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 united devaluations for economy weren’t that bad and with a family of four, soon to be five, the premium cabin awards which took the most devaluation are out of reach for me anyway.
miles are a great way for me to get family to see each other.
Collecting miles and points can be rewarding.
I love my Barclaycard Arrival Card!
Miles & Points are still a lot of fun to collect and very enjoyable to redeem!
Great website!
Still managing to book great vacations. Credit rating off the charts too. This stuff is way too easy
As a Diamond since Delta started the level, I have been a Fan of Delta Points to keep me up to date on Delta Doings!
I may not always agree with the bloggers at BoardingArea.com but I do read them and enjoy being part of the frequent flyer community.
My family loves all the free travel!
Devaluations are the price we unfortunately pay for saving miles and points for the future, but not everyone can travel a lot at certain points in the lives. At least we can look forward to more opportunities as we head closer to retirement.
Even though “free” travel is more challenging, it’s still free!
They’re great! ;P
Love using points to get to Hawaii every year for FREE!!!
We get to visit our daughter and her family several times a year and never pay for a ticket.
It’s still really easy to earn Hhonors points
Seven trips from MI to AZ to care for an ailing relative and their child in 15 months. No way could we have afforded to pay cash for all of this. Miles and points have made it possible.
Reading the blog is still a great source of entertainment — that is free as well!
There are several blogs doing private forums to promote safe friendly sharing of info
Planning my next free trip to Istanbul, with free stays thanks to my anniversary nights from the Chase Hyatt and IHG cards!
FREE is better than $!
Some cards are still ultra-churnable!
View from the Wing was my first miles blog, so thanks for getting my addicted!
The community trying to lift the veil off of a very dodgy industry.
While there have been devaluations there are still many opportunities for free and discounted travel to fantastic destinations, so all is good.
Blogs like yours have totally given me the travel bug after years of very little travel owing to having young children. Thanks for all the tips for point earning and saving money!
Love the blog! Love traveling
My family is going to Italy and Greece on a shoestring budget, but flying in Lufthansa and Turkish Air business class, plus a 7-night Mediterranean cruise at 20% cost, mostly thanks to our used-to-be favorite three letter pharmacy store and those yummy reloads.
I like following as many blogs as I can because there is so much info out there about miles and points!
I know flying Saudi airlines using Sky miles ( popularly known as Sky pesos) is not very popular amongst frequent flyers. But i have no problem flying with Saudi airline. Biggest positive is that i can ( and i have ) get 5 business class tickets for the whole family on the same flight going to the subcontinent most of the year. I will take the sky pesos all day, any day.
Miles are still good for travel during high season when price is high.
Love your blog for the unique and up to date information provided!
The rules may have changed but the game is still on. Travelers are still able to use miles and points to make travel destinations possible that otherwise may have been out of reach.
Always wanted to try first class!
So thrilled that I was able to us DL Skymiles in December for TWO F/B tickets from BDL to GIG for my wife’s 55th birthday and then stay at the JW Marriott in an oceanfront room for 7 nights on Marriott Reward points
I like getting perks for business travel, it’s a nice consolation prize for being away from my family so much
Amidst the devaluations, there seems to be a new trick or hack uncovered routinely that keeps this game alive and well!
I’ve got a monster vacation planned for the fall, all thanks to miles and points!
Just got back from an impromptu long weekend in the country using up orphan points in secondary hotel programs. I now can say something nice even about Microtel Inns and Suites.
Just booked at $1600 last min domestic econ ticket for 25K Skymiles today….WINNING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Southwest companion pass status is awesome. 1/2 priced Southwest flights for almost two years. Plus you get your first $1650 worth of flights included with your CC points.
Still travelling for almost free…
Hyatt’s suite upgrades.
Can INK is the way to goooooooooooooooooooo!!! Excited for another 65K coming!
Love your blog & although I receive lots of emails daily, I ALWAYS read yours ASAP. Have learned lots of wonderful tips from you. Please keep them coming!
So grateful to have booked a business class flight on Swiss Air Boston-Prague this October before the devaluation on United. This will be a long awaited trip we would not be able to afford without using points.
Thanks to this hobby, I’m thankful to be able to fly to Hawaii to spend time with family.
Even with declining bad health– traveling– especially for free– always puts a smile on my face. Happy trails to all.
Just enjoy the “candlelight dinner high above the clouds” on Turkish Airlines and their 3 hour delay will vanish
Easily managed to use mu USAir points on what was then a fellow Star Alliance partner ” TAP – Air Portugal “. RT flight was honored and we got exit row seats too!