MilesBuzz! - New Years Resolutions: For Your Miles and Points

It's near that annual time of the year when I make a list and don't check it twice. The list of things I promise to myself that I'll do better with my miles and points.

Here's:
- I've got to get a MasterCard in my wallet for all the promotions that require such. I've been meaning to do it from some time now since I write about the promos (like Hyatt) all the time. Almost embarassed to say that I had to borrow an employees MasterCard to qualify for a 5,000-mile AAdvantage bonus for staying at Sheraton in the next month.

- Change a very old habit. I've really screwed up. I miss the days of carrying around certificates for my upgrades and can't seem to get in the habit of reading and knowing what my electronic upgrade wallet contains. I let 8 upgrades expire this last year because I didn't know they were there and I could have used them.

- Get a better Spam control. For some reason most of my e-newsletters from my frequent flyer programs end up in the Spam in-box and I miss many of them before they are deleted. Not sure if it is just me, but this could be a problem and needs to a resolved in 2004.

I'm thinking there are more. How about you?

I should get serious about exploiting opportunities for mileage earning, such as paying every bill that can be paid by credit card, with a mileage earning card. I wrote a check to the dentist today realizing that I was costing myself XX miles by doing so.

- MasterCard is a should have. I'm planning to apply for one too as I've been missing many offers (not as many offered as in the US but still)

- Go all the way for redumption. I will attempt to max my redumption and avoid paying cash. The Euro is hitting a record high and I think the point/miles value has appreciated.

- Aim to maintain my BA Silver status. Won't bother myself for Gold.

- Avoid using my American Express cards for forign currency purchases. The mark up of 2.7% or more is really killing me.

- Keep better track of partner (hotel/car rental) activities as I usually many don't post and I lost hundreds of miles due to that.

- Keep bugging customer service of various programs and complain that promotions most of the time tend to target US-based customers only and forget about the rest of the wolrd!

- Make a habit of logging on FlyerTalk at least once every two days. I tend to miss many topics if I don't do so!

[This message has been edited by dabbagmm (edited Dec 08, 2003).]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by dabbagmm:
- Make a habit of logging on FlyerTalk at least once every two days. I tend to miss many topics if I don't do so!</font>

-Making it a habit to not be in Flyertalk all the time so I can get my job and other things in my life done. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

-Keeping my status with Northwest and continue to give them and UA the majority of my hard-earned money.

-Actually use my miles instead of hoarding them for that "possible last minute emergency fare to Europe or the west coast" even though I know that I'll pretty much never have that last minute emergency. It's just so **** hard rationalizing using my miles sometimes because I'd almost always rather pay and get the EQMs and the NW Domestic Upgrades (can you say addiction problem?)

and lastly,

-as a 100% leisure traveler, continue my last years resolution of taking at least 1 trip per month be it by air/rail/car (not a cruise fan) to see the world and sightsee, backpack, camp, budget travel and encourage others to do so as well - a well traveled person is a well rounded, cultured, understanding person in my books.

My motto for 2004 is to burn my miles and points... enjoy them (I do have a stash for emergencies)No one is increasing the value of them it seems like the opposite

My husband has even begun to appreciate my freebies or near freebies.

I'll have to keep better track of miles/points/promos and claim missing miles/points earlier. I've lost quite a number of miles/points because I requested these too late (e.g. "Sorry, it's already more than six months after your hotel stay. You can't claim the missing points for the amenity welcome gift anymore.").

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Pictures from hotel stays (http://www.e-traveller.net/lh738/triprep/hotel.php)
Basic Hotel stays/nights/points calculator (http://www.e-traveller.net/fgp/fgp01calc.php)
Short overview: KLM FD, LH M&M (http://www.e-traveller.net/ffp/kl01.php)

- Make AA 1MM Lifetime and then dump the AA Mastercard in favor of either a pure-rebate or home-grown points card.

- Dump all of the other mileage credit cards in my wallet unless they will continue to waive the annual fee.

- Keep hotel credit cards if they provide some real value, such as continued low-elite status in the hotel programs that I actually use once in a while. Otherwsie...dump 'em.

- Continue to milk 0% teaser offers to the max, paying close attention to my FICO score to make sure this action doesn't cause it to go haywire. (So far, it hasn't.) Keep this 0% teaser money in liquid low/medium risk investments so I can get debt-free quickly if needed.

- Continue to hit short-term hotel bonus promos where applicable, but don't overpay for a bad property just to earn hotel points. Consider Priceline for hotel stays, but also consider how hard hotels are now working to get their own promotional rates reasonably close to Priceline levels. (I've noticed this a lot in the past 4-5 months, and have been booking a lot at Marriott.com for only 25-30% over Priceline levels.

