frequent flyer miles?

[cristen]

I read on a post that someone saves money on her trips by charging everything to a credit card that awards her air miles. I just went to Delta to look at their rewards. It is a little confusing. Does anybody use frequent flier programs? Can someone explain a little to me. They say sign up and receive a 1000 miles. But how many miles do you have to have for a typical RT ticket? I never could find that info. Thanks for your help. Cristen

 

[JOC]

Here's the link to Delta's Award Ticket FAQs:

http://www.delta.com/care/faq/sm_faq/award_tkt_faq/index.jsp

It takes 25,000 miles for a free RT (certain travel restrictions apply), or 50,000 miles for unrestricted tavel.

 

[OregonDucks]

We do almost all of our family vacations with flier miles. On this trip we were short on our Delta miles, so we transfered our AX points to Delta miles. We were able to get 3 tickets (25,000 per ticket) and purchased the final ticket in DH name (its his Delta account so we will start getting more miles)

Are you already a Delta sky member? I just researched what flights we wanted and called Delta Sky customer service. They checked availability and I was done. I would advise that you do this early as there are limited seats available. (on last trip we had to split flights to get home. Not fun!)

 

[cristen]

Thank you. That seems like a lot of points to try & get. We NEVER use a credit card, but I thought if I could rack up some miles, I would start using one & pay it off every month. I am not a member of Sky Miles. I was just checking it out last night. I was wondering about the restrictions. How is it when you go to use the ticket? Are they pretty flexible? Or do they give you the scraps left over after everyone purchased theirs? We are going to WDW in late April or early May, do you think I could get enought miles in that time to get a ticket? Thanks for all your help! Cristen

 

[jtbdas]

Originally posted by cristen
Thank you. That seems like a lot of points to try & get. We NEVER use a credit card, but I thought if I could rack up some miles, I would start using one & pay it off every month. I am not a member of Sky Miles. I was just checking it out last night. I was wondering about the restrictions. How is it when you go to use the ticket? Are they pretty flexible? Or do they give you the scraps left over after everyone purchased theirs? We are going to WDW in late April or early May, do you think I could get enought miles in that time to get a ticket? Thanks for all your help! Cristen

Cristen, the frequent flyer miles programs are sometimes tricky to navigate when first using them. The key is to book as far in advance as possible, especially on the major carriers such as Delta and American. Usually it takes 25,000 miles for restricted travel, however many of the airlines offer 50,000 for unrestricted travel, which is equivalent to purchasing a standard fare ticket. With the airlines trimming down on flight schedules I have found that using the 25,000 is getting to be challenging, but you can still get them.

 

[shoes99]

"""How is it when you go to use the ticket? Are they pretty flexible? Or do they give you the scraps left over after everyone purchased theirs? We are going to WDW in late April or ""

Just like any other discounts, ff seats are limited and set aside for redemption. I wouldn't call them scraps.
As soon as you know your travel dates, you can book FF seats on line or thru an agent.
I am using Continental miles for my next trip. I use a CC for most purchases, and those miles add up very fast. I pay off the bills when received and incur no interest charges.
Delta often has promotions for double miles. You will be surprised how fast the miles add up. We redeemed 25,000 each for our next trip.

 

[caitycaity]

The key is to book as far in advance as possible, especially on the major carriers such as Delta and American.

frequent flyer with united and usair here. on united especially, it seems like there are more options about 1-2 months before your trip. i recently booked a trip to detroit using miles on united and last month there was nothing available on the date that i wanted. last week there were like 10 different itineraries i could choose. they open more stuff up to ff's when they can't fill it with people whoa er paying, it seems.

 

[cristen]

I have been looking at the different airlines that offer the rewards, trying to find the best one. I live in Colorado, so I think the three I could go with are United, Delta & Frontier. My DH refuses to fly United, so that leaves me Delta & Frontier. I looked at Frontier & they only require you to have 15000 miles for a ticket, Delta is 25000. But it looks like you can earn miles easier through Delta. But their credit card is 85.00 a year, Frontiers is free. But on Frontiers CC, you only earn 1 mile for every 2.00, Delta is 1 mile for every dollar. BUt overall, you guys think it is a good thing to do? Thanks again. Cristen

 

[ncligs]

We use the Continental World Master Card for everything(utilities,groceries,cell phone bill,gas,taxes,etc), and pay in ful when bill comes. We just flew 3 adults from Cleveland to San Antonio,Tx for 60,000 miles(Continental had a speial 6 months ago). This card is $85 a year but well worth it.

