For a domestic airline, Alaska Airlines is a bit of an odd duck. It’s the only regional airline that hasn’t disappeared in the past decade of consolidations, and it’s not part of any of the major alliances. However, it functions in many ways like a legacy carrier.
Starwood Preferred Guest is unlike other
In the world of travel credit card transfer programs, Chase Ultimate Rewards is still a relatively new kid on the block. Its made a name for itself, though, by offering key perks that travelers crave: extremely valuable partners, instant transfers, and an ability to use your points on any flight at any time even when award seats aren’t available.
Lufthansa’s Miles and More is one of the best frequent flyer programs among European carriers. Despite some heavy fuel surcharges by Lufthansa and most of its European partners, the Miles and More program has enough sweet spots to make it very valuable, and award flights could be a true bargain under the right circumstances.
British Airways awards are an invaluable resource for frequent flyers, thanks to their distance-based award chart, great availability, and cheap, one-tier redemption system.
Booking award tickets isn’t the easiest thing in the world. For true peace of mind, you would have to book far in advance–ideally 330 days out to guarantee availability. With nearly a year before travel though, things can happen that could impact your trip, so its important to know what the airlines policy is on award ticket changes and the types of fees they’ll incur.
As one of the three major domestic carriers, United can take you nearly anywhere you want to go in the U.S., and its partner network, including the powerful 27-member Star Alliance, can get you most places in the world.
Though it is known for its high fuel surcharges, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club is actually a very versatile program offering many ways to
We don’t want to scare you, but things can go wrong after you book an award but before you take the flight. The problem can happen immediately upon making the reservation or weeks and even months later. Your job isn’t done once you reserve the award flights you want. Instead, be vigilant. Check your reservations on a regular basis. Well show you why.
For three years straight, American Airlines has won two of the top honors among frequent flyer programs: the Freddie Awards for Program of the Year and Best Elite Program.
As far as award bookings with domestic carriers go, United is one of the most straightforward. You have all the options you’d expect one ways, multicity tickets, unlimited less-than-24-hour stopovers and you’re able to make almost all bookings online without any inexplicable system glitches keeping you from seeing the seats you’re entitled to cough, cough, Delta.
Among award travelers, Delta is somewhat notorious. You can’t book one-way awards. Inventory at the lowest redemption rate is known to be limited to the point of non-existence.
There are two traits needed  if you want to excel at booking free airline award tickets and hotel rooms on points. The first is the knack for planning in advance sometimes up to an entire year. The second trait is the opposite: the flexibility to take advantage of spur-of-the-moment opportunities like booking a trip at the last minute within weeks or even days of departure.
I want to tell you a little secret about the airline industry.
About booking flights in particular.
Shhhh…come closer.
The best time to book flights is not when the inventory first loads!
I know, it’s so counterintuitive you don’t believe me.
Congratulations! You’ve earned enough frequent flyer miles to book a free trip to a dream destination. If you’re lucky, your program offers online booking. More often than not though, you’ll have to actually pick up the phone to make your award reservation.
Determining whether an award ticket was worth your miles used to be a simple equation.
For most airline award redemptions, miles are valued at approximately one cent per mile. You multiply the required miles by $0.01 and then compare it to the price of the flight you’re considering.
