Frequent travellers

In July I tried to book some Air Malta flights for August using my Flypass miles. I was told the earliest Flypass seats available were in October.

Wanting to avoid the same problem again I've just tried booking two trips in March and April next year. I was told I would have to pay an early booking fee of Lm30 for booking more than 45 days in advance!

This fee is not payable on standard fare flights. Obviously if you leave it for less than 45 days before you fly all the Flypass seats are gone - as I found out in July. How convenient! Furthermore, there is a Lm4 "security tax" payable on Flypass flights that is not payable on standard fares. I only found this out by asking what the standard fare was for comparison and noticed a discrepancy in the figures quoted for taxes.

No other airline I know of imposes these extra charges on their frequent flyer customers. I regularly book flights using my air miles on Alitalia and British Airways as late as two weeks in advance and had only to pay the standard taxes - no early booking fee or security tax.