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!
Set clear goals for your awards to figure out which program(s) is right for you.
Use a good online service like points.com if you don’t travel frequently or if you don’t always have a say in where you stay or what you fly. You can convert your miles and points into a central account so they can become useful.
Use your SPG Amex for everything and then have http://www.bookyouraward.com handle the rest!!
Pick an airline’s program,
Fly that airline as much as possible,
Apply for its credit card offer,
Register your credit card for offline dining
Direct you online shopping through the airline’s portal
Make sure anyone you want to travel with is doing the same,
Rinse and repeat with another airline as appropriate.
Consolidate all aspects of your loyalty habits!
Remember Alliances! Can’t get an AA Partner Award to Oz on Qantas? Grab a One World award using AA and JAL to get there via Japan (and use a domestic Qantas leg while there to meet the OW requirements). It costs a few more miles but has much greater availability…and you get stop-overs anywhere along the way.
When preparing for a trip, don’t forget to take advantage of the “Try preferred” programs which allow you to fast track your way to preferred status (which means extra bonus miles) while also taking immediate advantage of the perks.
A lot has been written about advantages of SPG AMEX card, and it’s a great card (I have it). However, if you don’t want to mess with AMEX and another Visa/Mastercard, consider getting Diners Club card. Because it is now accepted everywhere Mastercard is accepted (it has Mastercard logo), Diners Club card can be your only primary card if you don’t like having to pay two bills each month.
You earn one point for each dollar spend, and points can be converted to miles on most airlines, or hotel points. Some highlights include:
— Annual promotion giving you 1.5 miles for every point transferred to British Airways (1.35 miles on Delta)
— Diners Club will serve as PRIMARY insurance on domestic and international car rentals. Other cards act as secondary insurance on domestic rentals (your regular car insurance acts as primary)
— Access to many airport lounges around the world with no extra fees
Personally, I travel to Hawaii a lot, and I transfer 24,000 Diners points into my BA account, giving me 36,000 BA miles (only 35,000 is needed for round trip ticket).
Take advantage of status matches, especially when trying a new airline product.
All miles are not equal. Know the strengths and weaknesses of the programs you participate in so that when it comes time to redeem an award, you’re using the currency that gets you the most bang for your buck (or mile or point).
make sure to to consolidate all your flight miles on a specific alliance (Star, One World, etc.) onto one airline partner program.
Domestic awards are a waste of miles!!
I don’t always get to choose who I fly, so I make sure to maximise my miles by using companies with partnerships.
Be sure to keep an eye on those expiration dates! Sometimes simply renewing a magazine or buying flowers online will extend your FF miles expiration dates.
Rack ’em up fast and use them faster !!!
One useful trick is to register for very promotion you come across on these blogs. Even if you think it cannot possibly apply to you (it may in the future), or if it’s just 50 miles (wouldn’t it suck to be 50 miles short for an award?), or for a program you don’t participate in (there are ways to transfer miles)… one never knows.
Use SPG for a free 5k in miles when you transfer 20k
Get into a few good airline programs with strong alliances to places you want to visit, sign up for e-mails promos from those programs and plug into http://www.milemaven.com/ and http://www.frequentflyerbonuses.com/ to maximize your miles and/or points.
Pick a program that you like and stick to it, even if it ends up costing a little more. They’re not called loyalty rewards for nothing.
Never hurt to hoard miles. Don’t be afraid to burn. And aim high. You thought you can never afford to fly up front, and it’s not true.
Don’t bother hoarding miles…the airlines will devalue them over time. Get enough for your target award(s) and book ’em.
After all these years, Starwood Amex still beats all comers when all factors are considered. Period.
Don’t bother with domestic awards. Other than that rare last minute ticket (where you’ll likely have to pay fees to use miles anyhow), domestic travel is inexpensive. Use your miles to go abroad and see the world!
Pay attention to the value per mile when redeeming awards. Try to get at least 1.5 cents. 2 cents-plus is great value. One cent or less, you are much better off purchasing a ticket.
The Best use of your miles are international Business/First awards, don’t waste your miles on anything less.
While I mainly focus on international biz trips for best value, I plan a trip around award availability, not a given date.
Use car rentals (which often earn pitifully small miles bonuses) to reset the clock on expiration of miles accounts in which you lack activity. This works not only mile accounts in your name, but for family members too: the rental companies report only the FF account number you give them, and not the renter’s name. I’ve used this many times without a hitch.
hoping to win!
If you stay at a non-chain hotel, be sure to ask when checking in if they are affiliated with an airline program. Lots of times, they are.
Always keep your boarding passes, at least until you can check them against your ff account. Also if you ever get rerouted and it results in a reduction in the number of miles earned (non-stop instead of a connection) always make sure to request original routing credit
This may be too simple, but for starters, pick an alliance a hotel chain or two and stick with them- and their partners!
read informative blogs for info on useful promotions, and sign up immediately!
Churn credit cards and bank sign up bonuses
Use ANA to research award travel and expert flyer/KVS for other airlines. Study the airline’s award website and have 1 or 2 backups. If you spread points across alliances (easy to do with credit card churning) you will have a lot more options! Do NOT rely on the agent to find you a routing!
Every mile counts so try to get every mile possible from dining, shopping etc. Use SPG as your primary credit card for easy ability to convert to other programs.
Choose a time first, then look for destinations on sale. Never spend $$$ without getting miles or points for it.
Airline miles are usually more valuable than hotel points, in addition to all the perks reserved for elites. So the quickest way is to get an airline-branded credit card and shoot for the bonus miles.
There are so many ways out there to earn miles to get activity credit. Don’t let those hard earned miles expire. Use the shopping malls to earn with minimal purchases. Just remember to use the airline specific links to ensure you get credit for the spend.
(1) Never miss an opportunity to earn points, no matter how small; (2) Earn and burn — miles and points are only going to lose value with time.
The key word here is loyalty. Pick an airline and then deck yourself out in all of its awards affiliations, i.e. branded credit card, dining club, miles for hotel says, sign-up bonuses, online surveys, car rentals, air + hotel vacation bookings, etc. Sit back and watch your miles go up, up and away!
When you’ve earned enough for award travel, book your flight at least 6 months in advance.
If you are not a frequent traveler (for business), I tell my friends they should consider focusing on Continental’s Onepass program. It’s the only mileage program where miles never expire (or the best of whatever small group offers this feature). And with the continued growth of the Star Alliance (Brazil’s TAM in May), your options are nearly endless with Onepass.
Read View from the Wing.
Always ask. Ask if the flight you’re about to take needs volunteers. If there is a delay and you can get rebooked on another airline, ask to insert that mileage number, then call your original airline and ask for original routing credit. If your schedule has changed, ask for a more direct routing or flights at better times. Ask for retention bonuses when a credit card policy changes for the worse. But always ask; you will never get what you don’t ask for.
Use miles for first or business class to get the most value for your points.
Use a site like http://www.evreward.com to find the best online shopping portal earning opportunities for online purchases.
Amex SPG card gives you the most flexibility in terms of airlines. They offer a 25% bonus when you transfer into an airline account in increments of 20000 points. You can also burn the miles on hotels as well.
Open Airline credit cards and get those large number of bonus miles for first purchase on the card.
My top tip is to maximize credit card benefits. Some companies are very generous in the way of bonuses for new cards (even if you’ve previously received a bonus). Then keep with the bloggers and flyertalk fora to learn how to use them to best effect.
Thanks, keep up the good work!
Make sure you look into stopovers and open jaws when booking award tickets.
Network with frequent fliers.