Do you think travel reward programs are worth the effort?

You don't have to be in love with the program to take advantage of it.

Our AMEX card is affiliated with Delta. We charge everything to our AMEX that we possibly can. We pay off the balance every month. The only "cost" to us is an annual fee ($85 I think). So far we've used FF miles for two trips to Europe, first class/business class, starting in 2005 (made the reservations for the first trip in 2004). We're flying to Paris and home from Nice in May/June this year (business class) on our FF miles.

What's not to like?

Sam

Airline frequent flyer programs are DEFINITELY worth the effort, especially if you are informed. Typically, the airlines make seats available ~11 months prior to departure, and if you know the rules, its often simple to secure seats. At the 11-month window, I booked seats for trips this year to:

Easter Island/Tahiti in May -- using 70,000 AA miles and booked last Summer

Azerbaijan and Armenia in August -- using 50,000 Delta SkyMiles and booked last Fall

Micronesia and Philippines in December -- 120,000 Continental miles (I topped off my account with American Express Membership Miles) and booked last month

Those that complain about availability (including my family and friends) typically try to book seats to Hawaii, the Caribbean or Europe in high season, and then only a few weeks before departure.

Frankly, if you travel frequently, you are foolish not to participate in an airline program -- it costs nothing and can yield thousands of dollars in benefits (I calculate that my three trips above would be at least $6,000, maybe more).

Michael

Hi Katie, I have Capitol 1 also and have Delta skymiles. Capitol 1 just chnged their reward program and I am not pleased with it. I am looking for a new rewards card and I will watching this thread for tips!

Hi K,

Every time I think that I might want to join a rewards program, I calculate that I will get one free ticket to Europe every 8 years.

So I don't bother.

I collect miles using both my credit cards ( one affiliated with USAIR, one with Delta) and with flights on other carriers. I have been extremely happy with the results. I usually fly Business Class on miles to Europe or South America. While it can be difficult to use the miles, taking time to understand the system can alleviate that.

I have an AA credit card (Citi) and charge all expenses on it (but not the ones with a convenience fee). I applied when they had a special anniversary deal when you got 25K miles; basically a domestic round trip for $85 which was a good deal. I have kept the card and will probably keep it for another couple of years.

My son applied for the same reason but when it came to renewing, he called and told them he was going to cancel as the fee was too much for a student and they cut it in half!

I ahve both a Cap One card and two other credit cards tied to specific airline FF programs.

WE've mostly had success redeeming points for trips and are about to do so for a trip to China and other points in February 2009. If we are successful we will save close to $20,000.

Well Katie, I'm more like your father. I've signed up for credit cards for United, Continental, and Delta, as much to get the sign-up bonus as anything. The bonus miles and a little spending on the Delta card let me "top off" to the 50,000 miles I needed to book a free flight to Paris this May. Now, I will be flying more on Continental and United, so I cancelled the Delta card before the first year (with waived annual fee) expired.

I'm also big on the hotel programs. I will be using Hilton points for seven free nights on that Paris trip, and will be using the Starwood points+cash program in Montreal, Quebec City, Buenos Aires, and Santiago, Chile. Almost all of my Starwood points have come from using the Amex Starwood card.

Whenever I stay at a new hotel chain, I sign up for the loyalty program. Before making my first reservation at a Sofitel (in Venice), I signed up their program and got a nice room upgrade and 3pm checkout.

ira -

I can finally give you advice rather than the other way around.

"All" you have to do is spend MUCH more money and charge to your credit card/travel reward program. As noted in my earlier post, we will have traveled to Europe 3 times (and to Alaska once) business class since 2005. That's a lot more than once every 8 years!

If I calculate what those tickets would have cost us, it's probably in the neighborhood of $30-40,000. Would I ever actually PAY for first/business class - no way!

KC

I'm not in love with a rewards program, but two have worked out well for me.

We flew two trips from Seattle to Europe on Continental, because we got reasonable fares. This, plus a couple of 500-mile bonuses or so, gave us each 25,000 miles more or less. Then Continental offered a 25,000 mile special to Cologne last year. So just by flying these two relatively cheap trips, we got enough miles for a third trip to Europe (total cost was another $40 or so per person, for taxes and fees).

The Starwood MasterCard is also a good deal, even better for Americans than for Canadians. But even so, I got enough "free" points for signing up to pay for a nice 4* room in Germany.

I'm also collecting Aeroplan miles for Star Alliance flights, and I have enough to go somewhere in the US or Canada. With a bit more effort, I can probably get two tickets out of this, or one trip to Europe.

We have had an American Air lines Advantage Mastercard for several yrs now and charge everything possible to acquire points.

Last year, I used 70k Continental Airlines points that were going to expire for 2 RT tickets to Vancouver.

Also last year, when my husband's uncle died, we used 25k miles on AA for a round trip ticket to Detroit. Saved us $450.

In September last year, we used 25k miles plus $300 each to upgrade to business class on our return flight from Frankfurt to DFW (original RT tickets purchased for $700).

And finally, the cherry on top. AMEX sent me an application for a Gold Rewards card last year. No fee for the first year and if I charged $500 to the card during the first 2 months, I got 50k free reward points.

With those 50k free reward points, we got 2 free nights at the Drury Plaza Hotel in San Antonio and $100 in gift cards for Benihana and PF Chang restaurants!!

Right now, I have about 90k in FF points in my American Advantage account that I am saving for either a free trip to Hawaii or a business class upgrade on our next trip to Europe.

I use a United airlines' Mileage Plus Visa card. I put everything on it that's possible, even on-line bill paying. It only costs $60 in annual fees, and I pay no interest since I pay it in full each month.

Using this card, we have earned many, many roundtrip tickets to take our family of four to Hawaii and Europe. It's so easy to use, I recommend it.

The only rewards program that my husband and I (separate credit cards) participate in is United's, because they have a hub at our home airport, and until recently, most of our travel, particularly overseas, was via United.

We don't do anything that means extra work or hassle for us; we accumulate frequent flyer points primarily through use of our credit cards. Every couple of years or so, we use the miles for an upgrade to Business Class or to buy free tickets to Europe. That's perk is definitely worth participation in the program.

We don't stay in hotel chains enough to participate in any of their programs.

I'm not in love with the program, because I'm not in love with United. I use it because I benefit from it. Now that Lufthansa (United partner) and British Airways both fly nonstop to Europe, we've been less likely to fly United.

I USED to be in love with Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards program, but no longer. They have watered it down (eliminated double flight credits, no longer allow you to book if there is a single available seat) so much that I am looking to switch to something that can be used overseas.

Having said that, if you don't do another program, you might find SWA's program better than nothing. When you open a new credit card account, they generally give you 8 flight credits. We put our monthly bills on the card, pay it off in full every month and generally receive 5-10 "free" tickets a year.

I actually have 2 travel rewards programs. One for $25 per year through our credit union (second credit card). Mostly we've ignored this. Recently emptied it with 2 round-trip tickets to Hawaii.

The other is a Chase credit card linked to British Air. Can't remember how long I've had this. Maybe 15 years? Anyway 2 free trips to Europe (World Traveler Plus and Business class) and one upgrade to Business class.

We use credit cards a lot but pay them off every month. We were able to charge our son's tuition and room and board at college. That was a Business class trip to Germany/Austria/Switzerland. Lately we've had tooth issues and charged our implants to the credit card.

That said, we never go to a place we don't want to go or stay at an out-of-the-way hotel just to get points. I don't care if it's free; I don't want to dilute my experience just to save a little money. (It helps to be retired and flexible about when to travel, also to not have expensive tastes.)

I don't know about being in love with it, but I belong to American Airlines frequent flier program and it has worked out well. My Mastercard is through them, so I charge almost everything and then pay my bill in full every month to avoid interest. I also travel frequently to visit family in Chicago and fly American. Between the two, I have had enough miles for a free ticket almost every year. In 2004 I went to Brazil and Argentina, in 2006 to France, 2007 to Montreal, and this year to Germany. By September I hope to have enough for a ticket to Spain in 2009. The downside is you DEFINITELY need to plan ahead. All of these trips I had to plan almost a year out. The trips I mentioned above were the ones that worked out. There have been several others that I tried to get tickets for but couldn't because all the FF seats were gone (even 11 months out).

I've had a Citibank AA card since 2003, spend about $20-25K per year on the card. and have earned eight free flights since then: California (twice), Mexico (twice), Peru, Paris, and two tickets to Japan (in April). I have exactly 334 miles right now but I'm not complaining!!! I have never had a problem getting an award ticket (but I mostly travel offpeak - in April and October)

puttakka, do you do business with other AA affiliated businesses? I ask because I spend $60,000+ to get my free SWA tickets, which can only be used in the continental US unless I want to combine 2 tickets for 1 trip to Hawaii. Yours sounds like a much better deal.

jcoz23, your AA card is not through American Airlines; it is only affiliated with them. Your card was probably issued by a bank like Citibank.

