Hi,
I am new around here and sort of new to the idea of accumulating frequent flyer miles/loyalty program points, etc. I fly only about twice per year and never seriously paid attention to FF progams until a few months ago. I learned of the recent Healthy Choice promotion while shopping for their product and started collecting but lost some of my receipts and never got around to mailing the stuff in. I joined Clickrewards and got over 800 points (spent just under $100) for my Christmas shopping online. Now I am going on a trip to Florida end of next month and was wondering if there are any tips for maximizing miles/points from this trip to really get my new hobby airborne. I already have a ticket on US Airways, and car and hotel bookings with Alamo and Sheraton. All advice greatly appreciated.

See I knew there were some people with good intentions that didn't redeem for Healthy Choice purchases.

make sure you check out these pages and for some free miles check out Mileage Addict's:

http://www.mileageworkshop.com/

Make sure you concentrate your activities on one program since you don't fly much and try to pick a program that flies where you want to take your rewards! Keep boarding passes and receipts because you don't always get miles credited properly. Also check out which airlines seem to give rewards out the easiest to non frequent flyers like yourself. Some are pretty stingy especially on popular routes.

Lastly, never lose the opportunity to make your miles, especially after you have laid out cash for a product, service or flight!

Get the free Starwood Optima card. That comes with Gold membership in Starwood (parent company of Sheraton), which will increase your points earned by 50% and get you a nicer room. The Starpoints can be transferred to any airline, and if you accumulate 20,000 of them they'll even give you a 5,000 mile bonus.

Thanks for the advice. I am really learning a lot.

BanjanYankee: I can't advise you much about FF; BlondeBomber, QuietLion and MileageAdddict all know heaps more than I ever will. Just wanted to say welcome!

------------------
Mark
"We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools." - Dr Martin Luther King Jr

[This message has been edited by MarkB (edited 02-03-2000).]

Where can I find more info on the Starwood Optima card? I checked the site but didn't find it... Gold and 50% points bonus sounds good.

Two clicks later I found my own answer:
http://home1.americanexpress.com/apply/fmac.asp
and choose the sheraton Starpoints card.

Learning. Always learning.

MarkB, thanks for your kind welcome. Thanks also for reminding us of that seminal thought from Dr. King. His is one of the key influences of my life. I also happen to be an alumnus of same school he attened here in Boston (School of Theology, Boston University), so here is a little trivia from that experience which might reflect on what we are doing here. While there back in the mid to late '80s when the King Library in Atlanta was fighting BU for its collection of King memorabilia I had a professor (no names) who also attended BU with Dr. King and was one of his close friends and associates. He used to dismiss the King memorabilia as a "packrat collection of laundry tickets and store receipts." Hummm, do you think if The Dreamer were still around he might also be collecting Frequent Flyer Miles???