Am I the only one who's been conned into sticking to an airline with the lure of frequent flyer miles? I have been flying AirFrance for about 4 years now and accrued enough miles to get me 2 round trip tickets to the US from Lagos. Funny thing is when I go online to book an award ticket, there is never a "flight available on the dates chosen, please select another date". However, if I do a flight search as a regular user with the aim of paying, I see so many flights available on different days. What a scam this is. Sad thing is I have stayed loyal to the airline even when flying to the UK just so I could increase my mileage stack.

People beware of the scam called Frequent Flyer Miles, Its simply a sophisticated 419 ploy.

Had the same problem, but it´s no scam. In each booking class they only provide several seats and some free seats for award miles as well.
If those seats are taken u cannot book them.
In my award miles programm I found out it´s good to book the bonus flight on the first date it is available.
So if u can book like two weeks in advance, do it already at midnite and u will get one of those few bonus flights.
It´s just like snipping at ebay

If it's equal to the cost, you should get a first class (for economy) seat instead and forfeit the other two tickets.

RUESCHO, Spot On. Its not a scam. Thats the way it works. I usually do miles plus money with Virgin. Afterall wetin man go do. I use a bit of my miles and pay some money in addition.

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@ Ruescho: Your frequent flyer program must be more open then because its not possible to see online when the award seats are available on the Flying Blue program of AF. Besides, I am trying to book the flight for April and to think this is January and its already not available, I wonder if it will ever be.

@ Igbonla: Thanks, will look at that approach as well.

It is not a scam. Same style even exists in the hotel industry. Such "no fly" or "no stay" days are called "blackout days". In general, when trying to take advantage of a deal, you should b ready to fly/drive/stay not by your schedule but theirs. For example, I doubt your miles wd b honored on say, "high season" dates of dec 8 - jan 25 or the summer season. On the other hand, I bet there would b tons of seats in february when everyone must have returned from the xmas hols. I am sure that if you looked at the fine print of your miles package, it was stated there (and most likely you had to "initial here, there and there" )

Either way, don't let oyibo discourage you from accumulating/using your miles. If you do, then they have won. Same applies with respect to rebates

I hope this helps.

@ piddo

Yeah, all programmes are different,
as I live in Germany I am with the Lufthansa Star Alliance programme that is one of the best, cos it comprises like 50 airlines.
But the programm also don´t show me the number of available seats.
The earlier u book the more miles u need.
Best in this programme is to book at midnight, 2 weeks in advance, this is when they enter more free seats for bonus miles.
U just have to find out how your prograsmme works.
I also can book through the phone, then they tell me the number of available seats for each flight, but it takes more miles than to book online.
Just check your system.

Good luck!

Thats a problem using points to book, they are only limited amount of seats and sometimes your baggage allowance is not even the same as others that book using full fare. Its called buisness.