All of the above are frequently heard phrases when dealing with frequent flier miles—although the latter is the only one you hope to hear.
A good majority of my excursions have been paid for through way of FF miles, without which, I wouldn’t have seen the likes of the Cote D’Azur or Big Ben by now. My parents are of the frequent flying variety and so I’ve been able to redeem their many miles for my own trips—much to my brother’s chagrin.
But I digress…
FF miles actually give the avid traveler more options, despite the inevitable blackout dates, as you can fly multi-city destinations. For Spring Break ’06 I hitched a flight to London and then managed to fly from Paris to Dublin, Dublin to Tucson…all for 40,000 miles.
But what does 40,000 miles translate to? Depends on the airline and the days you intend to travel. I got to Europe on 40,000 through American Airlines, but switch to one day later and you could be looking at 100,000 miles for a roundtrip.
The best advice I can offer for when you want to book with FF miles is to look at the all the possibilities. Arrange all the combinations of days, airlines, and destinations to find the cheapest deal. The deals exist, you just have to find them.
Also, sign up for FF mile rewards programs early and often. File away all the zillion-digit FF numbers that airlines will assign to you because they will come in handy. You won’t want to miss out on 5,000 added miles when you fly coast to coast because you lost your number or didn’t take the time to fill out the FF form.
Most applications can be found online and are free to sign up (see links below). And if you want to earn miles from your latest trip, send the airline a copy of the ticket; usually within 12 months of your flight you can earn miles on it. If you forget to use your awards number when you made the reservations, be sure to tell the agent when you are checking in to fly, as it can easily be added.
Remember to beware of all things categorized as “too good to be true.” I’ve been tempted many a time to sign up for credit cards offering miles for dollars spent. Besides the fact I don’t spend that much on credit, the possibility of getting screwed over with annual fees or a high APR is at an all-time high with reward cards.
Drawbacks to flying on the FF miles: a limited number of seats are allotted to frequent fliers and blackout dates are a killer when you only have a small inflexible window of opportunity.
But despite the drawbacks, if you’ve compiled enough miles over the years, they are bound to be useful at some point. Keep on earning and eventually you’ll get that free trip to Tahiti you’ve been dreaming of. Until then, sign up for all the FF mile programs you can and keep exploring new worlds.
Below are links to sites to enroll in airline reward programs and then different awards charts available through each airline.
Sign Up for Rewards
American Airlines (AAdvantage)
Delta (Sky Miles)
Southwest (Rapid Rewards)
United Airlines (Mileage Plus)
US Airways (Dividend Miles)
Award Charts
American Airlines
Delta
Southwest
United Airlines
US Airways
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