There's a thread which asked if everyone here <BR>is wealthy. Many comments were written <BR>about people using frequent flier miles, etc. <BR>for travel. My question is when I travel <BR>I look for the cheapest flight at the time. <BR>How can you use frequent flier or other types <BR>of discounts towards airfare if you do this? <BR>We've never flown on the same airline twice? <BR> <BR> <BR>

Get an airline connected credit card, every dollar counts for a mile, We fly mostly to and through London, BA flies direct from my home city so I use my BA credit card for EVERYTHING!! Even bought my car on it &gt; Only works though if you pay it off every month or else you end up in the hole! I actually deduct the am't I charge from my checking acount, then at the end of the month add the total back in and pay my bill in full.helps to havea big credit limit though

Cheryl, I think the best way to handle it is to try to sign up with one or two airlines that use partners you are most likely to use. Like Jody says, a credit card is also a useful way to rack up miles. I just signed up for Continental's program. They are partners with Alitalia and Air France, among others, and the annual fee for credit card from Chase is $45, on of the cheaper ones. If I find an airline ticket that's much cheaper than those of Continental or it's partners, I'll look for a FF program that uses that airline but also uses different partners from Continental that I might use in the future. Thay way, I cover my bases. Make sense?

Cheryl, it seems that everyone has their 'best' method and it is an individual thing. For me, I travel for business and I collect miles through the airlines, but I also have accounts with other companies with which I can earn miles and have them automatically deposit the miles into the FF account of choice. For example, I use Hertz exclusively and for hotels, it's Holiday Inn, Radisson, Hilton and Marriott that I can collect miles through. So you see, you can get miles in other ways than just the airlines. <BR> <BR>In addition, we have an Mastercard that applies mileage credit to American Airlines and we also get miles in other ways such as signing up for a telephone long distance company. We just got 5,000 miles for switching recently. <BR> <BR>You would be surprised at the number of ways that you can get miles for other than air travel. <BR> <BR>We use them, too. Last January, I went to St. Petersburg, FL with my wife for her seminar, we sent our daughter out to San Diego, her brother back here to Erie from San Diego and my wife and I just returned from Rome three weeks ago, all on FF miles. That's not too bad, eh? <BR> <BR>Look around and you can come up with ways to get those miles.

Thank you everyone. Have been doing a <BR>little checking and don't like many of <BR>the annual fees. Just happened to get <BR>an application in the mail for a <BR>Master Card ($19 fee) which can be used <BR>on any airline. This seems to make more <BR>sense to me. Any thoughts???

Cheryl, just checking back and I noticed your posting. <BR> <BR>That is a good deal. We charge almost everything we can on our rewards credit card, drug store, grocery store, gas station, some kitchen restoration work, you name it, then we have set aside the money and pay the balance every month. This way, you carry a higher daily balance which of course, generates more points. <BR> <BR>Don't discount the long distance carrier, either. We switch every two months for cash or FF miles. Hey, they offer, we accept. <BR> <BR>Don't underestimate the power of (I'm married to one) an accountant!

Cheryl, <BR>Just a heads up for you about credit cards that allow you to use your mileage toward any airline. I don't know which type of card your application is for, but I have a MilesOne card from Capital One that sounds similar to what you're describing (same $19 annual fee). If so, make sure that you read the terms and conditions carefully. With the MilesOne card, there is a "maximum ticket amount" that you can apply to a ticket that you are getting with your miles. For example, a business class ticket between the U.S. and Europe requires 125K miles and the maximum ticket amount is $2,500. That means that if the ticket costs more than $2,500, you have to pay the difference. Given that a business class ticket to popular European cities (e.g., Paris, London) usually costs in the $4,000 - $6,000 range, $2,500 doesn't buy you much. <BR> <BR>When I compare this with using my FF miles earned directly on United for a business class ticket to Europe, the United FF ticket costs me 80,000 miles and there is no "maximum ticket amount". Differences aren't as dramatic with coach tickets, but there's always a cap on the maximum cost of the ticket. <BR> <BR>Just using this as an example to show that you may be better off accumulating miles with the airlines' own credit cards despite the higher annual fees, if the card that you're looking at has similar restrictions. None of the airline FF programs that I belong to have any caps on the dollar amount of your ticket.

A thought on the airline credit card with the higher annual fee; I figure if I end up with enough miles for a free ticket, which I do every year, that makes a ticket for $50. Not bad.

As a Continental FF, I'm happy that my accumulated miles have no "use or lose" time limitation as some other airlines! And yes, sometimes tickets can be cheaper to Europe on Northwest or KLM, but the actual miles flown can be credited to my Continental One Pass account.

I'll stick with my AmEx card for ff miles, since I can transfer them to almost any airline. <BR> <BR>I'd never heard of this "maximum ticket amount," I'm sure that AmEx doesn't have one, since they just transfer miles to the airline and don't even know what ticket you're buying. <BR> <BR>Lee, what's this about a higher daily balance generating more points? Don't all of these card base the points on dollars charged, regardless of when they're paid off? (except of course AmEx, which has to be paid off every month or the points are forfeited).

As far as American Express is concerned, not all airlines participate. I recently planned to use my points for British Airways only to find out they don't participate -- neither does United Airlines. Also, American Express charges $40 a year to the cardholder to participate in the rewards program -- that's on top of the membership fee for the card. Still, a good deal if you charge a lot. <BR> <BR>I recently got an America Express card (free for the first year) that earns points with Starwood. Starwood is the hotel chain that represents Sheraton, Westin, and Four Points. No additional cost to collect points. The exchange is one point per dollar. With AE's standard membership rewards program the exchange for Starwood points is three AE points to one Starwood point, so a Starwood AE card is a better deal if you're interested in collecting for a hotel stay.

Jason, Have you tried to redeem any of your frequent flyer miles for Continental? I just signed up and a poster on another thread claimed that redeeming the miles has been difficult.

I appreciate everyones help, though this <BR>may take me some time to sort out. Does <BR>anyone know anything about USAir and their program. Our next trip will be to <BR>Germany and they have a direct flight <BR>from Philly. It seems USAir has the <BR>better flights (taking direct flight to <BR>Rome with them too) for us. We are also <BR>the same distance to BWI airport. Would it make <BR>sense for me to use their card? What <BR>happens if they go under? Why can't I <BR>be wealthy?? Thanks to everyone!

If you are serious about getting answers to the questions you have posted here, go to www.flyertalk.com where there are many excellent boards devoted to this subject.

Joanne, I'll have to check with my accountant, er, wife, but I thought she mentioned 'daily balance', but could be I'm wrong on that one.

Vita : <BR>My own always successful experiences in obtaining tickets to Europe during the peak travel period (summertime)on Continental using my One Pass miles were based on : <BR>1.) Reserving seats far in advance to desired departure date (like 6 months +) <BR>2.) Traveling Tuesdays thru Thursdays <BR>3.) Having flexible travel dates.