Originally Posted by
peachfront
Well, the trouble with that argument is that we were all children once, and we frequently observe children in the course of our travels, and "think of the children" just don't fly, Mommypoints. Children want to go to camp or to the beach or to Disneyworld. They do not want to go to Paris or Fiji. There is no social service involved in putting entire families including small children in the air.
I occasionally read MommyPoints, but I confess that I don't read it for deals. Instead, I read that blog for family travel ideas. I start at Rick Ingersoll's website multiple times per day. Then, I move to MilesBuzz!, then to the Credit Card Forums. I follow MommyPoints and The Points Guy on Facebook, but again, more for certain niche posts. All of that disclosed, your quote which I have highlighted above - peachfront - is short-sighted.
First of all, I have a preschooler who REALLY wants to go to London, Hawaii generally, and Australia generally. She would gladly spend hours upon hours on a flight watching Disney movies (with headset, of course, to spare the other flyers) continuously on a DVD player for the delayed gratification of visiting those places. This kid thought it was no big deal to stand in line for an hour to see a speech by President Obama. She stands in line for that long all of the time at the Disney Parks and waits patiently longer on a flight. Still...do we take her overseas now? Of course not! We're saving those trips for the future when our youngest is at least a preteen and guaranteed to enjoy them.
Regardless, lurking in FlyerTalk for a year then joining a little over a year ago and religiously reading FTG have been invaluable experiences. I continue to milk certain deals that I won't repeat here for fear of being rebuked for overexposure. I even was the first to expose a double application loophole for a specific card that I stumbled upon accidentally and have posted that in FlyerTalk. Since then, several have reported success in getting the deal on purpose.
How have I used FlyerTalk and the blogs? You know that "camp" comment? I used 90,000 Capital One Venture points to rent a cabin for a long weekend a couple of hours from where we live for a family reunion at the resort.
The Disney comment? We've cashed in 180,000+ Executive Club/Avios miles to fly our family twice to Disneyland (once in past including my in-laws, once in future), and we spent 100,000+ Cap One Venture miles for Allegiant flight+partner hotel and rental car at Walt Disney World. We've spent 157,500 HHonors points to stay in the Homewood Suites near Disneyland (future), 60,000 for a couple of nights in the Hilton O'Hare on each end of a Disneyland trip, and 25,000 a few months ago for a Hampton Inn on the way to the opening round of the Women's NCAA Basketball Tournament. We used 112,500 Aadvantage miles to get to SoCal to watch TCU win the Rose Bowl and to celebrate the win at Disneyland. And...one more Disney...we have used 30,000 SPG points for a future stay at the Swan Hotel near Epcot for 3 days.
Those are FAMILY trips! Miles and points help us with travel, accommodations, or both and GREATLY reduce the cost of the experience(s). In addition, things like Disney Premiere Annual Passports help meet the credit card spends as do highly discounted airfares on Allegiant. Oh, and we used 50,000 Southwest miles (which we will probably never fly) to buy an Xbox Kinect and a half-dozen games via the Amazon.com trade-in. That's pretty kid friendly and gets the whole family exercising on rainy and snowy weekends. I also got myself bumped to Gold in HHonors due to a loophole exposed in FlyerTalk. Then, I got a free upgrade on a AAA discounted room to a suite with jacuzzi at a certain Hilton brand property the night before I defended my dissertation. I can tell you that $80 for that normally $170+ room plus breakfast for 2 was a steal, and it certainly helped make me relaxed and poised prior to the successful defense. Thanks FT!
When our kids are older, we will take them to Hawaii and on international trips. If we still have miles and points, we will try to use them. If not, we will gladly pay out-of-pocket given what we have saved and continue to save through miles and points programs. We still have a sizable war chest of AAdvantage miles, United miles, SPG points, HHonors points, and numerous other points/miles. We will continue to churn and burn. Someday the game may die. Someday the miles may devalue to the point of minimal significance. But, today, I will milk them to give my family the vacations (and interactive video games) we otherwise might not be able to afford.