Air mile rip offs...Watch out.... Have been to Africa with a total of 3 round trips tickets...The first trip SAA only gave me one way miles only...Then When my son, wife, and I went we got only domestic miles..I emailed Kathi who posts here and found out I needed all boarding passes and i had those.. I sent copies of them to Kathi and she forwarded them to Delta and finally I got a total of 18,000 instead of the 28,000...The best part is that when I got tickets all frequent flyer id's were given and the airlines, especially SAA ignored my request for Frequent Flyer miles credit...You only have 6 months to get miles....

Mike

Most air carriers are financially distressed today. Domestic issues notwithstanding, the rising cost of fuel has taken a toll on all of them worldwide. I'm not surprised to find that SAA is included, despite lack of competition on their routes.

Expect all carriers to revisit their frequent flier programs.

I think it also depends upon how the flight tickets were purchased. I flew to RSA last June via Delta/SAA. Upon returning I checked my flight miles and didn't receive credit for the flights from Durban to J'Burg then from J'Burg to NYC. However, I did receive credit for the remaining flights once back in the US. I called once I noticed this and was informed by the lady that since the tickets were purchased from Delta as a code share partner with SAA I would receive credit. However, if the tickets would have been purchased from SAA not via Delta then I would not have received credit for the flights. Luckily, I had my tickets which very clearly stated Delta#1234 and SAA#567.

In the end, I received complete and full credit for all flights. Just something else to consider.

We've been collecting airmiles for quite sometime and more offten than not paricularly with smaller subsidiary airlines we have had to fight to get our miles. It was worth it though. Alaska to Africa on business class. HEAVEN!

Regards,

Mark

For those of you with Delta miles- The rumor mill is hot with merger talks. If you have miles think about whatever form of redemption may be availible. Perhaps Kathi has heard recent news...

Juest curious, if I got all the miles from a to Namibia would that be eonught for a ticket within the lower 48? I think we're booking with Delta of course. What's going on there?

7mm. guy

All my flights are with Delta's share partners and my card is a Delta sky miles card....Still had to fight like a cat and dog to get credit...

Mike

Who would merge with Delta?

Another bankrupt airline?

LHowell- I have heard United, but that was not a great source. What I did hear from two very good sources "up there" in the Atlanta business scene at a dinner party was that if you have miles to use on Delta, use them very soon. I did!

quote:

Originally posted by crane:
For those of you with Delta miles- The rumor mill is hot with merger talks. If you have miles think about whatever form of redemption may be availible. Perhaps Kathi has heard recent news...

IMO here's what's feeding this story: South African Airways has been proposed for membership in the Star Alliance, of which, United is already a member. Delta is not a member of Star Alliance. If SAA is accepted as a member, Delta's FF miles will no longer be able to be used on SAA flights, or any other Star member's flights. So, if you've got a lot of FF miles accrued with Delta, you'd no longer be able to use them to get to South Africa on SAA.

Yes the airlines are all strapped. I have credit card miles that added up to 230K miles. I asked how many miles will it cost me to go to Africa. We only redeem the first 1800 dollars of cost of the tickets. OK I says. How much extra will it cost me? The tickets to africa under the miles one account start at 3800 usd for sardine class 6900 for business. I called bull&^% I can buy a ticket for 2k most places. They said then buy it. SO basically you are telling me I can use all my miles to get to where I would be if I had no miles to start with? Yes they said. Can I redeem my miles for cash? Yes. OK send me cash. They paid me almost enough to go. I lost about half on what they really should be worth but that is all I could figure out to do. At least I will be flying to Africa (albeit sardine class) for no money out of pocket. The miles will be a thing of the past in a year or two. Mark my words. There is not enough margin for profit anymore in the industry. They cannot afford to stay in business and offer free tickets. Soon or late the government will take over the airlines just to keep thier doors open and then we will be looking back to the good old days that was.