frequent flyer miles help needed

woodstock

woodstock

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if you all can believe this, I had before never signed up for any airlines frequent flyer programs. criminal, I know. I finally did sign up for one - United only - and now have 50K miles. How far will that get me?

am I better off using it for a few domestic ones, or, one trip to Europe... or should I wait and use it for a LONG HAUL one like New Zealand - meaning, an upgrade to business or first to NZ? (or India, etc etc).

or would I be better off trying to use it for a nice hotel, etc. what are your experiences? (the whole thing - how hard are they to use, etc.)

thanks everyone...
 
Wow you have been missing out. The bigger issue is one of status you are in the basic run of the mill catagory or frequent flyers. Thsi means that you are the lowest priority for the airline when it comes to cashing in your miles.

They will only allocate a few seat per flight and the more frequent flyers get the first picks. When they get to you they are less likely to have anything for you. United I believe is 25k for a domestic flight and 50k for first class domestic or anytime awards. You may need all 50k to make your trip as the coach seats will go fast.

If you try and use your miles for upgrades again you are at the bottom rung and may not get it. But don't despair the more you fly the more perks you will get. I am almost always in first class without using miles or upgrades. On transpacific flights I get the first class sky suites and sleeper seats, I have only flown coach 4 times in the past 18 months.

But then I have over 2 million miles on AA alone and hit the permanent, as in rest of my life, platinum status with them.
 
Wow you have been missing out. The bigger issue is one of status you are in the basic run of the mill catagory or frequent flyers. Thsi means that you are the lowest priority for the airline when it comes to cashing in your miles.

They will only allocate a few seat per flight and the more frequent flyers get the first picks. When they get to you they are less likely to have anything for you. United I believe is 25k for a domestic flight and 50k for first class domestic or anytime awards. You may need all 50k to make your trip as the coach seats will go fast.

If you try and use your miles for upgrades again you are at the bottom rung and may not get it. But don't despair the more you fly the more perks you will get. I am almost always in first class without using miles or upgrades. On transpacific flights I get the first class sky suites and sleeper seats, I have only flown coach 4 times in the past 18 months.

But then I have over 2 million miles on AA alone and hit the permanent, as in rest of my life, platinum status with them.
 
smigaldi said:
But then I have over 2 million miles on AA alone and hit the permanent, as in rest of my life, platinum status with them.
Click to expand...
I assume that is for 2 million miles? I just hit 1 million miles and got gold status for life. And by the way, that is for the rest of my life or the rest of the program's life, whichever comes first. With the health of the airlines an issue, you never know....

HOWEVER, I have only flown 600,000 or so. The other 400,000 have come from using the affinity credit card. I charge everything I can to it, and each dollar is a mile. I joined the program in 1982 and I have travelled free, business class or better, to India, Hong Kong, Europe several times and multiple domestic flights.

Elizabeth, get yourself the United affinity credit card and use it exclusively. It all adds up!

-Skip
 
woodstock said:
and now have 50K miles. How far will that get me?

am I better off using it for a few domestic ones, or, one trip to Europe... or should I wait and use it for a LONG HAUL one like New Zealand - meaning, an upgrade to business or first to NZ? (or India, etc etc).

or would I be better off trying to use it for a nice hotel, etc. what are your experiences? (the whole thing - how hard are they to use, etc.)
Click to expand...

Beth,

Most of the road warriors I know, the folks that are on the road 3 or 4 nights a week, save their miles until they get to a status where they get upgrades without using the miles. For them it comes in handy for the long duration flights, say to Europe, where they get bumped to First Class without spending miles or dollars.

As for me, if I'm on a red eye and have something to do the next day I'll use miles to upgrade to First Class so I have some room to stretch out and get some sleep. I've also used miles to upgrade if I know there is going to be long ground delays (afternoon departures in the midwest in the summer - stops in the midwest in the winter). I've also used miles to take non biz trips (wife and I to HI for our honeymoon for example) and I've used miles for one way airline tickets so I could ferry GA airplanes.

