Have you heard about the latest reduction in Frequent Flier miles at USAirways? That's today's news. Yesterday's news was the fact that so many carriers were shortening the timeframe for using your miles. Note to self: Fly a lot or lose all those precious points I've been working hard to accrue!
The business people say the airlines are doing this because airlines miles are bad for their books. But c'mon. What's a flier to do in order to keep their miles in this day and age?
For one, you can read the fine print. Sometimes you can keep your account active by adding miles to it so a credit card, magazines, or even takintg a miles-based trip might help you meet the quota. But you can't treat all the programs the same way because they're each different. If you don't fly that often and you want to get perks (some might say what perks?) from airlines these days you'd better pick one and stick with them.
My trick these days is to try and fly my favorite airline whenever it makes sense, but where I get most of my milles is on my Travelocity credit card. I know this seems like a cheap plug, but the truth is it's more flexible than any frequent flier program, it's on par with those accrual systems, there are no black out dates and you can apply instead of miles actual dollars off for your Travelocity purchases. Imagine getting $100 off your next vacation just for charging things on your Travelocity card. I don't know about you, but I'm digging that flexibility these days.
How do you keep your frequent flier points in check?
