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How do you which airline frequent flyer program you should join? It’s easy to be swayed by an attractive credit card offer. And stocking up on airline miles is an amazing way to fly near and far.  But only if you can find available flights.

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.

Some people think that if they don’t fly or stay at a hotel often enough, they have no chance of earning enough miles or points for free travel. That’s simply not true. These days, loyalty programs are a business in and of themselves and offer a  myriad of ways to rack up miles from co-branded credit cards to online shopping malls. All you need to do is purchase items you were going to buy anyway through these portals to get bonus points.

First the Olympics said they were headed there. Then FIFA announced it would be the host of the 2014 World Cup. In its annual guide to the top destinations, the New York Times gave Rio the number one spot because “the whole world will be there in 2014.”

It is not all that easy to get to Papeete, Tahiti. Very few airlines fly to the capital of French Polynesia, so using miles to make this trip can be quite tricky. But not impossible. When I first decided that I wanted to visit the Society Islands, I did some research on which airlines could get me there.

Though it’s not available anymore, many travelers fondly remember JetBlues “All You Can Jet” Pass. For $599, you could take unlimited flights on JetBlue between September 8 and October 8. It was so popular that in 2012 they created the “GoPack,” a set of 10 one-way flights for travel between September 13 and December 19.

Domestic carriers don’t always have the most luxurious birds in the sky. If you want an exceptional first class experience, fly Singapore Airlines or Emirates. Enviable in-flight cuisine, even in coach? Try Air France, British Airways, or Turkish Airlines.

I have Executive Platinum elite status on American Airlines and I want to keep it.  It increases the rate at which I earn miles, which essentially drives down the cost I pay per mile. I also like the perks.

Collecting frequent flyer miles is all about one thing: aspiring to travel. That may mean saving up enough miles to visit your family in the Midwest, heading to Paris for Bastille Day, or going even farther afield to an exotic destination like the South Pacific or one of the islands in the Indian Ocean like the Seychelles or Maldives.

One of the first “fancy” vacations my husband and I ever took fancy meaning a bit higher end than a getaway to Walt Disney World or a rustic cabin in Maine was to Hawaii for our 12th anniversary in 2006.

Going away for my anniversary is always tricky. It usually falls on or near the Columbus Day holiday weekend, the last chance for many to soak up good weather before winter sets in.

I recently took a weeklong trip to South America where I visited Brazil, Chile, and Argentina. The first part of the trip was paid for with cash, but earned a good amount of miles toward the next free trip. The return was in first class on American Airlines using miles and surpassed any expectations I had of what that experience would be like.

One of the things I love about collecting frequent flyer miles and hotel loyalty points is that it gives me the freedom to travel whenever and wherever I want. This is incredibly helpful
when I feel like getting away to visit a friend or go someplace special.

For some reason, maybe having to do with reading lots of westerns as a kid, New Mexico had always been on my travel bucket list. It’s off that list now because I discovered a way to get a free roundtrip ticket there using my Capital One “miles.”

One of my dream trips has always been to take a round-the-world trip. I’ve visited numerous countries on every continent (except Antarctica) and have done so on great airlines in upgraded seats.

Cathay Pacific’s team of first class cabin stewardesses couldn’t believe that I was able to get my husband onboard this flight for a special 40th birthday vacation and he still didn’t know our final destination.

Seattle has a bad reputation as the rainiest place in the U.S. (It’s actually Hilo, Hawaii.) But for those of us that know it’s one of the best places in the country to spend the summer, that bad rap keeps the secret safe. July and August days in Seattle hover around the universally perfect temperature: 75 degrees.

Last summer, I decided to take my 18-year-old daughter Jenny on her dream trip, a month-long grand tour of European capitals to celebrate her high school graduation.

Last week I was having lunch at my favorite little Thai restaurant and it reminded of an amazing trip I took earlier this year that all started there. I was having dinner about a year ago and while surfing travel forums on my phone I caught wind of a brewing travel phenomenon.