Bitten by the Bug
 

Hey,

My wife and I recently decided to do a lot more traveling with our kids. I found this forum and signed up just to learn how to maximize my miles with CO out of EWR.

I have to say I am blown away by this whole subculture I've discovered. I've been reading about the mileage runs, status, upgrades and everything else on here. (MrHalliday, I read and loved your "Confessions" piece)

Well, I'm in. I've been so bitten by the bug from reading this forum, and I'm ready to head off anywhere to get started. This will be our new hobby.

Some of the threads on here are a bit advanced for me right now with the jargon and references. Is there one area where I can begin reading to learn basic strategies and information?

And thanks so much for my new passion.

Andrew

You don't specify what type of "basic strategies & information" you're looking for... If its solely on how to maximize miles on CO, I'd suggest reading the CO forum most frequently.

There's a glossary of terms commonly found on FT located here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/glossary/

There's also a lookup of IATA airport codes found here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/acl/

Good luck.

The basic strategy is actually pretty easy, IMO. Buy tickets when they are cheap and see the world.

There are very few destinations in the world that I would not actually want to go so if a cheap fare comes up that I can reasonably find dates that work for me, I book it. I didn't go in to the year explicitly planning on having trips booked to Belgium/Luxembourg/London, Peru, Panama, Rome, Belize and Denmark/Norway. But the fares came along for those destinations and I jumped at each one.

For me the biggest mileage earner other than flying is the use of credit cards that give miles. If you are committed to CO, you probably already have a CO Chase Mastercard. But if you don't, check around and see what the best options are for sign-up bonus miles. There are several different cards that Chase offers and you can often get more than one. Your wife can probably also get one and get the sign-up bonus miles as well. I find it is worth it for both partners to have a card, since different special bonus earning opportunities are offered by the card depending on spending patterns.

You probably already read this thread, but just in case you didn't -

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-chase-cc.html

I would suggest spending a few hours reading all of the pages of my website below. That would put you well on your way towards obtaining a zillion free or very cheap miles.

Then, on my What's New page, sign up to receive an email every time I change that page, to keep up with what I consider to be the worthwhile offers.

I do try very hard to avoid jargon and acronyms both on my website and in my posts. I think some people are just showing off when they use that stuff, rather than trying to communicate with a large audience. Some actually believe that it is appropriate to use "WN" instead of "Southwest Airlines", and airport codes instead of city names, for examples. I really don't think these posters believe that all who read their posts have all airline and airport codes memorized, or that all of us are old enough to remember that Southwest Airlines was a merger of Western Airlines and a few others. They have motivations other than clear communication, I suspect.

Welcome to Flyertalk. :)

You know, not so many years back I was in the same boat, and really there's just so much to learn. The best way to go IMO is to start at the sticky posts at the top of the forums that interest you, and just dig in.

The sticky posts (posts that stay at the top of each forum) are generally well maintained and contain a huge wealth of information.

Over time the jargon will start to make more sense, you'll gain a lot of insight into the business and generally get better at discovering and optimizing your travel situations.

There's no "right" way to start, just let your curiosity lead you. Today you might think "I want a business class ticket on American Airlines from Los Angeles to London connecting in Chicago" and not long from now you'll be thinking "AA LAX-ORD-LHR in J/D/I" or some variation thereof, all the while calculating CPMs in your head based on your memorization of the route mileage, the fare basis, and your AAdvantage tier bonus. :)

It's an art as much as it is a science. Just remember to have fun while you're doing it. That's what it's all about for me, anyway.

Welcome!

I was in the same boat about four weeks ago.. having been a frequent flyer and 'lurker' for a long time I took the plunge!

FT rocks.... lots to learn. A good variety of advice here - it will help you maximise the value of your travels!

Good luck :-)

Welcome!

Agree with the poster who said look for the inexpensive deals and be open to new cities. You never know where you might end up...

The world really is smaller with FT! :D

Just buy a ticket and go!

Really, forget about getting it just right from the very beginning. Get some experience by buying the cheapest tickets you can find (with CO or Skyteam of course) and getting on some planes!

The rest will come in time.

Thanks for the great responses. I have a ton of questions but each day I answer more. I still have a great deal of reading to do.

Jerry, I did get the credit card back in November. That alone has so far given me about 30K miles.

PGary, I started on your website last night. I'm going to read more to night. Great stuff.

BK Guy, great suggestion. I didn't realize there was that much info in the sticky threads.

Everyone else, thanks for responding with tips and encouragment. I will keep an open mind to new places. My wife and I are in the process of re-tooling how I take my vacation time each year so as to save more days for surpirse trips. It's always exciting to find a new passion. Thanks again.

Definitely read pgary's website, freefrequentflyermiles.com. It's a little broader than FT, but also well-categorized.

Mike

Mrs. gre and I have somewhat flexible work schedules (very flexible with advance notice). So, I spend more hours than I'd care to admit studying UA prices and when I find something I can't pass up I quickly call the Mrs. and ask, "Do you want to go to Hong Kong/Florence/Buenos Aires in 3 months (or sometimes next week)?"

