What shutterfly deal?

I'm just a little guy
 

Here's my list
Northwest: 183423
United: 96450
Priority Club: 12230
Amex MR: 86000

I'm in savings mode for my honeymoon (likely in '09).

CO: 140K
BA: 26K
SPG: 66K
HH: 10K

I may pick a *A program to bank some miles in between now and then, but haven't yet decided whether to do so.

I have miles in the following:

UA (soon to be closed)
US
NW
CO
DL
AA

I use CO and DL for transferring points from AmEx. I use NW for my flying miles, EQM, etc.

I have US mainly because I could transfer points from AmEx (no longer can) and they had a great convenience check offer last spring attached to their credit card, allowing me to accrue miles for writing convenience checks. I will keep US now and close UA for several reasons though I rarely fly US/UA/AA anymore.

AA, CO, DL, US but collect miles primarily in United and Northwest

I only accumulate miles in my Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan account (it has just over 10,000 miles in it right now; my mam's has 183,000 or so). I have small amounts of points (less than 2000) with Northwest, American (I think), and Amtrak. I have empty accounts with Hawaiian, United, America West, Delta, Southwest, and JAL.

Here are some of the programs that I'm a member of. I just joined Malaysia Airllines and have 1000 miles in it.

I am a spender and not a hoarder. I used to hoard but what are the miles and points for? You gonna take them with you?

I rarely buy tickets to fly and have gone to Asia, Hawaii, Europe on these kind of flights.

I have been doing this soon after Randy started writing about how to do it.

Today, I booked a hotel room with Hilton Hhonors points for my daughter's graduation for 2 days in a category 4.

The two best things that I have done in my time is fly my mother and me to meet her family in Japan. My mom had been back to see her family once in 40 years and that first one was over 20 years ago. I met my mom's family for the first time including my grandmother and uncle and aunts. I ended up making 3 wonderful trips there.

The other best thing that I did was to send my daughter and husband on their honeymoon to Vancouver, B.C. I flew them to Vancouver on AA and planted them in Vancouver Airport Hilton.

I first started saving miles at first and points later with the idea that who in America actually saves for their vacations? I meant in a way that assured that one would actually go somewhere. My first big flight for free was to Amsterdam and later Frankfurt....and this was mainly using MCI long distance mile in NWA's program.

I became an evangelist for the FF programs and no one listened to me. But I kept taking those flights and rooms. To this day I can't understand why most people don't take advantage of these programs to the fullest. I'm just a regular guy who just made it work for himself. Spend those miles and points as they are meant to be enjoyed and make them count...I just got back last week from a visit to Myrtle Beach spending time with my best friend who is moving to Mongolia next month. Delta was kind to me in getting me there for the $10 fee.


Phonehog 455
Alaska Mileage Plan 26,400
American AAdvantage 30,394
British Airways Executive Club 30,114
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles 1,250
Continental OnePass 17,214
Delta SkyMiles 34,218
Frontier EarlyReturns 6,001
Hawaiian HawaiianMiles 10,000
Midwest Airlines Midwest Miles 2,000 Mas 3,000
Northwest WorldPerks 57,613
United Mileage Plus 13,678
US Airways Dividend Miles 21,000
Virgin Atlantic flying club 0
Choice Hotels Choice Privileges 5,270
goldpointsplus 4,275
Hilton HHonors Gold VIP 53,652
Marriott Rewards 2,831
Priority Club Rewards 8,000
Starwood Preferred Guest 2,548
Hertz #1 Club 0
Amtrak Guest Rewards 2,000
GlobalPass 89

good on ya zud!
^

I think what's funny is how people STILL quietly judge someone based on things like their status on an airline or how many miles they've got now. For example, one of your balances is like 26k.. WELL I HAVE 300K ON THAT AIRLINE! :rolleyes: Ok, buster, when the program pulls an Ansett on ya or you forget to check your account every 3 years --no wait, 18 months-- are you gonna like admit THAT to us too? :D

Use them. It's money in the bank that does not come with the financial advice (or security) that mom, dad, an accountant or common sense might include! You are at the mercy of the marketers in unstable, inconsistent and sometimes corrupt airlines that created and can end these precious points programs.

make it work, make it count and then you can be happy.

