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!
When you are not sure whether or not you are going to take a trip, book it on Southwest. You can cancel for no fee and re-use 100% of the price for anyone (not just you) to travel up to a year from original purchase date. It’s a free option to cancel or change your trip.
Don’t be tempted to use miles for domestic travel– save them for international business or first to maximize value.
Diversify! Don’t get locked into one airline – but be open to all types to get the maximum mileage.
Get used to reading the fine print – learn to work with the system, it will be much easier and less stressful.
The best mileage advice I have ever received was how to extend mileage points if they are about to expire. The best and easiest way is to call the airline and reserve an airline ticket to be purchased using points. Ask the representative to hold the ticket and you will call back to confirm the ticket if you want to go ahead with the purchase and if you do not call back they should release it. The key is that upon holding the ticket the points are deducted from your account and then put back in when you let the ticket cancel itself. Therefore, all of a sudden you have point activity and your points are good for another 18 months (works at least for united and American points).
Try to fly only one airline most of the time. It is more likely that you will earn elite status than choosing the cheapest flights. It does eventually pay for itself.
Take the time to research and know the rules! Don’t rely on airline/hotel/car rental agents to know them for you. I can’t count the number of times I’ve been told, “You can’t do that, sir,” only to give the agent a profile code to look up in his/her system which explained that I was permitted to do exactly “that.”
Also, knowing where the rules can be “bent” is helpful as well. I’ve managed to talk agents into giving me free upgrades on countless occasions after delays/cancellations, only because I took the time to look up where the upgrade availability was beforehand and knew where these upgrades would be revenue-neutral.
Avoid Delta.
Sign up for every bonus, even those you think you may not use. You never know where you might fly or stay. You might have a surprise trip and then a 5,000 bonus posts and makes the surprise even better!
Stay loyal to one airline alliance or hotel brand. That’s the quickest and easiest way to accumulate points/miles and reap the benefits.
Concentrate your loyalty to one hotel or airline program and try to earn the highest status level as possible in that program.
Do your research to find the alliance that best meets your needs. Also, subscribe to blogs such as this one for tips and advice on maximizing points!
Think ahead. Plan to book your reward flight eleven months in advance to ensure you get the flights you want. Watch for promotions, too, to maximize your points.
Pool all your miles into one account; that way, you will have all the points in one place, so they add up faster. Use a credit card that give your the most miles for your dollar (Chase will double your miles for $140 a year!). You need to be flexible with your travel dates and seat assignments. Hold onto your miles for short or less expensive trips to save them for one that you really want that may be out of your reach financially!!
you’re the best
i wanna more miles and promos!!!!
credit card offers and things in general are getting tough…please help us find more ways to get miles
If you cannot be flexible with when and where you want to fly on your loyalty points, consider programs that will let you convert the points into gift certificates, newspapers, hotel stay, and anything you’d normally pay cash for anyway.
A bonus tip: if you are planning on buying US Mint coins for a major boost to your points totals, reconsider. Credit card issuers are lowering credit limits as a result of such transactions. If they aren’t already, some may start processing them as cash advances resuling in high fees.
Read both Boardingarea and flyertalk to learn from veterans. They have lots of great infor.
When you’re looking for award travel on a route that’s difficult to score — say, business class to Australia — also look for a higher class of service (in this case, first class.) Sometimes, the increased cost is a very reasonable price to pay for a confirmed itinerary vs. waiting for a waitlist or upgrade to clear.
Get an Starwood amex card. Out of all loyalty programs, SPG is the one I cashed in the best awards with the least amount of hassle. Airline points are much more difficult to redeem.
Use points/awards you earn traveling for business to take your spouse on a deluxe vacation! A business class trip to Asia and a week at a fancy hotel helps to ease the pain of being away from home another night.
Strategically use your everyday spending to earn miles or point. Put all your expenses onto a credit card that earns frequent flyer miles at your favorite airline and watch for generous signup bonuses!
If the flight you want isn’t available, before paying double miles to get what you want, check business and first class, even for short domestic flights. Sometimes there’s unexpected availability for no extra miles.
Read Flyertalk to learn all the ins and outs of your mile and hotel programs.
Don’t ever let miles expire. My sister spent under two dollars on iTunes at the UA Mall and kept her miles from vanishing. She’s not a big traveler now, but some day those could be the points that make the difference.
Redeeem your miles for the more expensive flights, like International, Caribbean and Hawaii. When redeeming Marriott Rewards, book a travel package that includes miles and hotel nights.
choose one or two programs and concentrate your earning into that. Learn the rules so you can maximize your earning and redemptions, and redeem for things that make sense for you, with the most value to you…
Choose one program per alliance based on your travel patterns, program rules, etc., then follow the BoardingArea blogs and flyertalk to stay current on available promotions and participate in them, and use your rewards as you earn them – they won’t earn you interest.
Friends don’t let friends use Delta!
credit card, credit card, credit card…even if you don’t fly much you can rack up a ton of miles just by putting everything on a mileage earning credit card.
