Flight Report: Milwaukee to Seattle

After visiting Milwaukee and Chicago for the weekend, it's time to head back to Seattle. This time we flew back on a direct flight with AirTran, which wasn't the most interesting flight in the world. The airline is alright... except for one thing.

Their reward program sucks.

The sooner they ditch the A+ Rewards program for Southwest's Rapid Rewards, the better. Right now, Airtran gives one point per flight and requires 8 to redeem for a round trip ticket. That might not sound so bad ("Buy four, get one free!"), but the main issue is that each point expires one year after issue. That means you need to fly five round trips per year on AirTran in order to get any value (four round trips, paid and one free). Need to hold on to those credits for an extra year? No problem, if you don't mind spending $29 per credit. The only redeeming grace is that you can also earn and spend your credits on Southwest, which recently bought AirTran for nearly a billion and a half dollars.