The airline wouldn't let me book our tickets because the miles are in B's name, so I gave him the confirmation number, and he called the airline to finish the process. And what a process!
I expected a $15 fee for booking on the phone with an agent. But it turns out that we have to pay all of the taxes and fees associated with the flights--and we are taking a lot of flights! The total cost was around $300 for the two tickets--not quite the freebie flights that I was hoping for! I suppose that a $300 bill is a lot better than a $2,000 bill, but not nearly as boosting to one's bargain-hunter ego as a $15 bill would have been. Chalk it up as a lesson learned--and it's time to amend the cliche: "There's no such thing as a free lunch--or a free flight."
And in other weirdness, they're mailing us paper tickets for the flights. Travel gurus say that you should always have paper tickets because they are the best way to get on another flight if your original flight is cancelled. But honestly--where am I going to store paper airline tickets for the next 9 months? My mind immediately leaps upon the worst-case scenario--what if we lose them? I will have to call the airline and find out if other tickets could be issued to us at check-in. Perhaps I will be grateful for this seeming inconvenience when the time comes.
