Updated 9/23/2015 at 11pm PT: I selected 6 winners of an Award Wallet Plus upgrade code. You will receive an email with with your Award Wallet Plus upgrade code right away.
- Alice – airlines releasing award space within 3 weeks of the flight and charging a close-in booking fee
- Coree – hard to find award space
- Joe – loyalty program devaluations
- Noah – no more Bud Light on the plane
- Sharon – booking travel for the wrong days/week
- TheHawk75 – “cannot buy gift cards with a credit card”
Good evening everyone, I have 2 travel hacking pet peeves I want to share with you and I have 5 Award Wallet Plus upgrade codes up for grabs to my 5 favorite responses (travel bloggers are eligible too).
Pet Peeve #1: Major Flight Schedule Changes
For my upcoming Centurion Lounge meetups at SFO and LAS, I booked a very cheap JetBlue flight that leaves SFO around 4pm and arrives in LAS around 5:30pm. It was the perfect flight at the perfect time. Unfortunately, JetBlue decided to change the flight time to leave SFO at 5:22pm, arriving in LAS at 6:59pm. That new flight time wouldn’t work for my 6pm LAS Centurion Lounge meetup start time, so I called and canceled the flight. I ended up booking a Southwest Airlines flight that leaves SFO at 3:50pm, arriving in LAS at 5:20pm.
For my Monday morning return flight to SFO, I booked a Virgin America fight that leaves LAS at 7am, arriving in SFO around 8:30am. It was a great flight at the right time and price. Unfortunately, Virgin America did a major schedule change and changed the fight to leave LAS at 11:15am, arriving in SFO at 12:50pm. That was not going to work for me, so I called Virgin America and canceled my flight. I ended up booking a Southwest Airlines flight from LAS that leaves at 6:15am, arriving in OAK at 7:45am.
The crux of my pet peeve is whenever I book a great flight (perfect price and time) but then the airline later changes the flight times by a significant amount. This causes me to cancel the flight and book another flight on a different airline (usually at a higher price and less desirable time). It’s very frustrating :(
Pet Peeve #2: Clueless & Annoying Target Cashiers
When I load my Target Redbird Card, I usually follow a routine. I go early in the morning when my favorite cashier is working (she is very friendly and knows my name). Unfortunately, sometimes I go late at night (around 11pm) after hanging out in SF after work and the cashiers are either clueless or refuse to load my VGCs even when they have my name on them (they point out the tiny word ‘gift’ in the corner). It’s frustrating that they enforce this rule when most other cashiers do not seem to notice or care. (Side note to Target cashiers: just let me load my Redbird Card and we can both get on with our lives, thank you!)
Those are my 2 most recent/annoying pet peeves. What is your biggest travel hacking pet peeve? Leave a comment below for a chance to win 1 of 5 Award Wallet Plus upgrade codes. Winners will be announced by 7am PT on Wednesday, September 23, 2015. Good luck everyone!
When no award seats are available and the flight is nearly empty.
Ahh that is not cool either. Keep checking back for award space to open up :)
When Delta frequently asks for passengers to bid on taking another flight, only to find the flight not being oversold. They always get my hopes up!
Haha, Delta likes to mess with you :)
I’ve been loading by Redbird after work around 5pm to 6pm and so far have had good luck with particular cashiers in mind. If I see a new one and he/she is working alone, there’s a good chance of no hassle Redbird load. There’s one particular cashier I’ve seen checking for GC’s-she seemed to enjoy turning people away.
Btw, I’d appreciate it if I win an AW Plus code :)
I totally agree that some cashiers get a lot of satisfaction with turning down/away customers. Boooo
United’s new(er) reward chart
What specifically do you not like about the new chart? Higher award costs?
