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 also love being able to fly for free!
I also love experiencing business class, which I couldn’t afford otherwise.
There are still great value to be had with miles and points and way ways to earn them!
And being able to learn new things every day on forums and blogs like yours means a lot to me, too!
While getting tougher recently, the mileage game has allowed my family to travel someplace every year for free. I hope it keeps going!
Thanks to the points game, I can visit my grandparents in taiwan every year, which is important as they are getting up their in the years.
Even with the devaluation of Hilton Honors, their properties and services cater well for me, with family as they are often (always thus far), offers free extra bed for my kids wherever we go. SPG outside of the US loves to charge extra, AccorHotels & IHG depend on location and the reservation department, Marriott almost always and etc.
Learning to earn and burn!
Super grateful for the ability to travel and often upgraded beyond my dreams.
We learn so much as a result of the blogs and have traveled to places we would likely have not gone.
Not having an expense account, finding ways to utilize credit cards for traveling ….. priceless.
Meeting interesting people is a great perk of travel.
Playing the game of miles and points is like a puzzle and you feel so good when you find a combination that is a win for you!
Love the bonuses that amount to free travel. I know we’re so used to it, but if you think about it, it’s crazy you can have that just for signing up for e credit card! 🙂 Thanks for the giveaway, Gary!
Miles are still great for last minute trips to see family and friends!
Love the free trips and hotel stays!
Also the free upgrades!
Thanks to miles and points, I’m seeing new places and taveling a lot more than I would without them.
I love collecting points! I look at it like a game- and am always trying to find new ways to win 🙂 People I work with used to think I was nuts UNTIL I told them that my husband and I just got Business Class tickets from Canada to Australia for free with points. Now they are all asking me how they should get started collecting!
Love ‘free’ flights and hotels
Going to Bermuda on Avios for practically nothing makes me HAPPY!
Blogs like this one help keep me up to date without wading through press releases and sporadic postings
And the fun of planning mileage runs!
Love meeting new people when we travel
I love going to new places for cheap with miles.
Getting ridiculously cheap hotel stays at random places a couple hours away.
Becoming a mileage junkie 🙂
I’m excited about all the vacations I can take with the points I earned.
I love collecting miles and points. Your blog is amazing. Thanks for all the work and the deals!
Miles have helped – and continue to help – make travel possible for my family of four!
Not having ‘paid’ for a hotel room in years after all the points I’ve earned based on good tips from people like Gary.
Love the daily topics!Seems like a lot of people traveling this spring. Be careful!
Love the daily topics!Seems like a lot of people traveling this spring. Be careful!
The blogs like this one really are great for keeping on top of the different programs and changes
Part of the fun of this hobby (or obsession) is just in constantly learning about new opportunities, destinations, and changes within this ever-changing game! This blog in particular is amazing in keeping us constantly updated!
I find that fellow travelers will tend to be helpful: assisting with bags, switching seats, etc. it helps make traveling more enjoyable!
I can’t believe all the places we have been on FF miles! The blogs have given me all sorts of information that I wish I had known years ago. Thanks for what you do!
My family is still able to fly for very little out of pocket!
Without miles, I wouldn’t get to have a great adventure each year exploring a new part of the world.
I am happiest when planning my next trip and figuring out how to have the best experience leveraging airline miles to do something I wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise.
This blog keeps me motivated to maximize mile earning through things I do everyday anyways!
Using miles and points, I’m able to fly my parents for a trip to HK on Cathay and a stay at the Conrad – a trip they would have never been able to do on their own!
Without miles, I wouldn’t be able to take my parents on a trip of a lifetime to Australia/NZ.
With miles and points, I’m taking the kiddos to Orlando – they are so excited!
I love going to visit family with my miles!
Flyertalk has definitely helped to feed my M&P addiction
you must admit…the first class seats have gotten way nicer than the 70’s
I get to amaze my wife with free “stuff,” since she essentially remains oblivious to the “points and miles” game.
Singapore Airlines is now a transfer partner with Chase. That’s great news!
Thanks for providing ways to get free miles and points to extend accounts from expiring!