Photo: alex-s / CC BY 2.0
What to do when you've got a bunch of frequent-flier mileage accounts, yet not enough miles in any one of them? That's the excellent question from Jennifer G., one of the winners of our FlyerTalk Challenge. She asks:
We have frequent-flyer miles for every airline, but the problem is that we never seem to have enough in each one for a free flight! With Delta, every flight seems to be in the 'high' season...and every Costa Rica flight during the rainy season!Frequent-flier guru and FlyerTalk founder Randy Petersen has answered Jennifer's question over at FlyerTalk. He's also laid out his top ten tips for combining miles from random mileage accounts in order to scrounge up enough for a free ticket. After the jump, the first five.
(1) Use Webflyer.com's Mileage Converter tool to convert your miles from one program into another.
(2) Use the Global Points Exchange tool at Points.com to trade miles with other travelers.
(3) Give your more neglected mileage accounts a shot in the arm via credit-card bonuses and online shopping.
(4) Look out for occasional award sales where airlines lower the number of miles needed for an award to as little as 15,000.
(5) Once you've built up enough mileage, use the AwardPlanner service over at MileageManager.com to check award availability daily for you so you can nab that seat you need as soon as it opens up.
For lots more detail and the remaining five tips, see Randy Petersen's complete answer to Jennifer's question in this thread on FlyerTalk.
Excellent advice!
I would only caution folks about using the CapitalOne / MilesOne card. Not that you shouldn't use it, but just be aware that the miles you rack up DO expire, whereas most other mileage credit cards keep your miles active as long as you continue to accumulate them.
I learned the hard way with CapitalOne - it took me a couple of years (of using the card religiously) to finally earn enough for a trip, only to watch my earliest-accumulated miles start expiring before I could book an award trip....so much for their "no hassle" policy! I still use them, but now I regularly transfer those miles to Global Points Exchange (aka points.com) so that I can actually use them when I'm ready to. I LOVE points.com!