Win a trip to the Gold Coast of Australia (Official Post)
Okay – it’s finally here.
This giveaway is sponsored by American Express Premier Gold Card Rewards card and the travel experts at BoardingArea.
The prize: Seven nights/eight days hotel accommodations, transportation, meals, activities and round-trip airfare for two people to the Gold Coast of Australia (Queensland). (And the trip is a revenue trip so it is points and miles earning ;))
Total value = $10,250!
Those that can enter: The contest is open at all United States residents, 18 years and older (void in US territories). For the complete list of full contest details and rules click here
How to enter: Post a comment on this blog post with an answer to this question: “What is your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?”
You can enter between March 22, 2010 and March 28, 2010. Increase your chances of winning by posting a comment on the other 20 BoardingArea blogs that are participating. Only one entry per person per blog.
After March 28, 2010, I will randomly select one of the comments from this post to move on to the final drawing pool of 20 winners. So go ahead and comment!
Look for bonus offers on your programs’ respective web pages. You’ll find ways to earn miles that may require nothing more than opting in that you never would have known about had you not looked first.
Chase credit card offers for all they are worth. The recent Chase/BA offer for 100,000 miles was a great deal for those that got in on it. AA and Citi and Amex/Delta have some good offers, too.
Buy a subscription to Mileage Manager and use it to keep track of all of your balances. If you want to redeem for a trip to a specific destination, it will do a daily check of all your qualifying programs to see what’s available, when, and in what class and keep you up-to-date by email.
When the CSR says no, don’t give up!
I use Yodlee MoneyCenter to keep track of my miles. It’s free.
My tip would be:
Spend your miles!
While it’s wise to accumulate your miles towards a goal that’s has better value (first class tickets), everyone should keep in miles that miles WILL be devalued sooner or later! It’s better to get something out of your miles as opposed to accumulate them for an increasingly distant goal.
Don’t always choose the frequent flyer program of the airline you fly on. Check their alliance partners, another program may be better suited to your needs and wants.
Happy Flying!
-Fish
Use Southwest Airlines and Hilton HHonors. You can double dip with Hilton (earning hotel and flight credits) and earn quick tickets on Southwest through partners and flying. Then, vacation virtually for free!
Make sure to provide your frequent flier numbers when you go to a hotel, especially when you stay in hotels often. The points add up FAST!
Take advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses for new card applications.
Ask my friend Sandy Y. She knows everything about frequent flying. That, and read FlyerTalk.
What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?
The value of points tends to decrease with time, so burn ‘em rather than earn ‘em…. when you have enough for a nice premium intercontinental award.
Focus. Do you research and figure out which cities you visit often and what airlines you tend to take the most. Then try to rack up as many miles as you can with those airlines by flying and through their credit cards. Don’t spread yourself too thin by having couple thousand points in different accounts, but not enough to get a trip or qualify for a status. Limiting yourselves to two or thre alliances will do you a lot of good.
Always apply for credit cards when they have high mileage promotions for opening a new account.
Get a credit card to go with the program (or, if it works for you, the Starwood AmEx)–even if only for the signup bonus. It gives you a big head start on miles, and makes the whole game seem a lot more worthwhile.
Don’t use your points on low cost/distance trips! Save them for the expensive ones!
Top tip is to make sure you choose one airline partner and stick with the program. If you really want to maximize points, make sure that partner is one which has partnerships with hotels.
Consolidate your miles
Be polite to the people booking your award travel. They’ll be more likely to search for a strange routing.
With respect to airlines – learn how to redeem the points. Learn the partners, the different types of awards available for your given program etc… Just because the online search tool only gives you limited availability, doesn’t mean your award isn’t available. Even calling in isn’t a sure bet. If you know the rules and the booking classes, you can help guide a helpful phone agent to craft the itinerary you want.
Pay Attention! Watch your statements to catch any errors or missing trips, keep an eye out for promotions to increase your miles/points or standing, don’t forget to check for cross-promotions…
If you are a student or under age 26, use sites like student universe for cheap fares. Also if you are a college or graduate student, enroll in college plus and get 10,000 free United miles after you graduate!
