Southwest has a promotion through May 15^th that gets you double points AND double tier qualifying points. I like this promo—it’s easy and a good deal. All you have to do is register here, then travel anywhere in the country by the May 15^th end date. Love things that are this simple! It’s also a great way to get to that next Rapid Rewards tier since Southwest points add up so quickly.

This reminds me—for the points newbies, pay attention to the emails that come from your loyalty programs. They often have information about bonus offers that are very simple to qualify for!

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

It’s easy for business travelers to get lots of points without doing much extra work. So far we’ve talked about setting goals and loyalty programs. This week the topic is credit cards.

Credit Cards

There are about one million credit cards available, all with different hooks. Cash back, bonus points, airline affiliations, charitable giving, and more. If you are looking for the easiest, fastest way to get points, the answer is credit card bonuses.

(Note: Before you start applying for credit cards, check your credit score and credit report. If you plan to utilize credit card sign-up bonuses as part of your strategy, make sure your report is accurate and your score is as high as it can be.)

The strategy. I’m not going to tell you which card to get—there are tons of blogs that do that already. What I will say is that you need to be strategic about it and look for the card that aligns with your goals. For example, if you are saving up points for an international first class trip, the Southwest Chase card is not for you (since Southwest does not fly internationally). But if you want the Companion Pass, it’s a great card! If most of your travel is in the car, you want a card that gives bonus points for gas. If you have lots of airline points, you may want to diversify—look into a card tied to a hotel, or get a non-specific card like the Chase Sapphire.

Sign up bonuses. Bonuses are the best way to easily get lots of points very quickly. They almost always have corresponding spend requirements, so watch those carefully. (I didn’t realize there was a minimum spend for my first reward card, and so didn’t get the bonus. So it does happen!) However, even if a spend sounds like a lot ($2k or $3k in a few months), it can be attainable if you plan for it. We have transferred all of our spending to credit cards—bills, groceries, gas, etc., so that we can maximize the number of points we get. With the Southwest Chase cards we had to spend $4k in 3 months, which we easily did. Read more of this article »

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

Last week I talked about setting goals. Once you know what you’re trying to gain, it’s much easier to map out a points strategy. This week, before I start talking about credit cards, challenges, and other strategies, I want to cover a few things about loyalty programs. For those of you who have been around for a while, you probably know most of this stuff. But anyone who is brand new to accruing points should read ahead.

The first step to maximizing points is, well, to sign up for them! Loyalty programs are available for all aspects of travel. Each time you fly, stay in a hotel, or rent a car you should get compensated by points or miles. The best way to know which ones to sign up for are the ones you use. It’s pretty simple: look back over your travel and see if there is a pattern for which brands you use the most, then sign up for those programs.  (If you’re new to business travel, look at the programs you think you’ll use the most.)

If possible, stick to one or two programs. This way your points are concentrated in a few locations instead of spread out over a bunch of different places.  In my case I almost always use Southwest and American for airlines, Hilton and SPG for hotels, and Hertz and Budget for car rentals. Obviously sometimes you have no control over who you use, but do your best.

(If you don’t have any say over what hotel you stay in, I’ve heard good things about the Hotels.com loyalty program. Any readers have any experience with it?)

Keep in mind that hotel rewards programs encompass all of their brands, so for example Hilton, Hampton Inn, Embassy Suites, Doubletree, Conrad, Hilton Garden Inn, Homewood Suites, and Waldorf Astoria all fall under the Hilton Hhonors program. It took me two years of frequent travel to realize this, and made it way easier to find Hilton Hhonors hotels that were located where I needed them and priced within my company’s budget.

If you are just now signing up for rewards programs, don’t be sad about the points you’ve missed in your past! While I knew to sign up for American Airline’s Aadvantage program right away, I didn’t know to sign up for hotel programs until I had been traveling for months. There’s nothing you can do, so just vow to get the most points you can moving forward.

Next installment: credit cards!!

(Also, check out Mommy Points’ Guide for Beginners if you haven’t already. It’s a very helpful overview!)

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American Airlines and US Airways: The merger is finally supposed to happen. Or is it? Articles abound today about the merger and what it means for travelers. A secret board meeting is supposed to happen next week to vote.  Reports are that the company will be based in Dallas, will be called American Airlines, and that they won’t have to change their new livery. Also members of the loyalty programs can rest easy—neither program will disappear. I do think it’s interesting  that American’s labor unions want their CEO far, far away from the new company….

Delta and SPG will be launching a promotion March 1 where elite customers get perks from both companies. Even if you’re only elite with one, you get the benefits from the other. Sounds like a great deal to me! I hope other companies team up too.

And speaking of travel benefits! According to the BBC, studies say travel can make you healthier. And according to USA Today, studies show that travel can increase your sex life. Awesome! Sign me up. Except that I’m pretty sure they are not talking about business travel where you often eat lots of food late at night, have no time to exercise, don’t sleep enough, and your SO is thousands of miles away…. But it sure does sound nice!

