And now my experience with my one and only mileage ticket I earned.........
I never flew a mile. All my mileage was gained by bonus points signing up for things and by using my credit card. I had earned enough for a free trip.
I used my mileage for an interport Asia trip, Narita, Japan to Manila, Philippines roundtrip. Since I worked for Northwest Airlines at the time, I could see that the flight was filling up AFTER I had already booked and had my economy space but still had alot of open seats in business. When economy is overbooked and business is open, airlines have to upgrade passengers to accommodate the whole. They would rather upgrade their premium passengers over just choosing people at the last minute. I sent an inter-office memo to our then CEO telling him the situation and if it came down to it and someone needed to be upgraded, would I please be given preference.
I showed up for my flight on said day, economy was full, I asked the gate agent about any possible upgrade as I knew the CEO (or most likely his secretary) had put a note in my reservation allowing the upgrade. I was upgraded to business immediately.
Bottom line, I directly paid zero dollars for my business class mileage ticket. They are not ALL scams. I am probably the minority but my trip went perfectly as do most of them as I plan ahead and prepare.
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