Free ticket, short notice: Where would you go?
— -- Business travelers accumulate millions of frequent flier points and earn many free airline tickets – sometimes more than we can use. Keeping tabs on mileage accounts, program rules and expiration dates on multiple airlines can be time-consuming and often confusing. I'm usually meticulous about tracking my miles and free tickets but I recently discovered I had a free ticket award on Southwest Airlines that was set to expire within a matter of days. As far as travel dilemmas go, this was a good one: What do you do with a free airline ticket that is about to expire?
Following an intense travel period I was really looking forward to some time at home, but I couldn't stand the thought of losing a hard-earned free ticket. After all, I had endured 16 oversold flights just to get it. With the ticket set to expire in a matter of days, there was little time to plan, little time to lose and no time to find a travel companion, so this trip was going to be solo and I would have to make a snap decision.
I often fly Southwest because they operate more than 2/3rds of the flights at my home airport in Oakland. But they don't fly to many places I would ordinarily choose to go for fun. On most airlines I horde my miles until I've accumulated enough for international business class, a first class ticket to Hawaii or any long-distance flight where squeezing into economy class is sheer torture but it's too costly to purchase a seat up front.
On Southwest, award tickets must be used within one year from the time they are earned. I try to maximize my award value by using free tickets on last-minute trips where advance purchase fares have already sold out and only the highest fares remain, but there were no such trips on the horizon and nowhere else I needed to go before that ticket would expire.
With no particular place to go, I vowed to make the most of my imminently expiring airline ticket anyway. I decided to go somewhere close by, relatively inexpensive and as hassle-free as possible. I also thought it would be nice to go somewhere I'd never been and am unlikely to find myself in the future.
Poring over Southwest's route map I realized I'd been to all but a handful of Southwest's 64 cities. Most of those Southwest stops I'd missed were smaller cities in Texas like Amarillo, Harlingen and Midland/Odessa. But one destination met all my criteria: Boise. Less than an hour-and-a-half flight from home, getting to Boise would be relatively easy. Boise is probably not a place I would likely visit for business any time soon. The one and only time I'd been to Idaho was more than 30 years ago and I had never been to Boise.
Some people like to ski, hike, camp, sail, shop, swim or visit museums on the road, and often I do too. But for this brief, last-minute trip my goal was simply to see the sights. I thought I'd get away from the working world with a scenic drive through the mountains and an easy, relaxing couple of days with no real schedule or objective.
Of course a free airline ticket is not exactly a free trip, but $80 per night at the Residence Inn and $25 per day for a rental car was not enough to deter my ambition to salvage this ticket in time.
On business trips we often breeze through town quickly, spending minimal time at our destination. What precious time we do allot for our destination is spent mainly in meeting rooms and hotels where we barely see the light of day. At the end of the day you realize you could've been in any city. Sometimes I can't even remember where I've been as all these hotels and meeting rooms look the same. Such is the nature of business travel. But with a free airline ticket and no specific plans or deadlines, you can put away the cellphone, leave your laptop at home and simply enjoy the experience in a manner no business trip can provide.
Once in Boise, I dined at the very popular, pink-painted West Side Drive-In where they serve an "ice cream potato" for dessert as part of the local fare in the state most famous for its spuds. Then I headed into the mountains, following the dotted line on the map denoting a scenic route.
At a place called Lowman, I stopped to use the facilities at a log cabin called the Sourdough Lodge where the sign indicated the next bastion of civilization was 57 miles away. The scenic route did not disappoint. The peace, serenity and natural beauty of the lush alpine forest and the snow-capped peaks were extremely therapeutic. In the mountains of Idaho I could forget the collapsing housing market and the volatile economy for just a short while and simply enjoy the natural beauty all around me.
In a place with no audible radio stations on either band it was easy to forget about politics and the bitterly contested presidential campaign. It certainly wasn't Europe or Hawaii, but in this rustic environment with few other cars on the road, it just felt good to be alive to enjoy all the wonders this country has to offer.
Many see a free airline ticket simply as transportation, as a means of conveyance, but this trip showed how it can be so much more. My award ticket was a way to break away from the daily grind, a chance to have a new experience and to escape from reality.
I returned from Idaho feeling refreshed and invigorated, ready to tackle the world again, but most of all I felt satisfied that I managed to use my free airline ticket before it expired!
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Send David your feedback: David Grossman is a veteran business traveler and former airline industry executive. He writes a column every other week on topics of interest and concern to business travelers. E-mail him at travel@usatoday.com.