What a Reward

In the last few years, I have travelled quite a bit. I have made it back to the east coast twice a year for the last 2 and a half years. I have gone to Cali numerous times to meet my sister and/or friends. I have met my parents in Vegas. With all these trips under my belt, I have definitely racked up the airline mileage over the last few years. Of course I fly different airlines each time, so I don't have a massive amount on any given airline, rather some here on there on about 6 different airlines.

However, I HAVE managed to rack up about 40K miles on Continental since that is usually the airline I fly to NYC. I was so excited to learn that I had earned enough mileage to fly for free. A FREE flight!! Is there really anything better?

I have about 3 mainland trips coming up in the next 6 months, so I called Continental to find out which trip will be my lucky free trip! Lo and behold -- none of them. Yes, that's right. I have 40,000 miles on Continental, but none of the dates I am travelling are eligible for "reward travel". Can you believe this shit?

Please tell me what is the point in having all this mileage if I can't use it? And what is the point in making sure my mileage number is inputted correctly if I won't be able to redeem it anyhow?

Funny how it is called "reward" travel -- this doesn't quite feel like any sort of reward to me.