frequent-flyer-miles

United Takes Your Miles To Upgrade Stranger's Reservation
It was incredibly generous of Wes to use his own frequent flyer miles to upgrade a random stranger's reservation to Business Class. At least, it would have been if that's what he had meant to do. He had called up to upgrade his wife's reservation, and it seems that a typo in the confirmation number meant that someone else got the upgrade, and no one knows how Wes can get his miles back. More »

A Trio Of Tips To Make Your Frequent Flyer Miles Take Flight
If you gaze in admiration upon George Clooney's character in Up in the Air, hoping that you too can reap enough frequent flyer miles like a pro, you may need to start over from scratch, ditching ineffective habits and replacing them with more efficient practices. More »

Rack Up Travel Rewards Without Going Crazy With Credit Cards
Everyone who signs up for airlines' frequent flyer programs dreams of cashing in their miles for amazing vacations. Credit card companies are counting on you being so enamored with that vision that you'll relax your spending discipline in pursuit of the goal. More »

Unorthodox Ways To Rack Up Airline Miles
Sure, you can rack up airline miles the boring way, by flying or using your credit card. But there are more creative methods to build up miles for free trips down the line. More »

AA Cancels Flight, Leaves Seniors En Route To Wedding To Fend For Themselves
Two days before they were to fly to Arkansas for a family wedding and reunion, American Airlines canceled the flight of five seniors, reports CBS Sacramento. They were handed back the frequent flyer miles they had used to buy the tickets, miles they spent years racking up, and told to find another flight on another airline. The only way to do it was for each of them to buy a $1083.40 last-minute ticket. They feel AA should have found them another flight or should reimburse them for the tickets, but according to both law and policy, they have no recourse. More »

Man Racks Up 10 Million United Airlines Miles
A United Airlines customer became the first of the airline's passengers to pile up 10 million frequent flyer miles. He flies so often that United's customer service reps recognize his voice. He had a Boeing 747-400 named in his honor and received United's first Titanium United Mileage Plus card, which has perks United refuses to publicize. More »

Best Credit Cards To Get Now
After a nearly apocalyptic pull-back in the credit card market, with credit lines slashed to the quick and new credit being denied, banks have decided to let a trickle flow out again. To entice the cream of the credit score crop, they're dangling a new batch of incentives. Via the Richmond Times-Dispatch, here's some of the best deals out there right now on credit cards: More »

"Bump The Bonus" And Get More Airline Miles For Free
One way to build up frequent flyer miles quickly is to apply for several of the credit cards that give bonus miles for signing up. You buy stuff you were going to buy anyway and meet the minimum spend requirement, get the miles and move on. But then a while later you notice that the same credit card is offering even more miles for newer applicants. Curses! Instead of despairing, though, The Frugal Travel Guy Rick Ingersoll says you should call the credit card company and ask them to increase the bonus miles they gave you to the new level. More »

How I Lost 90,000 United Miles
Marissa says she booked a flight in 2008 before canceling and using the credit to try to buy another flight. But United said she'd waited too long to re-book the flight, so her sunk cost and frequent flyer miles are gone. More »

Southwest's New Frequent Flier Program Rewards Biz Travelers Over Hoi Polloi
If air travel was a multi-player video-game, you would call Southwest's new "Rapid Rewards" frequent flier program "adjusting the game balance." In this case, the "Pinstripe" class is getting favorably tweaked at "Joe Sixpack" class's expense. More »

Southwest Overhauls Frequent Flyer Mile Program
Southwest today announced a major revamp of its frequent flyer mile program. Under the new system, travelers will get points based on their airfare amount. There will also be no blackout dates or seat restrictions (existing members will get grandfathered in). The airline also introduced three new fare buckets, "wanna get away," "anytime," and "business select" with increasing points per dollar to redeem and total points required for a free flight. So not only are you getting from point A to point B, you're also polishing valuable math skills. Southwest came out with 3 videos to explain it all: More »

Get The Most Out Of Your Frequent Flyer Miles
Lifehacker has some good reminder tips about how to get the most mileage out of your frequent flyer miles. Just like how you book a regular ticket, being flexible about your airports, adding connections, and flying on slow travel days can help you stretch their miles to their max. What frequent flyer mile strategies do you use? Sound off in the comments. More »

Starwood American Express Card Hikes Annual Fee To $65
The annual fee for the Starwood American Express card is going up from $45 to $65. Is it worth the price to pay for the right to use a credit card? More »

Free Award Wallet Upgrades
Last week we told you about Award Wallet, a site that helps keep track of your airline frequent flyer miles. While a basic account is free, they're giving away free account upgrades to the first 30 people who jump on this coupon code. More »

Track Your Frequent Flyer Miles With Award Wallet
Keeping track of your frequent flyer miles, when they're about to expire and what special rain dance you have to do to actually use them can be a big hassle. Award Wallet a free site that does a bunch of the dirty work for you, operating like a Mint.com for frequent flyer miles. More »

US Airways: No Mags For Miles, But Here's A Credit Card

—>You know those too-bad-to-be-true mailings that offer to let you turn expiring frequent flyer miles into magazine subscriptions? Turns out that, at least in some cases, they're even worse than advertised. Google SEO god Matt Cutts had racked up about 15,000 miles on U.S. Airways, and was looking for a way to cash them in before they expired. The magazines seemed like a better deal than just letting the miles turn to vapor, so he went ahead and ordered a bunch, and waited for them to arrive. And waited. And waited.  More »

Continental's CEO Fixes Your Frequent Flyer Miles

—>The CEO of Continental Airlines called up reader Ben personally and fixed his frequent flyer miles for him...  More »

Trim a little here, trim a little there: beginning in July, United will no longer give customers a minimum 500 frequent flyer miles for short trips. The new policy will be to give only the actual trip miles. [Chicago Tribune]  More »

15 Credit Cards With Good Rewards Programs

—> The financial columnist at MSN Money quizzed five credit card industry experts and a frequent flyer expert to find the best cards when it comes to travel programs, cash back programs, and savings programs. She narrowed it down to a top six—two in each category—and a bunch of near misses.   More »

Delta Downgrades Frequent Flyer Miles

Upgrade: Travel Better informs us that ever so lightly, Delta adjusted its frequent-flyer redemption policy to make it worse for travelers:

Effective December 1, 2007, SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will no longer be available on every Delta flight in which a seat is available for sale. SkyChoice Award Ticket Reservations will continue to be available on most Delta flights, but seats will be limited and possibly unavailable on some flights.

Nudge. Nudge. Nudge. At this rate, some day you'll actually have to pay a fine for accumulating frequent flyer miles.  More »