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Freebasing Points
ChrisCrossings · March 29, 2001

Q: Why do we spend so much time and effort registering for every frequent stay/travel award under the sun? Is it just me or are these awards as useless as anything?

Next week I am taking a leisure trip to New York City with my wife and daughter. I booked three nights at a Holiday Inn online. Looking at my award balance, I have over 25,000 points. It only lakes 15,000 points for one night. Uh-oh, not so fast - New York City costs 25,000 points.

"OK, let's get one night free, cash one in please," I told the customer service person.

"I'm sorry sir, this property is sold out of award rooms for those three days."

Wait a minute, I am paying for two nights and you have the rooms but won't redeem my award? So, I moved on to a supervisor, told him the details.

"Unfortunately, that property is sold out, but I can move you to this other location that will accept your reward for one night."

Of course, it still costs 25,000 points.

This is madness! Why do we do this? Starwood Preferred is getting more of my business just because of their liberal redemption policy, and I told the supervisor the same thing. He was as helpful as he could be, but I am not happy about this run-around. And it's not just hotels, it is airlines too. Blackouts and exceptions are everywhere.

-- Nick Coury

A: Rewards points are the crack cocaine of the travel industry. And I'm afraid you've become an addict.

What's in it for the travel supplier? From all outward appearances, a mileage program is nothing but a headache - there are so many resources that go into building and maintaining the databases of customers. For what?

Well, there's a big-time payoff. First, the hotel or airline gets access to a lot of great data about you. Information like spending patterns, travel itineraries and preferences. Not only would the companies spend good money for that data, but it turns out that others, like credit card companies, would too.

Cha-ching! That's money in the supplier's pocket.

Second, the mileage programs effectively control your behavior. That's what's happening with you and the hundreds of thousands of other travelers. Just how are you being controlled? Well consider that you didn't shop for the best deal on a hotel. Instead, you tried to accumulate more points with Starwood.

Now you think your loyalty ought to be paid off with a hassle-free redemption of your hard-earned points.

Yeah, right. To continue the drug analogy, the travel suppliers make it easy for you to get hooked - they dangle free hotels and airline tickets in front of you. But they don't mention the hidden expenses, which is that you'll pay outrageous rates in order to accumulate the rewards and that redemptions will remain elusive.

While it's true that some suppliers have become more generous with redemptions in the last two years, the fact remains that collecting rewards points isn't worth it for most travelers. The money you spend on an overpriced hotel room, rental car or airline ticket simply doesn't make mileage collection a worthwhile hobby.

I've written about this futile phenomenon a few times already. Last year I called for an outright ban on mileage programs. The year before that I documented the mileage addiction sickness among travelers.

My advice: find a competitive rate next time you plan a trip and forget about the miles. Unless you're traveling with the same airline two or three times a week, flying halfway around the world on a regular basis, becoming a mileage junkie will only benefit one entity: your pusher, the travel supplier.

Good luck in rehab.

Christopher Elliott's column appears on Thursdays. All e-mailed questions to ChrisCrossings become property of Ticked.com and may be edited, condensed or republished at the site's discretion. You may reach Elliott at chris@ticked.com. Or visit his home page at http://www.elliott.org.