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!
I enjoy how whenever one deal hits an end, another one appears round the corner.
Ability to travel to anywhere in the last minute with minimal cost, if you can find space that is.
This hobby has allowed me to travel to a lot of places and meet great people.
Spend my points, save my money – can’t be bad.
Miles can get you places in a pinch that can save you or spoil you for a last minute trip.
I enjoy staying at overpriced hotels on “budget”.
love being able to book frequent vacations without blinking an eye when friends have to save for months and months. Trying to share what I learn with them on my new blog, gettingmypointshigh.com!
I thought I was being thrifty by flying to Europe last fall on American with airBerlin, but I was exposed to a whole new world when I found this site and others like it. I now have two grand plans, another trip to Europe using stopovers and open jaws to maximize a united reward, and a business or first class ticket to southeast asia. Only on those trips, I have no intention on paying for things like hotels b/c of all the great deals on co-branded cards!
This blog expands our point horizons
Life is good
it’s fun to travel for free.
Alaska Airlines is getting the attention it deserves.
Splurging on business class awards.
Grateful for all the excellent travel tips
I love the community of bloggers and travelers who are so welcoming and love to share their tips and tricks
I am glad I have miles and can fly for $2.50 many times.
With using points it allows me to travel several times a year to amazing places on my bucket list
Although late to the game, I have learned so much from this hobby community.
It’s fun to hear about the trips friends and family have taken using some of my miles and points advice … advice which I happily attribute to blogs like this one!
Thankful that Delta has not increased award booking fees to $ 100 instead of $ 10 (yet).
points may not be as valuable as they were, but you still get rewarded for doing something you would have done regardless
I’ve learned a lot from this blog
Part of my strategy for seeing the world.
Making my parents happy
Great to be able to travel with points!
Free travel
The blogs have opened my eyes to the travel world and allowed my wife and myself to travel the world to see what we otherwise could never afford. We are very grateful to bloggers such as yourself!
Just got back from a great Colorado trip. To cost of flights and hotels: $5
Very thankful that I am able to travel the world for free, see places that I never thought was possible for me to visit. This hobby is very rewarding… Long Live Miles and Points!!!
Grateful for everyone’s expertise on FFPs.
Traveling more than I ever thought possible.
It still can travel more than if I did not have points.
I was still able to use off season AADVANTAGE MILES TO TAKE MY WIFE TO London and Paris. Amazing trip!
I am about to leave for a 2.5 week trip to Ireland, on Aer Lingus business class bought with Avios! So looking forward to not being crammed in coach! 😀
Credit card bonuses replace the devaluations’ pain
being able to spend money on experiences instead of flights and accomodations
I love the flexibility these programs give me!
I really appreciate the willingness to share tips that make travel more fun, more affordable and more memorable. That, to borrow from the MC commercial tag line, is priceless. One evolution I would like to see is the development of a means for sharing itineraries (I spend easily 40 hours planning each trip researching restaurants, activities, etc. I’d love to see someone benefit from this effort.)
I like the flexibility of travelling with miles.
Positive that the world of points and miles will continue to let us have great experiences!
I like the deals I get despite devaluations!
Additional freedom
i love being able to fly anywhere!
Gary,
Please post a new link for SPG Business. I want to apply today, but want you to get credit for it!
You Deserve it!!!
Donna
Love following and reading about your perspectives on the points and travel world!
Point are a great added bonus to flying, which is already one of the most enjoyable activities in the world!
2 week kid free vacation to Hong Kong and Singapore for just the airfare taxes.. hotels and air paid for with points
I like how open the FF community is and how friendly everyone is – despite all the devaluations etc, everyone remembers we’re on the same team
I love seeing others give up their first class seats to military servicepeople as I do
Love learning about all the possible point earning opportunities