I am a Flypass member and considering the fact I travel quite extensively for work, I accumulated a high number of points which once in a while I try and redeem. However, every time I try using some of these points for breaks in hotels, the process is more laborious than plodding through Homer's Odyssey.

Last week I decided to try and use some of the points for a weekend break with the family over next weekend, considering the fact that Monday is a public holiday. My first call to Flypass (took the best part of a day to get someone to pick up the phone) ended with one of the staff telling me they couldn't help me out because it was policy to book these breaks giving Flypass 15 working days' notice. After a couple of days, I decided to give it another shot and someone different answered the phone, never mentioning the 15 days policy, and was ready to try and check availability for the dates I was after. I was told to call back the following day for a reply.

When I called back, the person at Flypass had checked the wrong hotel for me, telling me they had no availability. I said that was not a problem as it wasn't the hotel I wanted anyway, so I asked if this person could check the other hotel's availability. Needless to say, another day passed and my chances of getting a room got slimmer, especially considering this will be a busy weekend for hotels. After 24 hours, I called Flypass again and was told they had no reply yet and that I had to call on Monday, after the weekend. I spent the whole of Monday calling the Flypass office and no one picked up the phone. Same thing on Tuesday, and when I finally got hold of someone on Wednesday morning, I was told there was no availability for a room in my desired hotel.

This whole process took eight working days. If the staff at Flypass would have at least contacted me as soon as they got a reply from the hotel, I could have possibly made other arrangements but I guess that is too much to ask for. I have come to believe that Flypass is just a gimmick because it is so hard to redeem points that people simply don't bother.