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!
Going on honeymoon in two weeks, thanks to all the forums and blogs
Still able to travel to visit family on miles even if they’ve been devalued
Thanks to points I can sit in business for less than coach! I am so grateful to bloggers like yourself otherwise it would be coach or no travel
Collecting miles/points is a great hobby! Plus, it MAKES me money!
Headed to Syndey in July via Asiana F and TG F for 80K UA miles a person (for 2 people) before they devalued Partener awards
I’m grateful that via this hobby (obsession??) I’ve managed to experience things and see places that an ordinary individual may never be able to in their entire lives.
And for that…Thank you, Gary and everyone else who helped.
Just thankful to be able to use the knowledge that I have gained from this blog and others to make memories for my wife and children that will last a lifetime.
Sending my parents on their first-ever international business-class trip to Europe this summer with my miles.
As a teacher, miles and points let me have a big escape once a year, to make sure that I get to keep traveling the world! Many thanks for all of your recommendations, and advice!
Our first big trip to USA and Canada is only a few weeks away using Avios and AA points
Thanks to my fellow travelers, and the bloggers for making every journey an adventure!
Helping friends and family to fly in First Class and stay in awesome hotels when they travel for the once in a lifetime trip!
Being able to give award travel, free trips to my buddies is tremendous!
Miles and points just took us to Hawaii in first!
Life is still about experiences and point collection still makes them more affordable than paying full price. I can’t say that about many of the other experience I continue to pay full price at but don’t get the rewards (aside from CC) – sporting tickets, high-end restaurants etc….
Award travel is still the cheapest and best way to travel!
Without all the travel websites and blogs I wouldn’t have been able to travel around the world on a one world ticket in biz class. Thanks.
Miles and points have taken me around the world 6 times in first/biz class. Cant argue with that
I have got enough points for a decent honeymoon!
Love the camadarie in the points and milea community
Booked my parents on their first ever RTW in J. Half on Thai and the other on Etihad. It’s not much considering what they have done for me but I’m sure they will be thrilled.
Life time AA status!
I love the camaraderie of points enthusiast sharing tips and advice so that others can benefit and enjoy seeing more of this big world on an affordable scale.
Hats off to all the points and the bloggers for making us aware of it.
The camaraderie in the miles and points community
Miles allow me to get home to my family more often than I otherwise would be able to!
A big positive for me is Alaska Airlines and their great elite benefits. I switched my loyalty from United when I moved to Seattle last summer and the difference is staggering. Way more flexibility in changing/canceling tickets for free, better upgrade likelihood, but most importantly, their customer service and staff are so helpful and friendly!
I’m looking forward to a phenomenal trip all on miles and points next year. I appreciate everything I learned from to community
Alaska Airlines credit card sign ups will allow for a winter trip to see the aurora!
Love the blog! Full of useful info/tips. Thanks.
I’m constantly amazed at how much I learn from this community. Always a great resource to help earn and burn valuable miles and points. So thanks for all your help.
points have allowed me to visit people and places I normally wouldn’t see
Miles and points have allowed me to make friends all over the world. More than any tourist site, historical site, etc…..the friends I meet are what I take with me.
I am positive that my wife likes this hobby more than fantasy baseball. Free tickets to see the Grandkids explains a lot.
I’ve learned to navigate the value of credit cards from FF sites.
Points have allowed me to see Cyprus & London for about $5! I love it!
To all those that helped me through articles, threads, DOs, or however we crossed ways: Thank You.
It’s always great to read about mistake fares on blogs.
After carrying around 120,000 avois miles for many years with no idea how to use them, I learned to use them for US travel for cheap points!
Its always a pleasure to read your blog and learn from your wealth of experience.
I’m seventeen years old and just got back from a Mother’s Day surprise to trip to Italy with my mom. I would never have been abel to do that without miles & points!
Tips on piecing together award travels are great. Thanks to the blogs.
VFTW has brought me so much joy…
I like how I can stretch my vacation budget further with points and miles.
Like Gary’s ‘View from the Wing’ blog – quality of trip reports, variety of topics, useful tips, etc.
Such a rewarding hobby! I love baseball and football, but they don’t get me flying business class to Europe! haha
I made $150 off the Amex Platinum and was able to use lounges for a year.
Miles took me several times to Europe!
The game is still a blast – we got to go to hawaii in first class last year, and we leave for SE Asia via Europe in 2 months via F/J – no way in the world we could have ever afforded either trip in F without miles!
Lots of potential sweet spots still out there.