Advice from the experts??
 

What a great site. I have only been on for a few weeks but have learned so much already. I am now retired and do very little paid travel or hotel stays anymore. I did a fair amount of business travel in the past. My accounts are (1) Marriott 280,000 points,(2)Delta 200,000,and,(3)Continental 150,000. I have credit cards for all three programs. Since I have been following this site I have taken advantage of offers such as InsideFlyer sign up for 3000 miles. Now my question is this...what more can or should I be doing? Is there anything that I have overlooked?

Pretty broad question - but two things to consider - 1) buying US Savings bonds with those credit cards; and 2) changing Long distance service a lot to earn miles. This isn't as easy as it used to be, but there are still a lot of miles out there to be had.

I'm sure others will have suggestions - I also like this site, done by a FlyerTalker:

http://home.earthlink.net/~pgary/TravelFrame.html

Are you signed up for miles when you dine out, through idine? I think most FF programs participate. Look for idine under the airlines partners. I get a DL miles from the Skymiles Dining program, for example. There are also some deals on initial deposits into certain brokerage accounts. They would most likely be under partners -> financial. Just make sure you don't make poor investment decisions simply for miles.

yorock

I should have added that I just joined IDine and changed our long distance carrier.

Check our all your purchases:

Groceries, dentist, doctor, insurance, gasoline, etc...EVERyTHING that you can possible put on those cc.

1. Try charging some of your monthly bills to your credit card (cell phone, security system, car loan, etc)....this will enable you to get more miles.

2. Signup for the Hilton CNTU promo. Do 4 stays in 90 days and you get 50K points. Goto the hilton board for more details.

3. Switch your long distance carriers every 6-12 months to take advantage of the bonuses they offer.

4. Switch your credit cards every year or so to take advantage of sign up bonuses (CO currently has a 10K bonus + double onepass miles)

I think you will enjoy looking at my web site below. Probably the most complete and up to date listing of free mileage offers on the web. Click on Free Frequent Flyer Miles in the left menu. Careful. Collecting free miles can be adictive.

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The Personal Travel Experience of Gary Steiger - including how to get free frequent flyer miles on the web.
http://home.earthlink.net/~pgary/TravelFrame.html