these free tickets, really, aren't necessarily free.

Mr. WINSHIP: Well, and in the case of several programs now, it will literally be impossible to get a free ticket because they are now assessing an award-ticketing fee. So you literally cannot get a free ticket in the programs these days of American, Frontier and U.S. Airways.

BLOCK: With some of these carriers who are adding fuel surcharges, how much might those surcharges be?

Mr. WINSHIP: Anywhere from $25 at the low end to, in the case of Northwest for an international ticket, it could cost you as much as $100. And that begins to be significant from a consumer standpoint.

BLOCK: It seems like we've seen changes like this before, that they're always sort of ratcheting up the requirements. How different is what's going on now?

Mr. WINSHIP: I guess I'd say that what's different now is the number and the severity of the changes that we're seeing in a relatively short period of time. This really is historic from the standpoint of how much consumer unfriendly changes we're seeing. Again, it's such a short period of time.

BLOCK: If you're a consumer, Tim, is there a way to game the system? Given the new restrictions, given the new fees, what's the best strategy?

Mr. WINSHIP: Well, I suppose that the - from a very tactical standpoint, the best strategy is - at least in the short term - to be aware of when your program's new policies are going into effect. Typically, you're allowed to look at the current award levels until the policy takes effect, and it's based on the date that you book your award ticket, not when you travel. So book that award ticket now before the price goes up and before they start imposing a fuel surcharge or an award ticketing fee.

BLOCK: And these changes, again, some of them are going into effect pretty soon?

Mr. WINSHIP: Yes. There's several which go into effect in September, others which go into effect October and November. So over the next few months, we're going to be seeing quite a few negative changes take effect.

BLOCK: Well, Tim Winship, thanks very much.

Mr. WINSHIP: Thank you. It was a pleasure being with you.

BLOCK: Tim Winship, publisher of frequentflier.com. That's flyer with and I, not a Y. He's also editor-at-large of SmarterTravel.com

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