Win a Trip for Two to Australia’s Gold Coast!
by: unroadwarrior
G’day Mates,
Its here! The contest to win a trip for two to Australia’s Gold Coast starts today! This is an all expense and ALL taxes paid trip. The contest is being arranged by BoardingArea.com and is sponsored by American Express Gold Card. And in the true Mileage earning spirit of this blog, this will be a trip that earns you full miles!
Here is how you enter
Leave a comment to this article with your answer to this question:
What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?
That’s it. Leave a comment and you are entered. All details of the contest and trip are on the official contest page at BoardingArea Gold Coast Contest.
One fine print point to note is that this contest is only open to US residents. Sorry, rest of the world, not in our hands.
Leave and comment and may the best reader win!
You can also get regular updates on this contest and this blog via email or RSS by clicking on the RSS link here. Do follow us onTwitter and Facebook for updates on Airlines, Airline Miles and other Loyalty Programs.
Sign up for airfare alerts at as many sites as possible that cover your projected trips.
Choose one airline and credit all your miles to the one account.
Research and willingness to think.
Bookmark a site like evreward.com, and anytime you make an online purchase, check it out. It lists all airline/hotel points available for shopping at a particular site. The little miles add up, and are also great for keeping accounts “fresh.”
OK, one top tip: use the Internet to your advantage. There’s lots of useful info on the web. Keep reading and storing up the tips. I just found this blog courtesy of this contest – looks like I’ll have to spend some time here reading some of the older posts and brushing up on my knowledge.
Don’t be scared off by credit card annual fees. Look at the bonuses and the possible accrual, and most of them may be worth the potential earn.
Top Tip – Read the blogs on Boardingarea.com. The bloggers on the website do a fantastic job gathering and synthesizing all of the information out there in order to keep you up to date on ways to maximize earning rewards. On the “using” side of the equation, they stay abreast of all of the best deals to use points, and also provide detailed advice and comparisons on using your rewards.
Don’t forget the additional bonus ways to get miles and points. Never know when you might be justthismuchshort.
Life is short, use those miles!
Pick one carrier and earn all miles on that carrier.
Earn the miles/points in the cheapest possible ways and then burn them for the most luxurious travel!
I love to vacation in Hawaii. So, I applied for a credit card that earns points for purchases. I earn points through out the year for future flights to Hawaii. I would love to visit Australia. If there is a credit card that earns mileage on Quantas or V Australia I would apply for it to start earning points for a trip.
Thank You.
They’re called “loyalty” programs for a reason–stay loyal to those that are loyal to you as a customer!
When redeeming your miles it is always better to avoid school holidays and to travel off season to get the best value for your miles with airlines and hotels.
Fly one airline or one alliance, and make sure your points get credited!
Use ANA to research award travel and expert flyer/KVS for other airlines. Study the airline’s award website and have 1 or 2 backups. If you spread points across alliances (easy to do with credit card churning) you will have a lot more options! Do NOT rely on the agent to find you a routing!
Try to earn miles with the same airline. It’ll make reward redemptions easier.
To earn and use your loyalty points, plan ahead and be flexible. Having flexible plans, I’ve always been able to find flights to where, or close to where, i am trying to go.
To use your loyalty points when you want to use them, plan ahead. Way ahead.
look for hotels offering discounted point stays. That way, you make the most of your points. For instance, on certain dates 25k Marriott points can be used for a night at a Ritz-Carlton.
Stick with one airline alliance.
All miles are not equal. Know the strengths and weaknesses of the programs you participate in so that when it comes time to redeem an award, you’re using the currency that gets you the most bang for your buck (or mile or point).
Starwood Amex indeed on every single purchase you do. Not only can you use those miles on hotel stays but you can also use them for flying to your dream destination!
American Express Membership Rewards is a good place to consolidate a lot of miles for use on a good selection of partners, and they have some good double/triple point promotions from time to time. Bonus idea – read blogs like this one for excellent tips and reviews – I’ve earned a lot of points from just a couple of easy ideas – information is your friend.
It never hurts to ask… just for asking I’ve recieved status matches, waived CC fees, gotten agents to round up total miles to book a flight or hotel when I was short. If you have a bad trip/stay be vocal, write a letter and an email, I’ve been well rewarded for my valued consumer feedback.
Take advantage of 2 stays=1 free night promotions by staying in 2 cheap local hotels and splurging on a high end luxury one for your free night (Hyatt and hopefully SPG again)
Set clear award goals to help prioritize earning and redemption programs.
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.
Focus on one or two programs to maximize your benefits, then be flexible and plan ahead to get the most use out of the miles/points you’ve accumulated.
Keep everything in one family: Hotel stays, credit card usage, car rentals, airlines. Always ‘take the points,’ never the gifts.v
Two tips for the price of one entry! I know this doesn’t increase chances of winning, but I surely hope it doesn’t break the rules
1. If you think you might lose elite status the following year due to changes in travel patterns, focus more on paid (point/mile-earning) flights and stays while you still have status. Two reasons this helps: (A) you take advantage of the elite benefit of bonus earning (10%, 25%, 50%, 100%, etc) that should more than compensation for the risk of devaluation in the coming year, and (B) you will continue to take advantage of upgrades associated with your status in the paid flights/stays. This means avoiding redemption of miles, points, and “free” vouchers (e.g. VDB) that do not earn miles — use these for your family and friends instead, or maybe offer a tit-for-tat exchange (you’ll pay for someone else’s trip using points, and they’ll pay for your similar or less expensive trip using money).