I recently checked out free American Airline tickets from Houston to Maui in October or November. There were lots of dates available at the 35K reward. And Hawaii is a very popular destination.

I am silver elite with Marriott and an MVP with Alska Airlines (they are the parent of our commuter airline). I do redeem for free tickets, but I think the main benefit is better service.

When I check in with any Marriott brand, I get better rooms and a friendlier welcome. Recently I had to buy an Alaska ticket literally as the flight was boarding. When I took out my Alaska visa and MVP card to pay, I not only got bumped to first class, but they also, miraculously, got my bag on the flight.

In addition, I have a citibank card that earns points that can be redeemed for all kinds of things including travel. I have used it for tickets, but usually the routes are really odd so I generally use those points for other things. I did one time get a great bargain though. I flew to Texas on a reward ticket. My flight got cancelled so I got bumped and got a $400 voucher. I used it for a last minute trip to Florida.

In general I think it makes sense to concentrate on getting miles/points with one or two carriers than from everybody.

Yes, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE them.

5 round-trips to Europe and 1 round trip to Asia for two people so far, and at least two months of free lodging at InterContinental, Renaissance, Marriott or Holiday Inn Hotels.

I cannot imagine not getting points of some sort for each and every dollar I spend above mortgage, utilities, and real estate taxes.

Yes...AMEX/Delta is by far the best. AMEX is always offering special bonuses etc so we amass a ton of miles each year buy purchasing items we already would purchase. We have had ours for 8 years and it is well worth it. Now they give you a $99 companion certificate each year on renewel. For us, spending the FF miles taking the family out west skiing can save us $2,000. I would say that is completly worth it.

So for all who don't take advantage of those FF miles...keep on doing doing what your doing, so it free's up the seats for the people who are

I love travel awards. The best part for us was for years dh traveled on the company dime and we were able to keep the points. So it really was "free" travel!

I have used and enjoy Marriotts program. Starwoods and Hilton - we are staying two free nights with 2 rooms at the Wardolf Astoria in NYC this summer.

We flew back from Rome in Business class on miles with AA -

We use American Expres and our Citibank AA mastercard for almost everything and pay off each each month.

We prefer cash rewards--then we can use the money whenever we want for whatever we want without any restrictions, blackout dates, reward seat limits, etc. Depending on what we are buying, we get from 1-5% back on everything we charge. And we charge everything we can.

I work for a credit union that has a reward programs for its VISA cards. We offer cashback,1% of all purchases,on the platinium and a rewards program on the gold card.I like the cashback because the 1% is guarrenteed. You can get air tickets with your gold card points.It's a good deal if you earn enough. The other rewards appliances etc are not worthwhile.Only about 1/3 of all rewards points are ever claimed by the consumer.
So if you don't put a lot on your credit card go cashback.If you are a flexible traveler and really use your card the airline reward is a good deal. As for the airline programs they don't cost anything so you should participate.

Here's another vote for AMEX/Delta. DH and I just returned from Italy, where we flew business class for miles. We use our AMEX a lot for business an personal use, and we love Delta's Business Elite class for overseas travel. We usually get an upgrade or free ticket every third trip.

I feel that our AA Aadvantage Citibank card is well worth "the effort". Doesn't take much effort -just charge everything and pay it off monthly. Got extra miles with each new card, charge all monthly bills that I can including cellphone, insurance, electric bill (get two miles for each $ spent plus the mile for charging = 3 miles per dollar), and phone/internet/cable/security. Also, charge all food (groceries & restaurants), gas, drugs, doctor's & dentist's bills, major purchases, etc. Since 1998 we've gone to Europe on miles five times and have "paid" for our coming trip to Europe in October, plus trips to New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Phoenix, & Colorado Springs. So I think it's paid off big time for us.

In love? How about addicted to? =) I travel for work several times a month, and actively participate in both Delta and USAirways programs. I'm a Marriott-aholic on the road. In the last four years alone, we've stayed for free for a 8-10 holiday in Key Largo, St. Thomas, Aruba, and Puerto Rico (this year is St. Kitts). I get at least two free tickets/year from either Delta or USAir, depending on who I've flown more (and, frankly, who I want our family to fly come vacation time).

Absolutely.

I charge everything I can on a Starwood Amex and when I can't use Amex, I use an AA Visa card.

Starwood has undergone some dilution in recent years in terms of the points required for hotel stays, but there is great availability - if a hotel has a standard room, it will be available on points. Usually you can also get upgraded rooms or suites for additional points. Finally, unlike almost any other currency, Starpoints can be transferred into almost any other airline program 1:1 (with UA being a notable exception) with a 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 points transferred.

I use AA for my primary airline program because I think they have the best availability for standard level rewards - I have rarely not been able to get where I wanted to go, one way or another.

I charge a lot, and charged even more during the past couple of years when we built a house. We've used these points to do a lot of things that would have cost a lot otherwise.

A year ago Thankgiving we went to London and Amsterdam for 10 days. Transfered Starpoints to BA to upgrade World Traveler Plus tickets to business - only 25,000 miles apiece, a complete bargain. The London hotel was free using some accumulated Hilton points; in Amsterdam, we stayed in an upgraded room at the Pulitzer for free.

We are going to SFO for a five-day weekend in March. Free upgraded room at the Westin St. Francis; both flights upgraded to first on NW with points mostly gained several years ago through a very generous MCI long distance promotion.

In April, I'm taking my partner with me on a business trip to Hawaii - bought his ticket, upgraded it to first with AA miles. Extended the hotel stay by two free nights with Starpoints.

And we're taking a 3 week vacation to China in September. Flying AA international first into Shanghai, free with AA miles - the cash cost would be $22,000 a ticket! All hotels are being booked free with Starpoints - and we're staying in suites the entire time.

If you like to travel and can spare the time to play the game, it can be very profitable.

This is Australia calling. My wife and I will travel to Europe on points in April/May. All of our flights have been paid for using points. We have flown overseas 8 times on points as well as many domestic trips. I am not sure what the situation is like in the USA but using points for accommdation here presents very poor value. I accumulate lots of them using my AMEX primarily and visa card. We pay the card off in full every month so its a case of using the system to our advantage. I use them when I can for all business purchases too. You gotta love a freebee.

Hi Katie. I have the NWA card through US Bank. I have to say I do love the service that US Bank gives their customers.

I was offered the card some years ago. I took the one that does not have an annual fee (I refuse to pay an annual fee for any credit card). I charge everything that I can on that card including all my insurance policies, medical copays, dentist, utilities, groceries, gasoline, misc. etc. I get one FF for each $2.00 I charge. That way if I for some reason do not use the FF miles I am not out any money as again I do not pay an annual fee for the card and I pay the statement in full when received so of course I do not pay any interest.

The FF miles have been used to upgrade to BC when flying to Italy. I don't fly as much as I use to since I am retired. I can get FF miles with NWA when flying to Portland OR on Alaska. And when flying to the SE of the US I get FF miles to my NWA a/c when flying Delta. And in that I like KLM I get NWA FF miles flying with KLM to Italy.

I actually like the service that US Bank gives their customers that I would retain the card even if I didn't receive FF miles.

I have some FF miles with United but I refuse to fly with them anymore, I need to call and have my 6,000 FF miles donated to our service people to use when they fly home from overseas. I keep forgetting to do that!

<<Flying AA international first into Shanghai, free with AA miles - the cash cost would be $22,000 a ticket!>>

That's the best I've seen if its for one ticket. If its for a pair, I can top it, albeit barely. In May 2005, I flew from JFK to Madagascar, via Paris on Air France in business class, for 120,000 miles -- the price was $11,700!

Again, from what I've read on this thread (and from what I've witnessed first hand), frequent flyer miles are one of the only true perks left to travelers, and i can't think of any reason not to accumulate them.

One point to Katie -- when you start (and I write "when" instead of "if"), its best to concentrate on one, and only one, of the three alliances (One World, SkyTeam or Star Alliance) so that you accumulate a large amount of points quickly -- its tough when you fly airlines that belong to different alliances.

Michael

Obviously , this question isn't for Europeans
With the money I need to spend here to have enough miles for a trip (inside Europe !) , I have money to buy more tickets than I need
I would be in love with them if they weren't so hard to achieve , though. I think only business travelers can take advantage of them here..and not all, everytime more business trips are made in Ryanair or other low cost carriers.

In April, we'll be using Amex/Delta FF miles to fly business class to Europe, taking Continental from Newark to Amsterdam and returning from Gatwick to JFK a month later. I liked it even better a couple of ago when Virgin was still a partner airline; their Upper Class seats on the London run out of Newark are super and their lounges in Newark and Heathrow are a treat. We charge all we can to the card and pay it off each month -- our biggest bonus came when they had a triple mile promotion and we charged the entire cost of replacing our home heating system.

