[jackie h]

I prefer flying with Alaska over many other airlines I have flown with, but will find another airline because of their Mileage Plan. I have tried on many occasions to use points on flights, but we are not only talking black-out dates, it's more like black-out months.

I used to have a credit card with United Airlines, and I could always get domestic flights for 25,000 points, and flights to Mexico for $35,000 points. Unfortunately, their hubs were not the most convenient for our destinations, and sometimes we had to add an extra hour or two to our flying time, as we had to go out of our way for a connecting flight. I decided to try Alaskan, as they seemed to have the most direct flights to our favorite destinations.

We go on 4-5 major vacations a year, and I tried using our points to book flights. For the first vacation, there were only 2 days out of entire month in which to fly down to Mexico, and 2 days out of an entire month to fly back for the $35,000 points. We usually stay 2 weeks, and the flights available would allow us to stay 1 week or 3 weeks, not 2. Most of the flights were considerably more points, which I had NEVER encountered with United. I then tried the next vacation, and found the same problem. It did not matter how far out I tried to book, or what destination. The outcome was ALWAYS the same, and made it impossible to use our points. We ended up having to spend 60,000 points each for first class, just to be able to use our points at all. It made me angry I had to use so many points for 1 trip, instead of using them for 2, but we were left with no choice.

I spoke with someone at Delta, and she told me the flights were available so many days in advance, and it was first-come, first-served, and obviously the good rates were all taken by the time I tried to book. I then asked her to go out in advance as far as possible to look (I had already done this on line, so I knew I was being lied to,) and she was unable to find any of the $35,000 point flights to any of many destinations I gave her to check. We were doing this on the FIRST day these flights were available to be booked. They say it is $35,000 points for a Mexico flight, but it is a LIE. Those rates simply are not available, and I have looked MANY times. Once in a while you might find one with a 17 hour layover, but more often than not, not even that is available. There should be more options than two flights in an entire month. Get real.