I use any and all means to get miles. I joined Mileage Plus 10 months ago on a promotional 15k enrollment bonus (Idine,grocery miles and First USA Visa free enrollment)never have flown UA and now have 70k enough for two free rides to Hawaii.
Enrolled in World Perks on a 4k first time
internet boooking and flew once to HNL
and now have 105,000 miles in World Perks.
I guess I have a nack for this kind of thing

Situation
From 4/97 to 9/02, I was completely loyal to American, 100% rate on flights where AA flew the city pair, and often flying to an alternate city 50-75 miles away rather than changing planes on a cheaper carrier.

I fly 35x/year for work. From late '99 through 9/11, I had enough long-haul to average 5k/month status miles for work on American. That made EXP a possibility for 2000 and 2001. In 2002 and 2003, however, 90% of my travel is to New England. For 2004, who knows - it'll depend on my next project (my role in my current one will tail off around September 2003). I might have 2 trips/year that are B/Y type fares, everything else is as low as possible on a major (ATA is not a realistic option, but living in Chicago, I have to consider AA, UA and WN)

I have work constraints on hotels, as I need hotels that will honor or beat government rate even though I'm a contractor, and need to try to stay under $125 in Boston at 2.5* or better.

I try to go to Europe at least once/year, but now that I'm out of systemwides that might become once every other year as I don't want to fly Y any more.

I've saved up for 2 J seats for a Oz/NZ/Hong Kong/Japan trip either late in 2004 or early in 2005, and 2 F seats to Europe for my parents in a similar time frame.

I take 7-8 leisure trips/year domestically, big cities, visiting friends/relatives, or finding cheap golf. Sometimes alone, sometimes with a cousin or friend. I usually buy at 4-5 cents/status mile if alone, 5-8 cents/status mile if visiting or traveling with friends or relatives.

I don't like to take mileage runs, but I will add a segment about once/month (usually on a Thursday night return home) to earn an extra 500-700 status miles. But I may do a couple of mileage runs on American this year, probably nonstop daytrips to the west coast.

Strategies
Barring the unlikely prospect of a new project west of the Rockies late in 2003, there is no way I could get back to EXP on AA in 2003. There's not enough work mileage and not enough vacation days as I try to travel no more than 122 days/year. 2004 will depend on my next project, for all I know I could be driving like I was in 1998 and 1999. So, since I can't make EXP, and AA cut my current project city to all-Eagle, I picked up a comp on UA to provide me pricing flexibility and mainline exit row seating.

My plan is to fly my 60 shortest work segments on UA, then fly 50k on American on all my longer work flights and vacations. That'll get me a PremEx/Platinum combo for 2004, which will put me in the best position to take advantage of either airline for my next project.

I have 725k in American right now, and will earn about 110k in 2003. 250k of that 825k is earmarked for my parents, the other 575k is my upgrade and free trip budget for the next five years.

I have 25k in United right now, and expect to earn another 75k this year. If UA looks stable, I'll keep enough miles there for a J award trip to Oz/NZ. Otherwise, they're going to Hilton.

The first choice for my work hotel stays are Hilton. Between work and some vacation stays, I had 36 stays and 74 nights at Hilton family properties in 2002. If I can't find a qualifying rate at Hilton and it's a 3*+ zone on Priceline, I'll go that route at the highest star level. My average Hilton room night is about $95, so I'll earn 140k this year to add to my 210k balance. My plan is to spend some of the miles in Anchorage this summer, and end 2003 with 275k towards expensive award stays in Sydney, Hong Kong, and Tokyo in 2005.

For domestic vacations, I use Priceline in big cities where I know I'll get a bargain, and Hilton/Hampton when Priceline won't work well (such as Ottawa, IL, where a 2* might get me the Comfort Inn).

My Sprint PCS miles (until March 2003) and HHonors airline miles go into Northwest, which is my backup account for family emergencies. I used 25k in September for an emergency trip for my aunt when all the airlines wanted $600, so I'm building it back up.

After years of 80% Hertz, 20% National, I switched to a mix of Avis and Budget this year - Budget when I'm by myself (I like the Ford Ranger, since I drive an Explorer at home), and Avis with colleagues. The Avis miles go into American, and the Budget points are being saved up for using on free weekends.

I have an HHonors Visa that I use only for Hilton stays and buying gas at Sam's Club. My primary affinity card is an Amex with Membership Rewards, where I spend about $2k/month. I cleaned out my balance when TWA merged with American. Those points are being held in reserve, to go to Marriott or Starwood as needed for award stays if I'm going someplace where Hilton doesn't have good coverage.

Since company/clients pay for business travel, that is all paid. Any vacation/personal travel is from miles. I figure I have enough now that the marginal cost of miles to me is near zero.

As long as I have enough in the bank for the long-planned family trip to Aus/NZ in F/Biz, I'll keep using them. I burned about 450,000 this year. If my earnings pattern ever changes (I still have more miles than I started the year with, by a long shot), I may be more frugal with them.

I just kind of blew all my UA-, LH- and KL-miles earned during the last eight years of travel within the last two years. In fact this year I did not buy a single air ticket, due to both redeeming awards and a bigger injury that took me "of the road" for about half a year. Next year's holiday (both of them) is also covered by the friendly LH-overdraw protection of 160K for SEN, so my balance currently is six-digit negative with LH (which puts the risk of mileage-devaluation onto them).

