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!
Thank you for introducing me to points and miles. As I am relatively new, it all seems good since I wasn’t here in the good old days.
On Saturday, my brother-in-law said to me, “Hey, would your daughter like to go to Israel with us on the two week trip we have planned in August?”
There’s no way we could have afforded the $1500 ticket, especially as the flights are set and the rest of the tickets already purchased. But with our stash of US Airways miles, we were able to get her a ticket on the same flights. Yes, it wasn’t a great redemption in terms of price/mile, but it gave us the last minute flexibility to make the trip happen, when otherwise my daughter would have missed out on a wonderful opportunity.
We’re able to find ways to maximize our miles with minimal effort thanks to bloggers like you!
It’s really fun getting rewards (points and miles) for things I already do. Thanks for sharing all of your helpful insight!
I have been able to develop a friendship with a great community and teach other some basic travel hacking tips
I love Mike’s and points because I get to take my 5 yr old all over the world
Points and miles have been tremendously useful in begin able to stay in touch with friends and family across the U.S. and the world. These kinds of forums are priceless.
I’m sitting here at my home in LA although to AA I am on a (two month) legal stopover FLL-BER, which because it was started in early May only cost me 20,000 miles one way. AA told me that if it priced that low online then I was welcome to book it even with the backtrack. Little did I know they were about to pull the rug out. No changes now!
Great advice. Love the blog and the game.
I like the crossover rewards partnerships between Delta Airlines & Starwood Hotels and United Airlines & Marriott Hotels where elite status is granted reciprocally between hotel and airline. This translates to both room upgrades at the hotels and cabin class upgrades on flights which is great because you only have to be an elite in one program to reap the rewards of both.
My mother taught me to save the pennies so I have the dollars to spend. Blogs like this and fellow traveler comments have helped me maximize both sides of that equation for some great adventures. Looking forward to more over the years. As things tighten down there’s still bene’s to take advantage of to help make life that much sweeter – once you know the way. Thanks for the route map!
collecting miles and points for travel has changed my life!
Flyertalk and Boarding Area made me realize that I’m not the only one dedicating so much time to points!
This is the only way that I have been able to afford some trips to exotic locations
Good work, Gary.
There are still many new cards with awesome bonuses out there and MS is still possible! Keep up the good work!
Despite the changes, it is still possible to see the world for relatively little if you take the time to look for the best deals. The travel community is a huge help.
You’ve changed my life!! I am obsessed.
Airline points make for an excellent hobby with the added benefit of ultimately going on vacation!
Even with all the devaluations of the past year, the hobby still makes it possible to travel to places that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive — it just takes a little while longer to earn the points/miles to do so.
These communities help me (and my wife) recognize that I’m not crazy for researching the best mileage opportunities.
I’m using a great deal with BA Avios to get my infant son on his first plane ride in July to visit his grandparents in Maine. Much better than an 11 hour drive!
Finding a discounted fare from the East Coast of the States to Australia for ($750 RT) which gave me elite status for the coming year so I could be upgraded to first class on weekend trips to see my family!!
The positive are all the life experiences gained from traveling.
Great ability to leverage earning on activity like spend.
If you plan in advance, I like that I am still able to take the whole family to a great place (e.g. Caribbean) for free. Not difficult to find award tkts for 30-35k on major carriers and hotel rooms for average 25k/night at luxury properties. Still love miles!
First class flights and stays paid with points. That is so positive!
You know,even with all the problems, we are still getting a great “freebie” with miles and points. I’m old enough to remember that when you paid for a hotel room, the only free thing you got was a bar of soap. And, when you bought an airplane flight, unless you were rich (which I wasn’t), you flew in coach with no chance for first class. And, the idea of the airline giving you a free ticket??? Ha!!
use mile before they devalue again.
I just used miles and points to book a vacation for my wife and me to Europe — something I’ve been promising for two years but was unable to do until I discovered the possibilities of miles and points earlier this year.
Still easy to get points.
More foreign carriers are serving more cities in the United States.
More and more interesting blogs to read!
Not only have I been able to save money on last minute trips but through the travel communities, I have had received great ideas on where to visit, stay, and eat.
I love that I can use miles/points to take my family on a trip that we otherwise couldn’t afford!
I like that when one mole gets whacked another one always seems to pop up. Just have to stay patient sometimes to play the game.
My wife is a newcomer to this collecting miles and points strategy, but she has learned an awful lot from your blog. Thank you!
Miles are taking my whole family of 4 to Bali this summer so that is definitely a positive!
As far as I can tell, no negative news has come out regarding Southwest eventually adding service to Hawaii. When that happens, I’ll be putting the companion pass to good use!
There are some nice opportunities right now for cash back deals with manufactured spend. It is all quite easy, for now at least, to earn a lot of points even without credit card sign ups.
I’ve been able to take my kids all over the world and see family more often through miles & points. What a blessing!
Points gave me the opportunity to bring my parents, sister, brother-in-law and my three nephews to Colorado via Amtrak. This would’ve been impossible as it would’ve cost me over $2500, and it is the boy’s first train ride!
Miles and points allow me to see my family on the other side of the US without worrying about cost.
On a positive note…up up and away!
I love that I am able to travel more and fly in the front of the plane. Another plus is we are able to stay in some pretty great hotels.
Miles and points let me visit SE Asia without having to spend 24 hours in coach. Which makes life so much easier.
Miles got me around the world with stops on six continents a couple of years ago in first and business class!
Points are a great method to get inexpensive travel for your everyday spending patterns.
From the early days of mileage travel, the hits just keep on coming! keep it up Gary
This blog is full of good info!