No Matter What They Do, United’s Frequent Flier Program is Still Bogus

By Ali Trachta in News on Nov 5, 2008 9:45PM

United Airlines has reinstated the 500-mile minimum award in an apparent attempt to appease their frequent fliers, but we don’t see this as any cause for celebration. Back in July, United began awarding only the actual miles flown to frequent flier members instead of allocating at least 500 miles per flight, as they’d done in the past. The guaranteed 500 is back, but only for United’s elite members who fly at least 25,000 miles per year. The “get what you pay for” model still applies to the average Joe Six Pack flier.

If you’re looking to actually reap award benefits, I say ditch global airlines all together and fly Southwest or Jet Blue whenever possible. Recently I tried to book a flight on US Airways (a United Star Alliance partner) with the 24,980 award points I've scraped together over about 15 years. But by the time I bought my extra 20 miles, added the booking fees and the fee to actually use the miles, (not to mention the potential fee to check bags) it was actually cheaper to just fly Southwest. F it. [Crain's]

Photo by Drewski2112.