for starters
others wil add in

1) look at the flying alliances
decide which one works best for you
in terms of work travel, mandatory leisure travel (visits to friends, relatives), and persoal leisre travel

concentrate your travel on that alliance

accrue all you flying miles to one particular airline within that alliance



2) adopt a value plus miles for all of your spending

a) get a credit card to go with the airline you a chosen

b) concentrate all your spending to that credit card to maximize the miles
(make sure you pay off the balance befoire interest accrues or this method is worthless)


c) where it makes a good value, do a lot of your spending using your cc on your chosen airlines shopping mall