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 love learning the possibilities to travel with just miles and points.
I appreciate everyone’s blog posts and helpful comments from readers. I have learned from a lot of you. Thanks!
Miles and points can still be used for some sweet spots on the United mileage redemption chart
This is one fabulous community…. Travel often!
The first thing I do everyone morning is log into my emails and go onto boarding area, not always in that order. Thanks for helping me “ease” into my morning.
Love to start learning the possibilities of travel with just miles & points.
Love the free travel; simple! Regardless of devaluations it’s still free for the most part.
It is nice to read about mistake deals. Those are my favorite, even though they are hard to come by.
I am positive that my travels will continue to take me to new and interesting places despite changes in reward programs
Even thought the rules keep changing, I still manage to find some good deals with my points 🙂
Thanks to updates that I get from sites like
Thanks to updates and tips that I get from site like VIEW, I feel I have a good chance to get the most out of my points. Thanks!
I have come to think of booking with points a game. It’s challenging, but sometimes you win 🙂
I’m happy that despite some devaluations of some points and miles programs, some others (SPG, Hyatt) have generally retained much of their value.
Travel blogs let me take free trips around the world!
Even if the game is harder, you can still find value in certain situations. And of course, a blog like yours helps finding those. 🙂
I earned so many miles by paying tuitions for others on credit cards
Flying is still a rush for me. How else can you get so far, so quickly?
So many signup bonuses!
Life is tough and everything will continue to devalue but savor every moment if possible and that’s what your blog had help us.
Like Forest Gump says, “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” 😀
On the bright side, they haven’t devalued miles into kilometers…yet.
Miles and points are the reason I’ve been able to travel as much as I do.
Miles and points have allowed me to travel a lot.
I am particularly positive about hotel points. It is still relatively easy to get rooms – even at the last minute.
Miles and Points turns complications into great expectations by being a mentor to those of us who are just learning how to create free flight!
Miles is something I can teach my kids and pass on
I love miles and points because I found a wonderful group of obsessed people like me! 🙂
You can still find some value in some card opening bonuses.
Also, using miles allows me to fly in comfort and nearly for free.
Looking at Gary’s pics of exotic hotels and flights.
I’ve got blisters on my fingers!
It is also nice to find and take advantage of mistake deals, when they happen.
I love earning miles and finding new methods to do so!
This is the place to travel free around the earth’s face!
Love flying to places I normally wouldn’t be able to afford
Traveling in first class for $140
I just like that I can take my family on vacation for free.
All the changes to programs have increased public awareness of this hobby and my friends don’t look at me so strangely when I say I fly on points!
Experiencing first class without being baller.
I love saving up to go big on rewards for my 10 year anniversary.
The fun of planning ridiculous flights to maximize miles.
Finding the best deal to maximize our vacation trips!
Even with devaluations, I can use miles to go more places and see more things in a better class of service than I would with cash.
I like getting to a hotel with friends and watching them be amazed as they offer us snacks and upgrades.
This is going to be heavy-handed, but I am Happy to live in a country where one of my problems is not getting as much as I use to for free.
The challenge of getting saver level Delta tickets! My family is baffled that I know how to do it.
There are still really unique things to do with miles that would otherwise be impossible or expensive, like stopovers in both directions on two Alaska airlines one-ways, or island hoppers, etc.
I met my Aussie boyfriend in India while traveling on points
Learning how to get cheap car rentals abroad
Blogs have given me a way to travel that I wouldn’t otherwise have been able to manage. Thanks!!