If you have earned status miles (EQM) in 2011 in both your United and Continental accounts, you need to act fast and link the two accounts. United is working on combining the programs in the first quarter of 2012. In the meanwhile, if you have earned miles in both accounts, linking them will allow you to:

Transfer miles from one to the other. If you don’t do this, United will transfer all your miles to the final combined account (but they still need to know that you have two accounts – …

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.

There is a huge debate going on in the travel blogosphere about the value of miles. I don’t want to incite it further but am just sharing my view, which I guess many others would share. As always YVMV (your views may vary).
Almost as a principle, I always redeem in coach. I have never ever redeemed or bought business class tickets. Would I never redeem for J or F? I don’t know. I may do it for my honeymoon. I can redeem miles for my parents’ trip across the continent. …

These come for me in two favors: one where I never even knew I could have earned extra miles (or extra EQM) till it was too late and second where I did what I needed to do to earn the miles, but the miles never posted and I lost track, till it was too late. … I use a spreadsheet to track all activity that has taken place which I think should earn miles – eating out, filling out surveys, customer service events, signing up for promos, etc.

Daraius Dubash writes the Airline Mile blog Million Mile Secrets where he shares his secrets of how he has earned and redeemed Millions of Miles. He also has a series where he interviews other Airline Miles junkies and experts. He just published his interview with me. I really enjoyed answering some great questions he asked. Check it out…
To get all our posts and articles, sign up for updates vis RSS or email. We also post updates on Twitter and Facebook on Airline Miles, the Airline Industry and other travel related …

After my last post about two divorces – Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries & Continental and Amtrak, I am happy to provide good news about a marriage – that of Southwest and AirTran. They merged recently and have taken the next step of bringing their Mileage programs together. Just like the other successful marriage of last year – United and Continental, Southwest and AirTran are still operating as separate airlines. What they have instituted is reciprocal matching of status in their programs. Now, being an Elite on either program is …

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 …

I had reported earlier that United (UA) has quietly changed the EQM (Elite Qualifying Miles) and RDM (Redeemable Miles) earning policy on partners like Lufthansa (LH) and Swiss Air (LX). It was done without any announcement around Sep 27.
I had booked a ticket on LH T class on Sep 26. According to the earlier charts it was supposed to earn 100% EQM and RDM. The new charts show 0% EQM and RDM. There was confusion on which chart United would follow. The general consensus was that UA would follow the …

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.

This has been the year of changes. We have seen so many changes this year; I have seriously starting to forget what the situation was last year. The latest changes to United Mileage Plus (MP)and Continental One Pass (OP) have been surreptitiously introduced. However it is difficult to creep past the hawk-eye of frequent fliers.
Various fare classes on Swiss (LX) and Lufthansa (LH) now earn lesser EQMs (elite qualifying miles) and RDMs (redeemable miles). The details:
Swiss (LX)

L and K: 100% ® 0%
P: 0% ® 100% (MP) , 150% (OP) (LX …