Airline Service/Good/Bad or Ugly

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jdoggivjc

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2006
59,423
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Macomb, MI
The gov't used to keep your frequent flier miles as well.

I remember hearing about that, but they quit doing that long before I started working there. I think it was next to impossible to actually enforce and next to impossible for the government to actually try to keep track of all of those miles and use them. It was just simpler to allow us to keep them.
 

sunset

Well-Known Member
Oct 18, 2006
2,831
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San Diego, CA
I fly weekly from Southern California to the Bay area. Nothing beats Southwest. Their on-time record is awesome, their rewards program is very generous (though they are starting to tighten up a bit), and they have many flights to choose from. Plus, they typically have room on any given flight, so if you get to the airport early you can simply jump on the next available. Flying from Southern Cal to the midwest, Expressjet is probably best. They have non-stop flights to Omaha for $200.

I recently flew Aeromexico and was pleasantly suprised. Nice plane, nice people, and free beverages. The only down side was that we had to listen to all the announcements twice, once in Spanish and again in English.

I absolutely hate United and will not fly them unless there is no other option. I've also had bad luck with American and Northwest.
 

jumbopackage

Well-Known Member
Sep 18, 2007
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I remember hearing about that, but they quit doing that long before I started working there. I think it was next to impossible to actually enforce and next to impossible for the government to actually try to keep track of all of those miles and use them. It was just simpler to allow us to keep them.

Totally. They couldn't force people to have FF memberships, and there was no real way to monitor if people were using them or not. I think it stemmed from ethics regulations that treated FF program rewards as "gifts". They were just changing that rule when I got in, and it was largely ignored anyway because it seemed silly to everyone (especially in the guard....try sorting out which miles belong to who when you make 3 flights a year for the gov't and 20 for private/company use on the same FF#).
 

jdoggivjc

Well-Known Member
Sep 27, 2006
59,423
20,940
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Macomb, MI
Totally. They couldn't force people to have FF memberships, and there was no real way to monitor if people were using them or not. I think it stemmed from ethics regulations that treated FF program rewards as "gifts". They were just changing that rule when I got in, and it was largely ignored anyway because it seemed silly to everyone (especially in the guard....try sorting out which miles belong to who when you make 3 flights a year for the gov't and 20 for private/company use on the same FF#).

I think the other thing is are you supposed to make the employee hold two different rewards cards - one for government travel and one for personal travel? I'm sure businesses were thrilled about that (and wouldn't let people do that), so people were basically supposed to sacrifice any rewards they would have earned by spending their own money by either not claiming them or giving them up to the government. That hardly seems fair.

It's also been written into ethics regulations (I believe) that frequent flier miles and other kinds of rewards programs obtained during the course of government travel is no longer constitutes a gift, therefore not an ethics violation.
 

Cyclone_Grav

Active Member
Jul 13, 2007
729
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Des Moines
Where you headed?

arriving in London then Paris through southern France to Rome back up through Switzerland into Germany (to visit my friend) then up to Amsterdam. A flight from amsterdam to Dublin then a flight from Dublin to London and back home. 5 weeks of pure adventure. :wink: