American Express Rewards is one of the best reward programs out there. The flexibility and variety of rewards available is out of this world. I have in the past redeemed Membership Rewards for Macy’s Gift cards (in a convoluted way, though) and for hotel stays. Just last week I redeemed them for airline tickets. The…
Award Travel
Tag Archives for Award Travel.
How I scored four Business Class Award tickets from US to India
As I posted a short while ago, I was able to book four Business Class award tickets to India for my family and I. This took up 480,000 miles redeemed! While it was painful to see the miles get deducted from my account, I am really looking forward to enjoying the flat bed seats and…
Expert tip 7: When booking award travel, consider booking one-way trips
Several airlines allow booking one-way award trips. If they do, always search for your award trip as both a round trip or as two one-way trips. The miles needed for booking usually adds up to be the same. At the most, if there is a booking fee, you may have to pay that twice. There…
Merger update: Significant United changes
United and Continental have finally merged. As I pointed out in an earlier post, united.com and continental.com, the websites also merged over to the new site this past weekend. The new site is based on the original continental.com. In fact, most of the operational ascpects of the new United are based on Continental. They are…
Expert Tip #2 – Focus on one airline
Focus all your Airline Mile earnings – from all sources (flying, credit card, surveys, etc.) – on one airline or no more than one airline per Alliance. The thinking here is pretty simple and straightforward. If you do not do this, you end up diluting your miles earned and also potentially lose your ability to…
The Economics of Airline Miles – Part V
The Economics of Airline Miles: Part V – Is it all really worth it? The ‘Economics of Airline Miles’ started off as a single article I was writing on the topic of the ‘Value of Airline Miles’ to us, the travelers. It grew and evolved and took on a life of its own. It is…
Starting a New Year of earning Miles and Status
Here we go again – Starting a New Year of earning Miles and Status: If you are like me, you logged in to your primary mileage account, the one you have Elite Status on, on Jan. 1st and saw a big fat Zero in your Status Miles (EQM) total. For almost every airline in the…
10 MORE reasons why SPG is the best Loyalty Program
In continuation to my ever popular post on 10 Reasons why Starwood is the Best Loyalty Program, here are 10 more reasons: Ability to book Airline Award tickets even when award inventory is not available. Airlines treat tickets booked via Starwood as revenue tickets and not award tickets. Earn airline miles on award tickets booked…
The cost of Redeeming Miles
Why do I have to pay for my ‘Free’ Award Ticket? One unique feature about the Free awards airlines give is that they are not really ‘Free’. While Hotels give absolutely free stays when they give awards, airlines charge you when redeeming Airline Miles. The cost of redeeming miles should be taken into consideration when…
The Economics of Airline Miles – Part IV
In the first three parts of this series on the Economics of Airline Miles I discussed: The Value of Airline Miles (Part I), The Value of Elite Status (Part II) and How to Maximize Airline Miles Earnings (Part III). In this fourth part of this ongoing series, I will go into the topic of how…