We use AMEX and Starwood points. my only suggestion ,which we have found by default.. is BOOK EARLY!!!!! we are going to London Paris end of May.. wanted to go first class. We spent HOURS on the phone and are now using all of our United MIles,Starwood points and Amex to fly United and then Virgin.. Not the schedule from heaven at all. We should have booked this nine months ago.. Bummer.. But it will still be fine.. Just could have been better for all the points money we are spending..oh yes.. we had to buy a part of a ticket too..

I am not in love with it-but I like both Frequent flier miles (Northwest-Hubby and I flying free to Alaska this summer) and Hilton (Diamond level). Also have Marriott and United (not all my flights work on NW and partners). I have had many nice expensive hotel rooms at no cost to me.
Definetly worth the trouble-filling out a form and giving a #.
With Hilton can even get a room a sold out properties.

cobox - that can be the bummer - schedules, etc but it really is worth it in the long run.

Thanks for sharing---keep the ideas coming. I've checked out a few today that have been mentioned--including cards for Delta and United. I have always meant to become a more dedicated FF but I tend to swap airlines a lot and plan trips at the last minute.

Reading this has definitely given me some good motivation to get planning...

My flights, sadly, have been limited to destinations that are relatively close to New York. But with longer flights looming (hopefully!), including one to Alaska, I'm really more aware of what I'm missing out on by not being loyal to one airline program.

Michael---thanks for the pointer about the alliances. I think Skyteam might be my best bet.

I'm a fan, but I'm not sure it is overly worthwhile if you fly less than 25k miles per year. If you can get to 25k miles, then you can get elite status, which can increase your earnings by 25% to 50%, along with other benefits.

If you earn less than that, then think about what those miles are really worth. Many experts point to a value of around $.01 to $.015 per mile. I would never spend more than this strictly to earn miles. For example, suppose I have a 5k mile roundtrip. I will consider paying up to a $50 premium for a ticket on one of my preferred carriers. If the premium is above that, I won't do it. For redemptions, I try to get value upwards of $.03 per mile. Since this requires redeeming for premium cabins (usually), I only worry about programs where I am going to really rack up the miles.

As for credit cards, nothing beats the Starwood card from Amex. Not only does SPG have what I think is the best hotel program in the industry, but you can transfer points 1:1 to many programs, and they will tack on an extra 5k points for every 20k you transfer.

Among the major FF programs, I would say that AA is the best program, but you should really concentrate on whichever airline or alliance you will fly with. If you live in Minneapolis, for instance, just give in and accrue with Northwest. Ditto Houston and Continental.

I am partial to Delta SkyMiles. I went to Alaska last year, and two of the legs were on Alaska Airlines, and you can elect to earn Delta SkyMiles for Alaska flights.

http://www.delta.com/skymiles/ways_to_get_miles/earning_miles_partners/airline_partners/index.jsp

You may be able to earn other miles on Alaska, but I was only interested in Delta SkyMiles. So, its also important to know that even though you fly on Airline A you can earn miles on Airline B.

There is no "fuss" with the Starwood Am Ex, which I use religiously and love. I just charge everything to it like I would any other credit card, even my daily diet coke at McDonald's. $1.39 a day adds up!!

My husband and I don't even stay at Starwood properties, but just through the day to day expenses we incur, we've amassed close to 200,000 AA miles in two years. (Transfer 20,000 Starwood points into AA miles and get a 5000 mile bonus). Of course this isn't just cash that we've spent, but also new card bonuses and promotions like an additional 25% point bonus that Starwood was offering last year.

I have friends who don't have a reward card and I'm constantly berating them. Even if they don't get the same one as me they need to get something!! It really doesn't make any sense if you are not taking advantage of the cash back or mileage cards that are out there.

If you spend more than $50,000 a year on credit cards or travel alot for your job, then they are worth it. For the rest of us, it's mostly just dangling a carrot in front of your noses that you can never capture.

I wanted to add that we flew business class to Zurich and out of Nice last year for 160,000 miles and then this year we are flying into Munich and out of Frankfurt for another 160,000 miles (on AA and its Oneworld affiliates).
My husband can never fly coach to Europe now; he is spoiled!!

The only problem with using this many miles all at once is you definitely don't want to go just for a week, since it took you so long and you spent so much money to earn them!!!

"You may be able to earn other miles on Alaska"

Actually, Alaska is a great program for the casual mileage hunter, as you can earn/redeem Alaska miles for flights on AA, Alaska, Delta, Northwest, Continental, KLM, Air France, BA, Cathay Pacific, Qantas, and LAN. No other airline I can think of has such a broad number of partners, spanning two different alliances, and covering 4 of the 5 biggest US airlines.

I think there are arguments against these programs, as well as for them, and what may be suited for one type of traveler may be unsuited for another.

First, I think a lot of people don't notice the fees associated with some programs. If you have to pay $85 a year for one card, but another that doesn't provide miles is free, you are paying for the privilege of earning miles. Also, the cards I have seen give a choice between earning points (often not explaining what the points are worth) or receiving a cash rebate, so if you can earn 50,000 miles by charging a lot, or get $500 cash, which is a better deal.

Invariably with the cards you give up a certain amount of flexibility, whether by being restricted to using certain airlines, or having to purchase reward tickets through a designated agent. If you like to shop for the lowest fare, you can usually save over someone who has to always fly on X airline to earn miles, and you are not limited to destinations served by X airline.

As to using miles, I think usually you are limited to flying well in the future, or at the last minute.

I am a frequent flyer member because the trips we make often are available from our favored airline, and there are certain relatively minor benefits to having status, such as early boarding and a larger baggage allowance, but we do give up some flexibility. When I wanted to fly from Cleveland to San Diego with a stopover in Las Vegas, our airline wanted to route us through Seattle on the Las Vegas/San Diego leg, at a cost far higher than I found on Southwest, so we took Southwest for that leg and didn't earn miles. I also don't like the idea of getting a flight to Rome 11 months in advance; who knows what will change in those 11 months. And similarly, I don't want to look today and find I can get free tickets in three days, as it takes me longer than that to find an apartment, etc. But we did, last October, grab some upgrades to Amsterdam in April (tulip season) and have been able to make excellent arrangements on where to stay and what to see, although it will apparently be costlier than planned because the dollar is losing value. Still, to pay a tourist fare and a few miles, and ride in first class and earn even more miles (on our airline, tickets bought with miles don't earn miles, but upgrades bought with miles do earn miles), is a sweet deal.

Also a disadvantage is that on some airlines, miles expire if you don't remain active, which would be a disadvantage to the infrequent flyer.

I keep getting offers for credit cards that earn miles, but most don't give as full an explanation as I would want before giving up my rebate earning cards, and in any event, I don't charge enough to make many miles with one of those cards.

We're amex w/ delta folks, just started last year. We charge EVERYTHING to the crd and pay the bill in full every month. We already have almost 100,000 miles and expect/hope to travel first/business class to somewhere for vacation next year. Can't wait. I'm sure I'll need some help booking the best deal and plan to talk directly with the agent as many on this board have advised.

Over the past few years I reckon my redemptions (AA and Alaska) have had a street value of around $25,000 - $40,000. That's for discretionary travel, which I probably wouldn't have undertaken absent the redemption seats.

So while I'm not in love with my FF plans (I reserve that expression for other things) I sure am grateful for them.

Travelgourmet, any Star Alliance FF plan offers more partners than Alaska's. Plus, you can use multiple airlines in a single itinerary, something which you can't do using Alaska (aside from Alaska plus one partner.)

I haven't read all of the above, just telling you my limited experience. I'm not a savvy points person. I have one credit card and I collect travel points on it.

I used to use Visa CIBC Aerogold but it was horrible. The website was impossible, the people on the phone were even worse, and travel was incredibly limited.

I switched to Visa TD Gold Travel and I love it for these reasons:

1. You deal with an actual human being at their own travel agency. They're knowledgeable and helpful and make great suggestions. Plus, if you have to call back for some reason or other (as I once did), you can get the same person on the phone and she remembers you!

2. Most plans deal with points. That is, it might for example cost you 40,000 for a ticket to Rome. My plan deals with money. I can't remember the exact formula but let's just say that 500 points equals $75. That means if there's a seat sale, I save points.

3. No restrictions, no blackout dates.

4. Because of the nature of my bank account, I don't pay a fee for my travel card.

Now there may be better plans out there but they're probably more complicated and I don't want to pay that much attention to this process.

<<I also don't like the idea of getting a flight to Rome 11 months in advance; who knows what will change in those 11 months.>>

At least with tickets purchased with frequent flyer miles, if things change, for a small fee you can re-deposit the miles back into your account -- typically the fee is $50, although for some elite tiers, you can re-deposit for free (I have not had to re-deposit, but I am platinum on Delta, so I can book tickets 11 months in advance risk free).

