MagazinesPost Magazine  Rant: beyond redemption  Alex Wong
Have you ever pulled teeth from a Mesozoic mastodon? Perhaps
not, but that would seem to me an easier operation than
redeeming frequent-flyer points these days.  I've just spent
half the morning trying to get an economy seat near the bulkhead
with extra legroom for my 82-year-old six-foot-three father.
"That will be an extra 20,000 points," I was told. The return
flight ticket was already 45,000 points. Ker-ching. Oh, but a
return seat in a higher class is just 54,000 points. So it costs
more to sit in economy?  I duly decided to switch the
octogenarian to premium economy - which had been my preference
in the first place, only when I'd tried to book online, no seats
were available.  Call up an airline to use your points and
you'll appreciate a whole new meaning of the phrase "holding
pattern": you could knit a jumper and play a dozen games of
patience as you sit on the phone, losing yours.  Moreover, free
tickets aren't exactly that when you're payi