Schedule changes are my #1. i have numerous stories…. But last year a Delta schedule change and aircraft change put me on a regional jet much later in the day. But I’d booked metal that could accommodate my 24 checked bags (photo gear and props for a large photo shoot). Regional jets only allow 4 checked bags and carryons to small in size. This was a huge change, huge hassle. I book flights based on carryons and cargo needs as my main criteria and rely on this not changing. This production was upwards of 100k in crew and actors flying in from across the states and one lousy schedule change could have cost us the entire production. Why can airlines be allowed to get away with this?! I booked based on the best flight for my needs and paid for first class to accommodate my cargo – the flight change (2 days before departure) was not an option, with a last minute change for multiple passengers potentially becoming quite costly.
That is very bad. I hate airplane changes since they are usually downgrades of what you anticipated flying. I don’t like flying regional jets either :/
When I drink the plane out of Bud Light and have to drink Miller or Coors.
Haha, now that sounds like a fun fight to be on :)
Store managers who do not allow you to use credits cards to buy gift cards when the store policy allows it. Makes them feel powerful.
Agh I know exactly what you mean. I will sometimes say that I was at the store a few days ago and bought a few gift cards with credit cards. Or I say I went to the same store at a different location and bought a few gift cards with credit cards. Sometimes that does the trick.
My pet peeve is airlines that only release a tiny amount of award inventory, and if they’re going to release more do so within the period that is subject to the close-in ticketing fee,
Haha, gotta love those close in booking fees. Is that the dumbest fee ever invented?
Agree with Pam. Cathay cancelled my very first travel reward first class ticket. That flight was removed from existence. Didn’t even know about it, got lucky I was checking the departure time on aa.com and it told me to call in. Had to reschedule my entire vacation because of no availability on similar timed flight.
Argh that will really mess up a vacation to go from Cathay Pacific first class to nothing. What did you end up doing?
I finally changed my vacation up a bit, flying through SFO instead of LAX (to HKG>CGK>MDO – lots of connection that had to be changed to get to the unchangeable CGK>MDO leg). I just don’t understand why nobody notified me. Then all of the new legs booked sat “On request” for several months – when I called in 3 times, I was always told that everything was ‘fine’ (I didn’t know, I am a newbie). Finally 3 weeks out from departure I found out on FT that I was not actually ticketed! I had to call in and have it escalated, and it finally changed to “ticketed”. Scarey how close I got to losing a full vacation and not knowing it.
Yikes, the airlines should be more proactive with schedule changes. I think it gets more complicated if you fly on multiple tickets booked on 1 airline website.
I CAN tell you one thing though, as a 6’4″ traveler, almost nothing will be too big of a pet peeve to avoid coach!
Yikes, I’m 5’7″ and u feel cramped at times :/
It irks me that I can’t use my neighborhood TGT (within walking distance) to load prepaid REDcard. Same issue with gift card enforcement. I tried it again last week after months of using another store and had to wait an eternity in line only to be rejected. There are some WMT workers that will enforce a similar policy. Sometimes it’s fine and I’ll just roll on to another location, and then other times it really ruins my schedule to go out of my way to another store.
Yes, I know exactly what you mean. MS goes smoothly if all the pieces line up, but sometimes you have to roll with the punches.
I hate when I have to call customer service…airlines with social media teams definitely get my vote.
Airline customer service is usually ok, unless you are on hold for hours. I do enjoy tweeting problems and having the problems resolved by the social media team. Kudos to airlines that are good on Twitter (AA and SWA).
Oh man, can’t believe no one has said this…
Hande
What is hande?
Okay new biggest pet peeve is it submitting mid-comment! :D
What I was going to say:
Hands down my biggest pet peeve is when I earn a bunch of points/miles in a particular program, and then they devalue them!
Argh! :)
Ahh, this comment makes more sense than the first comment. Devaluations are just like death and taxes (two things you cannot avoid). Earn and burn my friend :)
Trying to book upper class awards on Virgin Atlantic through Detla – constantly having flights and availability come up only to get through to conclusion and the flight has magically disappeared. Clue – rubbish Delta website!!
That, and having small pockets of miles dotted about the place that I can’t really use. 3000 AA miles – can’t sell them, can’t fly them. Think I can donate them? 100 Emirates miles pfffff! etc
Yes, it’s very difficult to use small amounts of miles, you should try to consolidate your miles into a few programs that are flexible in redemptions.