If I don't use the FF miles for round trip tx, I will upgrade to 1st class on flights of 4-5 hours(which we did for Vegas 3 weeks ago).
Also with this card if you book your flight on there website you get double miles for your puchase and 1000 miles for booking on-line. We also print our boarding passes at home and get another 1000 miles for doing it.

In the last 11 months we have gotten 75,000 FF miles(3 free tx) from charging.This doesn't even include our FF miles from flying.

 

[prncess674]

If you don't fly to earn frequent flyer miles you probably won't have enough time to earn enough miles for a ticket. To get one FF ticket you would need to charge $25,000. Do you think you can do this before your next trip? Even if you could charge it beofore your trip it might be cutting it close, because you can't book the ticket till you have the miles in your account. If you think you can charge that amount in the very near future I would go for it, otherwise start trying to save FF miles for your following trip.

 

[kcatoir]

We use our United Visa for everything, like many who have posted, and pay it off each month.
DH is also able to use it for all his business expenses, he travels A LOT!!, then his co. cuts him a ck.
By doing this we are able to accrue about 2-4 thousand miles a month, plus double mile specials.
United even has offers if you eat a certain restuarants they give you extra miles...I got 100 points for a $16 dinner!!!
We bought 3 ff tickets for our upcomming wdw trip dh, 2dd's but we were 12,000 miles from another ticket and I figured there's no way we can get that many miles in 3 months, so I was able to get a ticket for myself on the same flight for $450 (from west coast), after putting all our vacation on the visa I now have just shy of 25,000......DH is saying "I told you to wait" but I just figure we now have one ticket toward our trip next year so now I'm a year ahead!!!
We would never be able to afford to fly without the ff tickets.
I would highly recommend it.

 

[kcatoir]

I almost forgot the best part about being a new customer for United you get 15,000 bonus points!!!! thats over half your first ff ticket!!!!!

 

[zcomic]

Cristen, I think that was my post you saw. My miles are for Midwest Airlines and they are 25,000 for a free ticket and less than that for a companion ticket. If you do use your credit card for EVERYTHING possible the miles will rack up quickly. When choosing what program to sign up for you may want to see which airline is giving the most miles just for signing up. Also, many of them have 'partners' like long distance companies, etc that you get mileage credit for dollars spent or for signing up for their service.

Another credit card option worth looking at is Capital One. Their card accumulates miles but you can use them on a variety of airlines.

 

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by cristen
I read on a post that someone saves money on her trips by charging everything to a credit card that awards her air miles. I just went to Delta to look at their rewards. It is a little confusing. Does anybody use frequent flier programs? Can someone explain a little to me. They say sign up and receive a 1000 miles. But how many miles do you have to have for a typical RT ticket? I never could find that info. Thanks for your help. Cristen

We charge to the Delta Sky Miles credit card and we are using our miles to fly free on our Jan 2004 trip. I do everything via the web. Very easy. Go to www.delta.com for details.

 

[DebbieB]

Be sure to check the annual fees. I know USAir's annual fee on their visa card ranges from $50 to $90 depending on which one you choose (classic, gold, platnium). You get more introductory bonus miles if you pick the higher ones (3,000, 4,000, 7,000).

 

[ncligs]

Originally posted by DebbieB
Be sure to check the annual fees. I know USAir's annual fee on their visa card ranges from $50 to $90 depending on which one you choose (classic, gold, platnium). You get more introductory bonus miles if you pick the higher ones (3,000, 4,000, 7,000).

I forgot to mention when you sign up for the Continental World Master Card you get 10,000 bonus FF miles. Also Continental has a program with thousands of restraunts, that for every $1 you spend at a participating restraunt in there program(I-Dine) you get 10 miles for every mile spent(example.....$60 total=600 FF miles).