Boarding Area will be giving away a free trip to Australia’s Gold Coast!! the trip will include airfare, hotel, and even enough cash to cover taxes! I will have more details and how to enter later this week. Keep checking back!! You don’t want to miss this one, believe me.
Earn points with American Express 3x gold card or the starwood Amex for more flexability.
Then try to get your award with the following information.
If you don’t get what you want the first time, hang up and call again. Always be informed about where you want to go and what routes you can take to get there and use the ANA website and expertflyer to be informed about what availability is out there.
Use your points for Business or First Class to get more bang for the buck.
Check airline partner websites for seat availability to international destinations. Then call your airline and suggest the dates that you found available on the partner sites.
Be loyal and loyalty will reward you. Use a card for your top airline or hotel, and always fly the same airline (or alliance) and stay at the same hotel.
If you fly with several airlines, maintain loyalty with only one carrier per alliance. Consolidate those miles so awards come faster and easier.
Keep a log of ALL points earned and any promotion associated. Regularly reconcile your earnings. So many points are just lost because they were never awarded. Think about hiring one of your children to help you keep track.
Don’t just travel, be an adventurer. One year while booking reward travel to Athens, the agent told me she could get us to Athens, but couldn’t find a return flight. I asked, is there anything available from a nearby city. She responded, “Two days later, I can get you out of Bucharest Romania.” Without thinking how I was going to make it work, I told her to book it.
That trip to Greece ended up taking us through Turkey to Romania. We traveled on boat, bus, prop airplane and taxi to complete the trip. It became one of the best vacations of our lives.
Don’t use your miles for domestic trips, save up for a big international trip in First or Business class and your miles will be worth much more.
Being a novice to the whole FF miles game I have come to rely on advice from the intelligent crowd that frequents http://www.flyertalk.com/. I try to use my miles to upgrade to the front of the cabin rather than free flights.
This is easy – I use one card for everything 🙂 Keeps track of all my points and when it’s time to use – so easy! 🙂 PLUS I’m always looking out for specials where I can get double the points or even free along the way!
Safe travels and Happy flying! 🙂
Use your loyatly card for everything and pay it off monthly. Make sure you choose a card where the miles do not expire.
Pick your primary plans carefully and don’t forget the expiration policies.
USE A SPG CARD!
Burn as you earn…
Use your Delta AMEX earn lots of miles!
My tip is to [of course] read and post on FlyerTalk and BoardingArea, and always be happy!
Use your miles to fly companions or family members places. When you fly on an award ticket, you can’t accrue miles for yourself!
Do your homework. Read as many travel blogs as possible and register for as many promotions as possible, those points will add up!
Always consider an airline’s partners when trying to book award travel. More likely than not, this will open up new possibilities to redeem at the lower mileage levels.
Stay organized and document every promotion you enter/sign-up for.
Accumulating miles takes a bit of work, much like making money. So continue doing your homework & overtime you will be successful as I continue to be.
SPG…The best points program ever! Earn points through American Express and then use them for a lot of different programs. I use mine to get discounted hotel rooms, for example, I’m staying using a few points and only $60 bucks to stay a night in Hawaii! And they convert to a lot of airlines miles programs. I gave 20K SPG points to Hawaiian Air and got 25K miles!
1)Make sure your miles program matches your award goals.
2)If you have a mileage credit card make sure it allows you to redeem awards with numerous carriers.
3)Start looking for your award seats 6 months in advance of your trip.
4)Don’t forget to check code-share partners for award seats.
5)Look for award seats on midweek days.
6)Since carriers change their award inventory on Friday & Saturday nights at midnight, check then for award seats.
7)Try BookYourAward.com. Worth the price to get the seat you want.(According to Wendy Perrin at
Conde Nast Traveler.)
Don’t always choose the frequent flyer program of the airline you fly on. Check their alliance partners, another program may be better suited to your needs and wants.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Make sure to keep up with good deal at sites like Flyertalk. There are some great folks that have been doing this a long time.
Ask my friend Sandy Y. She knows everything about frequent flying. That, and read FlyerTalk.
Make sure to provide your frequent flier numbers when you go to a hotel, especially when you stay in hotels often. The points add up FAST!
Focus. Do you research and figure out which cities you visit often and what airlines you tend to take the most. Then try to rack up as many miles as you can with those airlines by flying and through their credit cards. Don’t spread yourself too thin by having couple thousand points in different accounts, but not enough to get a trip or qualify for a status. Limiting yourselves to two or thre alliances will do you a lot of good.
Top tip is to make sure you choose one airline partner and stick with the program. If you really want to maximize points, make sure that partner is one which has partnerships with hotels.
Wow – what – really??
Read all the blogs then practice what they preach.
There are so many ways out there to earn miles to get activity credit. Don’t let those hard earned miles expire. Use the shopping malls to earn with minimal purchases. Just remember to use the airline specific links to ensure you get credit for the spend.
Network with frequent fliers.
Make sure your miles aren’t expiring.. redeem for a magazine or use the iDine service
I use Yodlee MoneyCenter to keep track of my miles. It’s free.
Use airline & hotel shopping portals for online purchases.
Pay your mortgage on your credit card and get extra points! Also, find a credit card that will give you free points for signing up!
Make people around you and your family aware of the benefits of miles. You”ll be surprised to find how many people just let go of miles and don’t know how to take advantage of them. You can benefit from miles of your friends and family members too by doing certain promotions together and doubling your miles.