Do a bit of research and decide which airline or airline alliance network is best for your travel style. Look at your travel style, frequent locations or desired locations and chose the airline alliance that is most likely to serve your needs the best. Then, Join and work to put all your flights through that alliance. This way all your points are put into one source. Additionally, finding a credit card with the main airline of this alliance increases your base of points and sometimes your status. When you purchase tickets make sure that the tickets count towards your points! Happy Travels!!
Conserve at any given time at least 50,000 miles on an airline with serving a broad variety of desinations, like United, Delta, or American, for that “rainy day” travel when you can’t book a flight within 14 days (funerals, last-minute bookings, heavily booked dates and events). The savings can be enormous because award travel can be booked with little or no notice at no additional cost.
In my experience there are 2 types of travelers who collect and use miles; 1. those that are very occasional travelers and collect for a long time and 2. those who are frequent travelers and collect and use often.
My advice would be to those who collect for a long time, to either use large chunks of miles to travel in business or first class (choose your airlines carefully as the products vary greatly!) or save up and use 1/2 the miles for an upgrade. For those who travel frequently I would use my miles almost exclusively for upgrades as your value for the money is much greater. It only costs twice the miles to book a reward business over economy but the cost in money is more like 4-6 times more. So for the same miles you can upgrade instead.
Above all do your research and know that you can get 2 completely different answers on availability from 2 different agents.
If you combine your loyalty program with a credit card then you will quickly earn enough points to use.
Lastly, it is always best to collect and use miles with airlines that are part of an alliance. That way you have much more seat availability at your disposal.
Set-up reminders to yourself 2 or 3 months before your mileage may expire. Then you can do some on-line shopping (or something else simple) to keep your “lightly used” accounts active. For example, I hadn’t flown on DL for a couple of years, but I kept my miles by shopping via their on-line store for something I was going to buy anyway.
Stick to one airline and aim for elite status!
Always K-I-S-S, or Keep It Simple Stupid! Stick with one or two companies to use regularly (i.e. one or two airlines, hotel chains etc.) in order to create some brand loyalty. That way you got all your miles/points/eggs in one basket. Do a little research too that way you pick hotel/airline/car rentals that have partnership programs.
Sign up for credit/debit cards with airline miles. Alot of the credit cards offer bonus miles when you shop at specific retailers.
SPG AMEX
Collect miles and points only for airlines and hotels that you really like and that are readily available for use.
First, always watch for your airline promotions! I know we got tons of miles on Delta last year with very little effort just for signing up for miles promotions. All it takes is ten seconds to enter your number on the website.
Second, and this isn’t worth very many miles, but I do e-miles surveys to earn a few extra miles. I go in every few weeks, spend a few minutes looking at ads and answering simple questions in exchange for miles. Pretty easy and doesn’t cost anything.
Choose your primary frequent airline based on your airline usage patterns.
Focus on one hotel program to concentrate your loyalty point earning. Oftentimes, once you reach top tier status, other hotel loyalty programs will match status with a minimal night/stay requirement. Some hotels say they will only match status once, but in the past few years, status matching has been easier than ever…follow-up and don’t take no for an answer.
Always pick comfort over mileage. I’m trying to get MVP Gold for Alaska Air’s program, and I already reached MVP with a grueling itinerary on Delta (SEA>ATL>DXB>BLR). I could have taken a shorter routing on AF to get the miles I need, but their Biz seating simply sucks (I’m 6’6″). Delta’s 777-200LR has the new Business Elite lie flat seats…great sleeping.
Join several programs
Learn to use industry tools to find award tickets and availability, as well as build more desirable itineraries.
Get the best value with your hotel awards by comparing the redemption value with the cost of the actual hotel.
For example, if a hotel A is regularly $180 a night, but costs say 10,000 points and a hotel B is regularly $250 a night but costs 15,000 points, it would be a better value choosing hotel A (disregarding the location factor). It is a good idea to look at the value-to-worth factor when banking in those hotel points.
Top tip: Flexibility. Be willing to be a little bit flexible when it comes both to dates and destinations. Also, be flexible about using the points at all – keep an eye on the costs of booking the hotel or flights that you have chosen, and be willing to cancel if the economics are reasonable.
My top tip is to be disciplined about point collection. If on credit cards, limit yourself to 2 cards (one Amex, one V/MC, since not all places take Amex) — when you hit the threshhold amount for loyalty bonuses, switch to the other card primarily. If on airline sites, make slight convenience sacrifices (use a nearby airport instead of the closest one, if needed, etc.,) to maximize points to earn elite status. I don’t fly a lot so I have to be very efficient at this, but it IS possible.
It never hurts to ask – nicely! I asked for student discounts as long as I was eligible, even when the vendor had no obvious policy. I don’t plan to memorize all of the partnerships and opportunities that are involved with each network or alliance; instead, I ask the vendor with whom he cooperates and select my preferred program among them. Patience and lateral thinking go a long way. Happy Travels!