Over on Conde’ Nast‘s blog, I offer six tips for folks just getting started with miles and points.
The basics are:
- Start with a goal, that motivates you and also helps your choice of program. Nothing worse than finding out you want to go to French Polynesia, but United miles only let you get there flying to New Zealand first.
- Never pass up miles, always sign up for frequent flyer programs even when it’s not your primary program. The miles add up eventually. Lots of programs become easily manageable at a site like AwardWallet.com.
- Choose a card that earns flexible points which transfer to miles (Starwood, Amex Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards) and then earn miles for everything you do, I note Gary Steiger’s Free Frequent Flyer Miles is a good resource o make sure you’re earning miles for all of your activity and then EV Reward for online shopping.
It’s a short piece but if you’re new to making the most of miles and points you might check out that post.
Just a note on evreward, the amounts are often incorrect. It’s usually not more than a percent or two, but it may matter to some people.
Award Wallet is amazing! I just started collecting BA points (avois) in the UK and already have enough for 4 one way flights. Online surveys work really well for me, I have been invited to study groups where they reward you enough points for a domestic flight.
nicely done