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THE SMART WAY TO EARN FREQUENT FLYER MILES.
Sure, airline credit cards give you 5,000 bonus miles for signing up. That's one-fifth of the way to earning a free trip across country, right ?
At least I thought so. I lived in Hawaii a few years back and was a frequent flyer whore to a particular airline. I figured that by putting all my eggs in one basket with one airline loyalty program that I could maximize my mileage and get trips back to the mainland. I got the airline credit card, did the rental car affiliates thing, and EVEN PUT UP WITH MCI RESIDENTIAL LONG DISTANCE for a period of time. But all I ever got out of it was short hops to the other islands on affilliate airlines. What a joke.
Ever tried to redeem frequent flyer miles with an actual airline ? Forget about travelling ANYWHERE during Thanksgiving, Christmas, or spring break. Forget about traveling at any reasonable time during the work week. While we're at it, forget about traveling on any days that end in "Y". Why ? The airlines will only give away a frequent flyer seat if they are certain it will be otherwise empty on that particular flight. This is why they make you book rewards 21 days in advance (American), require Saturday night stayovers, do not let you travel at 8 AM on the first flight out in the morning (this competes with "paying" business travelers), and generally make your life miserable when you are trying to cash in on what they promised you.
Here's more reasons why the airiline credit cards are not such a great deal...
United's Credit Card Program just added a surcharge to all purchases made overseas. Look for the other major carriers to follow suit.
On the bright side,
a friend turned me on to this "non-blackout" reward credit card from my credit union. For the same annual fee as an airline card (50 bucks), one dollar equals one mile, and you can start redeeming for free travel at 15,000 miles. This gets you any ticket, anywhere, anytime, as long as it is $300 or less. 20,000 miles gets you a ticket of $500 or less, and so on. I have found this to be a much more flexible option because now I just wait for a fare sale and "buy" the ticket I want on any airline I want. As an added "bonus", with this program I earn airline mileage when I fly on the free ticket ! This is not the case with airline program reward tickets.
I'm still a member of multiple airline reward programs for when I fly for business, but I am no longer a slave to any particular airline.
USAA and others have similar programs. Check them out.
The going rate for a free USA trip is about $18,000 miles with these non-blackout cards.
If The above link does not work, go to bankrate.com and click on "credit cards" to check out reward cards.
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