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!
We get to travel!..see the world every discount helps!
UA miles are still valuable and thanks God for FlyerTalk, great community!!!
Travel is my passion. Points and miles allow me to live my dreams for cheap or free. Life is pretty good!
Went to Kyoto, Japan for my 50th birthday, thanks to points. A lovely gift to visit a wonderful place, way beyond my expectations!
I enjoy getting incredible value from my Southwest Companion Pass. What a great deal!
I love the rush of a successful apporama and thrill of deciding how to spend your windfall.
Being able to fly in Business Class for about the price of coach thanks to airlines who allow you to buy miles.
I am relatively new to miles and points. I will be going on my first big miles and points trip to Europe in Bus class and staying in great hotels for 3 weeks for $331 total thanks to your great blog.
I love being part of a community! Sharing tips via twitter, alerting others of great deals from their home airport, meeting up in different cities to compare wallets, and striking up conversations during travel all make me feel like this wide world that we traverse is just a little bit smaller!
First class to Thailand on Lufthansa and Thai, First class back back to NY on Cathay.
I love AA.com for the ease of use. I also really appreciate ‘View a From The Wing’ for the many insights I have gained by reading its contents!
I still managed to use miles to save me from a missed flight this morning!
Love the game and the hunt! Thanks for the great blog.
Happy with the attention given by hotels and airlines due to the status.
Thank you UA for still having decent availability to HI.
In spite of what people say about miles which are not worth much, you can still find value…
300k DL SkyPesos for 2 Business Class tickets on Virgin Australia LAX-BNE-SYD-LAX.
Thanks for your help with hotel choices.
I love that I can use 4500 Avios for short trips on AA and AS.
visited Hawaii- Thanks to miles and points
We need to remember that compared to the early days of the frequent flier programs we are still much better off now, despite the many devaluations of late.
I love the IHG point breaks.
My husband, son and I just returned today from our first miles/points paid trip to Kauai, HI! I love learning about miles and points and I’m so happy to use what I’ve learned to take my family on an amazing vacation. I used tips I learned from blogs and FT to get an upgraded fully ocean view room and get our economy seats on AA moved to MCE. Now to figure out where to go next!!
Despite some setbacks with loyalty programs, I still feel blessed knowing vacationing in exotic locations is something just a small percentage of the world population gets to ever experience. With that mindset, any little bonus is just some icing on an already succulent piece of cake!
Mile & points are letting me afford a honeymoon that would otherwise cost close to $50,000, with suites both in the air (Singapore) and on the ground (PH Tokyo)!
I love it when flights are on time and flight attendants are good natured…..and these both happen a good deal of the time!
I’m using my frequent flyer miles to go see all my family next month….. FREEDOM.
I’m using miles for an insanely awesome honeymoon!
It can make visiting family possible when it otherwise might be hard. Whether they are sick or just far away it has made it possible for us to get there many times when we otherwise probably wouldn’t have been able to.
I’m happy to still be taking trips.
Travelling in business. One day i’ll get to go first
It’s still relatively easy to accumulate miles
Points/miles give me the opportunity to fly and stay in places I wouldn’t be able to otherwise afford!
I love reading blogs and learning not only from the bloggers but from my fellow readers. People are usually so willing to share tips and help each other.
Flying to job interviews for FREE!
I love telling people about my hobby. And some people love hearing about it.
Happy that I booked a Cathay Business class ticket for my mother, which she has never thought off.
In August I will stay at the new Park Hyatt in New York. I could have never done that if not for credit cards and miles/points.
I’m awaiting pointbreaks deals because I’ve scored luxury hotels for $35 in the past and I’m hooked.
credit card bonuses continue to be lucrative
I love sharing this game with my son(s) and husband. It makes them laugh to watch me do crazy things with/for points and miles!
I have a SWA companion pass!
My favorite thing about blogs is that it gives me something to do during my lunch hour (including reading this one on a daily basis!)
delta has an award chart (at least I think they do)
Sure, they’ve changed a lot of the rules, but in the end, I’m still traveling for a fraction of what it would cost if I bought a full priced ticket, and that’s for not really doing anything more than spending money on my credit card (like I normally would) and getting free miles for it!
I love that I get experiences that I probably wouldn’t have had otherwise. #EventsOverThings
Manufactured spend is like my daily crossword puzzle, keeps the mind sharp.
award availability, in general, is still pretty good
Love that I can make some dreams come true for my family.
Thankfully, American Express has decided to open Centurion lounges in a lot of the places where AA has hubs. That makes the card even more convenient and valuable to hold on to! I’m looking forward to the next perk they offer with the Platinum Card.
I’ve found a great group of friends who share interest in the points community.