Airline Coupons

I am in Pittsburg with Zenith today for a preview of some very cool new technologies that are coming in the future. But what I want to write about this morning is my frustration about working with airlines. I went to the airport early yesterday to try and redeem a couple of 2-1 coupons that were provided as part of using airline credit cards. Some of you undoubtedly know what I mean. I went to the Delta counter and was told to call the promotions desk and try to find a flight that would meet the red tape of the coupon. She wasn't very encouraging and appologized before I made the call for the difficulty I would have. She was right. I never did find a flight that would work. So I decided to try it with US Air where I had the second coupon. Went to the counter and was told the same thing - please go sit down and call the number to try and find a reservation that would meet the requirements. I actually was able to find a flight to Calgary that would work and since Stuart has scheduled a SWOT for IT Matters I was able to book the flight and use the coupon. It took forever and had to be done at the airport since I had to go there to ticket it. Of course, they won't allow booking online like all the other things they sell me. What a pain. Obviously their strategy is to advertise a great deal about a free second ticket, which isn't free anyway as they assess all kinds of fees, but the real struggle is the fine print and difficulty in actually using the darn coupon. C'mon airlines - this is crazy. If you are trying to reward customers for being loyal then treat us as such. Seems like a very bad customer service move to irritate your best customers with fine print and stupid rules. Just my view but certainly did not make any warm fuzzy feelings for me. How about you?