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Originally Posted by
Chrisdh
First, let me say I am brand new to this, and my likely ignorant questions will probably irritate the experts, so please ignore the rest of this if that is the case for you. I'm embarrassed to say I'm over 50, have never traveled internationally, and need the most basic of help. I plan to take my 3 adult daughters and wife to Italy in May, 2014. I already booked the land portion, which you can imagine was very expensive! Now I need to book the flights. Granted, I do not currently have points, so finally I'm getting to my question. Is there ANYTHING I could do at this point to limit the cost, and secondarily, how can I maximize my benefits of purchasing these 5 tickets? Thanks for entertaining my obviously uninformed questions!
Welcome to flyertalk!
A lot of what flyertalk has to offer involves taking the time to read for yourself. This is not because people do not want to help you, it is because you have to educate yourself on the miles game to avoid costly mistakes. You will still make mistakes but they will not be costly.
Here is the information we need to help you AND you must go and read the appropriate threads, use the search button, etc.
#1.
investigate your likely airlines that you will use to fly to Italy
go to kayak.com, search for your departure hub to your destination hub and figure out the airlines that take you there. There will be more than 1. Come back and list those airlines AND your departure and destination airports. This is crucial information
#2
join the relevant frequent flyer clubs and hotel clubs for the common airlines and clubs. Before you do, see if there are any bonuses for joining by using google. consider a site like awardwallet.com to track your miles/points
#3.
read read read and educate yourself.
So what we need today to help you is:
1. where are you flying from
2. where are you flying to
3. when are you flying
that can get us a start.
ps
are you willing to sign up for credit cards to maximize your miles and possibly pay for flights using miles? <--- if you are here I assume this to be true
tons of blogs out there also:
http://millionmilesecrets.com/new-to...omment-1173327
http://thepointsguy.com/beginners-guide/
http://boardingarea.com/mommypoints/...es-and-points/
http://themilesprofessor.com/resourc...-miles-points/
psps
I started out like you in the spring, thought I educated myself and posted a similar thread. Now I am much more informed after being given a few links and pointers but most of it came from experience reading threads and thru making mistakes