Best way to earn frequent flyer rewards

[DizFan13]

Hello, DISers. My DS 17 will be attending UC Irvine starting this fall, and I am trying to plan and budget for transportation for the year. The trips from our home in SW Washington to Irvine will be frequent, and I am thinking this might be a good time to try to figure out how to work a frequent flyer program.

We always fly JetBlue from PDX to LGB. I am a member of the TrueBlue program, but anyone who has experience with this program knows that it is difficult to utilize. It takes a very long time to build points. I am wondering if I should explore other airlines? The reason that we began flying JetBlue is that the cost is typically significantly less expensive than other flights into LGB, and even more so compared to flights into SNA. However, if we were able to build up points quicker with a different airline so that the cost overall was less, I would be willing to try. This year, he has to fly for an orientation, to move, home for Thanksgiving, Christmas break, Spring break, and then home for summer. In addition, I am sure that DH and I will be traveling at least two or three times (since DS will only be fifteen minutes from DLR! )

Does anyone have any advice and/or experience with frequent flyer programs that offer substantial/beneficial awards? I would be very happy if I could learn how to maximize the benefits for using the TrueBlue program, since we do love flying JetBlue.

 

[sheetz]

Nowadays the best way to accumulate miles is probably through airline affiliated credit cards. Some of the cards have very large signup bonuses and the miles can really add up if you put all your expenses on the card, especially when there are special promotions.

There are travel blogs where these things are discussed in great detail. Here are a few:

http://www.frugaltravelguy.com/
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/mommypoints/
http://thepointsguy.com/

I'm not familiar with PDX so I can't help you choose a specific airline, but it's important to look at which airlines best serve your desired airports, the difficulty in acquiring miles, and the difficulty in redeeming those miles for flights.

 

[ParkHopper1]

I fly almost weekly and Southwest has one of the best rewards programs to rack up free flights in my opinion...even more so with their new program they recently rolled out. I use that and I have a Southwest Rapid Rewards Visa card that I get bonus points for paying for my southwest flight on, plus all my other purchases on that card, I rack enough points for free flights very rapidly.

Plus I think they are offering a free flight promo if you sign up for a SW visa.

 

[DizFan13]

Thanks!

 

[mkunichi]

I would say don't let the frequent flyer program drive your decision of which airline to fly - particularly since you're talking about relatively short flights from PDX to LGB or SNA.

Your two choices for nonstop flights seem to be PDX-LGB on JetBlue or PDX-SNA/LGB on Alaska Airlines. If you choose Southwest, you have will have to connect in Sacramento, Oakland, or San Jose.

JetBlue and Southwest frequent flyer programs are dollar-based. That is, you get points based on your fare and redemption is based on some complicated formula based on how much the fare would otherwise be (I think). Alaska Airlines has a more traditional frequent flyer program where you get miles based on the miles you fly and redeem 12,500 miles for each one-way flight - capacity controlled so not all flights are available at this redemption level.

One trick that people usually use is to buy tickets when fares are low and redeem them for flights when they are expensive. You maximize your benefit that way. The advice about getting an airline credit card also works - you usually get one point per dollar but they always give you double miles for buying airline tickets on the airline associated with the credit card. Also, look beyond the straight airline cards to the Capital One Venture Rewards card and the Chase Sapphire and Sapphire Preferred cards.

Here are two sites I use to evaluate reward credit cards:
www.nerdwallet.com
www.plasticiq.com

Also, the Flyertalk Forums at www.flyertalk.com/forums have a wealth of information and expertise in frequent flyer programs. Here is the one for the JetBlue TrueBlue program:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/jetblue-trueblue-492/

Congratulations to your DS! I'm sure he'll have a great time in college down there!

 

[sheetz]

Plus I think they are offering a free flight promo if you sign up for a SW visa.

The SW Visa currently has an offer for 50,000 points which is good for $800 in free flights.

http://www.mychasecreditcards.com/southwest/2ffpromobox

 

[bumbershoot]

Definitely check out Alaska. And be sure to note the airlines that are included in their mileage program, so that if you take one of those airlines somewhere, you put your Alaska mileage number on that flight and earn Alaska miles for those as well.

 

[gokdog]

Not exclusively for Airline Miles, but very good are traditional credit card rewards, such as the Visa Signature Series. I only have been using mine for 2 years or so after years of using my bank debit card, but I try and buy everything with it and then just pay the bill at the end of the month, just like my old debit card use.

I get a 2 to 1 ratio for Airline use, such as a free $300 ticket for every 15,000 points, but with the merchant malls and bonuses that is not always $15k worth of spending. What I really like about this and I am sure it is not exclusive to Visa is that I just book the ticket and either ask for reimbursement from my Bank (No blackouts) but even better, I can do it for up to a year after I book/buy a flight, so pretty cool.

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Definitely check out Alaska. And be sure to note the airlines that are included in their mileage program, so that if you take one of those airlines somewhere, you put your Alaska mileage number on that flight and earn Alaska miles for those as well.

You can also do the opposite. Earn miles on AA or DL and then use those to book on Alaska. You can even book AS flights on the AA online booking engine.

One option may be to earn miles on Starwood Preferred Guest American Express. With 20,000 SPG points, you can transfer them to 25,000 AA, AS or DL miles. -- Suzanne

 

[SuzanneSLO]

Not exclusively for Airline Miles, but very good are traditional credit card rewards, such as the Visa Signature Series. I only have been using mine for 2 years or so after years of using my bank debit card, but I try and buy everything with it and then just pay the bill at the end of the month, just like my old debit card use.

I get a 2 to 1 ratio for Airline use, such as a free $300 ticket for every 15,000 points, but with the merchant malls and bonuses that is not always $15k worth of spending. What I really like about this and I am sure it is not exclusive to Visa is that I just book the ticket and either ask for reimbursement from my Bank (No blackouts) but even better, I can do it for up to a year after I book/buy a flight, so pretty cool.

I think you are talking about the card issued by Navy Federal CU. The downside to this card is that it is 15,000 points for up to a $300 credit or 30,000 points for up to $600. So it works best if your ticket cost is close to these amounts.

The other downside is that it doesn't allow you to "top off" the miles earned flying.

But for people who regularly fly on routes where the ticket is about $300, this could be good deal. -- Suzanne