Fly somewhere every month, and see if we can both make UA Premier Exec. (Should make Premier this year, for the first time).
Randy, thanks for the reminder about getting a Master Card - I was almost stuck in Moldova because the only cash advance card they would accept was MC, and we only had our Visas.
Become a more active member of Flyer Talk - maybe even make a "Do"!

Kate

Fly when the prices are really down and the bonus points are highest, Jan through March.

Get my 100K qualification in by March, only need 75,000 this year 2004.

Take it easy for the summer and pick up another 25,000 in the fall.

Stay US Chairmans Preferred. Even though First Class isn't the greatest, it beats the back of the bus.

More miles, more smiles. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

-Collect and spend wisely http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/wink.gif

-Try to get status on an airline for the first time ever, although I doubt it will happen http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/frown.gif

-Collect enough points/miles for a trip to Australia

- Concentrate less on Continental (given their new EQM scheme)... actually I mean quit CO cold-turkey

- Work towards Gold on NW (was only a few thousand off the past two years)

- Concentrate my hotel stays on one chain by using Priceline less

- Work on my tan http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/biggrin.gif

- And... somehow be less concerned about how to earn miles (like that's going to happen).

Aloha

Visit here more often (have gotten instand HHonors Gold and gotten a lead on the AA Platinum challenge in just the last week)

Cut loose from CO and get Elite on another airline.

#1 Stay home more;

#2 8,325 miles per month on AA, I promise, no more of these 12000 miles in one day;

#3 Get SEN on LH; and

#4 Make 300000 miles on AA in 2004 and again in 2005 so I will complete 2MM by the end on 2005.

[This message has been edited by rbAA (edited Dec 09, 2003).]

In 2004 I will vote with my wallet more often rather than be blindly loyal to programs where I've earned status. If service isn't up to par time and again, then I will spend my money elsewhere. We let the airlines and others get away with service atrocities and then don't hold them accountable for it the way that would get their attention.

I plan to redeem as many miles as possible, before any further devaluation occurs.

I also plan to streamline my mileage accumulations to a limited number of vendors.

I plan to "reward" the companies that take good care of me by giving them most of my business.

[This message has been edited by MSP2000 (edited Dec 09, 2003).]

I will continue to do what I've been doing to maintain status with the airlines and hotels.

I plan to look into buying foreign savings bonds using a credit card.

- Make sure that REALLY this time, when Starwood changes the rules and doesn't tell us that I NEVER stay with them again!
- Actually that rule applies to any scheme that doesn't give suitable notice of major changes.
- Spend some of the 4,000,000 KLM miles so that I can pay off some of my mortgage by saving on paid air tickets.

-Try to earn and burn at roughly the same rate (for me, around 120K-130K total miles a year).

-Add up all the land costs for my leisure mileage runs before snapping up a ticket on spot sale because of the ticket price. If I do my due diligence, then I factor in the lodgings and car rents and weigh all those fixed costs against the value of total miles earned. Often a trip that looks good on the surface doesn't pass those tests, while another one with a higher ticket cost (maybe $50 more) either earns more miles or has lower land costs.

-Use the fact that I'm switching airlines and programs to try to get out of the mileage-run rut to the same 4-5 U.S. cities. See some less-explored ones.

-Check FT periodically for mileage specials or other deals.

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by kykate:
Randy, thanks for the reminder about getting a Master Card - I was almost stuck in Moldova because the only cash advance card they would accept was MC, and we only had our Visas.</font>

Kate - where in Moldova were you stuck?
When I had to buy my way out of Kishinev airport they were happy to let me advance $1000 worth of the local scrip on my UK Visa card.

That said, I too should get an AAdvantage MC, as the shortcomings of Citibank's UK offering are well documented.

Second - get an Aadvantage CC with a US billing address, to make paying for upgrades, change fees etc possible over the 'phone when I'm in the US.

1. Plan my elite qualification strategy better.

I'm now scrambling to get 16 segments in three weeks. If I'd planned better earlier in the year, I wouldn't now be running around trying to scrape together the last few trips.

Specifically, I should have:

1) Decided to go for Gold (HP) from the getgo

2) Tried harder to use my main airline instead of alternatives like United or Frontier. They were cheaper, but only because I didn't purchase early enough

3) Not used an award ticket (I know . . . it's a long story)

4) Monitored my progress throughout the year, and added extra segments as needed when they were cheap

pass 4mm lifetime on aa...currently sked for feb.

make exp..2 yrs w/o has been tough.

tie a string around my finger to remind me to give the rent a car people a ff #. i constantly forget & then weigh the cost of a stamp against the few mi's i will get.

visit the local air museums that i keep putting off.

get my feet down in 9 new countries to reach 100.

brush my teeth twice a day.

