Greetings, everyone! This is Stephen Gaiber: The Autistic Traveler. Today we are going to talk about a subject that will benefit YOU and your future travels. One of the biggest factors on deciding to take a trip is airplane travel. Luckily, there is a way that one can save big on travel… frequent flyer miles! In this blog, I am going to tell YOU about the frequent flyer miles programs, ways to use/earn frequent flyer miles, amount of miles needed to fly, and Orbucks available from Orbitz.
I am a member of the American Airlines Advantage, United MileagePlus, and Delta Skymiles programs. I always try to use frequent flyer miles to go on a trip once a year. Some of the trips I have used frequent flyer miles were for Hawaii, San Juan, Thailand and, most recently, Germany! Frequent flyer miles originated in 1979 with the now defunct Texas International Airlines. In 1981, American Airlines started their own brand, AAdvantage, and then United Airlines introduced United MileagePlus.
United MileagePlus is my favorite program because it is the easiest program to earn frequent flyer miles as well as easiest to redeem them. One domestic flight starts at 25,000, Mexico 35,000, Hawaii 45,000, Europe 60,000, China/Japan 70,000, rest of Asia/Australia/New Zealand 80,000. Members can also redeem miles on United partners Star Alliance members such as Air New Zealand, Eva Airlines, Lufthansa, Air China, and Air Canada. For more information on Star Alliance and United MileagePlus, please visit:
United also makes it easier for members to earn frequent flyer miles other than through air travel. If you own a Smartphone, there is an app called MileagePlus X. For every dollar you spend, you could earn 0.5-5 miles. If one is a MileagePlus credit card, they would earn a 25% bonus. The easiest way to earn United frequent flyer miles if one is online is by taking a survey at Opinion Miles Club. It’s free to join and one can earn averagely 50-60 miles for every survey taken. To get registered and learn more go to https://www.opinionmilesclub.com/.
American Airlines partners with the Oneworld alliance. Some of these airlines include British Airways, Cathay Pacific, JAL (Japan Airlines), and Qantas. For those members of AAdvantage, flights can also be redeemed for flights using these airlines. I will give you a personal tip to save money on taxes when redeeming your frequent flyer miles…don’t book a flight using British Airways because they charge more for taxes than American Airlines or other European Airlines. Feel free to visit https://www.oneworld.com/ and https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-program/aadvantage-program.jsp to learn more!
The Delta Skymiles Program is a little more complicated to redeem miles as the cost to redeem them fluctuates more often than the others. There's no set system as how many miles to redeem a trip as there is with American or United, so the best bet with this is to plug in the dates that work for you and see how many miles a trip is. It’s still a good option to use Delta Skymiles as it opens up more opportunities for vacations. To learn more about how to earn and redeem miles on Delta Skymiles, please visit https://www.delta.com/content/www/en_US/skymiles.html
Delta also works with the Skyteam Alliance (https://www.skyteam.com/en). Some of the partner airlines include Air France, KLM, Aeromexico and Korean Air. One of the most common ways I earn frequent flyer miles all the time is by using my credit cards. I have the Chase United Milegeplus Explorer Card, Citi AAdvantage Airlines Miles Card, and the Gold Delta Skymiles Credit Card. Every month I switch cards so I get miles on all three of them. The benefits include 2 miles/dollar for airline purchases, 1 mile/dollar for every other purchase, priority boarding, and a free checked bag. For those who sign up for the credit cards and spend a particular amount will be awarded bonus miles. There is a $95 annual fee for all three cards, but the cost is worth it to have a particular airline brand. To learn about or sign up for the three cards, please visit:
Another excellent way to earn frequent flyer miles is to go out and eat. All three frequent flyer miles all have the dining program. You type in a location and it tells you what restaurants are available. The choices range from your local fast food restaurant to a fancy dinner. There are three different types of memberships. If one is a general member and doesn't elect to get emails then it's 1 mile/dollar, if one does elect emails it's 3 miles/dollar (online member), if one does elect emails and dines out 12 or more times a year, then it's 5 miles/dollar (V.I.P. Member). To sign up or learn more, please visit:
https://dining.mileageplus.com/
I hope that this was helpful in showing you all the ways to earn frequent flyer miles. To summarize, the best ways to earn miles are surveys, credit card purchases, gift card apps, and even dining in. It also is a good idea to use Orbucks to save on that expensive hotel room. I'm Stephen Gaiber: The Autistic Traveler and I look forward to reviewing Hong Kong with YOU next week!
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