If you are planning to take a trip somewhere for the holidays, you may get lucky and finally be able to use your frequent flier miles.

According to the WallStreet Journal, Delta Air Lines has added an additional option to their frequent flyer program. This addition will give consumers another alternative as to how they can use the miles they’ve earned. In the first week of implementation, Delta customers were getting more flights at lower mileage rates than they were under the old plan.

Because most airlines hiked up their ticket prices due to the summer inflation of gas prices, an abundance of disloyalty has emerged through increased mileages needed to get a “free” ticket. Airlines are also swindling customers with falsely advertising “free” or “cheaper” tickets, when in actuality they have increased or tacked on prices for things such as baggage check-in, ticket transfer fees and cancellations, and even telephone reservations.

“Airlines are not using programs to generate loyalty as much as to generate fees,” says Tim Winship, publisher of FrequentFlier.com. For the past five years, he says, airlines have continually eroded their loyalty programs.

But the Delta move is the first major change at a big airline that could potentially save fliers mileage and make it easier to travel using miles. Some consumers may end up paying fewer miles; others may have to pay more — it all depends on how Delta allocates award seats.

Delta says it wants its customers to burn miles so it can sell more. Like most other carriers, Delta used to offer a basic award level with heavily restricted availability and a more-plentiful award category usually at double the price in miles. Now Delta has split the higher-priced category in two: a very pricey category with unrestricted availability, even if there is only one seat left for sale; and a lower-priced midtier that’s more plentiful in terms of seats offered than the cheapest category, but not as readily available as the most expensive awards.

So this holiday season, you may want to check into your frequent flyer program and the miles you’ve acquired. You may just have a FREE trip waiting on you!

(Source)