FT is really the best source. :) As for strategy, I suggest you do what I do:

1. I try to bank my miles in one airline's program. (AA, but your home airport and where you travel will influence your decision. Then try to fly that airline and its partners whenever possible.)

2. Nevertheless, I wouldn't pay an unlimited premium for AA miles. If AA wanted $1400 for a ticket that somebody else was offering for $900, I'd fly the latter. Have some rule about how much premium you are willing to pay.

3. For the above reason, I have also joined other programs (one from each major alliance, plus SW, plus an airline in India that I fly often). If I must fly another airline, I like to get miles even if not in my favorite AA account.

4. Get a credit card that earns miles for my primary program. There will be an annual fee and somewhat higher interest (so don't carry any balance here).

5. Keep looking at other miles-earning opportunities: cell phones, isp's, shopping, banks, hotels, etc.

6. Try to get elite status in your primary program. That way you earn extra bonus miles, besides other benefits.

7. To maximize miles/dollar, learn how to look for cheapest fares.

8. If you are comfortable with being and looking really insane, then start doing pure "mileage runs (MR)", ie, flying with no purpose other than earning miles. Mind you, if you do anything in your destination city other than perhaps using the rest-room, the purists here will refuse to let you call it a "MR". :)

9. Keep participating in FT forums. They will help you with all of the above.

Good luck, and welcome to FT!

I agree, tons of useful information. If only the What's New page included hyperlinks and ceased the JavaScript redirect. @:-)

Re-iterating what others have said, strategy rule #1 is to grab the rock-bottom deal (or even the mistake fare, if you're really lucky) and then figure out the reason to go there.

Realize that a lot of the best-value mile-earning trips on your own dime might be driven by unknowable factors like fare-sale patterns or even fare mistakes. Fare mistakes have been responsible for trips to places like Barbados, Acapulco and Rome for me in recent years. Fare sales are driven by competition and may favor the same group of cities.

Used to be there were also occasionally some eye-popping mileage sales. My all-time faves included 20K RT to Dusseldorf, 25K to Hong Kong, and 40K to Bangkok.

Which gets to rule #2...Be prepared to hear old-timers tell you how things used to be a lot better and how you're working a lot harder now for less bennies. :D:p You got in at least 10 years too late. Oh, well, better late than never.

Two additional tips:

1) Don't focus exclusively on accumulating airline miles. It can sometimes be difficult to get award seats (due to capacity restrictions) and some airlines (generally not the US ones, though) charge significant fees on top of miles for award seats. It's worthwhile, therefore to focus some of your efforts on accumulating points with a hotel's frequent guest program, since several of the major hotel chains have recently eliminated capacity restrictions on award bookings and generlly do not charge any fees on top of the points for free nights. (They have devalued their points, but that's another story.) Accumulating a decent stash of hotel points means that you'll have a couple of options when you want to plan a trip using miles and/or points. You can try to find reward seats, but if that's not possible or isn't a good value, you can look at redeeming some hotel points for one or more nights in your destination of choice. This can be a good strategy particularly for popular destinations where: a) reward seats are scarce; and b) good hotels are expensive.

When choosing a hotel program to focus on, think about which chain a) has enough coverage in the places you're likely to visit; and b) has a range of hotels in a range that extends down to prices you (or your employer) would be willing to pay $ for AND up to the kinds of hotels you'd look forward to staying in on vacation. For example, personally, I wouldn't focus on Hyatt because i) it's generally out of my price range for vacation stays (so I'm less likely to accumulate points), even though ii) it is a hotel chain I'd like to stay in on vacation. Similarly, I wouldn't focus on Choice or Best Western, because even though there are many hotels in these chains I can afford, they aren't generally the hotels I want to stay in on vacation. (Although there are some great BWs in Europe.) Instead, I focus on collecting Marriott and Hilton points because they have a wide range of hotels worldwide, have hotels in the chain I can afford to stay in when using my own $ and also have high-end hotels I can splurge on (using points).

Because I have (or at least until recently) had a large stash of miles (with BA, Flying Blue and Aeroplan), I've focused most of my credit card purchases in the last year on Marriott and Hilton-affiliated cards. A number of FT'ers are also big fans of the Starwood Amex, because of its flexibility: you can convert SPG points into miles with a number of airlines.

2) Investigate "earnings malls" to boost your point totals. I'm not sure if airlines have gone into this in a big way yet (except BA and Aeroplan), but Marriott and Hilton have virtual malls, which are essentially internet portals that you click through to get to a regular retailer's internet website (e.g. click through the Marriott earning mall portal to get to gap.com). When you do this, the $ spent on the retailer's website generate points in addition to the points you get using your credit card. For example, if I click through the Marriott earnings mall portal to gap.com and use my Marriott Visa, I get 1 Marriott point per $ for using the credit card plus 3 points per $ for making the purchase through Marriott's portal. It's a good way to boost your point totals without significant additional expenditure (provided that shipping fees are lower than transportation costs for going to the store).

Buzliteyear, I'm in the same situation as you. Very new to FT, but enjoying wandering around the fourms looking at interesting information.