As I wrote, so long as you're willing to plan and learn the rules, the miles (as many have indicated) can have tremendous value.

Oh, and since I pay my credit card balance every month, I pay no interest.

Alaska is good. I just today used Alaska iles for a business class ticket on American from Portland to Buenos Aires. I had a choice of American, Continental, Delta and Lan. Between my business class ticket and a 3 night Marriott stay, I got $5,300 worth of travel. Since I didn't buy anything I wouldn't have to get the miles, it seems like a good deal. It also lets me fly business which I probably couldn't afford in cash.

I used to fly AA for business, and I've had an AA Citibank Mastercard for years ($50/year fee). I've used every mile I've ever earned except the ones in my account that I plan to use in the fall.

My best deals have been two round-the-world trips in business class using One World awards - they would have cost me 90,000 miles in economy, and were only 130,000 in business class. The first was RDU-Hong Kong, Chennai-London-RDU, the second RDU-Glasgow, and BKK-Jakarta-Sydney-Hawaii-Dallas-RDU (I did the rest overland). I'm flying round trip to Naples with stopovers in London in April, returning May 15th for 40,000 miles (economy, alas!)

I now have a Capital One card for foreign travel, since Citibank is charging a 3% conversion fee, but I got that card with 1% cash back instead of points, since the points wouldn't combine with my Citibank miles.

"Travelgourmet, any Star Alliance FF plan offers more partners than Alaska's. Plus, you can use multiple airlines in a single itinerary, something which you can't do using Alaska (aside from Alaska plus one partner.)"

Of course, Lufthansa, in particular has a lot of partners. What I really should have said is that it has probably has the broadest coverage for a US-centric flier, as their partners cover so many of the US market, as well as quite a few heavy hitters in the foreign market.

yes, we luv em!!

We have AA frequent flyer and have not paid for any international plane tickets in God knows when and we travel ALOT!

And I luvluv, my Starwood Amex; everything goes on it!

I have my own business and we also travel in luxury so we spend a ton of money( but it all gets paid off)

I'm all for travel rewards programs:

In terms of FF programs, I work AA, United and Delta. Delta is great for free domestic trips. I've gone to Europe for free several times with AA. With United I tend to use my miles for east-coast/west coast upgrades.

I've recently joined Starwood Preferred Guest and Marriott programs. With Marriott they gave me instant room upgrades -- even with not a lot of points. No opinion yet on SPG.

For rental cars I use Hertz #1 Club -- great for quick getaways from the airport -- straight to the car, no counter. And I do get a 10% discount on bookings.

It's a bit to manage all these programs, but the perks -- which sometimes are unexpected - are worth it.

Absolutely worth it. We have an Amex/Delta card and, like most people, put everything on it and don't ever carry a balance. Free trips are great!

I'm a member of a number of airline mileage clubs, and I've taken a lot of great free trips. I just went to Peru first class from New York, booking only about two or three months before hand. I have trouble keeping track of hotel rewards and I don't find them as interesting. I just cancelled my account with US Air because they cancelled my miles. It seems to me that their flights are not as competitive as they once were out of NYC, hence my inactivity. They were unpersuaded that I fly a lot in general, so they have lost a customer for life.

We rack up tons of points, frequent flyer miles, etc., but can seldom use them, as they are so restrictive, or not going where we wanna go, etc., don't have connections we need, etc. We could probably fly around the world twice, if we didn't mind all the innconvience.

But we do use our American Express card when we travel, and get 'award' points that we can use for merchandise...and that has worked out for us...also "Marriott' points have worked, from time to time.

We have traveled for free on several occasions and yes I think the Marriott Rewards program is one of the best.

We to have the Amex card and it is truly a big saver. We flew first class to Puerto Rico and Bermuda, free tickets to Florida, Free tickets to California first class and yes I would say we love the rewards program.

This year when we decided we already had our first class tickets and our free hotel we thought well lets use the Amex Reward Program for Gift Cards for Christmas. We already paid for them so why not. You can get all kinds of rewards-Spa Finder, Restaurants, Hotels, etc.

If you travel you should definitely take advantage of it. Now I have to say we do not have the Marriott credit card but I understand that it is gives you lots of perks as well.

I don't know if I'm in love with it, but we're going steady and things look like a mutual commitment at this point in time.

I live just outside a city that is a hub for NWA. I've been a FF with them for a few years now, so I have some miles racked up. In October I obtained a NWA VISA card. I use it for "personal expenses" as opposed to "household expenses". (For example, if I'm traveling for "fun", I might use it to book my flight.) I did almost all my Christmas shopping through a link to an online "mall" that NWA has, so I got bonus miles for using places like Teleflora online, Eddie Bauer, Boden, etc. I pay off the card totally when the statement comes in. Of course I got several thousand FF miles just for getting the card. So far I've used it for upgrades and will be going to Rome in April in first-class, thanks to those FF miles.

When I was really sick last year and things weren't looking too good I contemplated what I regretted and among my thoughts were "What the **** an I saving those FF miles for??" Well, now I'm not saving them!

NWA also just notified me that I became a Silver Elite member, so I enjoy certain "perks" by having that, and although I haven't used my Silver Elite status yet, it could just come in handy one of these days.

For hotels, though, it depends on the situation. One of my favorite hotels in MA used to give me FF miles, but they were recently taken over by a different corporation, so that hotel no longer issues FF miles through NWA. I still like staying there, though, but now book myself into that hotel via Priceline. In Rome, I always stay at the same hotel and get a discount there simply because I've patronized them so much. So basically hotels are on a case-by-case basis with me.

We don't have a rewards card, just pay for our tickets the old fashioned way - with no-points plastic. So, in general, how does a rewards card work? You get a mile or point for every dollar you spend? And how many miles/points do you have to accumulate before they are worth a ticket to somewhere, let's say a trip between the east and west coasts of the US? (Sorry, I know this is the Europe board...)

So, in general, how does a rewards card work? You get a mile or point for every dollar you spend? And how many miles/points do you have to accumulate before they are worth a ticket to somewhere, let's say a trip between the east and west coasts of the US?

Yes, typically a mile/point per dollar, but numerous chances for bonus miles, especially at initial sign-up (10,000-mi or more sign-up bonuses are often available.)

Redemption rates vary by airline, but typically it's 20,000 - 30,000 for domestic coach tickets, 40-50,000 for domestic first class or international coach, and 80-100,000+ for international business class.

Some cards (those that require an annual fee) also offer 2-for-$1 deals when you buy travel on the sponsor airline, or offer 2-for-1 coupons for air travel, etc. If you're scrupulous about paying off balances, you can accumulate a fair number of miles pretty quickly, and they will pay for themselves with the bonus deals.

I have the Capital One card. I know their points redemption formula is not the best, but I got an offer where I get 2 points for every $1 charged. So after my husband retired and stopped traveling for business, it became a better option to use the Capital One card to charge EVERYTHING. Like a previous poster said, even my $1.49 coke at McDonalds gets charged!
I'm always looking for things I can charge. Cable co , doctor's copays, dentist, landscaper, groceries, etc. I have stopped using the individual stores credit cards and consolidate all my charges through capital one. It's amazing with the 2 for 1 deal how fast the points accumulate.

It's also a no fee card.

I think the rewards program is a great idea. We have an American Airlines Mastercard & we put everything on it & make sure to pay the full bill off every month. It costs $85/year but we've been to Greece business class, Ireland & other places. It's like flying for almost free (there are some small charges).

We charge everything possible to our CapitalOne cc and pay it off every month. We just used miles to buy a ticket to Paris. We almost had enough for 2. Two years ago, we used miles for a ticket to Paris.

My in-laws have USAA and do pretty much the same thing. They are in their 90s and no longer travel. So, my MIL used their miles and gave us a ticket for our upcoming trip to Paris.

We also have Marriott rewards and try to stay at one of their hotels when we travel domestically.

I have an Alaskan Air mileage rewards card, and currently I am sitting on enough miles for 2 round trips to Euruope in coach, as one of my options.

While it does take me a while to gather the points, this gives me two more opportunities to travel that I might not afford otherwise.

I've had the card for 10 years, so on average every 5 years I get a "free" ticket to Europe (my preferred destination). This certainly gives me the option of staying longer while traveling, because I'm not having to shell out airfare.

And though they charge an annual fee, every year I call them up and politely ask them to waive the fee, and every year so far they've done so.

Add another vote for Amex Delta Skymiles! We have 2 separate accounts, with 2 cards on each account. We do it this way so that when each account is renewed, we get 10,000 Base miles toward Medallion status, and a companion certificate for domestic travel for each card. Although the companion deals vary each year, we always use them for trips that would have cost more than the price of renewing the card.

We put EVERYTHING on these cards, spending $25,000 on one account each year to get to the additional 10,000 mile bonus, then switching to the other account for the rest of the year.

We get double miles for Delta purchases, gasoline, groceries, home centers, and post office. Also, frequent bonus periods are announced that double or triple all points spent!

