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A few days ago, I read a post on TPG titled “How I Suddenly Lost 2 Iberia Award Tickets on the Day of My Flight.” I recommend your read it yourself, but here is a summary of what happened. The author booked a flight on American Airlines by using Iberia Plus Avios (AA partner). Her flights were never ticketed by American, she didn’t realize it until just before she arrived at the airport, and she had to pay cash for a last-minute flight.
The author’s ordeal sounds very stressful. Imagine waking up to fly home, only instead you find yourself on hold with various phone agents and missing your flight.
TPG disabled blog comments a few years ago, but people can still comment on social media posts. And boy, the comments were harsh! Not only was the author slammed for never checking to see if her flight was ticketed, she was also criticized for incurring an $83 cell phone bill for trying to resolve the issue through an international call.
For people new to miles and points, reading about this experience and then reading the comments is probably intimidating. But, I want to assure you of a few things:
This Rarely Happens
Most award flights are booked and ticketed without any issues. In fact, I’ve never had an instance when my flight was never ticketed. I do recommend babysitting your flights and confirming the schedule and your seats periodically. So, if you’re worried about this issue, relax. It’s not common.
Even the Experts Make Mistakes
Everyone, including “expert bloggers”, makes mistakes in this miles and points hobby. They may not all blog about them, but they happen.
And to be clear, it’s not the author’s fault that her award flights weren’t ticketed. Her only mistake was not realizing it sooner to fix the issue.
I always appreciate it when people share their mistakes because we can all learn from them. Many of us have been too busy to check on our flight status after booking. I bet most people have also missed a credit card payment. It happens.
Reading about these mistakes helps people, including myself. Isn’t that why we read blogs and participate in online communities?
So, to TPG’s Maddie, thank you for sharing your experience. Sorry the Internet judged you harshly. I’m sure your blog post is going to prevent others from the same experience.
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Author: Nancy
Nancy lives near Dallas, Texas, with her husband and three kids. Her favorite vacations include the beach, cruising and everything Disney.
This happened to my 18 month old daughter. We booked all three of us seats with United miles to fly Lufthansa. Her ticket somehow didn’t push through and Lufthansa had her as a lap baby. We had gotten to the airport early and after much back and forth between the airlines, she got her seat and they were partway through boarding when we got to the gate. Luckily we could have still gotten in the plane without her ticket, but we appreciated the extra space!
@Rachel sounds stressful! Maybe this happens more often than I think.
I had the same thing happen to our family on my way back from a trip through Hawaii and New Zealand. On our way back after a great trip we arrived at the airport in KOA, looking forward to coming home after 2 months away. Our return flight on AS had been booked with Avios, and at the ticket counter they were unable to locate our ticket. It turned out (after watching our flight leave from the ticket counter) that it had never been ticketed. We found a hotel for the night and spend the next 4 hours on the phone until they were able to ticket us into another airport in the same area.
I certainly learned my lesson, but that wasn’t the way I wanted to learn it
Oh no! Sorry you experienced this. Especially after such a long trip!