PORTLAND, Ore. - Frequent fliers know their miles are not getting them as far as they used to.

"Yeah, no seats available on the flights I like," said Matt Smedley, a traveler at Portland International Airport. "It's kind of like a bait and switch. You know, they say 'Oh 25,000 miles (to fly) in the U.S.,' but all the flights available are 50,000 miles. I've seen that. So you have to find some way to be creative and work around it."

After months of searching, Alaska Mileage plan member Anne Zukin is still shopping for a good deal to Thailand.

"You have to be on the phone at midnight, literally," Zukin said. "(You have to) keep calling until you get through."

Is she annoyed?

"Yeah, to have these hundreds of thousands of miles and not to be able to use them for what we want to use them for," Zukin responded.

The issues facing the airline industry - including high fuel prices - are hitting their most loyal customers' pocket books.
 
"It's a problem because you set up vacation times when you want to go and then you can't. Not with the miles anyway, so you end up buying instead," said Ed Green of Portland.

Why? Industry experts point out more people are paying to fill up seats and there are more rewards programs available, such as credit cards, which have created an influx of frequent flyer miles.

AAA of Oregon Travel Director Doreen Loofburrow says the airline industry will continue to cut back perks.

"You're having to accrue more miles to obtain elite status, and that's just the nature of the business. More people are flying, (so the airlines) want to give elite status to the elite few. And that means bumping up those limits every year," Loofburrow said.
 
Here are some tips for travelers:

• Check airline Web sites constantly, because free seats can become available depending on cancellations and demand.
• Look for new routes.  For example, United Airlines is currently offering discount deals between several U.S. cities and London.
• If you can't book on your airline of choice - say American Airlines - try one of their partners like British Airways or Cathay Pacific. Those airlines are usually linked from their Web site.
• Be creative and travel during non-peak dates.

"Look at other flexible dates. Maybe you celebrate Thanksgiving with your family in January instead," said Loofburrow.

She says the key is planning ahead, sometimes as far as 11 months.

Frequent fliers seem to understand the difficulty over redeeming miles is a sign of the times.

"It's a freebie so I'll do what I can do with it," said Smedley.

"It's hard for me to complain when I know they're not making money," said another traveler.

Lucky for the airlines, travelers have learned to lower their expectations.

"I would rather see freebies go away than the cost of the airlines go up," said another customer at PDX, Sue Preece.

Other helpful web sites:

• http://www.flyertalk.com/
• http://www.frequentflier.com/
• http://www.webflyer.com/