In 10 years time, we have redeemed miles for business class on Singapore Airlines to Asia 4 trips x 2 tix valued at a total of about $48000, 1 business class roundtrip to Europe for 2, valued at about $7000, 1 roundtrip for 2 coach to Europe valued at $2000, and we have enough points for 2 more tix to Asia @$12000 for 2.

So by using this point system to our advantage, we have gained close to $70,000 in free airfares on 1,200,000 skymiles from spending of about
$350,000 over 10 years! Definitely worth keeping up with and since we live in Atlanta, 99% of our travel is on Delta anyway.

I have been fortunate to redeem FF miles on every trip I have taken(more than a dozen I can recall)and feel it is definitely worth the effort.

3000 more hours until Afreekah!!!!

We pretty much work off of the AA program, but I have a few other miles here and there. We do the CC thing, etc for miles.

Just wanted to say that if you do have issues with booking award flights, try looking into your carrier's alliance programs (not just codeshares and direct partner arrangements). For instance, wWe attempted to use our AA miles for a flight to Australia over this past thanksgiving. Would have had to have been AA and Qantas to make the entire trip, but nothing was available.

However, we used a OneWorld award to get there. In our case, the deal we used required the use of two OneWorld airlines in addition to your own carrier. So... twist our arms, we added a few days stopover in Hong Kong in order to include Cathay Pacific AND Qantas in the itinerary. And that worked (And was a lot of fun).

Katie - For the nitty gritty details on "rewards", check out the Flyertalk "miles and points" forum. The name of the game is status (how to make it with the various airlines or hotels) and maximizing the use of miles. Check out the milage run (flying somewhere just to make status or earn points/miles) thread. You will notice next to every poster's screen name their status (silver, gold, platinum,diamond, etc.) with the various programs they belong to.

I'm currently plotting a trip to Italy for May using points/rewards for air (yes, there are still tickets available), hotels, and either train pass or car rental.

If you join an FF program with one of the airlines, all you have to do to keep your points "active" is have some activity every year. You don't have to get their credit card to do that although it's usually to your benefit to get one. Just purchase something from one of their partners (car rental,hotel night, flowers, etc.)and credit the points to your ff account.

Feeling a bit ripped off reading this thread, because here in Canada we don't have a lot of choice for reward programs. I use an RBC classic 2 Visa, but the points go towards a dollar value in purchasing tickets on any airline - I've made about $300 towards air tickets in the 6-7 years I've had the card, and I charge everything I can on it and pay the balance off every month. From what I've heard, the Capital One card isn't much better. I'd go for an Aeroplan card (Air Canada's rewards program) but my husband hates to fly Air Canada. Anyone out there know of a better program available to Canadians? I like to fly Continental and AA out of Calgary through the States, but I do not know of any Canadians banks who offer cards for them.

abby,
please read my 5:07 post above.

I was very unhappy with aeroplan and I've just been crazy about TD Gold Travel.

gtg

Well, save the points like putting coins in your piggy bank....then count them after a year. Charge everything you can, keep a watch on your spending online and the points will up quickly. I just redeemed mine for 5 tickets to England/Scotland. Makes family travel more affordable!!

This is an interesting thread, and something I've often wondered about. But from what I'm reading, it seems that you would have to charge a lot more than what we ordinarily do for a mileage program to be effective. Johnnyman 7 says you have to charge more than $50K per year for the programs to be effective, is that true? We have opted for the cash back programs on both our Amex/Costco card and our Capital One Visa, but there's no way we could charge more than about $35K per year. Possibly this could work for us if we could put EVERYTHING on an Amex card, but some places we shop and eat don't accept American Express.

abby, look at the cards offered by Citi from this link:

https://www.citicards.com/cards/wv/home.do

they have several cards with bonuses for American Airlines.

gtg, can I ask what kind of bank account you have that saves you paying the annual fee? My husband and I currently do all of our banking through ScotiaBank, except I have an inactive account at RBC leftover from before we got married, which is attached to my Classic 2 Visa. We pay my blance monthly through an online transfer from our ScotiaBank account. This card looks much better, but if I could avoid paying the annual fee by signing up for an account as well that would be super.

abby,
I don't pay any bank fees at all, including the gold card. I bank at TD and it's their most expensive account but if you keep a minimum balance of $5K in it all fees are waived. If you go under $5K, you start to pay fees but if you bring your balance up, the fees are waived again.

azzure, I have a Capital One that I mainly use for overseas charges and get cash back. Right now I'm trying to accumulate miles on American because it works better in my area. That's why I'm using my Citi/Advantage card for most purchases. As Gardyloo mentioned in an earlier post, you can get domestic tickets for 20-25K miles and Europe for 50K. You just need to plan ahead to be able to use miles for airline tickets.

esm I believe you have to live in the USA to get those cards. There is one Citibank in Toronto but that is a long way from me...

You are right abby. I just checked the website and it says you have to be a US resident to apply. I'd assumed similar cards were offered for Canada.

abby:

What about this card?

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/cards/personal/ba_platinum.html

You can use BA miles on AA flights, as well as the other OneWorld Partners.

You can also get an AMEX card in Canada, whereby you can transfer your points to both Continental and Delta, as well as Cathay Pacific.

Between AA FF miles & Citi Aadvantage card, I've flown business only to England for 16 trips & I don't fly that often any more. Also, used miles for upgrades when I fly to the States.

For those that do have the Capital One card---what sort of miles have you received? Do you find it easy to redeem them?

I have, like many here, been literally charging everything possible on this card. This thread has made me reconsider that though and switching this strategy to a specific alliance.

I notice that many of you have mentioned the importance of paying your rewards card off every month. Thanks for reminding folks about that---some of the rates attached to these cards are killer!

"This thread has made me reconsider that though and switching this strategy to a specific alliance."

Personally, I think this is the only way to get maximum value. If you have a card that teams up with your preferred airline(s), then you can use miles to top-up your balance and leverage the miles you earn from flying, as well as the miles you earn from buying.

Also, the award options are better value when you use miles. For 80-100k miles, you can get a long-haul biz class ticket that will cost $3k or more. Good luck getting a $3k ticket for 100k points with a Capital One-style card. And you can use miles for upgrades, which you can't do with Capital One - I just transferred some Amex points to Delta to upgrade a trans-Atlantic flight to biz, which I consider more value than a $200 US domestic flight, that costs the same 25k miles.

Additionally, some of the brand-specific cards provide other perks. For instance, with certain amounts of spend on the Delta Amex card, you get bonus elite miles, which could push you over the top to an elite level, where you get bonus miles, free upgrades, preferred seating, etc. Similarly, with $30k charged to the Starwood card, you get Gold status, with free room upgrades.

And some of these cards offer flexibility that rivals that of the Capital One cards. The Starwood program, for instance allows you to redeem for hotel stays and for miles with many airlines including (I think) at least one in every alliance. With that kind of flexibility, you can really maximize value.

I have been pleased with my rewards - 5 tickets to Alaska, 4 to Dallas, several nights lodging.

I was lucky that I could charge my store's purchases to the credit cards, so getting 100,000 miles per year was easy.

Now that my kids are leaving the nest, I will be able to use the rest of the several hundred thousand miles.

<Personally, I think this is the only way to get maximum value. If you have a card that teams up with your preferred airline(s), then you can use miles to top-up your balance and leverage the miles you earn from flying, as well as the miles you earn from buying.>

This is what we do and it's worked out very well. I've belonged to the Alaska Airlines mileage plan for years (frequently fly them for business) and we've also recently signed up for the Alaska visa card. Alaska flights charged to the card get double miles (as do Safeway charges), there was a 20,000 signup bonus and - this is my coup of coups - I charged my car to it a few months ago. In less than a year we've got enough miles for two coach tickets to Europe on American, one of Alaska's partners.

I am wondering if people have heard word that United might be watering down their program, or otherwise changing it? I tend to hoard our miles, so we can splurge on a big, long distance trip. I know they expire if there are no miles added to the account in two years, so I'm on top of that date.

Anyone have the inside scoop on United's Mileage Plus?
Thanks,

Azzure, not to get too personal but to help you out, we charged about $32000 on the Starwood Amex in 2006 (we got the card that January) and in 2007 we charged $42000, so it sounds like that's right in your wheelhouse if you put $35000 on a card every year.

So let's see that was 74,000 points just based on spending - plus I got a 10000 pt sign up bonus, plus an additional 15000 pts when I spent $15000. Then I signed up for a Starwood Business card and got another 10000 + 15000 pt bonus. Plus I had qualified for a 25% additional point bonus the last quarter of 2007, so that was about another 2000 pts. So that gets us up to 124000 pts. When transferring that into AA miles, I got an additional 5000 miles for every 20000 pt transfer. So my 124000 pts turned into 154000 miles on AA!!

