Today Continental Airlines officially joined Star Alliance. They defected over from SkyTeam. Their coming over to Star Alliance makes Star Alliance the predominant airline alliance there is, especially in North America. Continental has become the fourth North America based Major Carrier in the alliance. The other three being United (a founding member of Star Alliance), USAirways and Air Canada. Overseas too they have massive presence with a total of 25 members worldwide. The list of airlines which will be joining them soon includes Air India. Rumored future members may be …

In my last article – The Value of Elite Status, I discussed why you should have a goal to be an Elite on the airline program you earn miles on. I discussed the benefits airlines offer to their Elite Customers. This article was Part 2 of my series on the Economics of Airline Miles. In Part 1 I talked about the value of Airline Miles. In this article, I am taking a break from that series to do an in-depth description of what Elite Status is and how you qualify …

The Value of Elite Status
As I mentioned in part 1 of this series on the ‘Economics of Airline Miles – The Value of Airline Miles‘, to me the most valuable miles I earn are status miles (EQM). That does not mean that award miles (RDM) are unimportant to me, but earning Elite Status is a critical goal. If I earn Elite status, earning award miles will become easier too, as I will talk about in this post. The benefits of Elite Status are tremendous and worth a lot to you …

The Value of Airline Miles
Airline Miles are an asset. They hold true value. Like any collection of assets, your miles in the multiple programs you participate in need to be treated like a portfolio. They need to be managed. Their value to you evaluated (it is subjective, as I will discuss). Over time their value will change and it needs to be monitored. And eventually they need to be redeemed. Their value to you will determine what you should redeem them for and when. I will talk both on the …

Why you should never redeem miles for an award ticket for yourself.
For a Frequent Flyer like me who does not travel so much that I make the highest Elite level on an airline with no struggle, I have an axiom:
He who earns the Miles should never redeem the Miles on himself for a free flight!
That statement gets a lot of quizzical looks whenever I make it. Here is my reasoning:
You do not earn any miles when you fly for free!
That’s it, plain and simple. Of course, it all depends upon …