Readers, any thoughts? News stories I missed?

Points for Business Travelers is a new weekly series aimed at helping business travelers maximize miles and points without a lot of effort. Have a suggestion or question? Email roadwarriorette @ gmail.com.

One of the perks of frequent business travel is accruing miles that you can use for fun trips. After all, what’s the point of being on the road all the time if you don’t get anything out of it? And of course, the more free trips the better! The problem is that traditional mileage runs and other points accruing techniques can take a lot of effort, add stress, or mean more time away from home. This series will focus on the easiest way for business travelers to get the largest amount of points and miles with the least amount of aggravation. I’ll cover a range of topics, including loyalty programs, credit cards, challenges, and other strategies.

But before starting to chase miles, you really have to figure out—what are your goals? Do you want status? Upgrades? Free vacations? Lounge access? For your family to go on trips with you? Your goals will really set the parameters for your overall strategy. In my case, I want my family to be able to come on some trips with me and free vacations most of all, then status and upgrades. This made the first step easy: the Southwest Companion Pass. This allows my husband and baby to fly with me for free on business trips where it makes sense, plus gives us a lot of options for low cost vacations. After taking advantage of the Chase Southwest credit card bonuses, flying a bit, and some strategic shopping, I have the Companion Pass until the end of 2014. Hooray! Now to figure out a strategy for the status goals…..

On that note, I will be co-hosting a Twitter chat this afternoon focused on accruing points and miles. It’s sponsored by TripIt (an awesome app!) and the other hosts are super cool: @earthXplorer, @LandLopers, and @ThePointsGuy. This is your chance to ask your points-related questions! Not only that, but we will be giving away TripIt prize packages to two lucky people that include a one-year subscription to TripIt Pro and a bunch of other goodies.

How to win? Make sure you are following me @RoadWarriorette and @TripIt, along with the other hosts. Then join us today, Thursday January 31 at 5pm EST/2pm PST and follow the hashtag #TripItChat and join in the conversation! Active participants who use the hashtag are eligible to win the prize pack. I’m honored to be in a group with these guys! Should be lots of fun.

Readers, what are your points and miles goals?

When I flew to Nashville a few weeks ago, I noticed that the security line designed for first class and elite flyers at my home airport was unusually long, in fact longer than I’ve ever seen it. Normally it moves pretty quickly, though, so I went ahead and got in it. This time, though, it was pretty sluggish, and when I got to the font I realized why: they were training new TSA agents.

This was irritating to me for multiple reasons. First of all, it was 5:30am on a Monday morning, so it was during one of the busiest times at the airport. Second, business travelers typically don’t leave very much extra time in their schedule, so it seemed likely the delay could lead to someone missing their flight.

I get why they would put a trainee in our line—we fly so often we know the routine, and are (in theory anyway) more prepared to go through security. People who don’t fly often are less likely to be ready with ID and boarding pass and more likely to be flustered, leading to delays. Plus there are fewer frequent fliers, so if the trainee has difficulty with a procedure he is causing fewer people to wait.

But I can’t help but feel that frequent travelers, especially business travelers, pay a lot of money on a regular basis to fly, and I feel like that should be respected. Not that it ever will be, by airlines or the TSA, but that’s how I feel.

Readers, what are your thoughts?

Southwest recently added a new way to board early. Customers can pay $40 to board in an available Business Select space (A1-15) within 45 minutes of a flight. So let’s say there are only 6 Business Select customers on a flight, and A7-15 are available boarding spots. 45 minutes before departure you could pay $40 to get one of those spots. If all of the Business Select spots are taken, it won’t be offered. You don’t get any Business Select perks except boarding with that group. (official press release)

The reactions seem to be mixed. People with A-list or A-list Plus feel that the value of the status has been diminished now that random people can just take those top spots. One example given on the FlyerTalk forum was that someone who purchased a $79 fare can pay $40 and board immediately after the guy who paid $400 for a Biz Select fare.

Here are my thoughts:

• If you feel that you need one of the best seats in the plane (exit row, bulkhead, etc) it may be worth it.
• If you had to change your flight and had a C boarding pass it may be worth it.
• Yes, it devalues SW elite fliers somewhat.

HOWEVER

• I don’t think it will be used that often. $40 seems like a lot, per segment. Your casual flier likely won’t be willing to fork out that much.

If your goal is to try to get an exit row seat, it seems a bit of a crapshoot.  Unless you know for sure what spot you would get, and that there are no thru passengers, there’s a good chance your $40 would be wasted.  If all you care about is an aisle (or window) seat most A boarding passes will get you that.  I don’t plan on taking advantage of it unless I’m feeling really terrible and have a bad boarding pass.

Check out the FlyerTalk forum about it here. It’s very interesting to see the frequent flier reactions. (Although if you don’t have a ton of time I don’t recommend it—I always get sucked into the various discussions and before you know it two hours have passed!)

Readers, what do you think? Does this de-value Southwest elite fliers? Will you take advantage of it?