Combine that with the miles I had from flying to Vegas a couple times on AA and some minimal spending and bonuses on the Citibank AAdvantage credit card (for the places that don't take Amex like our vet!!), and voila! I have enough for two business class tickets to Germany!

Not bad for two years' spending... and I already have enough accumulated for another business class ticket on AA (alas my husband doesn't, so I guess I'll be flying somewhere by myself!)

And with the Starwood Amex, once you charge $30000 per year on your card, you get upgraded to Gold status, which has some nice perks like upgraded rooms and 4 p.m. checkout. So we have been fortunate enough to qualify for that both years we've had the card.

Thanks for the insight travelgourmet...perhaps I should save my capital one card for when I do travel abroad since it does not have any fees attached to it.

Should I settle on an alliance before I book any further trips? Or can I book the trip and get the miles once I join an alliance/program?

This thread has been very helpful; we're mentioning it in this week's newsletter. See (http://www.fodors.com/news/story_2948.html) For that mention, I pulled together the following web site resources. Do you see anything I missed or should add?

Airline Alliances
One World - www.oneworld.com/
SkyTeam - www.skyteam.com/skyteam
Star Alliance - www.staralliance.com/

Frequent Flier Programs
Delta Skymiles - www.delta.com/skymiles/
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan - www.alaskaair.com/as/mileageplan/
US Airways Dividend Miles - www.usairways.com/awa/content/dividendmiles/
American Airlines AAdvantage - www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/
Continental Airlines OnePass - www.continental.com/web/en-US/content/onepass/
Northwest WorldPerks - www.nwa.com/worldperks/earn/
United Mileage Plus - www.united.com/
Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards - www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/

Hotel Programs
Starwood Preferred Guest - www.starwoodhotels.com/preferredguest/
Marriott Rewards - www.marriott.com/rewards/rewards-program.mi
Priority Club Rewards - www.ichotelsgroup.com
Sofitel Loyalty Programs - www.sofitel.com/gb/loyalty-program/
Hilton HHonors - http://hhonors1.hilton.com/en_US/hh/

You should pick the alliance first. That will determine which airline or hotel you want to use for the trip. You then provide your membership number to get the miles/points credited to your account.

You might consider adding some of the credit card web sites. Also, someone upthread mentioned Hertz Gold, which I found useful when I was traveling on business.

Katie - If you take a look at the miles and points forum on Flyertalk, you will see a more complete listing of airlines, cards,rental cars, etc. with links to their programs. There are over 35 different FF airline programs listed and several hotel/rental car programs you didn't include. Scroll down for the list.
http://flyertalk.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

Katie,

Regarding the Capital One Visa card....
It all depends what kind of deal you get with them and what kind of travel you are inetrested in.

We accumulate 2 miles per dollar charge on ALL charges. I don't know of any card that gives that ( except cards like our Continental Visa which gives 2 miles per dollar charged in Continental tickets and a few stores).

So 25,000 miles in another card is equivalent to 50,000 in the Capital One card. 50,000 miles in another card is equivalent 100,000 miles in Capital One, etc. Their miles have no capacity control or blackout dates.

However, I agree that if your objective is to score first class seats to Europe, you are better off with one of the other cards discussed.

Like abby, I am wondering what is available for Canadians. My husband and I are Aeroplan members but that's it. We avoid hotels and resorts but would love to collect air miles above and beyond Aeroplan. We really dislike Air Canada as well but do not have a choice. We do not use credit cards.

Is there something else out there for just collecting air miles (other than credit cards)?

Thanks-

kybourbon---flyertalk is pretty amazing for these kinds of questions. Thanks for posting the link.

I pretty much just included links of the airlines/alliances mentioned here. Hopefully it will make it easier for people who stumble on this thread to check them out.

Katie, if you are based in NYC, which I believe you wrote in a post, you should first decide on your preferred legacy carrier (Continental, United, American, Delta all have large NY operations), and then let them dictate the alliance.

Or, if you have your heart set on a trip (say Easter Island, which can only be reached on OneWorld), that trip may dictate the alliance. If you are interested in earning a trip to NZ or Australia, you would not want to focus on SkyTeam (they have poor coverage in that region).

But, generally, at least on this thread and as is common among my friends and family, many people try to get tickets to Europe, and all of the alliances have good European coverage. Basically, so long as you (generally) remain loyal to one of the three alliance, the selection does not matter (they all have fairly worldwide coverage, although each alliance has its strengths and blindspots).

Hi Katie

I actually just spent the bulk of this pst weekend trying to redeem FF miles for a trip from NY to Italy and it was anything but fun!

DH has Amex Blue Card. The benefit of this card is no annual fee for rewards program and you can carry over a balance - all other Amex cards require pay in full (which we always do anyway - who wants to pay interest) and have a fee for rewards. They are actually doing away with the basic green card ($45 annual fee) for the membership rewards premier green card ($95 fee, down from $110). The problem with the Blue Card is that the miles are only redeemable through Amex travel and cannot be transferred to say Delta Skymiles. While Amex touts no blackout dates or restrictions I found this to not be the case. In reality, there are no restrictions as long as there are still "Amex seats" available. That is, Amex has say 5-10 seats on any given flight and once those are booked you cannot use your reward points for that flight.

This is exactly what happened to me this weekend. Delta has the flight available, including skymiles seats, but Amex did not have this flight available at all. After many lengthy discussions back and forth, Amex agreed to give us the membership rewards premier green card for no annual fee for 1 year. They expidited the application (since the flight was on hold with Delta for 48hrs only) and linked this card to the existing rewards program. We were then able to transfer the points to our Delta Skymiles account and therefore book our flight. So, in the end we ended up with our tickets, yeah!

I think for most people, the bottom line should be how much you spend each year (and therefore how many points you will earn) as well as how much travelling you do and to where to know if it is worth it. For us, we don't spend more than $20,000 per year on our card (that's with charging most things)and we rarely fly outside the continental US. As DH sees it, it will take us 2 years of spending plus $200 for the rewards program itself just to get 1 ticket which may cost $300-$500 if we bought it ourselves. So, we will have to decide by next year if it is worth $95/year to not have to go through this hassel again.

Good luck with your miles.

Bettyk, sorry for my wording. I meant to say my Mastercard is "affiliated" with American Airlines, or that I get credit for miles with American Airlines for my credit card purchases. I realize it is through Citibank as that is who I pay every month. Thanks for pointing that out. I figure everyone got the gist of my post anyway in spite of my error in choice of words.

I'm quite happy with United ff program, and my Chase visa card to go along with it.

I've been collecting lots and lots of Marriott points over the years and not using them. I've got enough to "pay" for quite a nice stay, somewhere in Thailand I suppose, so we'll see if I'm as happy with Marriott as I am with United Airlines.

Absolutely worth it but you need to do your homework. Based on where I live, I chose to accumulate miles with United, which lets me also use and earn miles on all the other Star Alliance carriers. I have a United credit card that earns miles as well. The card does carry a higher interest rate than most but I pay it in full each month so I don't really care. I also keep an eye out for any mileage bonuses or deals.

In the last two years, I've redeemed miles for a business class ticket to Japan, booked domestic award tickets for friends and family, and used miles to upgrade on several occasions. I have never NOT been able to redeem miles when I wanted to, provided I was willing to be slightly flexible on routings and dates of travel.

Most recently, I redeemed 240,000 miles for two business class tickets from the US-Zurich-Nairobi later this year. Out of curiosity, I just did a price check on those tickets and they would have cost $15,000, or $3,600 in coach. So I'm happy. It wasn't easy - I researched routes that would get me there and started looking for seats 330 days in advance. I also used several availability tools I learned about on flyertalk.com, which can allow you to see what routes have award availability on a given day, so that I could suggest routes for the United agents to check when I called. It took numerous calls and I was initially told nothing was available, but when I asked the agent to check availability leg by leg, award seats were found.

Oh, and a two-week trip to Japan in 2006 staying exclusively at Hyatts garnered me enough points to redeem for a free night at the Park Hyatt Zurich, which I'll be using on my stopover on the way to Nairobi. Rack rate for the night I'll be there was around $750, so "free" is a vast improvement!

<<Flying AA international first into Shanghai, free with AA miles - the cash cost would be $22,000 a ticket!>>

<<That's the best I've seen if its for one ticket. If its for a pair, I can top it, albeit barely. In May 2005, I flew from JFK to Madagascar, via Paris on Air France in business class, for 120,000 miles -- the price was $11,700!>>

Unbelievably, it is per ticket. 120,000 miles vs. $22,000: I know which one is the better deal. United pricing on similar routing (via a Chicago nonstop) was similar. Who pays that? Other routings through other carriers were as "low" as the $10,000 range, but still . . .

