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 still fly first class at a reasonable price using miles.
We’re still all very excited about travel!
As much as all the devaluations mentioned above blows…club carlson is still going strong…i got a premier credit card from them and the lower version which gave me about 170,000 points after sign up bonus thresholds. With club carlson’s awesome “free last night of stay” i managed to get 8 nights in europe. With half of them being raddisson blu.
I still fly first class at with upgrades or miles
Positive about having the View as a study guide and general good reading! Without it I would never have flown BA among other great advantages I’ve enjoyed. Thank you for sharing!
Grateful to be healthy and able to enjoy travel, whether paying full-price or enjoying discounts shared by generous frequent flyers and boggers.
Even with devaluations, earning miles and points through credit card bonus and share miles promotion on usairways has allowed our family to take another amazing summer vacation.
Meeting new friends w similar hobbies has been a great adventure.
I’m positive my first class flight on Cathay Pacific to Hong Kong could not have been any better. On points, of course.
Even with devaluations, I’m still able to get good use of miles/points. Maybe not AS good, but still good.
I appreciate how helpful and friendly all the bloggers (like you) are! It’s great for a newbie starting out! No negative experiences so far going through award/points/miles blogs!
The miles earned on my Virgin Atlantic credit card have taken us to Europe countless times .
Last year we had our first grandchild and I got to fly FREE to see her 9 times on my husband’s Southwest companion pass.
I enjoy reading Ben’s blog.
ON THE BRIGHT SIDE (2)
I feel like a lot of companies situated in the american continent (AA, Aeromexico, LATAM, …) Have seriously improved their premium service, specially in J.
Despite the changes to several programs, there are still many wonderful opportunities to accumulate miles and make dreams come true!
I can earn 2000 Marriott points every 30 days by just likeing specific hotels.
How can I be anything but thankful? What I’ve been able to experience by having travel as my hobby is beyond wonderful. Ten years ago it was low cost revenue travel, today it’s credit card maximization, who knows what the future holds? And it’s as much fun today as it was when I started this hobby fifteen years ago.
I was able to use advice from one of the travel bloggers to get that super awesome business class sale in March for 5 of us to get to Europe for $1813/person. Now THAT’S positive!!!
I love reading Rene’s love for Delta.
It’s always nice to travel in 1st class with the help of MS.
Thank you Gary for writing this blog. It’s been very helpful to me over the years. I would not have been able to take my wife for a (mostly) free trip to Hawaii earlier this year, staying at the best hotels and flying first class. Or to Italy the year before. It would be impossible to do this on one meager income if it wasn’t for miles and points and your guidance. Thanks again.
It reminds me how fortunate I am to be able to travel as often as I do
The miles of my main FF program – Alaska Airlines – have gotten much more valuable by comparison!
I am grateful that the collection of airline miles remains a valuable currency to me.
I enjoy the feeling of getting that sense of extra value for doing otherwise everyday activities.
First, I’ve been accumulating points since 1976 with TWA, and been all over the world using those points. All that exposure to other people and their cultures has made me appreciate our similarities and differences. Bottom line: travel for me is not about places, it’s about people, and it’s made me a better person and a better “ambassador” for our culture.
Second, I’m so glad that they got George Clooney to play me!
The points game is still on! I have been to six continents and the opportunities are endless. You have to be an informed consumer and use credit wisely. It is rewarding and fun to book a first class seat and stay in a great hotel for a fraction of what it would cost without points.
Not everyone has the discipline to play, but what fun we have.
Bloggers help to break things down by KISS. The company’s website can be confusing at times.
Points collecting and use has let me and my family see more than we could ever have. I am positive that more deals and trips are coming in our future !! Thanks
Points and miles let some folks take trips they never would have imagined possible!
I’ve been getting in on all these mistake fares. God bless the fat-fingered dude at Wideroe!
I also had a super experience with one of the award booking services to find flights before I knew I would be able to get the business class sale tickets.
I love blogs that want you to be positive so that you can win prizes.
I’m happy about Global Upgrades being made available on Delta.
How else could I afford to travel business class to South Africa? Miles make dream trip happen.
Regardless of any and all devaluations, without these points I could not possibly travel as well as I do, it would be the back of the bus 🙁
I was able to complete the Hyatt Diamond trial status and now have Diamond status through Feb. 2015!!
I am happy about trial elites and the information that I found out on the websites.
I spent years collecting AA miles a novice. I kept dreaming thinking that if I flew a few times a year on business for years maybe, just maybe I could get to 50,000 miles and use those for a trip someplace with my wife. Currently I’m sitting on about half a million AA miles, tons of Avios, about half a million IHG points and bunches of others that I don’t even have time to use all gathered in the last year or so. Thanks to blogs like this one. We keep going on “trip of a lifetime” trips 🙂
Hey ! Almost Free upper class travel and hotels ! What more is there to be said ! It’s the best !!
I love that you and fellow bloggers give away stuff!
With thy Hyatt Diamond trial that we were able to get, we are getting upgraded to suites at the Paris Vendome in August!!
Almost free travel. ! Does it get any better !!!
Just thankful to still have points to use and I am able to use them for last minute trips that come up.
Our family able to actually “sleep” in all the flight we took to Asia!
I’ve been impressed with the number of bloggers who are giving credit where it’s due and also disclosing when their links are affiliate.
Despite the valuations, award flights for premium travel are still the way to go. Who wants to put down thousands of dollars for a full-fare ticket ;).
I love the Dots Lines and Destination podcasts (Pointshoarder). Those guys are a hoot and I learn a bunch. I love this hobby.
In spite of the higher costs, miles still beats having to pay outright for premium seats.