Sure it helps to be someone who is proactive, creative, risk taking and savvy. But you need to have this as both a hobby and a quest. Not such that you lose your mind or spend so much time and money on promos or credit card finance charges that end up making it cost more, but whatever you can and will handle to make it happen. Many here know this so maybe I'm preaching to the choir in most cases, but you all know those types of people who just don't get it Sad indeed, but hey, maybe they are good at something we don't understand. (my non-mile savvy friend from work was the one who told me about how obtaining a roll of toll coupons for the New Hampshire toll we'd drive through every weekend for 10 years to go skiing in VT would save me like 40% each way! This was before EZ Pass and Fast Lane, and boy oh boy, was I miffed when I finally bought a roll of coins and noted the true savings of it! I was like OMG I wasted like $300 over the years here! There's a free flight!)

Now you, zud, have a TON of things to manage there... I have far less on my plate but iti's all relative, eh?... And that's my point: This may be your forte! ^ We all take on and handle what we can. If it gets dicey, I am certain most of us in FT make adjustments. What scares me is how many people in life do not. You know, the ones who sign up for everything online, shopoholics (ran into one on Ebay and got screwed on a sale I was trying to make), disorganized people who wattle through walmart in fat sweatpants and have a look on their faces as though they've given up (Seinfeld was right :D) and companies you work for or businesses you buy from whose own internal disaray ends up costing everyone. (see: gov't, airlines and working for, well, most everyone other than yourself)

In the end, I earn with CCs, promos, deals that could be found by being creative, and things like hotel car and flight travel when it's paid for as a recoverable expense. We do everything at home by using credit cards and I am of course in here babbling all the time.

go forth everyone! Enjoy!
:)MM

MM, don,t ever change.

I belong to more programs than I need to. Until 2003, like most infrequent travelers, I bought airline tickets based mainly on lowest fare. Whenever I flew on a carrier, I got a membership in their frequent flyer program and earned miles. I ended up with accounts on every major airline except American, and some minor airlines.

Once I started traveling a lot in 2002, by chance I managed to get Silver Medallion status on Delta. I also joined Flyertalk around then. Since then, I've focused my miles on Delta but also fly other carriers.

When I fly CO, AS, and NW, I earn my miles on Delta. My goal with other carriers than Delta is to simply grow them up to a domestic award, burn the miles, then ultimately close the account. With expiration periods being shortened, it's becoming too much of a hassle to try to make sure I earn a few miles on each account, although I do pretty well with car rentals and e-rewards.

Here are my programs
Delta - 181,200
United - 28,656
US Airways - 27,965
Northwest - 26,138
Continental - 24,160
Alaska 15,309 (All my recent miles here have come from AA)
ATA ?
Southwest ?

Here's a copy of the little Spreadsheet that I keep:

AC 15,000
AF 152,000
AA 242,000
CX 25,000
BA 200,000
CO 250,000
SPG 110,000
UA 217,000
US 482,000

Cannot burn them fast enough... :p

UA - 698,551 (burned 500K getting Mrs. CPT to Asia last year and 65K on her this year)
AA - 52,728 (527,729 lifetime)
DL - ~26K
NW - ~12K

Marriott - 618,666 (Just started staying there last year!)
SPG - 279,002
HHonors - 454,914

Since 2006:

Only AS Mileage Plan: 109,366 (via AS mostly, DL, NW and one CO)

Used one AS50 Award this year for 15K

Gotta love the 100% MVPG bonus

Not too bad for a College Freshman...

indeed! very cool!
wow, when I was in college, there were no FFPs, and my first year at UMASS, this RA comes up to me and my friend and says, if you want to go to spring break in March, it's $200 for the week and you pay now to save. We ended up with a week at some hotel on the strip with a pool and 4 in a room, and a flight on who knows what airline but they bulk paid for tickets in false made up names to hold the bookings. I was flying as like Jeff Jones or something. :D You did not need to show ID in those days and it was when Ft Lauderdale was the place to be.

I was not saving anything... money or time. I partied a lot and ended up with two majors after living in 7 places in 6.5 years at school. :D

Now I'm STILL trying to figure out what to do with myself but at 40+ with a wife and a baby and a passion for skiing and travel, I guess it all worked out nicely! Now, if I can save up some of those AS miles too...

:)MM