2. Don’t overestimate the value of your miles/points or be overzealous of spending money just to collect rewards, since this is counterproductive to your more important personal finance goals (that will fund more travel!). For example, if you would never pay $20,000 for an international first class flight, don’t benchmark your miles based on that cost! If you do the math, you might find that cashback cards will be more beneficial to your pocketbook than mile or point-earning cards. For example, the Schwab InvestFirst Visa gives 2% cash back on all purchases; would you rather have 2 cents in your pocket for every $1 you spend, or one mile/point? If you always redeem for domestic flights for 25k miles, are those limited-availability flights worth $500 to you?
Have a goal in mind for those miles; it keeps you motivated to accrue and stay on top of it.
Use your BA miles to Buenos Aires with a stopover on Easter Island for 80K BA miles in Business or 40K in Economy on LAN. Best use of BA miles IMHO.
Scour the web and pay attention to program e-mails for promotions such as double points/miles, etc. I’ve found this to be a great way to increase my account balances for very little effort (often clicking/entering your account number)!
Book tickets or make reservations directly through airline/hotel rather then the agent (orbits, etc)
Be consistent. Why spread your points around and never have enough to do anything with? Find what works for you and stick with it. We recently found a nightly price on a hotel room that we felt we couldn’t pass up, but we really should have gone to the adjacent Intercontintental Hotel in order to get some Priority Club points while we were at it.
Adopt a multi-faceted approach in order to earn the most miles possible! Sure flying on the airline will get you miles but so can a host of other activities! Check out what airlines your bank or credit union has aligned with and get the mileage debit and/or credit card. When shopping online, check out your airline’s website first as many of them link to the e-commerce sites you shop most and allow you to earn miles as well. Check out sites such as http://www.e-rewards.com and http://www.e-miles.com to take quick and simple surveys to earn miles. Also, sign up for your preferred airline’s e-newsletter as they will send you chances to earn more miles when you fly or buy. Most of all, have fun and use those hard-earned miles on something great!
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.
Don’t get too sucked in to the miles and points game as you may end up making uneconomical decisions just to push that extra status level. Take advantage of the good deals (us airways TIBs, BA card, US mint) and leave everything else to the die hards. Pay someone to do your award redemption research.
Concentrate your efforts on one or two programs. Use the Boarding Area blogs and FlyerTalk to find great deals and tips on making the best use of your miles/points.
Everyone’s got partners. Use those for extra mileage earning/redeeming opportunities.
My top tip for earning and using rewards points: focus, focus, focus! There’s no sense in spreading out 60,000 points to different airlines, credit cards, and hotels plans. Focus on the plan that makes the most sense for you, and work it. Check the plan’s site frequently for bonus opportunities, credit card signup bonuses, and other earning opportunities, and — if they make sense — take advantage. Secondary tip: don’t become so enamored with points that you spend uneccesarily just to earn points
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.
In the beginning, stick with one airline and one alliance so one can achieve status faster and have less orphan miles.
Checkin with boardingarea.com and Flyertalk daily, don’t miss out on the 100000 mile deals when they come around.
Using an airline specific miles credit card for all purchases and monthly revolving bills allows building of miles without flying and then booking flights with that card often provides double (or higher) miles.
Loyalty. Stick to one airline and/or alliance and your efforts will be rewarded with higher status and better perks! Or at least faster earning of miles!
Be consistent and focused. One or two but no more than three airline programs at the same time. My favorite is AA.
For hotel pograms, I focused on IHG and *Wood.
try to concentrate your travel, hotel and credit card usage to programs that can be tranfered between, that way if you need to boost point in one for a particular aware it is easier to do.
Be flexible with your plans, and sometimes consider traveling somewhere near your intended destination
Chose one airline programs and get their credit card which will earn miles. Charge everything you can to the card and pay off at the end of the month. My favorite is AA.
Check your program expiration dates and keep track of them! Put reminders on the calendar for those programs you’re not using as regularly – expiration dates will creep up on you and it’s a horrible shock to see your hard-earned miles and points get taken away. Even a small purchase or other activity can keep them alive!
I’ve always tried to work out deals with friends where I’ll pay for their travel via awards, and then they give me the money for what they would’ve paid (within reason). That way, you can essentially convert your miles into cash (at a rate acceptable to you), and you don’t lose out of miles that you could’ve earned by paying for trips that you would’ve spent miles on.
Use your Amex to earn points (especially the places that give double points) and then use them for the longest flight posible. A transcontinental flight is the same as a flight to the next state.
Think about which account to use when flying partner airlines.
Focus spend on SPG credit card
Hire Gary to book your award ticket!
Points = Money
Earn’em, Track’em, most importantly Spend’em!
If you fly with several airlines, maintain loyalty with only one carrier per alliance. Consolidate those miles so awards come faster and easier.
When booking award travel, be flexible and be EARLY!
The magic number is 330. Most airlines load new inventory into their reservations system 330 days prior to the flight date. If there are any award seats on the flight you want, they will be available right after that flight is loaded into the system.
Of course, popular travel days (i.e. holidays, spring break, etc.) and popular travel routes/destinations may cause these seats to disappear nearly immediately after release, but be patient, plan well in advance, and mark (and double-check) your calendar for the correct day to start your search.
Happy travels!
Sign up for special promotions (i.e. Continental’s Twice as Fast promotion) that will get you double miles on all trips taken during a specific period. It’s also useful when you need to meet elite mileage requirements.
Always sign up for loyalty programs, even if you don’t think you’re going to fly with the airline/alliance a lot. They’ll collect over time, and you never know when your situation might change (along with your primary carrier or alliance).