Booking for a family of 4, only 2 award seats left in business… never theright amountof seats after all of my mile saving.
Finding several business or first class (or even economy) award seats on the same flight is a challenge. This is where being single comes in handy :)
When Delta gate agents don’t follow Delta policy and make up their own
Haha, what was their latest policy change?
What bugs me are the constantly changing “rules” in general. Whether Redcard matching the name on my debit card, Serve reloads limited to one per cashier at Wal, GC.com promo codes, Tar doing away with cc reloads, Vanilla reload cards at CVS/Staples (RIP), AmEx traveler’s cks, ms is always a moving target (pun intended).
That is definitely true. You have to be up to date on the latest tricks and MS activities. Being diversified in your MS avenues also helps.
I had a 3 HOUR schedule change with Lufthansa for a flight at christmas. This was not going to work with work schedule and with positioning flight. So I had to call UA (booked with UA miles) and explain the situation. Rep was refusing to rebook flight. Said it was my fault that positioning flight isnt in time. So i had to explain what their policy is to them. Then she put me on a (forever) hold and came back to tell me they can make an exception and proceed with what I was trying to do.
The good thing was she then made a huge mistake and allowed me to rebook from ATL eliminating my positioning flight to Tampa. Supposed to just be a 500 mile radius for rebooking.
Bad thing was that my positioning flight was a mistake fare with SW. Yes, they exist. Had it at 14000 points, checked on day and it was 1269 points. Later that day was back up to 14000 points. Always seems that the cheapo flights I book I can’t end up using :( that irks me.
Yikes, glad United fixed your fight. I don’t think positioning flights have anything to do with whether a schedule change is allowable or not. Nice find on the SWA price drop :)
When BA readers apply Award Wallet upgrade codes so graciously posted by BA bloggers without having the courtesy to let their fellow readers know they have done so!
Haha, no courtesy among readers. Fun fact, you can actually apply more than 1 upgrade code per Award Wallet account, subsequently extending your upgrade for years if you enter enough codes. That is why I don’t list out all the codes, someone might use them all.
When the Kate is down at my local Wally World and the Financial Service Center is closed (when the posted hours say it should be open), and there’s a long long at Customer Service, but it’s the closest store to home and it’s the end of the month because I waited to load BlueBird!
Oh, and not having a Redbird!
Ahh Chris, that sounds terrible. I don’t miss going to Walmart at all, love my local Target store :)
Guess my biggest peeve is when folks confuse manufactured spending (MS) with travel hacking (TH). MS does not always require use of any travel related cards or opportunities (think using cashback cards). TH does not always involve manufactured spending (think flying on mistake fares). People complain about Target Redbird failures as a TH peeve, when it is really an MS peeve.
MS and TS are often closely linked and most people do both, but technically you could do 1 or the other and be fine. Some days I think MS is not worth it, when you can stay up late one night and book a mistake fare for the same place you want to go and avoid doing all the MS work…
Schedule changes are a pain. I book my award tickets 10-11 months out, Seems to happen at least once, and often causing a mis-connect and an overnight connection.
Yikes, miss-connects and overnight connections are brutal. That hasn’t happened to me in a while, but it really throws off your travel plans.
I booked my first ever cruise for next April spring break, got a great price for a fabulous balcony cabin, and booked flights at very cheap price. I was super excited! Then I found out our spring break isn’t that week (but rather the week after!) oops! Super disappointed and now I am hoping for a major schedule change so I can cancel the flights and get my money back (fat chance I know!)
As for redcard, I have a coworker that works at my local Target so I just go when she works to load my redcards ;-)
I’m sorry to hear about the mix up in dates, I’ve done that a few times too. Nice that your friend can help you at Target :)
Agree with your concerns with cashiers st Targrt. They should realize that they are dealing with a customer and try to best accommodate where ever possible. BASIC CUSTOMER SERVICE,
I know, I want to use my Target Redcard to shop at Target… Maybe I should go elsewhere to do my shopping.
