MAXIMIZING AIRLINE MILES
& OTHER PERKS
...
Here at CHEAPIOSITY, we love to collect airline miles and then use them for free (and upgraded) airline tickets. We also use our miles to pay for our hotel stays and other goods and services offered by the various airlines and their partners. In this economy, a free or practically free vacation is a huge perk; still, we hear that some people don’t bother because they think it’s too much trouble....
...
This reminds us of a story. Doesn’t everything? When a CHEAPIOSITY founding team member was quite young, her little cousin Debbie invited her to her birthday party. After the guests left, Debbie was showing off her gifts and her room and just generally flaunting her birthday girl status, and in a moment of high spirits and misguided largesse, she tossed a few loose pennies into a trash can. When Cousin Debbie left the room, little Miss CHEAPIOSITY made a furtive and guilt-ridden dive for the loose change, shoving the money inside the patent leather Mary Janes she’d worn for the occasion. The change made for a lumpy and uncomfortable limp for the remainder of the day, and Miss CHEAPIOSITY worried she’d be discovered as a thief and a scrounger by her aunt or uncle or even her parents. Still, thirteen cents was thirteen cents. Needless to say, airline miles are not something we at CHEAPIOSITY take for granted or part with easily...
Let’s talk you through all the red tape and rigamarole.
It’s not as complicated as it may seem. Once you get the hang of it, your whole life becomes sort of a giant game show. Grocery Shopping For Miles! Gas Buying For Vacations! Bill Paying For Free Stuff Later!
...
Let's talk about credit cards. Almost every credit card extant offers some kind of perk whether it's cashback, money towards a car purchase, airline miles, or charitable donations. These cards charge annual fees depending on the perks; fees can range from free to $450 for the American Express Platinum Card. Interest rates vary as well depending on the card. Here’s something you might not have considered. You can negotiate your interest rates and finance charges. Imagine that. Negotiate. Call the credit card company and negotiate the rate down; you'll be pleasantly surprised how much lower they will go. Think about it from their point of view. They would rather get less in finance charges from you than to offer credit to a credit risk who defaults. A friend of ours got his interest rate down to 9% by being persistent. CHEAPIOSITY trained him well.
...
Of all the perk choices out there, we choose mileage. Of course, that’s because we travel quite a bit. It’s what we do. If it’s not what you do, then mileage is probably not the optimum choice for you. Duh.
...
Some credit cards are airline specific while others allow you to transfer mileage to multiple airlines. Each card has its pluses and minuses; after exhaustive research and considerable soul searching, we are ready to make some recommendations. Admittedly, this recommendation is based solely on our individual (yet extensive) experience and our subjective (if expert) opinion and our (practically unrivaled) thrift, dear reader: we use an airline specific credit card and the Starwood American Express Card.
...
Here's the deal. First, pick the airline you prefer and the one you use the most. With luck, this is the same airline. Make sure said airline has many partners and flies internationally, and if you haven't already done so, join their frequent flier program immediately. Joining is FREE. Usually, when you sign up, they even give you a few thousand miles as incentive. (Your airline should have a major hub nearby so you don’t have to fly too far because chances are you’ll have to change planes there. For instance, Delta’s hub is Atlanta. American has hubs in Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.)
...
We like American Airlines (again, just our personal preference) because they fly to most of our usual domestic destinations and because American Airlines is part of the One World partner program. These partners effectively cover the rest of the globe...or at least the parts we want to visit.
...
Once you choose your preferred airline, find a credit card that gives you miles on that airline. If you are applying for an airline miles credit card, make sure the annual fee is reasonable and affordable for you, that you get the first year’s membership free and that you get at least 15-25,000 miles free for joining. Check that you are getting other perks that almost all credit cards offer: like car rental insurance, purchase protection, etc.
...
Also make sure that they offer other perk programs attached to airline miles, like dining programs. Our card’s dining program lets us register our credit card and earn miles for our dining purchases with additional bonus miles for patronizing the dining program's partners. Since we use American Airlines, we use Advantage Dining.
https://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/accountsetup.jsp
Here at CHEAPIOSITY, we love to collect airline miles and then use them for free (and upgraded) airline tickets. We also use our miles to pay for our hotel stays and other goods and services offered by the various airlines and their partners. In this economy, a free or practically free vacation is a huge perk; still, we hear that some people don’t bother because they think it’s too much trouble....
...