Join Flyertalk.com
1)never use cash
2)go against the conventional wisdom of participating in only one FF program–join those in which you anticipate mergers(much like stock investing), get the credit cards when there are a minimum of 25,000 bonus miles for sign-up, and hold those like a long term investment, using them on the occasions that your primary carrier is not attractive.
3) churn wherever possible
Try to consolidate your points/miles in as few programs as possible, that way its easier to save up for the big award. I use Alaska and United as my two airline programs and I can earn (and redeem) miles on ALL of the major domestic airlines and many, many major international carriers. Where possible, use a program like starwood or american express membership rewards for your credit card so you can move the points easily into many programs. When booking an award, plan as far in advance as you can, and be flexible, never, ever, ever redeem miles for a non-”saver” award – if you’re going to be paying that many miles the game just isn’t worth playing.
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.
Compare mileage requirements across alliance partners. You may get the ticket for fewer miles on the same flight through a codeshare partner.
Make sure to take advantage of promos and don’t let your points expire.
If you are starting to fly a lot more, plan ahead a little. Learn about the different airline alliances, and wiki them. Then choose the airline with the best rewards / elite qualification, because you can earn points anywhere in the alliance, but it’s not as easy to spend them if you are in the wrong program.
Explore ALL your options when booking Award flights. Pull up the route maps for airlines in your alliance and look for the obscure/unusual, and then check availability. Never trust a phone agent to help you find a creative award routing. Do the legwork if you want to find that dream trip, and be flexible.
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.
Use miles for redeeming premium class air ticket. Economy is just a waste of miles.
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.
My tip is to avoid Delta Skymiles since it is impossible to use those miles for awards at the lowest tier level!
Read FlyerTalk every day.
If you can swing it, use your own credit card that gives you the miles for the purchase which gets reimbursed by your employer, then get miles from the flight.
Also, make sure the FF program you sign up for is actually useful in your region so you can actually use the points from your location.
Try to focus your miles/points to a few programs (don’t spread yourself too thin). Get a mileage earning cc and charge all your bills/expenses to it to earn miles/points towards vacation travels!
Fly within one global airline alliance and credit all of your miles to one FF account. That way, your miles aren’t spread around to different accounts, making it hard to ever accumulate enough to redeem them for anything!
If you’re a business traveler, ask if your company would allow you to charge your air fare to your own card, and reimburse you. That way, you get the frequent flier miles without having paid for the initial (work travel) air fare in the first place. Then, when you cash out your frequent flier miles, it is truly a “free flight.”
What a great incentive to take a vacation!
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 card for everything but be sure you can pay it off monthly. Also, make sure the loyalty card you use has miles that never expire.
If you have a family mileage account, make sure that your dad doesn’t dip into your balance and steal miles for his business class upgrades
Pick your primary plans carefully and don’t forget the expiration policies.
Looking to upgrade a full-fare economy trans-pacific? Thai often has Y/B fares on LAX-BKK which are much cheaper than full-fare economy on UA or AC. Use a Star Alliance upgrade award and enjoy 15 hours of almost-lie-flatness.
USE A SPG CARD!
I can only speak for Air loyalty programs, but my best advice is to pick one carrier and aim for Elite status. Once you travel as a top tier elite, you will never want to go back.
If you are elite in multiple airlines, make sure they are in seperate alliances so that all of your bases are covered for trips that your one carrier may not fly to. Eg… Oneworld and Skyteam.
Burn as you earn…
Be Happy
Think Positive
Read FlyerTalk
use a mile-earning credit card for everything you buy!
Use your Delta AMEX earn lots of miles!
Actually be loyal – within monetary, time, and location constraints, shift your spending to concentrate on a small number of brands. This also allows you to read up on promotions that are specific to your brands and learn the ins and outs of redeeming from that brand, instead of spreading yourself thin to the point where you never have enough points in a single program to redeem anything, nor any idea what the good values are and how to get them.
Points = Money
Earn’em, Track’em, most importantly Spend’em!
You don’t need to plan 364 days in advance for award travel. But 150 days is a good rule of thumb, I’ve found.
Do your homework. Read as many travel blogs as possible and register for as many promotions as possible, those points will add up!
I use the American Express Starwood Card to earn points. I also have a mileage card from an airline, which I rarely use, because the rules and restrictions to actually earn a flight have taken a turn for the worst.
Key benefits of the American Express Card through Starwood:
1. Unless I am mistaken, you’re automatically upgraded to Gold Status if you spend xx amount of dollars per year. I’ve received a ton of room upgrades, even governor suites, simply by being a Gold Preferred member with Starwood using the Starwood Amex. The bonus is that I have always been offered a free upgrade & haven’t had to ask. If I don’t get one, that’s fine…I’ve received more than enough.
2. I earn even more points when I stay at a Starwood property.
3. Starwood has multiple redemption options (cash + points, or just points).
I spend a great deal of time in Southeast Asia, which means I can get some rooms for as little as 2000 points per night. If I want to stay at a great 4-5 star resort as an option, I can generally stay for $45-60 USD per night if I use some of my points towards the rate (this can drop the price from 100 USD + per night up). I also tend to get special offers from the hotels/resorts simply be being a member.
You can also earn extra points by shopping on the American Express site and/or earn additional discounts:)
Don’t let points or miles expire unused! You can easily credit a car rental that you’re already going to make to extend the life of miles in most programs, or use many programs’ online shopping malls to buy a giftcard or something as small as a single iTunes song.
Keep an eye out for bonus promotions from airline credit cards or frequent flier programs sent in email or snail mail. Don’t forget to register for the promotion. Once I bought a $2 cookie on a flight with the airline’s credit card and received 1000 miles.
