"Airmiles" are simply a variant of "frequent flyer miles," which were
started, as AAdvantage, by American Airlines about 20 years ago -- and
quickly copied by almost every other airline. As I understand it, "Airmiles"
are independent of any airline (but usable for travel on some, but not all,
airlines) and are earned with purchases of something other than airline
tickets. Frequent flyer miles are earned primarily as a result of actual
travel, but can be earned with other purchases, too. Frequent flyer miles
can be also be used for other things than airline tickets, such as hotel
stays, car rental, ocean cruises, merchandise, and so on.
I'm at a loss to understand Han's refusal, on principle, to avail himself of
the benefits of what, after all, is a competitive reward system for customer
loyalty. I don't care what units they use. It is, after all, a special form
of currency, rather than a unit of measure. You know how many frequent flyer
(or air) miles you have in your account, and you know how many of them you
have to spend for each kind of travel (e.g., transatlantic, domestic, etc.)
or other kind of "reward."
He can do what I do -- I just say "United Airlines frequent flyer credits"; then I don't have to say the word "mile". Same thing at Subway: "the big sandwich" gets the same result as saying "footlong".
Carleton
