Collecting frequent flyer miles became a hobby of mine two years ago when I started flying for business. My job requires only minimal travel, and because of my employer, I’m required to take different airlines depending on the city pair, making it nearly impossible to build up all of my miles on a single airline. So, I opened three frequent flyer accounts: Continental, American Airlines, and United. Because of their partnerships, registering with this trio covers registration with almost all of the major airlines. For example, if one were to fly Delta, she could funnel those miles into her Continental fund. Similarly, USAir pairs with United. Qantas, Hawaiian Air, and British Airways each partner with American. I have Southwest points, too, but I rarely fly Southwest, so I often forget about them.
Airlines also partner with hotels, car rental agencies, and other businesses to help you earn miles. It simply requires asking the car rental agent or hotel clerk if you can earn miles for your stay. They take your flyer number, and you’re on your way. You can find out in advance on the airline’s website who their partners are and current special deals. Earning 50 miles here and 200 there can become a full-time hobby if you’re OCD like me! Check the airline website often for new deals; you might find something you were going to do anyway. For example, the subscription to Netflix I was about to make in June earned me a huge 2000 miles with the click of a button.
By far the best racket, though, is airline credit cards. They’re all backed by financial instutions like CitiCards and Chase Bank, so these aren’t your crumby Target Card. The interest rates, however, tend to be high, so if you don’t pay it off regularly, it may be worth your while to find a card better suited to your needs. The standard reward-earning for each card, with the exception of infrequent promotions, is one mile per each dollar spent. On its own, a credit card is not the easiest way to earn a free ticket, but in rounding out the last few hundred miles for a ticket, it’s a good bet — assuming you were going to spend the money anyway! Another benefit is sometimes-discounts on a ticket or on miles-cost for ticket purchasing when the airline’s card is used at its website.
If you’re going to get one of these cards, the best time to get one is when the airline is having “specials”. The deals usually come with 15000-25000 free or close-to-free miles, as well as waiving the first annual fee. If you don’t like the current deal, wait a month and another will appear. I maintain, although opinions vary, that an airline credit card should be one’s secondary, and not primary, credit card. Because of their annual fees, it’s nice to not have to rely on the card and be able to cancel the card when the fee is levied (usually the second or third year). Then you can reinstate the card at a future date when another good deal comes around, perhaps winning another 20000 miles if lucky.
Spending miles is another tricky subject. Because each mile is worth approximately a penny in the airline’s mind, using, for example, 25000 miles to buy any ticket under $250 is arguably a waste. If you have 25000 miles, you will often have enough miles to get a state-state ticket in the US. The catch is that there are only a limited number of these tickets allocated per flight or per day, and once they’re gone, they’re gone. So in order to snag a deal like this, tickets often have to be booked long before their date or booked for an off peak time. When I consider booking my tickets with miles, I look at only at the mile-saver fare, although I can understand why one might need to use the regular-miles fare at times. If I’m going to use my miles, however, I want to get the most value out of them that I can, or else I should just keep collecting them until I can squeeze more value out of them. For 50000 miles, I could find my way to Europe, a ticket that I could probably afford (at $750 per ticket) by saving dedicated-money for a while. But for around 60000 miles I could go to Japan, a place I might have trouble affording on my own (at $1400 per ticket). Similarly, I do not underestimate the value of the estimated 14000 miles I would acquire going to Japan, compared to only 8000 going to Europe.
Finally, when acquiring miles as it was initially intended, through flying, if you have the time and patience to make a short connection rather than take a direct flight, you can often eke out another 200-400 miles from the trip. It doesn’t seem like much, but just like the hotels, rental cars, and other special features, it adds up. You simply have to take the time, have a goal… and maybe have a touch of OCD.