Make sure that you are receiving notifications from the airlines rewards service. Too many people lose their points before they get a chance to use them, because eligibility rules change and points unexpectedly expire.
Stick to your favorite companies (airline, car rental, hotel) to really rack up the miles! Sometimes they will offer their most loyal customers really great bonus mile options.
My tip is to have the credit card with the program you are in. This will be most efficient in earning points per spending. For instance, if you are platinum, Marriott credit card allows you to earn 20 points / $1 spent at Marriott (10 base pts + 5 Plat pts + 5 credit card pts); Amex Starwood allows you to earn 5 points / $1 spent (2 base pts + 1 Plat pts + 2 credit card pts), etc…
My tip on spending is to be flexible and make use of the benefits offer by each program, such as staying 4 nights and get 1 night free, pointsaver stay. Plan and make reservation early since more options are available and the reservation can be cancelled should your plan changes.
Stay organized and document every promotion you enter/sign-up for.
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.
Use partner AMEX cards to rack up points in a jiffy
Don’t just credit flight miles to your FF program, but also take advantage of partner offers where they make sense – credit cards, dining, etc. This can go a long way to earning those rewards, particularly for infrequent fliers. Through credit card use and partner offers, I earned enough miles to fly myself and my wife to Hawaii for our one year anniversary. Although I’m now mid-tier (Premier Exec) on United, I was a 3-4 times a year flier at the time.
Don’t overlook earning opportunities that may not be obvious. Sometimes all that is required to earn miles is a single purchase (e.g., 750 miles from deluxe.com through e-miles.com). While the cheapest items on websites may be hard do find, our friend Google will allow you to search a single domain (e.g. deluxe.com). Try searching for terms like “$1.”, “1.”, “$2.”, etc. to find cheap items. With this method, I earned 750 US miles for buying a $3 check cover shipped free. .4cpm!
Concentrate your miles and flights on one Alliance and exploit it for all its worth: car rental, dining, flying, purchasing toilet paper from drugstore.com…
Be sure you also sign up for all the bonus mileage offers that your airline of choice offers, even if you aren’t planning to fly the route immediately. You never know where IRROPS will take you. Subscribe to ExpertFlyer. Check Flyertalk obsessively.
Don’t be afraid to use airline/hotel credit cards to accumulate points in order to prevent older points from expiring. Sending a bouquet of flowers to someone can be an easy way to prevent thousands of points from disappearing.
Be loyal to one of the global airline teams (which has the many flights from your point of origin) and try to have all of your miles credit to one Frequent Flyer account. Also, try finding different credit cards/ programs that give you non-flying miles/points bonuses on that account This will ensure that your miles are always dumped to one account, making it easy to accumulate enough miles/points to redeem anytime and anywhere.
Use a spreadsheet to keep track of your miles/points. You never know when the company might make a mistake, and it will help you plan your travel to make sure you get the most out of each trip.
Also utilize online tracking consolidator websites like http://www.yodlee.com to keep track of multiple travel accounts in 1 convenient location.
Use your points-accumulating credit card(s) for every possible purchase including household bills and the entire meal bill with friends (hopefully they’ll pay you back in cash or by check!).
Maximize your miles by using programs tracked by “miles” for long trips and using programs tracked by “segments” for shorter trips. This works great for Southwest Airlines vs. US Air in Philadelphia!
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.
If you have miles that are about to expire, it’s usually pretty easy to extend them my purchasing something small (preferably something you would have purchased anyway) in the airline’s online mall.
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!
learn from those who write these blogs and post on flyertalk. the information available can put you on your way to frugal, while luxurious, travel
*** Learn the intricacies of status matching ***
Occasionally there are promotions with hotels and airlines that temporarily boost elite status in their program. Take your new elite status level and match to competing programs! With some careful planning you can quickly attain elite status in several programs with an opportunity to “challenge” and further upgrade or keep your new level of status.
Once you reach the higher levels of elite status in a program, you will earn bonuses and your redemptions will be more valuable.
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.)
Use a mileage-earning credit card for *everything*.
Take advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses for new card applications.
Buy a subscription to Mileage Manager and use it to keep track of all of your balances. If you want to redeem for a trip to a specific destination, it will do a daily check of all your qualifying programs to see what’s available, when, and in what class and keep you up-to-date by email.
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
Set a goal and work towards it. This year, my goals was free travel in F to Africa. Best way for that, is BA mileage card from CHASE and spend my 30K a year on that card. Badabing, we (yes, two is better than one) will have two F tickets to SA.
I use Yodlee MoneyCenter to keep track of my miles. It’s free.
When the CSR says no, don’t give up!
Try to recruit your wife or husband to become elite in a miles or hotel program. Take mini-vacations to close by destinations to build up your point balances.
Use Southwest Airlines and Hilton HHonors. You can double dip with Hilton (earning hotel and flight credits) and earn quick tickets on Southwest through partners and flying. Then, vacation virtually for free!
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!
What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?
The value of points tends to decrease with time, so burn ‘em rather than earn ‘em…. when you have enough for a nice premium intercontinental award.
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.
Always apply for credit cards when they have high mileage promotions for opening a new account.
to maximize earning, put everything you buy on a mileage earning credit card, no matter how small the expense. To use miles, be as flexible as possible. I usually call and ask the agent to find seats at a specific airport, and anything within 100 miles and within 2 or 3 days. I’ve always found seats, even to Italy in the summer on Delta.
Get a credit card to go with the program–even if only for the signup bonus. It gives you a big head start on miles, and makes the whole game seem a lot more worthwhile.
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.
Consolidate your miles
Read the blogs then practice what they preach.
