In Part I of this post I went over the process I use and recommend for planning out an year of earning and maximizing Airline Miles. (The very same process can be applied for Hotel Points too). In that post I showed how I came upon my ‘gap’ – miles that I had to work for; those that were not in my planned travel or covered by my usual travel run rate. This is where the work is and requires creative efforts to get to your goals.
As I maintained before, …

That gives me some great benefits, such as free unlimited domestic upgrades, Exit row seats when I do not get upgraded, automatic Economy+ for when I don’t get the exit row, free checked bags and most importantly, Star Gold level on Star Alliance, for all my non-United travel. … My Balance: 50,970 – 5,000 = 45,970 Make a list of all other sources that earn you miles and see how many will come in for sure.

Today (Dec. 21st.) is the last day to make a purchase using your American Express Card and get a Gift in return! Few more hours to go. This is an excellent program. I have received a ShopRunner Annual Membership for free and fours $2 statement credits so far. Plan to make a few more purchases before the night is out.
You have to register for this program. See my earlier post on the AmEx Gift Chain offer.
If you are still shopping, see my post on Last Minute Gifts for Travelers.
Subscribe to …

When I was a kid, my dad ingrained the doctrine “Learn from and listen to everyone, follow no one” in me. I have found this to be the best advice one can ever get. This probably also holds true for credit cards.
A plethora of credit cards swarm the market with so diverse benefits that it is difficult to compare them. It is even more difficult to recommend cards to someone without knowing the exact economic condition and travel plans. For example, if a newbie asks anywhere on Flyertalk or Milepoint …

If you had taken advantage of earlier promotions and had bought all 48K points, your out of pocket cost would have been ~$1350 compared to $2k if you had bought the rooms with cash. Now that Starwood award stays count towards elite status, there is no reason to pay them out of your pocket.

Small Business Saturday was a great promotion that many of us took advantage of last year. All you had to do was register your card and use it at some local merchant’s business. Well this lucrative promotion is back again this year.
Register your American Express Card starting Nov 1 and then use it at your favorite merchant on Nov 26. You’ll receive a $25 statement credit when you spend $25 or more at participating stores.
Last year, you could register multiple cards and reap the benefits. Don’t know how it will …

A few years ago (four to be precise) my wife got one of them American Express Cards that gave her 50,000 Membership Rewards points just for signing up and spending $1,000 in a few months. When the year was up and the annual fee of over a hundred dollars was due, she decided it was not worth it to keep the card. As we all know vey well, Membership Rewards points would be been reduced to nil when she canceled the card. So we decided to transfer them out. Not …

This is our 200th post! I was hoping to make this some sensational story that will rock the Airline Miles world, but no such luck… I want to thank all our readers and supporters for being with us on this journey. Thank you for all the feedback and support. Do keep coming back, reading and sharing.
Here is a look back at some our most popular and most read posts.
Top 10 posts (by comments, overall):

US Airways Sucks! …or does it?
Airline Alliances – Why all the fuss?
Airline Elite Status – the What …

Yeah, I know there are websites that will track it for me all in one place – I have accounts with points.com and gomilies.com , but they just don’t seem to be right or enough. … Staying at a hotel (duh, again, but this can become complex if one earns hotel points, airline miles or hotel points AND airline miles) Credit cards eMiles.com eRewards.com MyPoints.com TopGuest Car rentals (for rental rewards or airline miles) Other sundry events, like filling out a survey, earning miles as compensation for a customer service event, etc.

American Express Platinum Card needs no introduction. It is the premier card in the AMEX line up that is available to everybody (with excellent credit that is). Elite status in Hotels, Car rentals, airline lounges… the benefit list is pretty huge. The Points Guy covers it in good depth.
The standard offer for Platinum card right now is 25K Membership Rewards (MR) points. However if you follow this LINK and apply, you can get 50K MR bonus points (Bonus ID 6751). Note that there is a 100K MR points targeted bonus …