You’re going to be reading about this one on many of the BoardingArea blogs.
BoardingArea and the American Express Premier Rewards Gold Card are sponsoring a giveaway — a trip for two to Australia’s Gold Coast including air and seven nights hotel (all mileage-earning), meals even, and cash and gift cards as a kick-in to cover taxes on a trip that’s otherwise valued at over $10,000.
Each of 20 participating BoardingArea blogs will be able to select one reader for the final drawing. By reading several of the blogs you have more chances to win and by being selected on one of the blogs you have about a 1 in 20 chance of winning the grand prize.
The contest is only open to those 18 years of age and older and to US residents only, not to our friendly Canadians or to residents of U.S. Territories.
Here’s how you enter. Leave a comment to this post answering the question:
What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?
I will select at random a tip from among those that meets, in my sole discretion, a minimum standard of usefulness.
In other words, your tip doesn’t have to be the single greatest one ever. It just has to be useful or thoughtful to some. I don’t want blank entries here, or “I’m in!” as a comment, that won’t get you an entry. But anyone with a reasonable tip about something they’ve found useful in earning or burning points gets you an entry.
And I don’t want to get into the game of selecting what’s the best, the winner from my blog will be selected at random (via random.org).
That winner will be selected based on comments received by noon eastern time on March 28. They’ll be forwarded to BoardingArea as one of ~ 20 finalists who will go on to be selected to win the trip!
More details on the contest can be found at contest page, along with a full list of the twenty or so participating blogs where you can leave similar tips and gain additional entries into the giveaway!
Questions? Shoot those over to me by email rather than in the comments to this post, the comments here are tips about earning and burning points in order to enter to win a truly amazing trip!
Remember to keep the end in sight; Select loyalty programs that will make both business and personal travel more enjoyable.
Amex SPG miles can be used both on flights and hotel stays, so stick with this card!
Credit card signup bonuses, even with the end of churning at Citi, are good for 3 or 4 free trips a year. Cant beat that.
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.
Spend a bit of time reading blogs like flyertalk and Boarding area, checkout anything of interest and dont take no from the first res agent you talk to. hang up dial again. Nothing worthwhile is easy!
Use your points earning credit card for everything, pay off credit card fully at end month, rinse, lather and repeat. Small purchases, everyday purchases, all the things you feel silly using your credit card for – use it!
For those who don’t travel much but still feel there is value in miles, use Starwood AMEX – lots of great airline options, plus a bit of status at the hotels at 30K spend. Alternatively, just use Schwab Visa with no fee and 2% cashback, and pay for discount coach on those occasional trips.
Hyatt Gold passport is the best! Free nights!!!
Typically, the value of miles for normal domestic flights have the least value. At the same time, springing for biz class tix (usually good value) may not make sense, particularly if you fly with kids. Hotel nights thru SPG will typically give good bang for the buck. Or trying to turn them into a cash value.
Read View from the Wing and the accompanying blogroll links on a regular basis. Follow directions and enjoy!
Get a credit card that earns miles and use it for all of your purchases. Just be sure to pay the full balance each month.
Remember that if your job turns mean and you don’t get to travel for a year…Hilton will erase all your points! Keep up with your accounts!
Burn em while you can. If your plan is to bank them for the futur, bank the money it would v costed instead. Invested money bring more money. Banked points only loose value !
Burn your mails/points with a smile!!!
I use the American Express Membership Rewards program – I like the broad range of opportunities to earn points, coupled with the ability to spend the points on a large number of different airlines, hotels and resorts.
Pay for everything with your mileage card. Set goals in advance.
Keep everything in one family: Hotel stays, credit card usage, car rentals, airlines. Always ‘take the points,’ never the gifts.
I go to providers’ websites frequently to look for bonus offers
Use your Delta AMEX earn lots of miles!
Read your blog daily. My first entry.
use them or lose them!
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.
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.
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.
Establish in your mind a value for the points you collect. That will help you decide whether to use miles for an award or buy a ticket with actual money. There are so many variables to this assigned value that no one can do it for you.
Read Flyertalk and get status.
Before purchasing anything online, check to see if you can buy it through your FF program’s online store. With all of the options available, there’s no reason you shouldn’t be earning miles on almost every purchase you make.
My top tip…. one word… Flyertalk. Read it and learn.
Think about all your purchases and make sure you are earning points or miles on everything, whether it’s with a mileage cc or through a shopping portal.
Read … the fine print, flyertalk, boarding area, everything.
Research, research, research then action
Call the airlines and ask for a status challenge. They’ll often give you a shot at making it in the next 3 months.
Do your homework. Read as many travel blogs as possible and register for as many promotions as possible, those points will add up!
You won’t get if you don’t ask. I’ve asked for and received upgrades, fees waived, status matches, miles rounded up…
Follow the blogs, use award wallet (or similar aggregator) and try to take advantage of all the deals floating around the interweb
Journey of thousands of miles starts with this entry!
Save enough miles to take your spouse with you on any given business trip. For me, that is ~160,000 miles, enough to go first class to Australia, South Africa, etc. This allows maximum flexibility to take your spouse with you when you get that great business trip. You will have a lifetime of memories when you use the miles for this. So far, this has let me take my wife with me to Stockholm, Paris, Amsterdam, Brisbane, and Sydney, places she thought she would never get to see in person.
For large family or group gatherings and events, try to negotiate a higher hotel point per dollar ratio. The larger the event, the better.
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.
Wait for credit card promotion and sign up for big miles.
Take advantage of credit card rewards and sign up when a good promotion comes your way!
Two tips: Get an affinity credit card for your airline of choice and use the card for everything (phone bill, cable, etc). I’ve achieved lifetime gold status on AA this way.
Second, read, read, read. Blogs like this and Flyertalk!
Today’s useful tip is tomorrow’s old news. The key to it all is to stay up-to-date and flexible — able to earn and burn across several programs if need be and change plans (when possible) to take advantage of current promotions. Reading blogs like “View from the Wing” are a very good start!
use an on line retail purchase through an airline web site to keep a rarely used account active. Never let your miles expire.
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:)
I love the blog. thanks for the 200,000 plus BA miles. If it’s too good to be true, consider the source and act fast.
Consolidate your miles/points on only a few airlines/hotels and don’t choose an program where the points expire after a set period of time unless you are a frequent traveler.
If traveling with my family, I will use miles to purchase their tickets. Then as the elite customer, I pay money for my ticket so that miles and bonuses continue to accrue. That also increases the chances of upgrades and baggage fee waivers for the whole family.
Be persistent and check the availability frequently. One weekend in late January, I checked Delta for the RT LAX-SYD for low fare business class seats. To my surprise, for about a 24 hour period, the SYD-LAX leg on almost every day was available in low fare business class. We booked two seats coach on the outbound leg, and two seats business on the return. As soon as two business seats open up on the outbound LAX-SYD leg, we will pay the change fee and have a two RT tickets in low fare business class.
If your family members don’t fly often, have them transfer any miles they accrue on random flights to you. You’ll be able to get far more use out of the miles than they would, and maybe even take them take them on a trip once you get a bundle of em 🙂