If you are a student or under age 26, use sites like student universe for cheap fares. Also if you are a college or graduate student, enroll in college plus and get 10,000 free United miles after you graduate!
Don’t use your points on low cost/distance trips! Save them for the expensive ones!
With respect to airlines – Learn how to redeem the points. Learn the partners, the different types of awards available for your given program etc… Just because the online search tool only gives you limited availability, doesn’t mean your award isn’t available. Even calling in isn’t a sure bet. If you know the rules and the booking classes, you can help guide a helpful phone agent to craft the itinerary you want.
Pay Attention!!! Watch your statements to catch any errors or missing trips, keep an eye out for promotions to increase your miles/points or standing, read the blogs and message boards, don’t forget to check for cross-promotions with credit cards and other companies…
Think outside the box. Accrue miles on the best partner of the airline you are flying, not the necessarily the airline itself.
Pick a milage program and stick with it. The milage program you chose depends on the type of traveler you are – what kind of hotels do you like? Rental cars? etc. If you ever have questions about milage programs, checkout flyertalk.com.
Jonathan
I don’t always get to choose who I fly, so I make sure to maximise my miles by using companies with partnerships.
Be sure to keep an eye on those expiration dates! Sometimes simply renewing a magazine or buying flowers online will extend your FF miles expiration dates.
One useful trick is to register for very promotion you come across on these blogs. Even if you think it cannot possibly apply to you (it may in the future), or if it’s just 50 miles (wouldn’t it suck to be 50 miles short for an award?), or for a program you don’t participate in (there are ways to transfer miles)… one never knows.
Read blogs like this one and grab the deals when they are there. Be sure to only apply for the most rewarding credit card and combine offers with your travel plans. If you don’t have one, just create.
Pick a program that you like and stick to it, even if it ends up costing a little more. They’re not called loyalty rewards for nothing.
Plan ahead of time and grab the deal before figuring out what it is! Stay tuned and be loyal.
Pick the best alliance for your travel needs, and back that up with another airline. For me, in Seattle, United (Star Alliance) and Alaska offers a good mix of earning and redemption choices.
It may take a long time to save the miles for two international premium class awards, so if you’re just a casual flier don’t worry about spending the miles on a domestic coach ticket – just make sure you’re getting a good value for the miles, such as using them for a late booking or a holiday period!
Use miles to live big. Domestic flights are (relatively) cheap, so aspire to earn enough miles for international tickets only. The kind of trips that will make your friends jealous.
Use car rentals (which often earn pitifully small miles bonuses) to reset the clock on expiration of miles accounts in which you lack activity. This works not only mile accounts in your name, but for family members too: the rental companies report only the FF account number you give them, and not the renter’s name. I’ve used this many times without a hitch.
You can transfer SPG points to over 30 different airlines at a 1 to 1 ratio. Transferring 20,000 SPG points gives you a bonus of 5,000 miles, for a total of 25,000 miles — enough for a domestic award ticket.
Churn credit cards and bank sign up bonuses
Every mile counts so try to get every mile possible from dining, shopping etc. Use SPG as your primary credit card for easy ability to convert to other programs.
Airline miles are usually more valuable than hotel points, in addition to all the perks reserved for elites. So the quickest way is to get an airline-branded credit card and shoot for the bonus miles.
Decide on an airline/alliance, get the miles/points credit cards + PLAN AHEAD!!!!!!
Concentrate on one of the airline alliances, and funnel all of miles to one frequent flier program within that alliance. This way, you don’t “orphan” miles over several different programs.
(1) Never miss an opportunity to earn points, no matter how small; (2) Earn and burn — miles and points are only going to lose value with time.
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.
Read FT and these blogs for good tips, like 10k for car rentals and 20k for free hair appointments. Will definitely keep you updated as to the latest opportunities.
Sign up for your points provider’s newsletter- and actually read it! You’ll often be pleasantly surprised by chances for bonus points. Consider buying points in small denominations when they are sold at a discount- I see them often listed at 20-30% off.
And follow your faves on Twitter, IHG_Deals & Lufthansa_USA (I mention IHG because I scored 50,000 priority club points for tweeting with them!) for example have in the past offered points or flights as promotions- If you have a good experience with a travel provider, talk them up on social media sites since they all like to build their reputations up with positive comments, etc. And it’s a good way to keep up with special offers.
Get a Hilton Surpass Amex and use it for everything, so you’ll score 6:1 for groceries and 9:1 for stay at Hilton properties. Then, when you have 225,000 points, redeem them for six free nights at a top of the line hotel in London – where the exchange rate isn’t favorable to U.S. travelers. You’ll wind up scoring a stay worth something like $2800, and it’ll only cost you about $5000 in spend if you stay at Hiltons a lot. Enjoy!
Network with frequent fliers.
Be sure and make all purchases with a mileage earning credit card and purchase as much as possible through a mileage earning shopping portal also.
Burn your miles for a few nice vacations with your better half. This way, you’ll at least find your keys still working when you get back from a MR.
Get a mile-earning credit card and use it for everything
Make sure your miles aren’t expiring.. redeem for a magazine or use the iDine service
First, make sure you are earning miles/points on the major airline serving your home airport. Secondly, do the research on the best credit card for earning miles/points for the way you travel. There are many websites that will help you compare the various credit cards programs..
Before signing up for a loyalty program, make sure that the carrier has enough routes to the destinations you hope to use your miles/points to travel. Seasonal or unpopular/limited routes may make it difficult for you to utilize the mile/points you earn or receive during the time you want to travel.
