Frequent Flyer Programs. What about them?

Frequent flyer programs come in many shapes and sizes. Airlines compete for your loyalty with many different perks and advantages. The main is to sign up for a card when you travel to earn miles towards free flights and travel stays. Even if you don’t travel, there are credit card programs out there that allow you to earn miles so that maybe one day you could go on that trip you’ve always wanted to. Sometimes these are accumulated as “points” that can be redeemed as miles at a later time. 

Right now, I can really only give you a look into my main program, which is US Airways Dividend Miles. This has been my program of choice for years, but honestly only because one of US Airways’ hubs are in Philadelphia which gave me more options to fly anywhere than all of the other airlines. Looking back and knowing what I know now, I would most likely diversify my “portfolio” of frequent flyer programs so that I am not so forced to keep to just US Airways (which hey, they sure love the loyalty). 

I've used the points to my advantage during my current injury as I've been flying to medical center after medical center across the country. These extra miles I've accumulated have allowed me to pretty much do this for free. Would I love to spend these on a beautiful vacation somewhere in the Maldives? Probably. But with all of the medical costs that I've been incurring, this is a really great thing to have my back pocket. The other main reason I use the miles for our unlimited upgrades. This means I can basically book a coach flight anywhere but be able to upgrade using miles. This is especially helpful on those long flights that I take from San Francisco to Philadelphia.

Use your miles wisely, and make sure to plan ahead. I booked a vacation to Jamaica with my wife last year using miles, and booked it about 8 to 9 months in advance so that we can both go first-class round-trip. It makes the trip that much more enjoyable, plus you have some extra funds to do things that you wouldn't normally do on vacation. We had an absolute blast because this. The other thing you can do is “gift” miles. We have been able to book trips for family members and friends and loved ones because of all of the corporate travel that we have been doing.

The one thing I'll say is that you have to be pretty diligent about putting your frequent flyer number into all of your reservations. We acquire miles when we stay in hotels, rent cars, pump gas, and make purchases at the grocery store but it's up to you to make sure that you're getting credit for all of those miles. It’s all about how it fits into your life; you just have to use them to your advantage!