[Nick]

I non-revved about 60,000 miles in 2007 and only got bumped once once, and got first class eight different times on three different airlines. The one I got bumped from was due to an unusually large piece of cargo on a route that is never otherwise weight critical.

The cost of that travel for the year cost me about $200, including departure taxes in four countries. $130 of that $200 was on Qantas.

That is traveling single though, not with even one other companion who needed to be on the same flight (I traveled with other people one some trips but they did not have to be on the same flight as me, though that never was an issue). Adding in things like that, or kids, would make it tougher because one open seat is no longer enough.

Sometimes if there are 3 open seats left and there's a family of four at the gate, their inability to get on together will let 3 other people get on the plane even though they are lower priority. That's just an example.

As for your family and parents question, I think if I had a spouse they'd have to pay $12 per direction to travel, unless they used one of the dozen or so passes that I have right now. My parents non-revved a few times in 2007 and they paid $25 round trip each. So for them to go to someplace on a vacation was $50 roundtrip.

You have to be flexible and that is the bottom line. If you want to go on vacation one week, choose a few cities that have the best loads and start to plan a vacation at each of them. A week prior it may become obvious which city is going to have the most open seats. Or maybe you want the one that has the most open first class seats. The day before it will of course be plenty accurate by then and the places you had planned to go to but won't on that particular trip can just be saved for next time.