This reminds us of a story. Doesn’t everything? When a CHEAPIOSITY founding team member was quite young, her little cousin Debbie invited her to her birthday party. After the guests left, Debbie was showing off her gifts and her room and just generally flaunting her birthday girl status, and in a moment of high spirits and misguided largesse, she tossed a few loose pennies into a trash can. When Cousin Debbie left the room, little Miss CHEAPIOSITY made a furtive and guilt-ridden dive for the loose change, shoving the money inside the patent leather Mary Janes she’d worn for the occasion. The change made for a lumpy and uncomfortable limp for the remainder of the day, and Miss CHEAPIOSITY worried she’d be discovered as a thief and a scrounger by her aunt or uncle or even her parents. Still, thirteen cents was thirteen cents. Needless to say, airline miles are not something we at CHEAPIOSITY take for granted or part with easily...
Let’s talk you through all the red tape and rigamarole.
It’s not as complicated as it may seem. Once you get the hang of it, your whole life becomes sort of a giant game show. Grocery Shopping For Miles! Gas Buying For Vacations! Bill Paying For Free Stuff Later!
...
Let's talk about credit cards. Almost every credit card extant offers some kind of perk whether it's cashback, money towards a car purchase, airline miles, or charitable donations. These cards charge annual fees depending on the perks; fees can range from free to $450 for the American Express Platinum Card. Interest rates vary as well depending on the card. Here’s something you might not have considered. You can negotiate your interest rates and finance charges. Imagine that. Negotiate. Call the credit card company and negotiate the rate down; you'll be pleasantly surprised how much lower they will go. Think about it from their point of view. They would rather get less in finance charges from you than to offer credit to a credit risk who defaults. A friend of ours got his interest rate down to 9% by being persistent. CHEAPIOSITY trained him well.
...
Of all the perk choices out there, we choose mileage. Of course, that’s because we travel quite a bit. It’s what we do. If it’s not what you do, then mileage is probably not the optimum choice for you. Duh.
...
Some credit cards are airline specific while others allow you to transfer mileage to multiple airlines. Each card has its pluses and minuses; after exhaustive research and considerable soul searching, we are ready to make some recommendations. Admittedly, this recommendation is based solely on our individual (yet extensive) experience and our subjective (if expert) opinion and our (practically unrivaled) thrift, dear reader: we use an airline specific credit card and the Starwood American Express Card.
...
Here's the deal. First, pick the airline you prefer and the one you use the most. With luck, this is the same airline. Make sure said airline has many partners and flies internationally, and if you haven't already done so, join their frequent flier program immediately. Joining is FREE. Usually, when you sign up, they even give you a few thousand miles as incentive. (Your airline should have a major hub nearby so you don’t have to fly too far because chances are you’ll have to change planes there. For instance, Delta’s hub is Atlanta. American has hubs in Dallas/Fort Worth, Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.)
...
We like American Airlines (again, just our personal preference) because they fly to most of our usual domestic destinations and because American Airlines is part of the One World partner program. These partners effectively cover the rest of the globe...or at least the parts we want to visit.
...
Once you choose your preferred airline, find a credit card that gives you miles on that airline. If you are applying for an airline miles credit card, make sure the annual fee is reasonable and affordable for you, that you get the first year’s membership free and that you get at least 15-25,000 miles free for joining. Check that you are getting other perks that almost all credit cards offer: like car rental insurance, purchase protection, etc.
...
Also make sure that they offer other perk programs attached to airline miles, like dining programs. Our card’s dining program lets us register our credit card and earn miles for our dining purchases with additional bonus miles for patronizing the dining program's partners. Since we use American Airlines, we use Advantage Dining.
https://aa.rewardsnetwork.com/accountsetup.jsp
...
There are many other reward offers as well. You can earn additional valuable airline miles with the money you spend on hotels and shopping.
...
We also use The Starwood Hotels American Express Card. Starwood Hotels include: Sheraton, Four Points, St.Regis, Westin, Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, W Hotels, and more. Be sure to get Starwood points for joining and your first year membership for free. (You know the drill.) https://www143.americanexpress.com/cards/home.do#.
...
You earn points for every dollar spent on the Starwood card. You simply transfer those points to your mileage frequent flyer program. Starwood has 30 airline partners. Check what the deal is with your preferred airline; not all airlines are partners. Especially, check the ratio for exchange; for example, Starwood and American Airlines are partners, and the exchange ratio is 1:1 - one point = 1 mile. However, United Airlines’ ratio is a less favorable one at 2:1, meaning 2 Starwood Points = 1 United mile.
...
When we transfer 20,000 Starwood Points, we get a 5,000 point bonus. When we transfer 20,000 Starwood Points, we get 25,000 American miles. That’s a lot. We also exchange Starwood points for our hotel stays at Starwood properties, and with their Cash & Points program, we use less points and pay a greatly discounted amount for a room. For our stay at a Starwood Category 4 hotel, we would use 4,000 points and pay only $60 a night. What's a Category 4 hotel?? Go read about it on the Starwood Amex link....we can't do everything for you. (Suffice it to say it's four times better than a one-star hotel.) There are many other point exchanges for goods and services which you can read about on the link.