Also, read the fine print before you sign up for a co-branded credit card – some of the top tier rewards may be out of reach because of your spending or travel habits – avoid paying high annual fees if the program doesn’t fit your travel and spending lifestyle.
Keep track of your credit score and if it can stand the small hit, apply over time, for a steady stream of credit cards that give you a sign-up bonus. Those bonuses are the foundation for building miles in many programs. You can easily earn 150,000 miles a year doing this, with no appreciable affect on your credit score. And you can do this for several years before exhausting all of the card possibilities.
Save your boarding passes. After your travel is finished, check your frequent flier account for the miles you traveled to show up. Once they do, you can toss the boarding passes. I use my boarding passes as bookmarks since I often travel with one or more new books. See, there’s two tips for the price of one!
Points have a cash value. Don’t get so blinded by earning a few more points that you spend way more that you may need to. Sometimes a different brand may be a better value, even after loyalty.
My top tip is to try and accumulate miles in Membership Rewards by American Express since it allows you maximum flexibility to redeem the points and you can earn points for purchases, up to 10X points in the membershiprewards.com earn section and earn 3X points when you shop through the Bonus Points Mall® website.
My tip is always be aware of partnerships for both earning and burning. I know a number of people who have lost out because they’ve collected in multiple placed when they would have done better by collecting in one location–i.e. collecting on both United and USAir, or not knowing about Alaska’s various partnerships. Status in one progam is better than halfway to status in many programs.
Go with friends! It’s amazing how far you can get if you pool group resources — one person’s hotel upgrade with another’s free car rental etc. Works on three levels (1) You can often score a “stay with your friends” freebie (i.e., two of you have access to the first class lounge, the third can usually come along) (2) Friends who don’t have miles are often happy to pay any cash portion of a status change etc. as their contribution (3) Travelling companions!
Read read read! Educate yourself! Learn the ins and outs of the mileage and award programs so you can get the best bang for your buck. Only a savvy customer gets the best deal!
Come to the Ann Arbor Art Fair DO this July 24 and 25th. You’ll get great tips, including how to book elusive award tickets. Past speakers include Viajero Joven, gleff, Ingy, Lucky9876Coins and wanaflyforless. Details in CommunityBuzz forum on flyertalk.com.
Use miles only for upgrades. It’s the biggest bang for the buck. It’s a total waste of miles for hotel nights etc. as well redemption reward tickets.
When looking to book, use a dollop of ITA, gobs of patience, plenty of flexibility and a good dose of bull headedness.
Don’t overreach. If your travel is moderate, stick with one program and milk it all you can.
Try to fly only one airline most of the time. It is more likely that you will earn elite status than choosing the cheapest flights. It does eventually pay for itself.
Stay loyal to one airline alliance or hotel brand. That’s the quickest and easiest way to accumulate points/miles and reap the benefits.
Do your research to find the alliance that best meets your needs. Also, subscribe to blogs such as this one for tips and advice on maximizing points!
Concentrate your loyalty to one hotel or airline program and try to earn the highest status level as possible in that program.
Pay all of your bills and for all of your purchases, no matter how small the amount, with a mileage earning credit card.
Read, learn and earn.
If the flight you want isn’t available, before paying double miles to get what you want, check business and first class, even for short domestic flights. Sometimes there’s unexpected availability for no extra miles.
The focus always seems to be on frequent flyer miles. Don’t overlook the hotel loyalty programs. Find out what it takes to earn elite status and get it to maximize the enjoyment (and minimize the cost) of your hotel stays.
concentrate your earning on one or two programs, and learn the rules of each, so you can earn the max, keep them active, and redeem for what you want.
Collect miles as cheaply as possible in one program and redeem on partner travel.
Do a bit of research and decide which alliance network is best for your travel style. Join and work to put all your flights through that alliance. This way all your points are put into one source. Additionally, finding a credit card with the main airline of this alliance increases your base of points and sometimes your status. When you purchase tickets make sure that the tickets count towards your miles.
In my experience there are 2 types of travelers who collect and use miles; 1. those that are very occasional travelers and collect for a long time and 2. those who are frequent travelers and collect and use often.
My advice would be to those who collect for a long time, to either use large chunks of miles to travel in business or first class (choose your airlines carefully as the products vary greatly!) or save up and use 1/2 the miles for an upgrade. For those who travel frequently I would use my miles almost exclusively for upgrades as your value for the money is much greater. It only costs twice the miles to book a reward business over economy but the cost in money is more like 4-6 times more. So for the same miles you can upgrade instead.
Above all do your research and know that you can get 2 completely different answers on availability from 2 different agents.
If you combine your loyalty program with a credit card then you will quickly earn enough points to use.
Lastly, it is always best to collect and use miles with airlines that are part of an alliance. That way you have much more seat availability at your disposal.
Stick to one airline and aim for elite status!
SPG AMEX
Collect miles and points only for airlines and hotels that you really like and that are readily available for use.
Elite programs give you more than bonus miles, they also can protect you in the case of irregular operations. It is better to have a high elite status in one airline than to spread your miles across multiple airlines.
Focus on one hotel program to concentrate your loyalty point earning. Oftentimes, once you reach top tier status, other hotel loyalty programs will match status with a minimal night/stay requirement. Some hotels say they will only match status once, but in the past few years, status matching has been easier than ever…follow-up and don’t take no for an answer.
Look at an airline’s partners when searching for award availability.
Check your account regularly to make sure all miles get posted. Keep your boarding passes to retroactively get any miles to post that slip through the cracks.
For someone just starting out, figure out which airlines you would be flying most. Then choose one that has the most flights and most partner airlines available for your desired routes. No matter which partner airline you fly, make sure to always credit your miles to the one frequent flyer program that you signed up with. Eventually you will have enough miles for your first award, whatever that may be.
