Alternate routing -- I feel like I ended up paying more.

[dbaker]

Before boarding my flight in AUS today, the gate agent offered me $300 in the form of a CO travel certificate if I would fly AUS-DFW-JAX on AA instead of taking AUS-IAH-JAX on CO as planned.

I was agreeable until the agent realized that I was in FC and that there were no available seats in first on the AA legs. I told him that I would do it if he could "budge a bit" on the voucher price, since I was thinking $450 or something would be reasonable given the circumstances. He said that he couldn't, so I thanked him and boarded the flight.

About 5min into my AUS leg, I started feeling like I effectively paid an extra $300 to fly in first. Bah.

[Nugget]

Well, turning down the $300 also kept you out of the plastic chairs at DFW where there would have been no P-Club for you to wait between segments. Also, would you have lost out on the segments? Having not yet earned plat for next year those three segments could turn out to be worth quite a lot if it's close.

[dbaker]

If the airline reroutes you, you can mail in your boarding passes along with your original itinerary and they'll credit you for what you bought.

I agree, though, if I wouldn't have gotten the miles. Flew my 80th CO segment yesterday for 2002. 2 more tomorrow and then I have 2 months to fly 8 more.