I am very happy with AA, I use my aadvantage ccard for everything and pay off balance at end of every month. Every OTHER year, my family of FIVE goes on a big trip, with airfare fully funded by miles, This year Mexico, two years ago, alaska (flights to vancouver) and next summer were going to europe. MUST BOOK 340 DAYS OUT, as soon as the flights are in the computer because milage award seats sell out fast and we need 5. So I will have to plan next summers trip sometime in August or Sept of this year, but thats ok with me, it gives the family something to look forward too!

I am flying Business/First on Continental to London & BA to Edinburgh in October using reward points. I fly Continental whenever possible, and charge everything to AMEX for their points that can be transferred to airmiles, or used for hotels. I tried very hard, but couldn't coordinate a non-stop flight, but eventually, I decided on landing in London, and using the AMEX points for hotels. I think flexibility is definately the key to flying on rewards.

I have been saving my United credits, knowing we were going to visit our son in Cambodia this summer. (Yes, I know, the rainy season...) I have more than enough for first class roundtrip for two, except for the little problem that there are never any seats available when I am awake. One reservation specialist told me the best time to call is 12:01 a.m., every day, because that is when they release new seats. No guarantee it would be during the flexible period we blocked out, in a vain effort to use our miles in a comfortable seat. So I had to pay for economy seats and use 120,000 miles to upgrade to business class. I just can't stay up until midnight every night, hoping United will be releasing two seats we can use.

My husband and I take advantage of our rewards programs as much as possible. Unfortunately we are not always able to use our mileage points due to the limited number of seats available, however we were able to use our Continental Mileage Rewards to get 6 free tickets to Orlando and our Marriott Rewards Points to get 4 free nights at a Residence Inn in Orlando for this coming April. I also have my grocery store linked to my Continental Mileage program and of course our American Express also linked to all of our programs. It is definitely worth it!

I am not too happy with the changes CapitalOne has made to my plan, I used to need 50,000 miles to travel from San Francisco to France and now 1 year later need the cost of the ticket x100 , which is 170,000 miles for my ticket this summer!!!
So I am looking into finding a better program!
I don't like to pay a lot of money for a card, 1 card which is used for our business expenses[we own a small service dusiness] does not have yearly dues, the other personal card it's $19 a year , which is acceptable ....
Then here are my questions to all of you, since I am shopping for a better deal than with CapitalOne:
1 : Yearly cost for the card
2 : How many miles do you earn for each dollar you charge on the card?
3 : Can you use any airlines , any times for a trip booking?
4 : can you give a travel ticket to someone using your miles accumulated?
5 : How many miles do you need for a free ticket? Like San Francisco to France?
6 : Do you loose your miles if you don't activate it for some times? and what is the period required?

THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR RESPONSES AND TIPS for MY SHOPPING !

Happy travel....

I have Delta, Northwest & US Air. I have used over 70,000 miles & still have 108,000 to go. The only problem I've had is with US Air. I booked a flight to Cairo Egypt was given a confirmation # & when I called back as instructed to purchase an additional ticket for my wife I was told my confirmation was cancelled to the date being a blackout date. Why wasn't I told this in the beginning. Us Air sent me 2 $100 discount coupons which I felt was an insult & returned them.

On the other hand I've used Hilton, Best Western & Delta & have had no problems.

I don't know that I'm necessarily in love my travel reward program, but I certainly do earn and use points whenever possible. I live in Atlanta, so using Delta (where I'm Platinum) and Delta AmEx is a bit of no brainer.

I've redeemed many, mnay thousands of dollars worth of air travel over the years. Definitely worth it.

Katie - Hawaiian Airlines has a great FF program as well. They have a Bank of America card which allows you to earn mileage. As someone posted earlier, it's best to pay off the card each month.

We checked rates from Hartford to St Martin during the February vacation week. Each ticket would be close to $1000. By using double points, we got the seats on AA and were very pleased. I was very pleased with the results.

If I had to pay the $1000 for each ticket, it would not have been worth it.

My trick is to use only one credit card and pay everything I can with it. Pay off that amount each month, no interest or service fees.
The card that works for me is my Capitol One card. It's a Master Card and is accepted everywhere. 2 points for every dollar spent.
15,000 points equals a ticket of $150. of less. 30,000 points equals a ticket of $350 or less etc.
You book from whatever site or airline that has the best deal for you. A few days later, when the charge appears on your card, you simply call of go their web site and credit you capitol one account for the price of the ticket.
My daughter uses her American Express card, but many places don't use it and you must book your flight thru American Express. I like the convenience of finding a great ticket and booking it immediately. This usually gives me a couple of tickets a year even if I am not a big spender.

Some of the trips I/we took using AA miles,:

TPA-dfw-lax(AA)-hkg-JNB(CX) Johannesburg first class
JNB-HKG(CX) Hong Kong first class
HKG-LACX)-dfw-TPA(AA) first class

One of the best AA rewards, unfortunately it was pulled few years ago. US-South Africa-Hong Kong-US in F for 140K miles.

then there are AA OneWorld awards:


TPA-mia-gru-GIG(AA) Rio first class
GRU-EZE(BA) Buenos Aires first class
EZE-scl-IPC(LA) Easter Island business class
IPC-SCL(LA) Santiago business class
SCL-LIM(LA) Lima business class
LIM-scl-mia(LA)-TPA(AA) first class


LAX-syd-AKL(QF) Aukland first and business class
AKL-SYD(QF) Sydney business class
SYD-HKG(CX) Hong Kong first class
HKG-LACX) first class


SRQ-mia-mad(AA)-CAI(IB) Cairo business class
CAI-lhr/lgw-DBV(BA) Dubrovnik business class
DBV-lgw(BA)-TPA(AA) business class


I don't remember all the details but a trip to Warsaw, Krakow, Prague, Budapest in business class, flying AA, BA, MA.


Converting AA miles to HHonors points gave me some fabulous stays at some top properties all over the world:

Singapore Conrad
Hong Kong Conrad
6 day safari in Kenya (all free, transportation, 2 nights at the Nairobi Hilton Presidential suite, 4 nights in the park, food, private guide)
Dubrovnik Hilton
Warsaw Hilton
Prague Hilton
Budapest Hilton
London Hiltons
Manchester Hilton
Dublin Conrad and Hilton
Bangkok Conrad
etc, etc....

Most trips were on the dates I/we wanted or very close to it.

Can't even guess what all these trips would cost or if I would even do the trips if I didn't have miles but the mileage game works for me.

Do I love the mileage game? YES!

I'm not in love with our rewards programs, but I like them just fine. We've used Delta miles to fly business class to Europe twice and are going again next month.

I use the Hilton Honors program, and actually get more from that program than from the Delta program. I've been Hilton Gold or Diamond since 1996, which has meant free breakfasts for all our vacation hotel stays, upgraded rooms, and, of course, free rooms. Granted, sometimes the Hiltons have disadvantages, such as the Rome Cavalieri which is less convenient than a hotel in the tourist zone. But, the price (free) complete with room upgrade and free breakfast makes the extra walk very worthwhile.

I have a Capital One card with 1.5% cash back, which is fine, and for non-travelers more practical, but the trouble is that even if I get $500 in cash back in a year, it doesn't buy much, and even if it did, I would never use it to treat myself like I can use FF points/miles.

I have become less loyal to certain programs as flights have been increasingly difficult to book.

Ones I like: my Master Card sponsored by my brokerage account -- no annual fees, works like Cap One re: booking rooms, airlines, etc. across most major chains. The downside: it doesn't work for hotel rooms overseas (something about exchange rates.)

I also like my Hilton VISA, since this allows me to accumulate points for a variety of hotel stays. 'Not the most intimate and chamrnig hotels, but not bad, and there is no fee.

(In all of this, we pay our bills on time, in full. Interest rates are not an issue.)

Also: my husband travels extensively for business, and the AA points accumulate well. That's an airline that offers some options, given its extensive network and especially internationally, but it still helps to try to book business class.

I think the value of an particular program depends on your travel needs, e.g. domestic vs. foreign travel; certain airports you fly into regularly, e.g. to visit family; etc. And again, I'm a big one on no annual fee.

But I still belong to all the airlines and hotel programs, because there is no charge, and the points can add up.

Rewards programs have absolutely been worth it to me. Without them, my husband and I would be doing a lot less travel. Maximizing them can take a lot of time and effort, but it's been 100% worth it so far.

I travel every week for work. One of the bright spots is that I earn frequent flyer miles and hotel points!

2 years ago - 2 first class round trip tickets to Hawaii for 10 nights - Oahu, Big Island and Maui. All hotel stays free with points (JW Marriott, Hilton). Car? A convertible - Free - National Car rental reward program.

Last year - 2 business class round trip tickets to London - 7 nights in London, 2 nights in Dublin. All hotel stays free with points (Marriott and Hilton)

Next year - ITALY!

I love my points.

