Why It’s Getting Harder to Use Miles to Book Your Flight

Air miles are becoming a precious commodity as uncertainty grows about the outlook for ticket prices and the availability of flights.

Frequent flyers are increasingly using their miles to hedge against global travel chaos by making overlapping bookings across different routes per trip, according to travel experts. Because award tickets typically carry minimal cancellation fees, if at all, compared with bookings paid in cash, passengers can simply ditch the extra bookings at the last minute, they said.