drew moser: It's a monumental day...

journal : : field notes

It's a monumental day...

09 August 2007

Bekah and I just booked our first ever free flights, courtesy of 50,000 Northwest Airlines WorldPerks miles. It's been a long time coming, and we each even have some miles left over. We're heading to the Pacific NW (Seattle and Vancouver) to hang out with some good friends in January.

You: Seattle in January?

Me: Um. It's a long story, but there are people to see and places to go. And yeah, in the economic world, I think they call it TNSTFL (there's no such thing as a free lunch). In other words: free comes with a 'price.' Anyway, Ohio is January is absolutely miserable, so this will be a slight improvement.

An additional 'cost' to our free transport was the brain cells and hour of my life it took to book 2 free tickets using 2 separate mileage accounts. Apparently it's utterly ridiculous for a married couple, who live together, who have shared bank accounts, who file taxes jointly, who are united as one through the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, to even think that an airline would allow for said couple to book flights together, ON THE SAME PLANE! But after an oh-so-fun conversation with a customer service agent, I got the skinny and figured out how to get us on the same flight.

But not after a few interesting exchanges, like so:

Me: "So you're suggesting that we just use miles for one person and pay full fare for the other to ensure that we get on the same flight?"

Agent: "Yes, that's the most effective way to ensure that you and your wife travel together. The airline only allocates so many seats for WorldPerks redemption."

Me: "Do I have any way of knowing how many WorldPerks seats are left on a particular flight?

Agent: 'No."

Me. "Oh. Okay, how much is the full fare for the Detroit-Seattle flight?"

Agent: (as if this were a steal) 542 dollars!

Me: (choke) "Are you serious? I've flown to Italy for less than that" (no lie folks: $400 from Denver. Boo-ya.)

My smart remark didn't exactly help the situation, but in the end, the deal was done.

Labels: airlines, seattle, vancouver