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!
Free is free! May take a few extra points or mikes but it’s still FREE!
I recently took a trip to Singapore and paid for the trip mostly with miles and points. I have learned a great deal from the frequent flyer community.
this is awesome site, thanks!
Love how (relatively) cheap it is to fly business class (in some cases, even cheaper than economy!
Ecstatic to be able to stay at the Park Hyatts Paris and Tokyo at 22k per night before the devals!
Introductory bonus points for opening a new credit card.
Love the chance to be able to see my family in India and not worry about a giant dent in my savings!
Never fly coach again!
I can travel CHEAP in high season
Even as the airlines try and cut back on the spending of points and the hotels start to fill up leading to lower amounts of room availability…free is free (even with its inconveniences)
This hobby makes travelling so cheap and fun!
i am soo glad i stumbled upon your blog. i am not too familiar with all of the “lingo” quite yet, but i’m learnig daily!
hope to accumulate miles quicker by following your sdvice!
thanks greg
American’s first and business class products seem to be getting better.
Can’t wait til I can fly in First Class for the first time with my newly acquired Citi 100k AA miles from the Exec plat card!
Big bonuses – I picked up the 100K Citi American bonus plus a bunch of others.
On miles and points I have been fortunate to visit places that I could have never dreamed of seeing otherwise.
Last minute points travel is the best type of roulette. My first trip to Seoul came about because I told the Aeroplan CSA to “Get me anywhere I’ve never been before…. in First”. Hello Korea!
Frequent flyer points make it affordable for me and my family to see the world!
Got me to Australia for free.
Seemingly lifetime *A Gold Status on A3
One card can equal a free roundtrip from US to Europe. Can’t beat that!
Allows you to travel even if you don t have any savings.
What a great community that shares so much information! All the tips help me travel better and more comfortably.
It’s great when spending means earning too!
I like the sense of adventure among fellow travelers.
Huge point/mile credit card offers rock!!
go to places that i never can dream of like africa and australia
Still love redeeming for first class which would be out of reach otherwise.
I love miles and points because I’m a missionary in mongolia and it helps me to fly back to the States and other places without having to pay too much money. =D
Hyatt Diamond Challenge is the sweetest!
Looking forward to some international first class travel!
Also I appreciate how the travel community shares info and helps each other out. That’s great!
Regardless of devaluations and downturns, there are always new ways to earn miles and points. The game is still on and the opportunities are endless.
Miles let me do things I wouldn’t otherwise be able to
Finding new opportunities to earn points has become one of my favorite hobbies!
I know it’s tough to stay positive when the airlines pull garbage like this. But thank goodness for all of us that we have resources like you and others to read between the lines and bring all of this to our attention. We’re smarter consumers and all better off for having you.
As a retired person, my frequent flyer miles have allowed me to travel to many places on a limited income. What’s not to like about that!
I just had my husband fly with me for the first time using our new Southwest companion pass. I used miles & he flew free! It doesn’t get much better than that!
Love LH First and its FRA lounge showers- my blue rubber ducky on my vanity always brings a smile to my face! Never would have known such luxury without points and bloggers!
Miles are next to free stuffs in this commercialized world. It’s not only positive, but miraculous!
Love flying business or first using miles and meeting new people.
Without all the blogs I would never have been able to take trips with friends and family which I will remember forever.
I love being able to travel in style and comfort using miles and points!
I can only afford to travel frequently to see family and friends because of points I have collected from the knowledge from reading this blog. Blog and this hobby has helped me save money which allow me to contribute to my retirement savings. Thanks hobby and a wonderful blog.
Love miles and points because it can be a godsend when you need to make a last minute trip!
Love to travel!!!!
My last flight, compliments of Alaska Airlines mileage, I was able to meet my biological son FOR THE FIRST TIME! He ‘found’ me in 2013 and we spoke on the phone, texted, emailed and facebooked — but on February 28, 2014 we met. After a wonderful weekend with his wife and daughter – my husband and I sailed off on a cruise aboard the Sapphire Princess. What good use of Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan, I must say!
I love mistake fares. Grabbed two great ones this weekend: $404 flight to/from Budapest, and $30 room at St. Regis DC.
Still in the game , got that going for me !
50-100k credit card signup bonuses are still great.