Some things to consider:
  • The travel policies of some firms let you to buy a biz class ticket when on an overseas flight...less of a reason to upgrade on a biz trip if your firm allows you to do that.
  • If you are holding onto miles and the airline goes out of business you loose the miles. I had a ton of miles on Eastern and Pan Am.
Len
 
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Beth,

I've earned something like 2.5 million lifetime miles on frequent flyer programs. Most of those (over 2 milliion) were on Delta, which has earned me lifetime "gold" status (the middle tier of their three tiers). It's equivalent to "platinum" status on UA. At one point I had 'status' on Delta, Continental, and United.

Most very frequent flyers are more about status than actually using the miles. At certain status levels on certain airlines, you'd get free domestic upgrades anyway, and each year qualifying as a DL platinum, I'd get 6 or more certificates good for upgrades anywhere Delta flew. That was worth, by my count, several thousand dollars a year to me.

I'd burn some miles each year taking someone along with me on trips to Europe. I also burned some to send my parents to Hawaii, and some to reward an employee of mine who showed outstanding dedication but could never afford a long trip. The rest I let accumulate. Until I ended up looking for a job.... since then, I've been burning miles, and with the "Gold" status, I get access to seats that a regular frequent flyer could never get. I've still got enough in DL's pool to get one or 2 business class tickets to Europe, and I've got half a million miles still sitting at American Express that I can transfer to a couple of different airlines.

There are a few tricks to getting what you want out of the award system....
 
woodstock said:
am I better off using it for a few domestic ones, or, one trip to Europe... or should I wait and use it for a LONG HAUL one like New Zealand - meaning, an upgrade to business or first to NZ? (or India, etc etc).
Click to expand...

Beth, I saw a recent analysis between the "cash back" cards and the FF points cards. Ignoring the perks of the "million mile club", the conclusion was that you were better off with the cash back card vs. miles when using them for domestic flights, however the reverse was true for the "long haul" flights like Oz/NZ or Hawaii. The rationale was that 25,000 miles meant $25,000 spent. If you had used the money back card you would have received enough money back to buy a domestic ticket to almost anywhere and without black outs, etc. While this relates to cards, its safe to say the bigger bang for the buck was in using points for long haul.
 
Barry,

You're right on that. It makes no sense for me to burn my miles on a trip that costs around $200. 25,000 miles for a $200 ticket makes no sense. 80,000 miles for a $7,000 biz-class ticket to Europe does (not that a lot of folks actually pay that...). Even compared to $2,000 (which is about as cheap as MaxJet will get you in business from DC to London), 80,000 for a "free" ticket from DL/CO/AA/UA makes more sense than the domestic coach at 25,000. Unless you have no money at all and you can book ahead.

Here's an example. Booking at the right time, I can get a RT ticket on Midwest Airlines (same seating as domestic First Class on the major airlines) from San Antonio to Washington National for less than $250. Southwest's best fare from San Antonio to Baltimore rings in at a little over $200. Or I can burn 25,000 miles (actually, 20,000 because I still have miles in Delta's old program) for the same trip in coach *if I can get the seats*. And then, for the "free" ticket, you still have fees of up to $75 RT if you book less than 3 weeks from departure and you get the ticket by phone. So, I'll earn 3500ish frequent flyer miles, plus additional miles for using AmEx, if I buy the ticket as opposed to getting a "free" ticket.

Save the FF miles for a long haul trip or an upgrade on a long-haul if you can. Or save 'em for a time you're short on cash.
 
I seldom use my miles for myself. My wife uses them to travel with me now and then. 50,000 miles got her to the UK in 2001. 70,000 miles got her to Christchurch, NZ in 2002 (60,000 to Aukland and another 10,000 miles for the hop to the south island). 130,000 miles got her to South Africa last year (70,000 and 60,000 miles for the two parts of the trip with a plane change in Singapore both ways). 80,000 miles just got her a First Class ticket to Honolulu next summer (no coach non-stop flights available on my Alaska miles on any of their partners). I've got about 20,000 miles left on the Alaska account and around 300,000 miles on my United account (with more to come later this month).

It adds up and they do come in handy now and then.
 
thanks gentlemen - very helpful. I wasn't planning on going domestic but didn't think they were enough for Europe. Sounds like they may be - but still not worth it as London/Paris tix are cheap too usually.

However an upgrade to NZ or even free tix would be fabulous. ditto INdia...
 
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