So now that you’ve put in time and effort to earn a bunch of frequent flyer miles, hotel and bank points, you definitely don’t want to let those miles expire. Each program has it’s own expiration policy so check with your program to find the exact rules. In this post we’ll share some strategies for keeping your miles from expiring when that deadline appears on the horizon.
There are plenty of ways to earn miles with airline partners on the ground through shopping, dining, staying in hotels, renting cars and taking advantage of a variety of promotions.
But there is one method that allows travelers to get a huge amount of miles in a short period of time. Getting a welcome bonus for a credit card can get you a nice head start on your next vacation using Delta SkyMiles. Then you can top off the balance by taking advantage of other type of offers.
Competition in the premium travel card segment continues to heat up as two new contenders have recently entered the market: the Altitude Reserve card from US Bank and the UBS Visa Infinite card. In addition to these new cards, Amex has made a variety of benefit changes to both the personal and business versions of the Platinum card.
Stopovers are an incredibly valuable tool that allows you to see more places for the same amount of miles. This is one of the most underutilized perks of award travel, and one that is not generally available to passengers who pay for their ticket.
Credit card sign-up bonuses are the fastest way to accumulate tons of points and miles. It’s important to be strategic to maximize opportunities. The best way to do that is to jump on offers when they are elevated above the standard sign-up bonus, especially when they are at or near all-time highs.
It’s gotten harder for elites to get upgraded to first, and non-status fliers never had a chance. Don’t despair, though, you don’t have to pay hard-earned cash for the privilege of flying in style. There are still strategies to get up front, whether you rely on a free upgrade or pay your way with miles.
Knowing where and how to search for award space is one of the most complicated and important aspects of using your frequent flyer miles effectively. Unfortunately, the airlines do not always make this an easy task.
Some airlines only show awards for some partners and other airlines won’t show you all of the valid connections you can make. This article is going to look at where are the best places to search for award space for oneworld alliance members. There are currently 14 full members of the as well as a handful of member affiliates.
According to Pew Research Center, 77 percent of Americans now own a smartphone. Data from Flurry, an analytics company, reveals the members of this group spend an average of five hours a day on their mobile devices browsing the Internet and utilizing a variety of apps.
Alaska Airlines miles are some of the most valuable airline miles out there. The Mileage Plan award program has some very unique and useful features but also some restrictions that can make their miles more difficult to use than other programs.
Here’s why I love Alaska Airlines miles even though they can be tough to use (and some considerations to make them less tough to use).
Google Flights is one of the most powerful tools for finding the best airline deals and routing. It can save you a ton of time relative to searching around on the websites of individual airlines, and it works well for both domestic and foreign airlines. It even has features built in to help you find great airfares even if you don’t know exactly where you want to go. More on that below. But first, what it it is how it works.
The only U.S. credit card rewards program that allows you to transfer points to the United MileagePlus program is Chase Ultimate Rewards. But what if you don’t have Ultimate Rewards points? Does it mean you can’t use points from other rewards program to book an award flight on United?
Is it worth booking an award flight as soon as it becomes available? You might get the cheapest redemption or a hard-to-find first class seat on a popular flight, but your reservation will be about a year out. A lot can change in that time. Knowing how much you’ll have to pay to change or cancel that flight can determine if it’s worth taking the chance.
With the launch of the new World of Hyatt Program, Hyatt is really upping their game when it comes to their new top-tier status, which will now be called Globalist Status. Previously, this was referred to as Hyatt Diamond status in the former Hyatt Gold Passport Program. With new benefits added, we’re going to see how Starwood Preferred Guest Platinum status compares.
Transferring points from credit card rewards programs, such as Chase Ultimate Rewards, Citi ThankYou, or American Express Membership Rewards is a great way to fly on their partner airlines, but that’s just the beginning. Since so many airlines are members of airline alliances (and those that aren’t can partner with other airlines in ways you wouldn’t expect), it feels sometimes that you can use points to fly on almost every one of them.
Knowing where and how to search for award space is one of the most important, and most complicated aspects to using your frequent flyer miles effectively.
Unfortunately, the airlines do not make this an easy task. Some airlines only show awards for some partners, other airlines won’t show you all of the valid connections you can make – just to name some of the challenges you are likely going to run into. Oftentimes, you won’t even know that these things are problems.
Competition in the premium travel rewards card segment continues to heat up. Chase and Amex have been going at it lately with Chase introducing the Sapphire Reserve card and Amex making enhancements to both the personal and business versions of the Platinum card. Now we have a new entrant into the fray: the Altitude Reserve card from US Bank.
If you’re new to earning points and miles through credit cards, you have many options when it comes to what cards you can get and earn the bonus on.
This changes when someone has been signing up for cards for a while due to some rules that various credit card issues have. Deciding which cards to get first is pretty straightforward if you know what to look for.
There are a number of premium credit cards available and each one has it’s own set of benefits. Depending on your travel and spending patterns, one may be a significantly better choice for you than another. In some cases it may make sense to have more than one.
In this article we’re going to compare the major premium credit cards from American Express, Chase and Citi. U.S. Bank has also just entered the premium card market with the launch of it’s Altitude card. We’ll have more on that one next week.
Over the past several years, airlines have taken steps to differentiate their classes of product segment in order to maximize revenue. Cabin configurations traditionally consisted of either two classes (economy and business class) or three classes (economy, business and first class).
Now planes are configured with four or even five cabins, with the more recent additions being premium economy. In many cases, premium economy has become the new “middle class” as airlines have done away with first class, and are flying with planes that have standard economy, premium economy and business class.
It’s easy to get Virgin Atlantic miles because the carrier has a long list of transfer partners, but Virgin’s Flying Club program isn’t known for its generous redemptions. However, there are some great deals hidden in the program’s award charts that shouldn’t be overlooked.
