My husband and I travel every year, but usually use discount sites to buy our tickets so we haven't used or even applied for frequent flier miles. What's the best way to get started, going with an airline or earning miles by a credit card benefit or something else?

Welcome to FT!

For starters, the answer to your questions is yes. You get miles by flying, signing up for credit cards and by shopping on the malls available on you airline's website.

Now, which airline is for you? All depends where you live, where you typically fly to, and what you hope to gain, ie status, domestic trips or international...

Hello. I am just starting out as well. I have signed up for Skymiles Amex several years ago and have around 30,000 miles. I know it is not much but I am going to work to pay all our bills with it and pay it off every month. I have already done that sucessfully twice. I do the free e-Miles Earning Opportunity. But what else can I do? Should I be involved in more programs too?
We just moved to Honolulu and there are so many great places we can go to from HNL.

Mahalo!

Won't a debit card work? If I need to get a credit card, I will...just don't like using them.

Most of the big sign-up bonuses come from various credit cards. It is possible to get some miles through checking accounts (I just got 25,000 CO miles by opening a Chase checking account last month). I also opened a CO credit card at the same time and expect to get another 25,000 miles in sign-up bonuses through that.

I'm earning some miles through my debit card (1 mile for every $2), but I'm earning them twice as fast on my credit card. Plus, some credit cards offer an even higher earning ratio.

In short, yes, you can earn miles without a credit card by taking advantage of debit cards and other offers. It's just a little faster to rack up the miles with a credit card. I use a credit card myself quite frequently, but I pay it off in full each month to avoid interest charges.

If you only fly rarely, think once or maybe twice a year, then consider concentrating on collecting hotel points.

You can earn hotel points and status with a credit card. Chances are the hotel points you can collect in a years time will get you mid tier status in the program and a weeks free stay at a nice 5 or 6 star hotel. And you will be able to use your hotel points on shorter notice than air miles for a FF ticket.

Frequent flyer miles are harder to get in large amounts and getting a seat on during peak season costs more on most airlines. Then try to do this for 2 FF tickets and you need to be planning 330 days out and still be willing to compromise. This may sound a bit of an exaggeration, but the airlines have been changing the rules.

The hotels have been changing the rules also but not to the point that you have to book a room a year in advance using twice the points during peak season. While you'll always earn miles flown for the flight, if you paid for the flight with a hotel branded credit card then you would get hotel miles for the flight also, same with gas, groceries, bills, etc.

Some banks have debit cards that earn rewards. IMHO the rewards are so low that it isn't worth it for me. The thing to do is use the credit card exactly like a debit card, except that you pay the bill in full once a month. This is really the only responsible way for me to use a credit card. I rarely carry a balance and then it is because of a special 0% interest deal that gives me free money for a bit. These 0% are almost extinct now, since they always add a % transaction fee now.

Since you are stuck in Alohaville (what a shame!), each of you needs to sign up for the Hawaiian Air ff program and each get a BoA and a BoHA Hawaiian Air CC (4 cards total). Then each get a Starwood AMEX (no fee first year) for the 10,000 points after first use bonus. Take the points and transfer them 1:1 to your Hawaiian Air ff accounts.

And, should you prefer to leave town on the lowdown, use your new local ID to get onto the Atlantis sub (go to Hilton Hawaiian Village) at a substantial discount.

AlohaDaveKennedy-
Thanks for the info. I will look into that. Right when we got here I signed up for the Hawaiian Air ff program but did not sign up for the cc's. I will look into them.
Thanks~