Frequent Flyer Programs

Knowing how to get the best of the airline frequent flyer mile promotions is key to cheap travel. After all, no price is better than "free" for traveling.

Airlines reward their best customers with free air travel. You, too, can fly for free by accumulating frequent flyer miles and redeeming them for air travel.

Many people are under the false impression that the miles flown=free miles later. This is not true. Most frequent flyer mile programs award you the actual miles flown, but require 20,000 to 25,000 miles at redemption time to get one domestic round-trip ticket.

For example, a trip from New York to Los Angeles is approximately 3,000 miles. You would have to make more than eight of these trips (8 x 3,000 = 24,000 miles, or four round trips) to be able to redeem one domestic round trip ticket.

Usually on shorter trips the airlines guarantee certain minimum miles, like 500 miles. For example, from Dallas to Wichita is 345 miles, but you will get 500 frequent flyer miles.

You can get frequent flyer miles from other travel-related activities like staying in a hotel or renting a car. Once you sign up for a frequent-flyer mile program you will receive ads telling you about their various partners and how to earn miles. Members of some programs can earn miles with as many as 1,500 companies, representing almost every imaginable retail, financial and service sector. Several mortgage and investment companies have partnered with airline programs, allowing members to earn miles for home loans and stock market trades. Long distance providers also award miles for monthly phone charges.

The wise traveler uses these partners only if their prices are in line with what they would have paid otherwise. In other words, don't pay a high price for a hotel just to get frequent flyer miles if a lower-priced hotel would suit your needs.

Signing up for a credit card affiliated with a frequent flyer mile program is a great way to accumulate miles for your everyday purchases. However, credit card finance charges and other fees can quickly wipe out any benefit from frequent flyer miles.

A single frequent flyer mile is worth about 2 cents in air travel. Let's say you belong to a program that will redeem a domestic round trip ticket for 20,000 miles. That is about $400 worth of travel, at 2 cents/mile. Using your 20,000 miles for a trip that costs less than $400 is not making good use of your miles. If you have to fly from Los Angeles to San Francisco and can make advance reservations, for example, don't use frequent flyer miles. But, if you have to fly from Los Angeles to New York for a last minute family emergency, then using your frequent flyer miles makes much more sense, as a last-minute full fare ticket could cost around $1000.

If you have a rewards credit card where you get frequent flyer miles, then you usually get one mile for every dollar spent on the credit card. This means you are getting approximately a 2% rebate on your credit card purchases. If the credit card costs $50/year, then you have to get at least $50 back in frequent flyer miles before you gain anything. In other words, you would have to charge $2,500 on your credit card before coming out ahead. If you do not think that you will charge at least that much on the credit card in the course of a year, then you are best without it.

There is no single, definitively superior frequent flyer program. If one did exist, every air traveler would belong to that program and the remaining programs would wither and die.

Usually miles collected in an airline frequent flyer mile program can be redeemed for even last minute, emergency travel. Think about your situation, where you live and who you might want to visit in an emergency. Where do your family members live? If family members live near cities serviced by one particular airline, then concentrate your frequent flyer miles on that airline, and, therefore, you will be prepared for last-minute travel. If, on the other hand, you find yourself flying to destinations served by several different airlines, and if you tend to make advance reservations, then the multi-airline card might be best for you. Regardless, ask questions in advance to avoid accumulating miles that you will never be able to use.

A key factor to consider is the prospective program's mileage-expiration policy. The current industry-standard rule is that miles do not expire as long as there is account activity, either earning or burning, every three years.

It's in the realm of the low-cost carriers that travelers have to be especially aware of consumer-unfriendly expiration policies. Some will have expiration dates after only 12 to 24 months of inactivity.