Before finding Flyertalk I always flew in coach and redeemed miles in coach. I read on Flyertalk about all these people doing trips to Singapore for lots of miles. I made a trip to Paris in December 2000 to get status with UA for double miles on flights in 2001. In 2001 I made several trips to Singapore in economy and received triple miles with a bonus promo. I was getting over 50,000 miles for each $300 trip. The 14 to 16 hour flights from SFO to Hong Kong are killer on the body.

In the past four years I have been pulling in an average of 700,000 miles a year with all the knowledge I gain from FT. The best way to use those miles is flying business or first class because it is easy to accumulate more miles if you have the time and like to fly. I fly enough in economy when I am going for the lucrative airline promotional bonuses.