Make a goal and earn toward it. Learn all the ways you can earn points/miles in that program and do your best to maximize.
Fly on one airline or alliance and make sure your miles post!
Value your points according to what you would have spent, not what the retail price is.
Set clear goals for your awards to figure out which program(s) is right for you.
Pick a milage program and stick with it. The milage program you chose depends on the type of traveler you are – what kind of hotels do you like? Rental cars? etc. If you ever have questions about milage programs, checkout flyertalk.com.
Jonathan
Read flyertalk and blogs like this one! Don’t redeem miles for flights (except BF upgrades, natch) until you’ve reached your desired elite status for the year.
I don’t always get to choose who I fly, so I make sure to maximise my miles by consolidating companies with partnerships. Be sure to keep an eye on those expiration dates! Sometimes simply renewing a magazine or buying flowers online will extend your FF miles expiration dates.
Always double-check that your loyalty program information is in your reservation. Many times (particularly with airlines) this data is mysteriously dropped, particularly when flying on codeshare segments.
One useful trick is to register for very promotion you come across on these blogs. Even if you think it cannot possibly apply to you (it may in the future), or if it’s just 50 miles (wouldn’t it suck to be 50 miles short for an award?), or for a program you don’t participate in (there are ways to transfer miles)… one never knows.
Pick a program that you like and stick to it, even if it ends up costing a little more. They’re not called loyalty rewards for nothing.
Read blogs like this one and grab the deals when they are there. Be sure to only apply for the most rewarding credit card and combine offers with your travel plans. If you don’t have one, just create.
Pick the best alliance for your travel needs, and back that up with another airline. For me, in Seattle, United (Star Alliance) and Alaska offers a good mix of earning and redemption choices.
It may take a long time to save the miles for two international premium class awards, so if you’re just a casual flier don’t worry about spending the miles on a domestic coach ticket – just make sure you’re getting a good value for the miles, such as using them for a late booking or a holiday period!
Think big. Domestic flights are (relatively) cheap, so aspire to earn enough miles for international tickets only. The kind of trips that will make your friends jealous.
You can transfer SPG points to over 30 different airlines at a 1 to 1 ratio. Transferring 20,000 SPG points gives you a bonus of 5,000 miles, for a total of 25,000 miles — enough for a domestic award ticket.
Pick the best alliance for your travel needs, and back that up with another airline.
Use car rentals (which often earn pitifully small miles bonuses) to reset the clock on expiration of miles accounts in which you lack activity. This works not only for mile accounts in your name, but for family members too: the rental companies report only the FF account number you give them, and not the renter’s name. I’ve used this many times without a hitch.
Every mile counts so try to get every mile possible from dining, shopping etc. Use SPG as your primary credit card for easy ability to convert to other programs.
Use ANA to research award travel and expert flyer/KVS for other airlines. Study the airline’s award website and have 1 or 2 backups. If you spread points across alliances (easy to do with credit card churning) you will have a lot more options! Do NOT rely on the agent to find you a routing!
Churn credit cards and bank sign up bonuses
Decide on an airline/alliance, get the miles/points credit cards + PLAN AHEAD!!!!!!
Airline miles are usually more valuable than hotel points, in addition to all the perks reserved for elites. So the quickest way is to get an airline-branded credit card and shoot for the bonus miles.
Concentrate on one of the airline alliances, and funnel all of miles to one frequent flier program within that alliance. This way, you don’t “orphan” miles over several different programs.
My top travel tip:
For airfares:
use kayak.com
For hotels:
use hotelscombined.com to search for many travel agencies at once and pick the best price. Or for those with Best Rate Guarantee, I can pick one with slightly more expensive price, and claim a best rate guarantee immediately (with difference cash back and $50 voucher which I can use in the future).
Concentrate your efforts on one or two programs. Use the Boarding Area blogs and FlyerTalk to find great deals and tips on making the best use of your miles/points.
Try to fly international economy as long as possible. You can see the world while saving copious miles. Once you experience international business class, economy will never seem the same.
get to know lan, it can be great for short hop one way tickets. a few thousand spg points can earn you trips from ny to toronto.