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!
Miles are good
As long as miles help me get to the places I want to go, I’m still a fan.
I love seeing the world as part of my job and someday my wife and I will use all this great advice to spend the accumulated miles on some great trips (hopefully sooner than later!).
I am stoked about my US Airways miles being dumped into my American miles eventually. Going to be huge for me as I never fly US anymore!
Here, here to Lindy’s comments! What a wonderful way to utilize all the helpful information garnered from this blog.
Cheers!
I used IHG points from one of their purchasing promos to save hundreds of dollars for my honeymoon to Bora Bora. We are staying at the IC Bora Bora and could not be more excited! This will be my first time benefitting from hotel rewards points.
The Eiffel Tower at night. Sunset over the Aegean sea seen from Santorini. A Broadway show. A child’s laughter at Disney World. Smile!! Enjoy life!!!
I have always wondering if I had a chimpanzee, and he was dressed in shorts and shirt, would he be able to ride with me or would I have to get an extra seat for him?
And, would I be able to get a frequent flier account for him? Some many questions in life, so little answers… but I am serious here.
Although I’m just a novice at the points game, I enjoy reading about the possibilities and experiences of the veterans I read about on travel blogs.
Miles and flying are my world!
With the American Dining Awards option, I have been able to build up my AAdvantage account by paying for large group’s meals and having each person reimburse me for their portion. It is essentially free miles, and I am getting them for what I would be spending money on anyway.
hope someone comments soon!
Learned a ton about how airlines work from your blog.
Following blogs and keeping up to date is a fantastic hobby!
Points help me have the flexibility to visit family for less money during the times I want to see them most! (Especially during the holidays and tough weekends!)
Thanks to the forums and bloggers for making point collecting such an interesting and exciting hobby.
paying my mortgages w/ evolve money!
I hope I will be able to fly to Hawaii for free really soon!
Reading all the blog updates every morning gives me something to look forward to going into work!
Points and miles when used can help save on taxes and fees !
Free trips are awesome
better than a hole in the head =P
Just used two award tix to Hawaii thx to Chase Bank
Travel blogs have been huge in keeping me informed and plugged into what is happening on the rewards scene.
Because miles and point collecting is still better than paying cash for it. 😉
Domestic tickets are still at 25K after many years as long as you can find availability!
I’d like to fly…
I cashed in my united miles for 2 round trip business class tickets to Rio de Janeiro! That was the best use of miles! Without them I would have been in coach!
Flying in style!
Club Carlson 2nd night free award night is my favorite benefit.
I booked a trip for my family of four to Hawaii–all on points! We never would have been able to go otherwise. So grateful!!!
I love the rewards from my IHG card!
that it’s still possible to get any mileage awards for miles 🙂
My favorite part is scheming with other points and miles hackers to make plans to see the world! That and my favorite letters “J” and “F”!
that you can still get awards on American and United, one-way, for 12,500 miles
last chance to get away, dont forget to punch your ticket, and thanks for the advice.
what do you like about miles and points, blogs, forums, or your fellow travelers?
I’m happy I can use miles/points to take my family of 4 to places I never imagined due to cost
Business class flights, Italy or Asia on mistake fares
Traveling to new places is still awesome. It’s even more awesome if I can get free flights or free rooms.
That sufficient remnants of the mileage programs still exist, to warrant the excellent contribution and analysis of the various bloggers
Able to earn referral miles/credits to help me travel = free lunch is the best 😀
I love that I can find so much helpful information on this and other travel blogs. Don’t know where I’d be in this game with out all of it!
Despite devaluations, I have ~90K UR and ~80K of United points thanks to blogs such as yours and even though that won’t get me a first class ticket to Thailand it will still allow me to have a once in a lifetime vacation with my friends and for that I am very happy!
Without miles I would not be able to travel with my boyfriend because he hates to fly, hates small seats because he is 6 2 So business class has been my saving grace
still, nothing beats the feeling when the plane’s door closes and the vacation has begun!
We would not have been able to honeymoon in Tahiti without rewards miles!!
That I’ve burned all of my Delta peso’s, so that I can enjoy life without looking at the brand again 🙂
With flights going up in price like crazy, awards can allow huge savings even with all of the devaluations.
We can fly with mommy and daddy on airplane to Japan and see grandma obaasan!
Being new to the game, I don’t know how it was before all this negative news, so I am still starry-eyed and excited!
Using miles allows me to fly in comfort and save lots of money.
I stumbled upon the miles and points world while researching a trip for my honeymoon. I couldn’t take advantage of any techniques since the trip was so close, but here’s hoping miles and points will make for memorable wedding anniversaries!