I am currently Platinum in CO-One Pass, but am dropping to Gold from February - bummer! Am doing less business flying now, and am accruing miles through CC purchases, promotions, etc.

I'd love anyone to give me information on how it might be possible to maintain Elite status on CO should my actual flight miles drop. May be wishful thinking, but someone may have a strategy that might work!!!

Its a great bug to be bitten by.

pgarys site is probably the best place to really jumpstart your earnings.

We used to have the Mileageworkshop.com site. Sadly it has fallen into disrepair. :(

The discussions in the forums will help you to understand the best way to spend the miles.

If you make online purchases, use the rewardsdb.com website to make sure you earn some quick points.

Good luck and welcome from a loyal lurker.

I always travelled a lot but just through all the airlines and hotels. Last year stuck to United and Marriott to make the 1K and Platinum levels. Looking forward this year to meeting some people from flyertalk on some flights :-)

Welcome to FT and prepare to have lots of fun. I distinctly remember being in your shoes about three years ago. I was fresh out of college and wanting to explore the world. Now, three years later, I've been to close to 40 countries and all 50 states on a very modest budget and often in premium cabins.

I would also recommend that you try to make it to one of the Flyertalk "DO's" (see the Community Buzz forum). While I have learned a ton by spending hours reading FT, I think there is some degree of accelerated learning that takes place if you can find the time to meet up with other FT'ers (especially those who are interested in the same programs as you are). I have found DO's very rewarding.

FT rocks! :)

frequent flyer programs
 

I heard recently that Delta is kicking out Skymiles members for "alleged double dipping" with other programs without giving warning or a chance for correction. Any one knows about such actions by other programs?

Hi Andrew,

Welcome! I'm in the same boat you are - overwhelmed and totally excited about this whole subculture and the idea of learning a lot and being more of a "power traveler"! Here's to a lot of fun . . .

MWG

Mwahahahahah! Resistance is Futile...
 

...you will be assimilated!

Waitaminnit! You're ALREADY assimilated! You're here! MWAHAHAHAHAHHAH!

Seriously, I was in your shoes a couple of years ago. It's a lot of fun and I've met people and seen places I would have never seen otherwise. Also, with air travel being what it is nowadays, you need every advantage you can get!

You've taken the red pill. Welcome to (what it passes for) the real world... :rolleyes:

Running out of movie lines to quote...

One other suggestion, keep a journal of your travels. You might not think of it at the time, but there are so many things that happen when you travel and it is great fun to read those stories years later. Your children will also enjoy looking at it some day.

Got the bug +1!

How do I grab a rock bottom deal?
 

I'm pretty new to the ffmiles thing, and this forum as well (my 3rd post!). I'm trying to catch on to the great opportunities that are out there and have no one to bounce ideas or opportunities off of. Hense I tend to 'lurk' the posts to learn as much as I can.
I don't quite get how to grab on to a 'mistake fare'. I've seen them posted a couple of times but couldn't get them to come up when I tried to grab on.
I'd love to be able to grab onto a "eye-popping mileage sale" but haven't quite figured it out. It seems by the time I interpret the jargon, I'm ready to through in the towel. Even navigating forums- like here, am I posting this in the right area?

What an enormous amount of wonderful advice. All of us were in your shoes at one point or another. Welcome aboard.

As a fellow traveller from NJ, I'll give you my two cents I have status on Continental but I stopped using their credit card a long time ago. Most of my domestic flights with them are not that expensive. When you combine that with the difficulty in getting standard rewards from Continental, I simply no longer covet those points.

The main issue, for me, is the desire to travel Business or First Class for long flights - Europe, Mexico, California. I have found it pretty impossible to get standard rewards from CO for those long flights for the front of the plane. By carrying and massively using the Starwood AMEX, I have a stockpile of points I can transfer to most airlines (Continental and United are notable exceptions; you can transfer but the transfer rate is punative). I figure out where I want to go, see who goes there and has tickets I can get for a reasonable amount of points and transfer my points accordingly.

It may sound hard to believe, but with the tricks I've learned on FlyerTalk, I have been very successful transferring my Starwood points to Cathay Pacific and having them book reward flights for me on their partner, British Air! I know it must sound crazy to you and I too was intimidated by the process before I tried it but like most of the tips you'll get here, it was pretty easy.

If you become like most of us, you'll actually get to enjoy the process and look forward to getting the biggest bang for your points! When we went to Italy last summer, Continental wanted 250,000 points for Business Class from Newark. We flew British Air for 80,000 points - 20,000 less than CO wanted for Coach seats! And we threw in a few days in London to break it up.

Finally, I have had incredible hotel stays at many Starwood hotels. The fact that they don't limit reward rooms means that you can almost always get a room wherever you want for the basic number of points. You can often use extra points to get an even more special room. Like all programs and chains, Starwood is not perfect, but until Ritz Carlton comes out with a program and a credit card, I'm sold!

I truly hope you enjoy the process. I cannot begin to recount the wonderful and free trips we've had over the last five years.