manolo1492

I think it includes most. I flew United with my daughter recently using the discount and was surprised at how cheap it was, even when compared to most buddy pass fees nowadays.

Av8tor12

Someone mentioned there are lines that contain commercial dhds. Would those dhds amount to enough airline points for 1-2 trips domestically?

Adlerdriver

I earned enough points on AA last year for about 9 domestic one-ways at the basic anytime point rate. If you book early enough at off peak times, last years points could be stretched to 20 one-ways.

I also get upgraded on 99% of the domestic coach tickets I buy.

BlueMoon

Yes, Just got back from a domestic vacation and I paid for both mine and fiancée’s tickets wth points. Recently, got another one way ticket to go visit a friend for myself.

I also use an airline branded credit card and try to deviate on the same airline whenever I can.

wayway8

How does the airline branded credit card help when deviating? Do they recognize you as a cardholder even though it's paid on the company card?

BlueMoon

Yes, at least on Delta. It shows up on my boarding pass that I’m a cardholder.

wayway8

Thanks. I'll have to look closer at my AA boarding passes in the future.

Overnitefr8

If you primarily fly one airline you can achieve some type of status with that airline. The higher the status, the more miles you earn and the more free trips you'll earn. But flying primarily on one airline affects your QOL on the deadhead trips. You may have to two leg when you could have one legged it on another airline. Departure or arrival times may be more limited.

That being said, I have been Executive Platinum with AA for about 5 years now and I don't fly international at all. I get upgraded to first class almost every flight. But I also book first class whenever possible because of the extra miles earned on first class tickets (there are other threads talking about how to qualify to buy first class tickets). I earn over 100K miles and my family of 4 get some free tickets every year. When we fly as a family I still buy a ticket for myself because I get maximum miles for my ticket. Since the rest of my family doesn't have a status they hardly earn any miles, therefore, I use my miles for their tickets.

Grrrr

New guy question. Have a line this month and have been doing some trading. I wound up making a trade that dropped me 5:47 in credit thinking I would pick it back up with an add later. Now everytime I put in a submission to pick up a 6-8 hour trip I am getting disapproved because it "exceeds make up eligibility". I was under the impression that we are able to go to -6 every month. If that is the case, shouldn't I be able to add a trip that is 11:47 credit and still only be -6 and good to go? When I go to my bank balances I am showing -2:22 for General M/U(from last month) and a balance of 5:48 under the trip trade column for April '18. Am I hosed or am I just selecting the wrong type of M/U when I submit my request?

Adlerdriver

I'm pretty part of your difficulty centers on the -2:22 from last month. When you say "last month" are you talking about March (which is still technically the current month). Or, is that really from February. I'm not certain, but since there isn't a "by month" column in the make-up bank balance, it's possible that the system can't differentiate between negative makeup operations associated with different months. In other words, while it's still March, you can't go 6CH negative in April if you're already negative for March. The bottom line is, as long as your M/U bank is showing -2:22, you're not going to be able to go -6:00 in the hole on top of that for April. I'm not 100% certain this is the source of your problem, but I think it's a good possibility.

You're statement about the 5:48 CH isn't really correct. That doesn't become part of your make-up bank until the month is over and you haven't done any more trades to affect that balance. So, trying to use that 5:48 in a M/U bid line adjustment will not work.

We can trip trade using trips that are part of our awarded line for a net gain of 12 CH each month. That has nothing to do with your make-up bank. We can put in for make-up trips up to the value of our make-up bank plus 6 CH. Those two operations do not overlap and allow some kind of synergistic combination of trip trading and make-up credit hours.

The fact that you see the trip trading difference in another column confirms that the system is seeing those hours differently than CH associated with your actual makeup bank. Keep in mind, trips with different assignment codes usually can't be mixed in the same request. i.e. If you pick-up a trip using general make-up (M/U code) and then try to trade that trip and another that was already on your line (TRP code) for a third trip in open time, you'll get denied.

So, my take on your situation is that your trip trading activity that results in either a negative or positive balance of CH is tracked through the month as just that.....trip trading activity. You can go up to negative 12:00 for that. That column has nothing to do with your make-up bank and you can't mix those CH with makeup hours.