Little book of travel

I was thinking to myself last time not to get in to all this too much and yet here we are again, will this ever change? Last time I talked a bit about my plan to go with my wife to NYC for our 10th wedding anniversary and how basically even with enough miles on Eurobonus that still wasn’t possible.

A week or two after that debacle I changed the plan from NYC to London. I fly to London almost every two weeks with VLM, a local airline from Antwerp to London City, and surely have enough miles to get a flight out of it. First of all I must add I like flying VLM. The 50 minute flights with their Fokker 50’s are pleasant and since check-in is until 10 minutes before take off that makes it even better. It’s got to be for a reason they are the Best Regional Airline for Europe, kudos to them.

That said… I wanted to spend the weekend in London and since I was already flying for work from Thursday morning I needed a ticket for my wife only flying in on Friday afternoon and then we would both go back on Sunday evening. My tickets paid as it was business travel, hers on my miles. We (can’t say I since someone on the team takes care of travel) try to book the extra flight and VLM tells us it’s not possible. So I give them a call. So they tell me that when you book using miles that can only happen via their website. Fair enough, my ticket is booked, I’ll book the other using the site. No sir, you need to book both tickets online. Okay, can be done, I’ll book mine from Thursday using my American Express and get the other one using miles. No sir, you need to book both tickets using the miles… and you need to leave and return the same dates. Euh, that doesn’t really make sense to me. Why would I pay my own ticket since I’m going for work anyway? She tells me that is the way the system is set up… that it is for business travelers. Doh! How do you think I got these miles to begin with? Seriously. Sure, blame it on the system.

Anyway, I finished the call with VLM in some “whatever, let’s agree to disagree, this is just wrong, etc …” kind of salutation and thought about another possibility. British Midland (BMI, part of Star Alliance) is also flying to London from Brussels. That means going back to the Eurobonus points but what the heck, let’s try that one. Yes you can book a flight for someone else as long as you approve, doesn’t matter when you’re going etc… all fine. The ticket will be 40.000 miles though (knowing it were 60.000 miles for that return flight to NYC… if I would ever been able to book it). YWhat the heck, it’s our 10th anniversary, okay for the ridiculous amount of miles then, book it. Oh yes, and also have to pay 240 Euros in taxes, airport tax and stuff. Excuse me?! I can probably find a flight for less than that! Hell, the Eurostar is cheaper than what you charge me in tax only! Leave it, thank you very much indeed!

Maybe you think I’m exaggerating. Maybe you think I should have just bought the ticket and all, what’s the big deal, it was our 10th wedding anniversary remember. But that’s not really the point. If I want to buy a ticket I’ll pay whatever the price is for that. But when I want to be rewarded for my loyalty, I want an actual reward… and not some kind of scam.

Curious to hear about other people’s experiences.