Currently I have enough for a round trip domestic trip but just heard they started charging an online booking fee. Another question is, how easy is it to get a free ticket? Many people give up trying to get a free ticket, when they realize their eight choice in flights or destination isn’t available.

To give you an idea on how some airlines overbook flights, leaving little if any empty seats for frequent flier programs, I recently had to make an emergency trip to Ecuador. A friend who works for American Airlines out of Dallas, was kind enough to let me use a buddy pass for my wife and myself since a last minute ticket was a ridiculous price. We traveled down with no problems, but on the way back, I traveled sans wife on Sunday Martin Luther King weekend with a stopover in Miami before continuing to John F. Kennedy airport in New York City, my home airport. BTW, living in the the NYC area affords you the luxury of choosing from four different airports to choose from, if you can’t get a ticket to your favorite. Besides, JFK, there’s Laguardia, Newark, and MacArthur Airport in Islip, Long Island. Bear with me, I’m going somewhere with this.

So, I get to Guayaquil after a four hour ride over fog covered mountains hoping that maybe, just maybe, there’s one extra seat for me. Remember I’m flying with a “buddy pass” (class 3), that means “standby” after all American Airline employees (class 1) and there families (class 2) . Yes, I get on, and First Class to boot, YES!!

I arrived in Miami at around 2:30pm with a connection at 5:30pm. I quickly realize that on the standby list, I’m currently number 36, with about 12 empty seats on the plane. What about going to Laguardia, I asked? Booked also. After waiting until 7:30pm, with just 2 more flights left that night, which were also over-booked, I decide to rent a car and head over to my brother in law’s house in Boca Raton, one hour away. I’m advised that the first flight leaves at 6:50 am for New York, yeah, right!

After staying up late watching the New York Giants win a nail biter over the Packers and washing clothes, my bags are already in New York, there’s no way. I’m going on 3 hours sleep again. I sleep in until about 6 am and head out for the airport. I get nervous when I realize I’m number 12 on standby for the 8:50 flight. I get really nervous when I meet three gentlemen who all work for American and commute weekly to New York, airplane mechanics. Why am I nervous? Because, I quickly find out they don’t have to be at work until 10:30 that night, and here it is at 8:00am and already they are looking for seats.

But as an AA employee they have on major advantage, they all have access to AA’s computer, and know exactly how many seats are empty on what flights. One of them has a plan, they have a feeling this was going to happen, it’s seems the Monday Miami to New York route is NOT a good one to be flying standby if you can help it. He has his passport in hand, and tells me that Miami to Toronto flight is “wide open”. And I just happen to have my passport with me:)

So, I spent to door to door about 36 hours by way of Miami and Toronto but finally got home around 5 pm. Thankfully I was able to breeze through Customs and Immigration in Toronto and just make the flight. The INS officer was a New Yorker and Giants fan, and my usual 30 minute wait through immigration, lasted all of 5 minutes, a new world record for me. That’s what I get for having the most common of Hispanic names, the John Smith of Hispanos.

But what does this have to do with frequent flier miles? If employess, have to spend an extra $65 (taxes for stepping foot on Canadian soil) just to get to where they have to go, how much of a better position are frequent fliers? Not much in my opinion, but what are your thoughts? Do tell!