Don’t let anyone tell you how you should use your miles. In my opinion, your miles are worth whatever they are worth to YOU. Use them to fly coach, to fly premium, for upgrades, for merchandise, or for magazines. Redeem them however you wish, and enjoy your hard-earned work!
I’d suggest reading up on all programs offered by those you most frequently use, and spend points smart…get the most out of it, but also be aware of all the rules involved with spending the points.
1. get my elite status as soon as possible.
2. try to decide the travel based on airline and hotel promotions.
Top tip: Flexibility. Be willing to be a little bit flexible when it comes both to dates and destinations. Also, be flexible about using the points at all – keep an eye on the costs of booking the hotel or flights that you have chosen, and be willing to cancel if the economics are reasonable.
Focus your travel in a single program, but always be open to earning bonuses and taking advantages of great promotions in other programs you don’t typically use.
Just read the flyertalk forums and the boardingarea blogs!
Set up your bills to be paid automatically using your American Express Card.
Use the same airline or alliance for all your travel to collect miles and use credit cards that give you miles on the same airline.
Charge to AMEX HHonors Card and collect Hilton HHonors points, then use the points at 6 Star hotels.
Choose a loyalty program that allows you to earn points over a wide variety of opportunities, airline tickets, hotels, car rentals, meals, shopping opportunities, as well as bonus offers.
Suppose you need to fly from Cleveland to Venice. Never ask whether award seats are available from Cleveland to Venice. Instead, start with the hub-to-hub routes flown by the carriers in your alliance. Say it’s the Star Alliance: Look for availability on flights from Chicago, Newark, Philadelphia, Toronto, or Washington, D.C. (hubs for Star Alliance partners Continental, United, US Airways, and Air Canada) to Frankfurt, Vienna, Munich, or Copenhagen. That gives you more than 20 possibilities. Once you’ve found a hub-to-hub flight with award seats, tack on the short-haul spoke-to-hub or hub-to-spoke options (Cleveland to Chicago or Dulles, for example, and Frankfurt or Vienna to Venice).
We link all the credit and debit cards for our family (a total of two adults, three college age students, and one high school student)to a single frequent flier account. Both of us have a linked Amex card in addition to bank cards, and that Amex card’s flexible points really make a difference — I use my Amex card for auctions (I’m an art collector), travel, car repairs, home furnishings, and other high-dollar purchases, and then collect my points to use to supplement the airline-specific points we get.
On paper, my husband gets all the points — and is the most frequent business traveller, but in reality there are at least a dozen cards being used day in and day out to funnel 2 miles for every dollar any of us spend into his account. The kids understand that the price they pay for their tuition, allowances, and other benefits is to let us keep using their spending to further family travel. (When they are paying the bills, they can keep the miles!) And of course, we put all the miles into a coalition frequent flier program, so miles can be redeemed on a number of international airlines.
Who cares whose name is on the “award certificate” when we’re both flying first class? I don’t!
My tip is to plan early and be persistent. In order to maximize your points, you have to be patient and organized.
Many semi-frequent flyers don’t realize that they can often credit their flown miles to a different airline miles program within an alliance or through other reciprocal agreements. Doing so can keep all your miles in one place (or at least just a few places), with a potentially significant impact on how soon you’ll have enough miles for award travel.
Here’s one for you. Tax time is drawing near pay your taxes with an airline linked credit card. here is another for you (2 for the price of 1). there are certain food chains vonns, pathmark… that you can link your ff account to there card so everytime you grocery shop you get ff miles). we all must eat and if u think about it you probably spend at least $10K a year at the grocery store.
Earning miles quickly is much easier than you think! Every time you have to pay for something, think of gaining mileage points. Get a credit card (like AmEx) that gives the most mileage points for your favorite airline every time you use the card; I use that one card for just about everything. Then, check out what companies your airline partners with and shop through them (for i.e. hotel stays, car rentals, and even for significant things like home loans, larger purchases, loans, insurance and even home purchases). Many airlines have “dining for miles” programs (linked up to your credit card). You can also shop at your regular stores online but go through mall sites (like Delta’s SkyMall) where you get points for money spent (that’s in addition to the miles your credit card will give). You can also rack up the points by completing online surveys for companies linked up to your airline (like erewards.com for Delta miles). Also, check your airline’s frequent flier webpage every now and then for specials offering points. It all adds up quickly!
read boarding area blogs; browse flyertalk discussions; use Starwood Preferred Guest Card from America Express.
Log onto Flyertalk.com every day and learn.
My two power strategies are to select a few travel partners and be loyal to them to maximize your benefits. Secondly, use a single credit card with a good reward program for everyting. Yes I mean everything. You should have heard me and the Acura salesman negotiating over a $42,000 purchase being put on my American Express card!
As for the travel partners, I have a friend who has used Hyatt hotels exclusively for 25 years. He hasn’t paid for an exotic luxury hotel detstination vacation in 12 years and he can get a great room at any Hyatt anytime – they never tell him they are sold out!
If you get an agent that is unhelpful – hang up and call back until you get an agent who is knowledgeable and willing to help. Be nice to the rep – that goes a long way.
My top tip for using airline points is to be ready to plan several months in advance, be flexible and pick a few dates and surrounding airports to chose to fly into, and if you’re unable to find a flight by yourself online, try calling a points representative. You may have to pay a small fee but often they are able to search with partner airlines and get you where you want to go! You may want to check back a few times if you aren’t able to get it on the first try, as sometimes ther is an extra special agent that will go out of their way to help you a litte more. Be nice!
