Flyer Miles

[janette]

I got a Citibank card a couple of years ago that offers flyer miles. They have added up quite nicely, we moved during that time so have used it for some large purchases. I wanted to get the most for my miles and since our usual flight is DFW to Orlando it just isnt' very expensive.

My parents still live in a pretty remote area of MT, there is an airport with one airline and 2 flights a day out. They wanted to visit in AR & KY in March and I was able to use my miles to fly them here (DFW), I'll take them to AR and a sister from KY will take them back there with her. The return flight is from KY and they will go back home from there. The other mass transit options (they don't drive long distances anymore if possible) were train or bus both of which take 2to3 days.

The reservation agents did apologize for the flight times and number of stops - they do have to take a pretty round about path but they will be able to get from both places in the same day which is great.

No idea what it would cost purchase the tickets but since they involve 3 airlines and a not a direct round trip I think I've more than got the use of the miles

Now I just have to talk them into joining us in Orlando in a couple of years, I should have enough miles to get them there.

 

[nativetxn]

What a great way to use your frequent flyer miles. I'll bet your parents were so pleased.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

I know the feeling, I wanted to use some FF miles to go to orlando in may and the only way I can do it is to go from Boston to Cleveland to Orlando!

 

[Jeafl]

We have the Citibank MasterCard too and the miles really do add up. We have about 144,000 right now (NONE of which were actual miles flown!). We are still trying to save them up, hoping to get enough for 5 free tickets to Hawaii. We still need about 31,000 miles for that though. I suppose we could draw straws to see which kid stays home alone though!

 

[kendall]

do the citibank miles ever expire? I have a SkyRewards card that now has a two or three year expiration cap on the miles. Saving miles for Hawaii sounds like a wonderful idea!

 

[Jeafl]

As far as I know, they don't expire. We've been saving them for at least 6 or 7 years, with no end in sight. We've been tempted to cash them in for a quick trip to WDW, but for us it makes more sense to save them for a further, more expensive flight. I will double check with my husband though.

 

[kendall]

Good to know! So probably no expiration date - how about an annual cap?

 

[Jeafl]

Our Citibank card has no cap, but we did have a GM card at one time that only allowed you to accumulate 3000 points a year. I guess it depends on who's issuing the card.

 

[Tina]

We like using our miles for upgrades. If ticket prices are good, we'll buy the economy tix. Then we'll use the miles to upgrade to First Class. We don't usually do this for Orlando, since its less than 2 hours and there is usually no FC on these flights. Its a nice treat on those 5 hour flights to Las Vegas though.

We used to use Citibank for American Airlines, but all of their flights from DC require layovers, which I like to avoid whenever possible. Then we started using USAirways. After they got into trouble, we switched to United. Luckily, we haven't had any mileage for flight problems with USAirways or United since the bankrupcties.