Here are our TOP 10 TIPS for using frequent flier miles and credit card points –

Frequent flier miles continue to be the new currency of this century – Many people work hard to earn them yet they don’t have a strategy to maximize their value. Here are our TOP 10 TIPS for using frequent flier miles. 

# 1 – American and United have the best frequent flier programs –Of the big three domestic airlines AA and UA have websites that are pretty easy to use and find freebie space. They appear to have a lot more “saver award” space that allows for redemption for a reasonable amount of frequent flier (FF) miles for both domestic and international free tickets, than does Delta. DL freebie space is easy to find but often requires twice as many miles as other airlines. Perhaps their planes are so full they don’t have enough empty seats to redeem for freebies.

# 2 – Book your free tickets very early or very late –A lot of airlines open up frequent flier seat inventory very early (11 months in advance) or very late (7 to 10 days prior to departure).

# 3 – Don’t use miles for upgrades but for free premium class tickets – It is a much better deal to use your miles for free tickets and not for upgrades. Most airlines today charge a very high number of miles plus cash to upgrade a seat domestically and internationally. You are much better off simply using all miles for a freebie premium seat ticket than messing with buying a ticket and then using miles and cash to upgrade and, in some cases, not being able to confirm your upgrade until the day before travel.

# 4 – Use your miles for international business and first class –  This is how you get the biggest bang for your buck. It is pretty easy math. Saver award space (low season) takes about 25,000 – 50,000 miles for a domestic round trip ticket ($400 – $800 value or 1.6 cents per mile). International economy class to Europe is 80,000 miles ($1600 value or 2 cents per mile). International business class is 140,000 miles ($5600 value or 4 cents per mile). You can easily see the value in your miles is using them for international business class seats.

# 5 – Airline partners often have easier and cheaper freebie tickets than the major U.S. Airlines – United, American, and Delta all belong to airline alliances that allow you to redeem airline miles on multiple airlines. There are 28 airlines in the Star Alliance with United Airlines. It is often much easier, and a lot cheaper, to find a premium (business or first class) freebie seat on a United partner airline like Lufthansa, ANA, Korean Air, and Asiana than on United Airlines. You are still using UA miles, just flying on a partner airline.

# 6 – Beware of airline fuel surcharges on free tickets – Three cheers for AA, DL, and UA as they don’t charge fuel surcharges on freebie tickets. International airlines like Lufthansa and British Airways can charge $1000 or more in fuel surcharge fees on free tickets.

# 7 – The best credit cards with the easiest to use points is the American Express Platinum Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve Visa card – I earn 5 points for every dollar spent purchasing airline tickets on the AMEX card and 3 points on the Chase Sapphire card. The Chase card can be converted into United miles (Click HEREto see the list) and the AMEX card has a dozen or more airlines (Click HERE to see the list). Both these cards have a high annual fee so they don’t make sense unless you are serious about traveling extensively.  

# 8 – I put the majority of my credit card miles into Air Canada’s Aeroplan –Air Canada is a member of United Airlines in the Star Alliance so I can use my Aeroplan miles to redeem for UA tickets. Sometimes I can find UA tickets cheaper on the Aeroplan site than on the UA website. This makes no sense but it happens a lot. I also seem to be able to redeem miles for premium seats on foreign airlines much easier and cheaper on Aeroplan than at United.com.

# 9 – Secure your airline tickets first when planning a vacation using FF miles –The more flexible you are the easier it becomes to find freebie seats using your FF miles. Always start your vacation planning by securing your freebie airline tickets. It is much easier to build your hotel stays around your freebie tickets than the other way around.

# 10 – Complimentary upgrades are fast going the way of the dinosaur  – Airlines are dramatically lowering the price of first and business-class seats in certain markets to try to get people to buy the seats rather than have all the premium seats filled with non-revenue complimentary upgrade customers. The airlines have figured out in the past that they might sell 4 out of 20 seats in first or business class and the rest were given as complimentary upgrades to their best customers. Now they are trying to lower the price of premium service so that people actually pay for the premium service.