My miles-earning tip is to frequently try to use the shopping portals offered through airline and hotel sites (for example, Mileage Plus Mall for United Airlines, or Priority Club Shopping for Priority Club Rewards) to buy things that I need. Not only do I earn miles on my airline or hotel affiliated credit card, but also an additional minimum of 1 mile per $1 spent. Even better though is when you come across an item that you might not particularly need, but after the free shipping and mail-in rebate, the item is free. I then immediately post it on ebay and walk away with more money in my pocket that I started with, and a bunch of miles or points.
If you are just starting, focus on one or 2 programs to learn the tips and tricks as well as building points or miles.
Sign up for your airline’s Dining Rewards program and sign up for every bonus there. It’s an easy way to make miles on stuff you’d do anyway. Always offer to pay the bill, you’ll look like a nice guy and get the miles, you can double dip if you have a mileage earning credit card.
Be very flexible. Be willing to travel to another airport on your own dime to get an international flight to your desired destination.
Try to consolidate travel and therefore mileage earning into one airline program and make sure that the airline is convenient to your home location. That way elite status is more within reach.
Establish a habit to check flyertalk.com at least Twice a day!
Details, details, check the details!
Sign up for every hotel/airline/train loyalty program out there. Just because you think that you aren’t going to actually fly on a particular airline or stay in a particular hotel chain, does not mean that’s a reason not to sign up for these programs. After that, make sure that you participate in every bonus, sign-up promo or opt-in promo available (think Continental’s frequent 100 mile promos). You never know when those couple hundred miles or points will come in handy for a larger promotion that is being offered. Often you can transfer points or miles to other programs via points.com to get that last necessary partner participation.
Use a single credit card for everything you purchase including travel, household and personal expense, utilities, and paying your taxes. The card you use should be the one that has the best rewards program and flexibility for your personal lifestyle.
Earn loyalty points with one program (whether it be airline, hotel, or car rentals), but don’t be afraid to use them once you’ve accrued them!
Set up a Google Alert with keywords for your favorite airline’s name and something like “frequent flier miles” or “miles promotion”–go crazy and do all the combinations–it costs nothing and can help make sure you don’t miss out on an opportunity you might not have otherwise noticed.
Always be sure to keep up to date with promotions and special offers of your favorite loyalty programs. These promotions allow you to earn points, miles, and rewards at greatly accelerated rates. Read the T&C’s carefully and be sure to follow up with Customer Service if any bonuses do not post.
Take advantage of stopover rules if your program offers it. It can allow you another destination for virtually free!
Enjoy reward flights sooner with a Household Account.
You and up to six other members of your household, including children, can earn and spend British Airways Miles together. Each member has an individual account, which is linked with the others so you can pool BA Miles, making it easier to take reward flights sooner.
Jumpstart your miles by getting status on one airline. AA offers a Platinum challenge that can help you get status very quickly. Once you have status with AA, many other airlines are willing to match it. When you fly with status, you get more miles. Now you just have to earn it the hard way next year.
When trying to redeem miles for an award ticket plan on doing all the leg work yourself – most airline phone agents will search the simplest routings, find no availability, and stop. Know all your airline’s partners (both in and outside the alliance) and all hub and gateway cities, and tell the agent exactly what you want.
For example, Delta had no availability for a West Coast to Israel award. But the agent only checked Delta flights. By knowing ahead of time that Air France serves Seattle, SFO, and LAX, and that Alaska serves my city and the AF gateways, I got the outbound on the exact dates I wanted.
Similarly, secure the international flight first. There is only one SEA-CDG flight a day. Find availability for that, then work on getting to SEA – there’s likely many more options for the domestic flight. Many agents will not even search the international flight on a particular day if your first domestic segment doesn’t appear to be available.
If you do mostly Star Alliance flying then get an ANA account already for award availability. It’s great.
Alaska air has the best redemption rate for Alaska trip, while Hawaiian airline doesn’t have the best for Hawaii.
usually on your credit card you get points for certain purchases, which can go towards travel and discounts on hotels!
EARN- Sign up for a credit card affiliated with miles,(if possible CHURN!); always makes sure that your hard earned miles actually post; travel when double miles are being offered; and look around at boardingarea.com, and FT, for the many bonuses out there.
SPEND- If you’ve got the miles, USE AND ENJOY THEM, unless the price to pay is the same value as the points or cheaper, when then you might as well save your miles for a different occasion, and actually earn miles on your current flight or stay; also, often cash & points can be your best option.
I look for things I can buy to earn points, and turn into cash. For instance, you can order mint proofs of U.S. coins in bulk ($10,000 at a time), get them shipped for free, earn points from the mint for buying them — plus earn points from your credit card company for buying them — then turn around and cash in the coins at the bank, and you wind up with points, but zero out-of-pocket cash.
I sell stuff on eBay, and I buy it at local dealer auctions using a credit card that earns points. This does two things — I keep stuff I like out of box lots, and sell the rest at a profit, so the stuff I do want is usually free — and I earn cash and points on the stuff I sell.
If you aren’t a business traveler who flies a lot, I tell my friends in the US to gravitate towards Continental’s Onepass program. It’s the only program where miles never expire, so you can slowly but surely build towards a reward over however many years you need. Nothing is more discouraging for an aspiring frequent flyer than to have their miles erased for no good reason.
Pay attention to promotions within your chosen program and consolidate your travel within the time periods of the promotion
Use the credit card partner for your airline of choice and any related utility offers. Miles collect extremely quickly this way.
Always have a spouse/partner/friend take part in the promos and deals so you don’t have to fly first class all alone!