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!
How else would I ever get to fly in a double bed with my husband drinking dom in a Singapore suite?
Milepoint has been very enlightening for me and other travelers. Thanks to everyone that contributes.
I am not a frequent traveler but I love your tweets! I love learning your secrets even if I never use them! Thanks for your ecpertise!!
Great blogs like this one make it easier to save with points.
I love using the advice I get online to benefit my family. Thanks to you and the other bloggers!
Enables me to travel with the family on a budget.
Even though the price to get the points goes up it’s still great to get cheap flights. Just have to work harder to get the opportunities.Still love it!
Club Carlson 2 night award stays for credit card holders are still around, despite the devaluation. And the card earns 5x.
Regardless of whether or not miles/points programs have been devalued, they still allow avid travelers to dream big and experience trip that might not otherwise be possible!
Three family trips on skymiles including a big one to Hawaii with a free stay at Marriott and a free car from National. I am not complaining.
I love spontaneous travel for free with points and miles
Because of blogs such as View from the Wing, I’ve built friendships with people from around the globe
With the changes you just have to be creative and diversify. Having points in flexible programs is key.
Earning miles and points has actually allowed me to be much more disciplined about my spending habits because I have a goal in mind other than the purchase at hand.
Mile and points, no matter the cost, help bring people together!
I love the flexibility points and miles provide.
Besides devaluations, miles are still providing a way for me to travel without spending a lot of cash. Economy class redemptions has not gone down in value as much as premium cabins did, so it is a bit of a silver lining for me.
The $$$ you can save on hotel stays due to loyalty programs far out weights the negatives associated with the belonging to one of the hotel programs and certainly they cash outlay.
I love the great signup bonus that citi put out for AA!
Even when more expensive in points, still great to get flights and hotels without paying cash
I’m a frequent traveller and appreciate the many things I’ve learned from this blog!
The community for this ‘hobby’ is very accommodating and helpful; love being a part of it.
Miles and points are essentially a free gift from the airlines. They could have kept everything for themselves!
I appreciate the transparency of Gary and most of the bloggers on boarding area!
Because of your blog and postings I have learnt about flyer miles and have flown for free domesticly the past couple years and am loving it, so kudos to u. I’m still learning the ins and outs of it all and hope to never pay for flights thru this.
This hobby has allowed me to share experiences with my friends and family that we otherwise wouldn’t have had.
I’m new to travel and really enjoy learning from you! Thanks bunches!!!
I love the great SPG platinum re-qualification gift for 2013. Here’s to hoping the do something nice like that this year too!
To see the places I would never be able to without points!
I love being able to fly premium class on long-haul flights without spending an arm and a leg!
Miles and points help make the world a smaller place
I enjoy making travel a part of my life in a way I never expected.
I love the new partnership between Chase & Singapore. It’s great to have more options for transfers!
Blogs are like the daily news in the world of free (or close to free) travel. I depend on them to alert me to the great deals and opportunities.
There’s still some nice routing “loopholes” to see more for less!
Miles, points, and blogs like yours have helped me fulfill my travel dreams. Thanks Gary!
Still better than greyhound road rewards!
Still being able to redeem Christmas flights to visit home is worth all the negative devaluations!
So grateful for Alaska Airlines companion pass. Has allowed us to do trips not otherwise affordable for us.
Everything is still cheaper than paying in full
“It’s been a tough 18 months in the frequent flyer world”, but I traveled more often thanks to Gary and a few other bloggers.
Even in light of devaluations, miles and points provide all of us with experiences we wouldn’t have had without them.
Just wrapping up my last pre devaluation UA trip and they are still special as they let me change it up even after travel commenced which allowed me to get out of BKK after the coup. Thanks UA and thank you Gary and the other travel bloggers for all the advice over the years.
Am able to travel better due to knowledge and info from friends and blogs.
By focussing my loyalty on a small number of airlines and hotel chains, using shopping portals and judiciously applying for credit cards offering lucrative sign up bonuses I am able to fly first class domestically and stay in suites at luxury hotels, all via elite status upgrades. And even though I am no longer earning as many redeemable miles as I used to (because of Delta’s devaluations and shift towards a more revenue based program), I will still be able to splurge on a once-a-year luxury vacation with my partner and the occasional business class award ticket when traveling internationally for work.
I think that regardless of what the airlines do to change their programs, there will always be fantastic points and miles opportunities for the traveller willing to put in a little time and effort “researching” (i.e., reading blogs!).
I like all the great info on blogs.
I’m a grad student and don’t get paid much. I get a lot of joy in knowing there are ways to travel and see the world on the cheap using miles and points 🙂
I grew up feeling I always disappointed my parent. Then I got them cheap business class tickets to Europe — which their tired, old bodies greatly appreciated — and the old regrets just floated away.
even with the devaluations I am getting better bang for my buck than if I was paying for flights out right. thanks for all the advice.
cheers
jh
I have so much fun reading all the blogs on the Boarding Area – a great way to keep updated in the points and miles world.