It’s been a tough 18 months in the frequent flyer world. It’s easier than ever to earn points, but the cost of awards has gone up, up, up.
Miles and points have been very good to me, and I do my best to give back where I can. I don’t make a public show of my charity, but I do my best to give the best advice I can and to offer giveaways when things are offered to me. And when I have gift cards, I can either turn them into money orders or do various frequent flyer experiments, or I can give them away.
So here, I thought I would give away $400. And what better way to give them away than to my readers who comment on this post?
Goodness knows it’s been a tough 15 months or so for frequent flyers.
- United devalued its award chart, especially premium cabin awards and especially partner awards in first class.
- Delta devalued its award chart, and then decided they didn’t want to wait for changes to go into effect so they imposed an interim devaluation. Then they finally decided to go revenue-based.
- Southwest devalued its points, underscoring just how arbitrary such changes can be — there’s no fundamental reason to devalue a revenue-based frequent flyer program, higher ticket prices automatically make an award cost more already. Here they just decided to make their points worth less.
- American eliminated international gateway stopovers and distance-based awards and US Airways eliminated the 90,000 mile business class award.
- Hilton devalued the most among hotels, such that I am no longer inclined to stay with them when I can avoid it. I didn’t re-up my Diamond status (or accept free Gold status).
- Others devalued as well – Marriott with big award category shifts, Hyatt with a new more expensive award category 7 and other changes.
And that’s just a small sampling.
So I would like to focus on something positive for a change, and I’m looking to you for help to do so!
Here are the prizes:
- (4) $100 gift cards
So here’s how you enter.
- Leave a comment on this blog post. Say something positive above miles and points, blogs, forums, or your fellow travelers.
- Enter by Noon Eastern, Friday May 30. That’s 4 days from this writing, and there are four prizes.
- Enter no more than 4 times. Four prizes, four days to enter, you can enter by commenting up to four times. (It doesn’t have to be one per day, the only limitation is that you cannot enter twice in a row you have to at least wait for someone else to enter before you enter again each time.)
- Four prize winners will be drawn at random. As in past, I will use random.org for the drawing.
- Fine print. Void where prohibited by law. All of my decisions are final and unappealable, I want to make giveaways as easy as possible and with the fewest headaches possible.
So, what do you like about miles and points, blogs, forums, or your fellow travelers?
- You can join the 40,000+ people who see these deals and analysis every day — sign up to receive posts by email (just one e-mail per day) or subscribe to the RSS feed. It’s free. You can also follow me on Twitter for the latest deals. Don’t miss out!
For now, anyway, American has pretty good prices for Asia in business. Low season coach to Europe is great as well.
(Entry #3): Still free cheese in US and AA lounges!
The world of miles and points has been an eye opening experience, both in terms of travel and what I learned about managing optimally my credit/finances. Thanks to FT, Milepoint and the various blogs that have guided me along the way!
With miles I was able to take my wife to London for New Years. I could not have done it without the miles.
A few years ago I could not imagine in my wildest dreams travelling in business and first class. Thank you view from the wing. You rock.
Information on how to earn miles and points and spend them in the best ways possible is more available than ever. Thank you social media!
The amount of cards hitting the market are making the devaluations bearable.
There are still some great value awards, for those based in Asia. For example, US Air North Asian awards can take you from Korea all the way to the ‘stans’ for a very low redemption..you gotta know how to take advantage of the differences in region classifications between the different airlines.
(Entry #4): And I’m thankful for the fact that people still take the time to help each other out on FT, etc., even with all of the deal-killing and negativity as of late.
Points and miles allow me to work less and travel more. No complaints here!
Without the travel blog world like Boarding Area there is no way I can acquire so many miles and points quickly AND use these miles & points for luxury family travel and help family members during emergency time.
JetBlue allows pooling of points!
Club Carlson credit card = last night free on award redemptions + 40,000 points each year. Makes the annual fee totally worth it!
One of the best hobbies around, with great people.
I love the infectious joy of travel in the miles and points world.
Premium cabin tickets are going up in price faster than premium award prices, in general. And even then, premium awards are still a great value for my alliances and routes.
Miles and rewards have given me so many trips I would never have taken.
I have to give a shout-out to the Club Carlson hotel loyalty program. They recently hosted a 24 hour Twitter party with a ton of great prizes (including points!). It was nice to see a loyalty program giving back to its’ members!
I flew my first ever trip in F, international long-haul, and loved it; all thanks to miles!!
How else could I have traveled around the world so many times on a teacher’s salary?
Miles and points let my wife and I take my sister-in-law to Ireland for the trip of a lifetime.
About to start a great trip to Asia with my brother which, if I wasn’t obsessed with miles and point, would have costed us many times more than what we’re going to pay!
At this point in life, my redemptions are domestic but I’m earning points for the day when they will be international. This hobby has encouraged me to dream!
JetBlue’s points no longer expire.
Miles are still the best way to get into the first and business cabins despite their cost.
20 flights with Southwest in four years for less than $500!
Avios are now usable on US Airways flights.
My favorite thing about miles and points are the ability to experience different countries, cultures and of course food!
Someday soon I will be flying first class!
love reading the comments as well
I’m thankful for all the great information that Gary shares.
No more trying to find a decent hotel for a decent price. We can stay in nice hotels for free!!
I recently saved a boatload of cash for a flight using miles; and the booking took 15 minutes or less! 😉
Being inspired by all the others things people do and the amazing trips they take
I can still redeem with AA miles on CX.
We’ve earned multiple free trips to family. Had wonderful experiences we otherwise couldn’t have afforded. Got upgraded to amazing suites in numerous places by Hyatt, Starwood and Hilton. What more to ask for?
United Express has not pulled out of my home airport
I am positively grateful for your help.
It’s still relatively cheap to fly business class with miles. All you have to do is open up a credit card.
My husband and I answered a spam email from a Westin Hotel for a great rate so….we took advantage of it and went and had a Great time!
Miles still offer the opportunity for many of us to travel the world for virtually free and experience things that would never be possible otherwise.
Just came back from a family trip to Disneyland all on points/miles. Planning another trip family trip to Cancun next April on points/miles. What more could you want?
One thing that will never change for me is the tingling sensation I get once I “pull the trigger” on an award ticket. There is something purely magical about that feeling when you set up the perfect itinerary, click to reserve button, and see a confirmation number pop up on your screen.
There’s always something new just around the corner.
Even with the devaluations, it is still possible, with a little work and help from the blogs, to redeem miles for first/business class tickets.
reqardless of devaluations miles and points still are taking me farther than money could!!
I just used tips from your blog (and others) to have an amazing Southeast Asia vacation. Koh Samui was one of the best places I’ve ever been. Thanks so much for all the blogging you do, both about earning points and about spending them.
Gary, there are still award deals to be found…but to find the good ones, it’s necessary to ‘dig’ a lot and never give up. I’m holding two business class tkts to Istanbul on Turkish Airlines later this year and I look forward to enjoy those lay-flat seats for almost tweleve hours!
I started this miles-and-points hobby only about 1 year ago. Even though it is said to be a tough age, award tickets still saved me 2-3 thousands dollars!
trips to distant lands allowing me to keep up with family