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!
The 100K mile AA Executive Card offer.
Although the pricing of many awards is up, I find that the supply of miles is equally up – so all in all I feel largely ‘whole’ versus a few years ago.
There are still great opportunities out there. I was able to book a 75k one way award from the US to the Middle East, including a segment in Singapore Airlines suites class
I love World Arrival card. Refund on travel PLUS gaining points on said purchase? Win.
Miles and points, and blogs like these that help us navigate the confusing world, have been great in letting me and my girlfriend have some amazing experiences on a reasonable budget. Thank you!
Points are as rewarding and enjoyable as a whiskey on the rocks after a busy and accomplished working day
I’m very grateful for all the knowledge and experiences that you guys have shared/blogged.
I have booked our family trip this thanksgiving , otherwise I wouldn’t be able to afford this trip, without the miles and points earned.. Thanks a lot for sharing!
I love aa miles as it let’s us fly Cathy first class
It’s Memorial Day. I have had friends who died for our freedom. I would like to be at least half as awesome as they are/were for doing what they have done for us.
I like how we are able to help one another travel the world at affordable rates using points and miles
60k Ink cards
Something positive about miles? How about: this hobby exists?!?!
There’s still lots of great places to visit in the world!
Daily Deals is on
we are grateful for the miles game as it has let us travel the world
I’m thankful for the ability miles give me to visit friends I otherwise wouldn’t be able to spend time with.
The number of helpful hints that I’ve gleaned from just a little reading a day of your blog and other similar sources is pretty incredible.
Going to fly my kids to Europe in business class, BA points
Points are great because they are not taxed!
I can still take my family to Europe without paying for airfare and hotels!!
Marriott plus points, 2k points free per month
I’m thankful for FT & MP. Keep sharing guys & keep the nastiness off the sites.
I love collecting miles and points – thanks for the great blog and advice.
The ability to travel where I couldn’t afford to before, even with the rollbacks by almost everyone.
I’m happy that my spouse and I are still smart enough to figure out all the good deals and healthy enough to travel.
With valuable info learned from others, on my way to flying in a premium class to Europe in 2015.
My favorite thing about miles and points is being able to see the world and travel. I never imagined I would be able to travel so much, but now thanks to this blog and learning all about miles and points, I have the chance to see the world.
With the blogs and help from you and many others, you make it seem like the next adventure is easily available.
Love the 5 or 6 bloggers I read every day. Always positive.
As long as miles help me get from point A to point B, I’m still a fan.
Insight and the information provided, works around the many obstacles that prevent us from travel.
Have really enjoyed reading all the tips and clues to enhance this awesome hobby!
economy travel with miles is still easy and widely available!
New to learning about miles and points, but they seem like the best deals to be had.
I’m happy to have enough miles & points to allow family members to travel with me.
Hit companion pass level from two swa cards
It’s great that there are travel bloggers like yourself providing actionable advice!
I’m grateful for travel bloggers for teaching me so much in the roughly 14 months that I’ve been pursuing miles and points. I’m really happy to know about manufactured spending and how to apply for business credit cards. I’m also grateful that I’ve only got 100,000 Sky Pesos to use up before I can move on to better airlines to build miles with. Not having status with Delta has been a plus for me; no regrets about shedding those miles as fast as I can and never looking back.
grateful for everyone who shares so openly
I love that points have let me stay at hotels I would never be able to afford. It’s fun to see how the rich live and only owe for parking when checking out!
The 99% of fellow travelers that are both curious and helpful on most the blogs and forums, an extra treat!
Finding/reading your blog finally encouraged me to try the Starwood Platinum challenge. Hilton Diamond and a continually disappointed Marriott Silver member was very impressed by my first Sheraton stay – 2 nights down/16 to go!
The best thing about points is the ability to give them away to people who would never and I mean never be able to afford a flight on their own. Yep, I know the points are devalued (thanks for the heads-up BTW) and I am still disappointed with the Hilton Honors program but I am thankful work lets me keep my points and do with them what I will.
Still getting lots of value from the BA short haul awards!
I’m thankful of how generous the bloggers are in both advice and give a ways.
Thank you banks, hotels & airlines for sharing your miles and points. 🙂
I’m grateful that I learned about the southwest companion pass from a blog and have been able to use it for three trips so far this year.
Using BA points to fly short segments with small miles!
Not only how you educate us about miles and points but also sensitive and graceful you share your thoughts when unfortunate events rise in the travel community. That’s why I am a fan.
Travelling with points is so much fun!