Most airlines have some form of expiring miles. Most programs promote that their miles never expire… but there’s a catch. The miles may not expire, but the account itself can become dormant with all miles forfeit if there’s no activity for a prolonged period of time. Only Delta, among major frequent flyer programs, offers no mileage expiration – period. Ironically in the middle of the last decade they were one of the early adopters of shortened expiration times. Most US frequent flyer programs expired miles after three years, and they led the charge to reduce that initially to 24 months and they even limited the types of activity that would extend the life of an account. Once they had expired a bunch of miles off of their balance sheet, they announced their miles would no…
About Gary Leff
How to Ensure You Don’t Miss the Best Deals
I want to make sure you get all of the best deals and opportunities I write about. For the past 11 years I’ve been writing this blog — covering how to earn the most points quickly, easily, and at low cost and how to use those points in the most leveraged way. Many readers have traveled the world as I do, with a frequency and in the sort of style that we all never dreamed possible before discovering how to make the most of loyalty programs. And I’ve covered short term outsized opportunities as well, the kind of things that you have to act on right away (whether mistake fares or other glitches that might last mere hours). Making the most of this hobby requires staying diligent, and there are several ways for you to…
Find Out About the Next Ultimate Frequent Flyer Adventure!
Details have been announced for Star MegaDO 5! It’s the ultimate frequent flyer adventure. Join a couple hundred of your newest frequent flyer enthusiast friends, meeting with airline executives, getting behind the scenes tours, bringing home amazing souvenirs and memories, and earning bonus elite qualifying miles in the MileagePlus program along the way. These events sell out quickly in days or even minutes. So if you’re interested, pay attention. “North of the border to the desert to the sea” When? October 22nd-25th Partners: Air Canada, Marriott, Rimowa, Star Alliance, United Routing: Toronto – Tucson – San Francisco Touring: Rimowa factory, Air Canada, Aircraft Maintenance And Regeneration Center, plus a United Airlines Hanger Party Miles: 2500 – 15,000 elite qualifying miles with participating airline(s) depending on class of service Star MegaDO 5 will go on sale…
Earning Miles and Cash Rebates for the Online Shopping You Do Anyway
Many airline (and some hotel) loyalty programs offer rebates for the online shopping purchases you’d make anyway, as long as you start of your searching through their shopping portal. That’s because the merchants you buy from will often pay a commission on the sales they make. And these shopping portals induce you to use their link, so they get the commissions, by rebating a portion of that commission to you in the form of miles and points. There are shopping portals offered, for instasnce, by Delta, United, US Airways and American Airlines. There are shopping portals from Hilton and Priority Club. American Express used to have such a portal, but I find most frequently that the one I use is the Chase Ultimate Rewards Mall… very often the best earning rates (although not always), and…
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 11, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: I Have Enough Carry on Bags Already, and Yet…: Here’s Pizza in Motion giving away a new Briggs & Riley Torq Spinner carry on. And $50 at Amazon, too. When I Get Drunk I Hum Neil Diamond: A woman singing Whitney Houston songs onboard an American flight forced a diversion to Kansas City. In Case You Want to Belt Out Whitney Houston Songs, Too: Austin-based Tito’s will become the exclusive vodka of United Airlines. (HT: sobore on Milepoint) Most Mothers Want More Than This: 1000 bonus HHonors points for a Doubletree booking made by tomorrow and consumed by the end of May. Must click ‘like’ on Facebook before they’ll let you register. Thousands of Men and Women Keeping Us Safe Day in and Day Out. Even better than…
What Would You Have Advised This Reader?
Reader V.G. wrote in to ask for advice on which airline product to book for an upcoming award ticket. For next week trip San Francisco – Delhi, I have 2 choices using United miles, both require 80,000 miles, but only 1 segment is in First class, other segment is in Business class. Which one should I take, paying miles for First cabin but getting one segment [that’s just] in Business? 1. San Francisco Tokyo in ANA’s First Class B777-300ER Tokyo – Delhi in ANA business class (no First cabin in flight) B767-300 2. San Francisco – Frankfurt in Lufthansa Business (First not available) A380-800 angle flat seats Frankfurt – Delhi in Lufthansa First B747-8 aircraft There is also the option to take Lufthansa Business class on both segments for 60,000 miles. Should I save 20,000…
Don’t Be Fooled By the Flawed ‘Award Seat Availability’ Study
IdeaWorks and Switchfly are out again with their study of award availability. They purport to show which airline frequent flyer programs are offering the best award availability. And they’re getting lots of attention for it, such as this Wall Street Journal coverage. This year the study even makes bolder claims. Here’s their press release title: Value Airlines Fill Top 7 Slots with Best Reward Seat Availability, and Among Global Airlines Singapore is Best Nowhere in the study do they account for the value or quality of what the low cost carriers like Southwest Airlines are getting you. And while Singapore Airlines does have excellent award availability for members of their own Krisflyer program, there’s no comparison of award chart pricing (Singapore’s chart is certainly more expensive for comparable awards than most US carriers) and no…
Bits ‘n Pieces for May 8, 2013
News and Notes from Around the Interweb: Peoples Front of Judea: the mechanics at US Airways are represented by the International Association of Machinists, at American by the Transportation Workers Union. They’ve got to battle out whether one gets to represent them all, or whether mechanics will have two separate unions. Except.. the Judean People’s Front Teamsters are now seeking to represent the mechanics. The unions are all fighting each other instead of the Romans management. Haven’t we seen this at US Airways before? Do You Qualify for a 50,000 Mile Signup Offer for the United Visa? There have been a bunch of targeted offers, as much as 50,000 miles plus 5,000 more for adding an authorized user. Sometimes if you’re eligible you can get the offer to come up when logged into your United…
You Were Right and I Was Wrong (Credit Card Smackdown Watch)
The Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard® Barclays bank has upped their signup bonus on the Lufthansa Premier Miles & More World MasterCard to 50,000 points — 20,000 after first purchase and 30,000 more after meeting minimum spend within 90 days. The card comes with a $79 annual fee, and the points are surprisingly useful (though I recommend that even if you do get the card and collect Miles & More points, that you’re 25% better off earning them via the Starwood American Express than through this card). Miles & More is a great way to get domestic premium cabin awards on United (35,000 miles roundtrip compared to 50,000 miles in the United MIleage Plus program) and also to get first class awards on Lufthansa and Swiss, given the greater availability afforded to Miles…
Get Ready for Big Revenue-Based Changes at Delta Skymiles (With Other Programs to Follow)
Back in January Delta announced changes to how frequent flyers would qualify for beginning in 2014. Instead of just basing status on miles flown, there’s a second component at least for US residents — a requirement to spend a minimum amount on Delta tickets, or to spend a minimum amount on Delta co-branded American Express cards. I then declared that Delta isn’t done making changes to their program and in fact there are more big changes to come. Delta’s shift towards becoming a revenue-based frequent flyer program isn’t just about elite status, it will be able earning and burning as well. They just haven’t revealed the details yet, but I don’t expect it to be pretty. When I sat down to put together nominations for the Freddie Awards, I struggled to find a promotion that…