...
To maximize our travel savings, we use our credit cards for just about everything. Every point counts. We use our credit cards to pay our landline phone bill, mobile phone bill, cable bill, groceries, gas, dry cleaning, and other purchases. We are not encouraging you to accrue credit card debt, but if you are going to pay those bills anyway, why not get miles or points when you do? When you only write one check, you save on postage. Better yet, pay online and save the postage. In a previous post we told you about http://www.MileMavin.com, which will give you help maximizing your miles/points.
...
You can see how easy it is to accumulate 25-35,000 miles or more. That many miles would be good for a free domestic airline ticket. Before using your miles, remember to check the actual ticket price. If New York to Los Angeles is on sale for $199 roundtrip, save your points for when the prices go up or for a less popular destination. Of course, if you don't have the $199 and still want to go, then use your miles.
...
One last bit of advice.....you must book ahead to get what you want. If you have the foresight to plan, you should try to book 4 to 6 months in advance. If you want to go to Europe in the summer and expect to get a free ticket when you book in May....dream on, those opportunities are long gone. Bear in mind that airlines only hold a few seats on each flight. They won’t tell you exactly how many. It’s one of those sweet mysteries of life.
...
In December, 2007, one of the members of Team CHEAPIOSITY went to Santiago, Chile in Business Class in exchange for 90,000 miles. He paid only $55 in tax for a $7000 ticket. That’s the kind of bargain we love. He stayed at a Luxury Collection Hotel using points and cash, paying a ridiculously low $60 a night including breakfast. See? With a little planning, you really can live a first class life at economy prices!
There are many other reward offers as well. You can earn additional valuable airline miles with the money you spend on hotels and shopping.
...
We also use The Starwood Hotels American Express Card. Starwood Hotels include: Sheraton, Four Points, St.Regis, Westin, Le Meridien, Luxury Collection, W Hotels, and more. Be sure to get Starwood points for joining and your first year membership for free. (You know the drill.) https://www143.americanexpress.com/cards/home.do#.
...
You earn points for every dollar spent on the Starwood card. You simply transfer those points to your mileage frequent flyer program. Starwood has 30 airline partners. Check what the deal is with your preferred airline; not all airlines are partners. Especially, check the ratio for exchange; for example, Starwood and American Airlines are partners, and the exchange ratio is 1:1 - one point = 1 mile. However, United Airlines’ ratio is a less favorable one at 2:1, meaning 2 Starwood Points = 1 United mile.
...
When we transfer 20,000 Starwood Points, we get a 5,000 point bonus. When we transfer 20,000 Starwood Points, we get 25,000 American miles. That’s a lot. We also exchange Starwood points for our hotel stays at Starwood properties, and with their Cash & Points program, we use less points and pay a greatly discounted amount for a room. For our stay at a Starwood Category 4 hotel, we would use 4,000 points and pay only $60 a night. What's a Category 4 hotel?? Go read about it on the Starwood Amex link....we can't do everything for you. (Suffice it to say it's four times better than a one-star hotel.) There are many other point exchanges for goods and services which you can read about on the link.
...
To maximize our travel savings, we use our credit cards for just about everything. Every point counts. We use our credit cards to pay our landline phone bill, mobile phone bill, cable bill, groceries, gas, dry cleaning, and other purchases. We are not encouraging you to accrue credit card debt, but if you are going to pay those bills anyway, why not get miles or points when you do? When you only write one check, you save on postage. Better yet, pay online and save the postage. In a previous post we told you about http://www.MileMavin.com, which will give you help maximizing your miles/points.
...
You can see how easy it is to accumulate 25-35,000 miles or more. That many miles would be good for a free domestic airline ticket. Before using your miles, remember to check the actual ticket price. If New York to Los Angeles is on sale for $199 roundtrip, save your points for when the prices go up or for a less popular destination. Of course, if you don't have the $199 and still want to go, then use your miles.
...
One last bit of advice.....you must book ahead to get what you want. If you have the foresight to plan, you should try to book 4 to 6 months in advance. If you want to go to Europe in the summer and expect to get a free ticket when you book in May....dream on, those opportunities are long gone. Bear in mind that airlines only hold a few seats on each flight. They won’t tell you exactly how many. It’s one of those sweet mysteries of life.
...
In December, 2007, one of the members of Team CHEAPIOSITY went to Santiago, Chile in Business Class in exchange for 90,000 miles. He paid only $55 in tax for a $7000 ticket. That’s the kind of bargain we love. He stayed at a Luxury Collection Hotel using points and cash, paying a ridiculously low $60 a night including breakfast. See? With a little planning, you really can live a first class life at economy prices!
Read more!