We use our Marriott Rewards credit card for just about everything, including paying college tuition and groceries. We get bonus points for using it w/ airlines and restaurants. We pay it off monthly, so there are no finance charges and we have traveled first class to Hawaii for 3 weeks using just our points for airline and hotels. It is especially useful when traveling to Europe, b/c we save on the declining American dollar by using our points to "pay" for the hotels. The Marriott points can be used for airlines, hotels, car rentals, and even shopping on the web. Each time we stay in a Marriott hotel, we get extra points for any costs that we added to the room charge. It has enabled us to travel to places we would not otherwise afford and we find it more versatile than our airline rewards systems (which are almost impossible to use unless you plan a year in advance - not to mention the recent increase in the number of points needed to utilize them).

Absolutely. I've gotten lots of value out of my hotel programs. With the US$ so weak, I've managed to save thousands of $ on lodging. My lodging would otherwise be the lion's share of my travel budget. More flexibility and shorter time course c/w airlines. And, like airline programs, they are free to join so only benefits.

Not so successful with airlines. I guess I don't plan far enough in advance. I think there are fewer award seats vs FF c/w hotel rooms and FS.

It took a lot of time and effort (late night calls to reservation clerks, day after day; booking "place holder" return flights until the actual date became available), but Ms. Claude E. A. Bear and I got no-cost business class tickets for May 08 SAN-DFW-CDG and CDG-JFK (3 day layover in NYC) -SAN and feel it is well worth it.

We put nearly all ($5 or more) purchases on one Citibank AAdvantage VISA and pay the full balance each month. It seems like "free" tickets, even though we miss out on other rewards programs that might refund part of the purchase costs. We are currently close to the miles needed for two more business class tickets to Europe.

BTW, we plan to use a Capital One charge card in Paris to avoid the VISA currency conversion fee--even though we would earn miles if we used our VISA.

t

I just booked RT tickets to Glasgow for my parents, my husband and me using 200,000 (!) airline miles. I don't get to fly that much anymore, but I do use FF credit cards to pay for everything possible, and for me the 'FF' stands for 'Faithful Flyer' - that was my airline of choice whenever I did fly. I felt really lucky - I got all four tickets on 'super-saver' rates!

I am also a member in a couple of different hotel loyalty programs that I can occassionally feed with business travel. Those hotel points have come in quite handy a few times, especially for hotel stays near an airport before flying out the next day.

I do have a fear that all of these loyalty programs are going to become so diluted that they may be of little use in the future, but for now, I'm still a fan.

Absolutely worth it. My husband even pays our real estate taxes with the card that gives us miles on Continental.

We travel to Portugal for free about every 12 months when we see 25,000 mile seats on their website.
There and back becomes 50,000 per person.

He just signed up with AMEX for a platinum card. Cost $450 dollars....they will award 100,000 miles after you charge $1000. I see that as two of us flying to Portugal for a total of $450. He will probably use the card for a year and not renew. No way would we be able to purchase tickets for both of us for $450.

lowcountrycarol - please give details or a link to that American Express Platinum offer. I can't find it on their website. Thanks.

I'm an aeroplan member (Air Canada) and I recently got an aeroplan visa, but I don't charge all that much to it - I got it for work expenses that get reimbursed right away so I can keep the balance at zero.

Aeroplan charges all sorts of fees/surcharges on tickets to Europe. An economy seat to Heathrow ends up costing in the neighbourhood of $400 Cdn on top of the 60,000 points needed. It hardly seems worth it.

I just booked a Business Class seat to London, though, using 85,000 points and around $500. That to me is worth it as that seat would be way too expensive for me to buy.

We used to have our "family" visa card as an Aeroplan one, but the yearly fee was just too high to justify it. We're a one-card couple.

The AmEx offers with 50,000/charge $500 (AmEx Gold) and 100,000/charge $1000 (AmEx Plat)are invitation in the mail only.

I might as well chime in here. We have the AMEX Delta Sky Miles Platinum (135/yr) and we've flown free to europe (coach) for the last 3 years and will this year also. Our last trip (Oct 08) was into Pisa and out of Venice (from Boston) and would have been 6,000+ for both of us. Instead it was taxes and fees. Well worth it to us. Since we book so far out (at least 6 months and usually more) we are never disappointed by not being able to snag decent tickets.

We're doing BOS/LHR/BOS in September and it's already booked and paid for with our Delta miles. We do pay it off every month. I wouldn't give those buggers a cent more than I have to.

However, we were also paying for our two kids' tuitions with our card and now they're both done with college. We may have to kick in for one of those tickets next year. Boo hiss.

I use the Avion card in Canada. During one week earlier this year, all the stars aligned to make the following possible: Avion has a promotion twice a year with British Airways where one Avion point can be swapped for 1.5 BA miles. During one of these swap promos, BA had a 2 for 1 deal. We will be flying out of Vancouver to Windhoek, Namibia via Joburg and returning through Livingstone, Zambia via Joburg. All this for 60,000 Avion points. We figure with this deal, the return was about 7 - 8%. Well worth the trouble in my opinion.

We just returned from a European trip for which 3 RT tickets and 6 room nights in London were all "paid" with loyalty points (Continental Airlines OnePass and Intercontinental Hotels Group Priority Club.) Those things alone would have run to $5K or more at current rates. In addition, having elite status with both progams provides nice perks like expedited lines for check in, security screening and flight boarding, access to airport lounges, priority baggage handling, free checked bags with additional weight allowance, hotel room upgrade and welcome gift (usually something edible.) In the last six months I have also used miles for two US domestic tickets and one trip to Mexico.
Sure, I earned all those miles as a road warrior doing business travel (augmented with an FF affiliated credit card), but when I find myself on one of those trips where things don't go well I console myself with the fact that the miles earned will be put to good use. They don't call them loyalty programs for nuthin'!

My wife and I just booked Business Class plane tickets San Diego--Milan and Paris--San Diego for next Spring. Because the SAN--JFK legs are on two-class planes, we will be in first class on those segments. We did the same thing (SAN--CDG) in Spring 2008 also. That was using Aadvantage miles ($50 fee per year) for purchases we would have made in any event (and bonus miles for adding new cards when solicited to do so). I think it was well worth it for us.

A great example of the utility of travel rewards programs and, more importantly, the utility of hotel rewards programs, is my next major trip.

The wife and I have decided to take a quick week-long trip to Crete to catch some sun. We were able to book into the Blue Palace Resort, which is, by all accounts, a true 5* resort for $150 + 8k SPG points per night. The retail rate? Over EUR 500 per night. Even before the (slim) chance of an upgrade due to our SPG status, the value of those points is in the $0.05 per point range. That is pretty phenomenal value and even better than the $0.03 per mile range that I seek for my airline miles.

We earn almost all of our SPG points from our Amex card. Even assuming that you pay a 2% penalty for using the Amex, a $0.05 redemption rate means that you have made a 3% return off your use of the card.

Another consideration when choosing an airline FF plan/credit card. When redeeming FF miles, will this airline (and its partners) allow you to book an open jaws flight? I've had no problem with British Air. People with other plans seem to think it can't be done. But I'm not sure they tried.

You are right, Mimar, it is often useful. On American Airlines, using Aadvantage miles, my wife and I had no problem booking San Dego to Milan and Paris to San Diego. Because the flights change planes at JFK we could (an still can, if we later decide to) stopover in NYC for however many days we want and do the JFK to SAN flight at that later date. We can also, of course, change our CDG departure to an earlier or later date as long as reward seats are available. For example, we wanted to return on 1 June but 29 May was the closest we could get--in a few weeks/months maybe more seats will open up. All of this can be done at no cost, but it is so much easier to book the original itinerary with a live person vs. on-line that we gladly paid the $20 per person fee to use a reservation person.

This year, I'm using FF miles to fly into Venice and out of Rome. Using Hilton and Marriott points for 18 of my 21 nights in Italy... have to pay for the other 3 nights since there aren't any Hiltons or Marriotts in Sienna and Assisi.

Been doing these free vacations for a number of years now. So, yes, I do think the programs are worth it!

I have a Continental One Pass Chase Mastercard. It's the only card I use and I charge everything, and I mean everything, to get miles -- from a single cup of coffee to my car registration to my dental appointments. I don't have an expense account (I'm just a regular consumer) and I pay off my balance each month.

I also signed up for a OnePass Business card just to get 21,000 free miles. Used it once, then cancelled, after the miles hit my account.

I love the Continental program because I do the majority of my shopping online and they have retail partners -- meaning, if I order online from Home Depot, Dell, Target, Zappos, eBags, Lands End, etc., I can sometimes get up to 10 miles per dollar purchased, which adds up rather quickly -- A $300 item can add up to 3,000 miles instantly.

And, they send you 2 lounge passes per year (whoppee!), too.

I've had the card about 5 years and I figure I've easily gotten about 4 FF trips to Europe because of it. I've never had a problem getting the tickets, as we usually travel in the off-season.

And, Continental will now be part of the Star Alliance at the end of this year, too, which is even more appealing for me.