- Requalify for AAdvantage Platinum

- Learn more about the bump game and sucessfully get a bump

- Get everyone on my dorm floor signed up for a Frequent Flyer account and have them earn darn it! (Have three so far)

- Be the best darn 18 year old AA PLT i can be!

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DC-10's Forever!
"This is the weirdest Routing I've seen in all my 16 years"
-LGA Check in Agent upon seeing LGA-BOS-JFK-LAX

I really need to consolidate my flying. I could've easily made elite on US NW or AA, but ended up with too large a spread across the three.

Next year, I'm going to try for US elite...

-decide whether to switch from UA to Virgin. (would rather stick with UA but NYC timetable cuts make this impractical)
-get back BA Silver Card

If it looks like I'm going to need any MRs to preserve status, plan ahead better so they're not all in December when I'm already busy with other stuff

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Randy Petersen:
- Get a better Spam control. For some reason most of my e-newsletters from my frequent flyer programs end up in the Spam in-box and I miss many of them before they are deleted. Not sure if it is just me, but this could be a problem and needs to a resolved in 2004.</font>

Spambayes is an excellent spam filter with a simple Outlook plugin... I've been using it for about 5 months now with great success. I get around 400-500 spams/week, and only have to glance at about 10 of 'em to train the filter....

chartreuse
we were also in Chisinau (Kishinev). In May, 2002, we missed the only flight out on Austrian Air on a Wednesday, due to a schedule change. No credit cards accepted by Moldova Air International, but the bank that had an office there would give us a cash advance, but ONLY on Master Card! I started pulling $$ out of the ATM, but realized that I needed more than my daily limit to get two tickets. Luckily, our son, who was in the Peace Corps there, had enough cash to let us buy tickets for the next morning. I was thoroughly tired of post Soviet states by then and just wanted to get back to capitalism!
I must say, United refunded the cost of those tickets after we got home and mailed the correct documentation to them. Of course, they also took away the miles we that had posted for the *Alliance flight on Austrian Air that we never got to take...
Kate

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Randy Petersen:
- Get a better Spam control. For some reason most of my e-newsletters from my frequent flyer programs end up in the Spam in-box and I miss many of them before they are deleted. Not sure if it is just me, but this could be a problem and needs to a resolved in 2004.
</font>

Outlook 2003's spam control pretty much rocks. If you're looking for an appliance box to take care of corporate spam, look at www.corvigo.com (http://www.corvigo.com)

For me:
1) Requal for EXP - I don't know the likelihood of this, however. But I'll give it the old college try.
2) Find that balance between loving Priceline and keeping *some* hotel loyalty.
3) Horde my AA miles for a rainy day.

Even if I have to buy H fare, use my UA companion certificate by 15 Mar 04 (unlike two I gave to my sisters this year that went to waste). Requalify UA PremEx. Use some of those CO drink coupons. Try out the OZ SPN-ICN-MNL service, even if at inconvenient hours. Make sure my better half stays UA Premier (perhaps using the OZ flights if necessary). Spend more of my CO miles. Think about letting the CO Presidents Club attendant at LAX take my life membership card (because the stripe has been demagnetized) to re-issue me a new one -- only if travelling with my wife. Never take a "direct" flight if I can get two segments and it makes more than 100 miles difference. Make telephonic reservations if the airline website will not give me the extra-segment routing I want. Make sure that NW eventually credits my sister- and brother-in-law with their Fly Free Faster 3 bonuses (not credited due to a WorldPerks Mall partner cancelling their online order and not telling them), even if it takes a small claims action. Don't always take the very shortest connection if the next longest isn't too bad and there's a lounge I have access to. Arrive early if there's a lounge I have access to. Try to check out Inside Flyer online even 1/10 as much as I visit Flyer Talk. Don't let any hotel points expire! Use my Hilton GLON award by May 04, or have the points recredited. Take more time off work.

Burn the remaining 480,000 CO None Pass Miles
Burn my remaing 700,000 Hilton points.

Come to peace with the fact that the reason I am now flying in coach on the rare occaison I have to travel on business is the fact that I now have a life off of the road.

Maybe after last night sitting in a non reclining middle seat in the last row of coach I need to re-think my last resolution

[This message has been edited by FC_Dave (edited Dec 13, 2003).]