To be quite honest, on this side of the pond we tend to miss out on quite a few of the promo's that the US get. Mind you, that doesn’t mean that there are none, just not quite so many.

Perhaps in would be useful if you could post your preferred FF programs, or what type of rewards you tend to go for, as I'm sure this will influent the advice that can be offered.

From experience, the UK based programs ie. Virgin, BA, etc tend to offer more non-airline earning opportunities than the traditional US programs. We also have Airmiles, which are supported by a number of retailers and can be used for several airlines and other offers.