I biggest pet peeve in travel hacking is when reselling (as one of many avenues to MS) goes wrong.
Recently I just started to reselling as one way to MS and take advantage of the Amex Offers. I bought two $75 GAP gcs to take advantage of Amex Offers $25 off $75 purchase at GAP. Then I sold it to SaveYa. I’ve heard moderate reviews of SaveYa so I was confident in doing transaction with them. So I inputted the gcs number and PIN on their website and after they verified the balance, I took their offer. They said they will mail me a check. I received the check about 4-5 days later. I was so happy and thought my first attempt of gc reselling was success ……. unfortunately, 1 week after I received the check, I saw unauthorized charge of around $120 by SaveYa on my credit card account. I called them but they had worst customer service, the agents are clueless and not very helpful, they just can “open a service ticket and escalate it to appropriate department”. Frustrated, I filed a dispute with my bank of my CC, which is Amex. It’s in pending investigation status and Amex said they are contacting SaveYa and awaiting response from them. One week later, SaveYa sent an email to me about the service ticket that was submitted before and told me that the charge was because one of the gcs that I sold to them was depleted. It doesn’t make sense since the unauthorized charge was $120. I called SaveYa to inquire about this but of course, again the agents had been incompetent and not helpful, they said same thing “they can open a service ticket”. I am done with them, they just running a very shady business. I just hope that Amex will side on me with this one.
The expression: “Sir, you can’t buy credit with credit”, the to be bought ‘credit’ in question being a VGC.
Ahh, such a clever expression. Please show me where it is says credit on the gift card (pointing out the line on the back where it says this is not a credit card).
Regardless of what is said in response to that little gem, usually results in the follow up of ‘that would be money laundering…’
Oh FinCEN you’ve got some ‘clever’ deputies out there.
Haha, you should say money laundering is when you turn cash into other liquid assets. Using a credit card is not cash and it would be incredibly easy for the credit card company and Feds to track your activity. I even enter my loyalty number so they can track my shopping patterns. Some cashiers, oh my…
My current pet peeve is the seeming-to-work-but-not-really Walmart MCE to load Serve. Green light on top, active screen, inviting privacy (sans spoken word). All good through entire process until after I type my 4 digit gift card debit card PIN. Then the request for your 9 digit PIN. Total no-go from personal experience and all reports I’ve read. What a let-down! Then have to go deal with actual humans. Talk about high to low in three minutes.
That’s very depressing, I’m sorry the MCE could not help you load your card. Good luck with the humans.
Not being targeted when the bloggers go crazy about them (ie. Amex offers, ebay 5x, etc)
Having your Amex gift card purchases cancelled without any good reason.
Being a few miles/points short of the perfect award redemption (I only earn UR)
Targeted offers are amazing if you get them, but frustrating if you’re not.
Infant award fees! They usually run ~10% on awards which can turn out to be $$$$$$$$
Those are some pricy lap children you have. You shouldn’t have to pay for lap children since they don’t have their own seat or eat any on board food.
Upgrade lists for no open seats! why parade our names on screen..it feels worse then not getting on the list in first place.
Haha, I guess the airline wants to get your hopes up before crushing them :(
Grant, I have been putting a piece of masking tape over the “gift.” I then write some benign thing on the tape, like my name, so that it doesn’t look like I am covering up something. If asked, I can just say that I do it so that I keep mine separate from my husband’s.
Thank you Zippy, that is interesting. So your gift card has your name embossed on it, then you put your name on a piece of tape covering up the word gift?
Yes, or put any words on it like red card, just to cover it up and not look like you are hiding something. I actually do something similar on all my credit cards. I put a piece of masking tape on my cards with the current offers from those cards such as two points for gas station. That way when I have them in my billfold I know exactly which cards to use at the grocery store or gas station or any other retail outlet.
I think the cashier would peel off the tape. He is like that :/