As to hotel points, I curently have redeemed all my Hilton points or have plans to do so soon. Near to no points will survive the 6/1 hike in terms of VIP-awards. My Marriott points will stay, as I only have very few and no good reason to use them, and my Starwood-points were transferred during the year to my Mileage Plus Account to top that off to get an award ticket for my son.

Fact will be in 2003: I'll start of from the scratch (no or near no points/miles in any account), and will take my loyalty to the company that offers the best in return for it...

Greeting - Dirk

I pay for all my travel and hotels myself. I accumulate approx 8k NW miles per month using WP visa - I did little flying this year due to illness so I will have no status 03. I flew mileage runs last year to make NW Gold elite, and currently have around 350k.
Primary use is for bringing family over from UK, although I will burn some for myself in early 03 on a self indulgent trip somewhere.
I nearly always buy tickets and suffer coach to maximise the miles. I can use the cheap miles for the expensive tickets from UK in the summer for the kids.
HH - very disappointed with the recent increases. I started collecting HH this summer when CNTU was around, and made 185k with laundering orphan miles and the suchlike. I was planning to do a London GLON in early 03 but will save them now for a ALON for my family next year. (If I can find availability) I guess the VIP awards were the undiscovered value in the Hotel awards world for too long.
I am currently transitioning from NW WP Visa to Starwood Amex, if I can get the Amex LOC up to a useful level.


[This message has been edited by RDY3238 (edited 12-22-2002).]

I use the HH GLON award for 6 nights at International Hotels. I have taken my family to the Hilton Turtle Bay (no longer a Jilton HHonors Hotel), Conrad Hong Hong and the Paris Hilton on GLON awards.

This gets a lot of bang for your buck. The Conrad Hong Kong was US$480.00/night when we went. The Paris Hilton was also over US$450./night when we stayed.

The airline awards I use for my family
and we take International vacations in Asia and Europe often. I have used over 2,500,000 Worldperks points on trips.

RC

My mantra was that when my combined balance(s) got over 5 million miles I would start to burn (In 1997 I burned 100,000 miles on Delta, In 2001 I burned 100,000 points from Hilton and in 1989 I burned 120,000 miles on Pan Am. That's It!). I now am above that level and haven't burned any more yet.

My goal is that I (or my wife)never want to sit in the back of the bus again and that one day I'll need the miles for this purpose. I will however commit to spending 3-400,000 Hilton points over the next 18 months.

I used to hoard when Hilton had
the concorde for 250.000 award
and the hyatt had the dream type awards,as I was hoping to achieve those awards.
but since Ansett went bellyup with over half a million of my points I have been burning all points off with gusto.

I just earn miles by buying tickets and only redeem for upgrades. Dollar for dollar an upgrade is worth 2-3X as much as a ticket.

A trancontinental RT is worth about $400, but a transcontinental upgrade is worth about $1100 (YMMV). Of course the value to personally is more important then the dollar value.

But other folks will want tickets especially if they usually fly shorter flights.

Interesting thread! Over the past few weeks, I have been re-evaluating my preferred hotel providers and re-examining my earning/ redemption strategies, as well as my hotel point valuations.

I am currently Hilton Diamond and Starwood Platinum, but will be moving the bulk of my business to Hilton this year for a number of reasons:
1. Much larger network of hotels than Starwood
2. Starwood has eliminated a significant earning component with the on-line booking bonus
3. Poor performance by Starwood on suite upgrades (about 16% for me as a Platinum)
4. Rise in Starwood Platinum stay requirements from 20 to 25 stays
5. Poorer overall value with SPG when I assess points earned per dollar spent (This includes the recent changes to both HHonors and SPG. The big HHonors changes were made to the long stay awards like the ALONs - 6 days in Hawaii. This doesn't impact me that much as only about 3% of my leisure stays are for more than 3 days.)
6. Hilton Diamond has virtually no award capacity controls from my experience (and that of numerous other Diamonds)

No one of these items forced the change, but taken together they make a compelling case.

My redemption strategy is closely linked to my earning strategy. For every leisure stay I plan, I look at each hotel in the area and perform the following:
1. Find the best rate at each hotel
2. Add the applicable tax to each rate
3. Deduct the "dollars of value" I would receive at each hotel based upon the best rate and my point/mile valuation for each program
SPG Points = .0181 cents
HHonors Points = .0055 cents
Marriott Rewards points = .0087 cents
AA miles = .0130 cents

This yields a "total cost" of stay for each hotel if I pay with $$. I then look at the award redemption possibilities at each hotel and run the same calculation, i.e, if it takes 20,000 HHonors points for one free night, I multiply the 20,000 points by my HHonors point valuation (.0055 cents) to compute the total cost of an award stay. Finally, I compare all of the total costs and go with the lowest cost option, whether its an award or a paid stay.

This seems to work quite well and ensures I only use awards when I am getting the best value. Of course, it also means that I don't necessarily stay at Hilton properties every time. I also try to keep the comparisons to the same level of hotel, i.e., not comparing a full service Marriott to a Hampton Inn. I'll also add in parking charges and breakfast costs if there are differences between the hotels.