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!
Finding redemption seats on ANA or Uniteds websites”
using miles and points has allowed me to travel and see places I would normally not be able to afford 🙂
Your work on this site is commendable. Our world would be a better place if more people took the time to help others. I enjoy reading about “special” deals.
Thanks to you and other travel bloggers, my 2 most recent European trips have been enjoyed with free flights and hotels!
I get to sit in a chair in the sky.
It’s still amazing to fall asleep on a plane leaving NYC and wake up in Frankfurt!
Points/miles are sorta free and who doesn’t like free!!
Despite the devaluations, without miles and points I wouldn’t be flying business class ever. I finally got to fly C to Asia last month, and enjoy it on EVA, ANA, and SQ, something that would otherwise be out of reach!
starting out and really appreciate all the info and insights of your blog!
Points and miles equals change and adapt–there are always good deals out there.
I’m a retired teacher. Never imagined that this points and miles hobby would allow me to travel to exotic places and often in great style. I’m in my room now at the Hyatt Regency in Dushanbe, Tajikistan. Using Gold Passport points and cash was a great deal since this 5* hotel is only a category one. Got here on US Airways DMiles, only 60,000 miles. Love the blog for all the great ideas you have given! Thanks!!
Taking a trip to Virginia wine country with my wife next week entirely on points/miles thanks to travel blogs!
I’m still able to book a first class to exotic destinations for less than what most people spend on a trip to Florida.
One of the best use of airline miles is to book hotels. You can often save more money than booking airline tickets.
The recent US Airways / AA merger isn’t a bad thing, at least in the sense that I’m getting to combine my two separate pools of miles!
Still very amazing to fly first or business with less cash than buying a coach ticket to Australia even with miles acquired with out of pocket cash such as US Airways bonus transfer offer.
Free trips!
I like using miles to get tickets for family members.
As long as the credit card companies continue to lure new card members with large sign-up bonuses, the game will continue
Helped our friends use their AA miles to fly round trip to Seoul so they could pick up their adopted child. Best use of miles, ever!
Flying round trip to Puerto Rico with our friends for only the 9/11 taxes and Southwest Points is a great thing!
Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery,
but today…it’s a present.
Love the free flights on Southwest
I really love miles because they are worth more than pennies and they aren’t taxed!
I love a good deal. 5 days at the Hilton Old Town Prague Executive Floor for 4 days worth of points was wonderful. We ate and drank ourselves silly.
I like that on our last flight this past weekend when I was not sitting next to my husband another passenger changed seats so that we could finish our trip sitting together.
the possibilities are still endless!
I’m happy that all my flights have landed safely.
I was able to go to Paris completely on miles earned by CC sign ups 🙂
There are so many legal schemes to get free or cheap travel. What’s not to love?
Programs devalue, card companies continually change around the rules…but at the end of the day, we all plan and take trips small and large that impact our lives forever. Thanks for helping us to get there!
It’s still very possible to get good value for premium cabin bookings!
Miles can be spent a bit easier than cash 🙂
Hot towels are the bomb!
I always meet interesting people when i travel
I’m saving my miles for emergencies — in case of a death — as airlines don’t seem to provide “grieving airfare” anymore.
Probably the only time I’ll ever fly first class – is with points. Very nice way to go!
I know its less fashionable – but some of the cash back cards help me to afford some of the travel necessities besides transport and room. You can literally;y pay for a whole vacation.
I’m looking forward to United Airlines improving its service!
I get to benefit from my husband’s points hobby by traveling in style (and with status!)
You can talk about Devaluation all day, but I still LOVE that I can sneak away and see something new and exciting in this world, virtually for free!
Scoring a free seat on a flight you would never purchase is super rad!
Thanks to you, I’ve managed to travel to new and exotic places using my miles.
I like to know about deals that save money or get me more points or miles.
Despite devaluation, free flights are free flights. I love escaping and exploring!
Flying for very close to free is amazing
Sharing is caring. Love treating friends to flights to come visit.
It’s still better than nothing!
I use a ventilator and electric wheelchair and I’m thankful that through reading your blog and others I’ve traveled on points & miles to 22 countries last year. I hope to encourage other people with disabilities to do the same. Many thanks
I love a deal, and collecting points / miles is one of the best deals out there! Thanks!