I have a confession to make: I'm addicted to earning frequent flyer miles and hotel loyalty program points. It all started about two years ago when I was planning my first trip to Africa. I knew I wanted business class seats for the long journey, but I didn't have enough frequent flyer miles in one account to book the seats. I wasn't sure what to do until I found the
FlyerTalk forum.
FlyerTalk is an interactive community of frequent flyers, but all types of travel reward programs are discussed (air, hotel, car rentals, etc.). There are forums for just about every airline, hotel program, and several reward credit cards.
Within weeks of reading posts at the forum I learned how to leverage the frequent flyer miles and American Express Membership Rewards that I had built up. I also learned what fare classes to search for when it comes to award tickets and upgrades using frequent flyer miles. (Subscribe to
ExpertFlyer.com to read more about airline fare classes and inventory buckets. If you're about to book an award ticket, you shouldn't do so without consulting ExpertFlyer first.)
With these tools, I transferred miles from Amex Membership Rewards to my Continental account. I then called Continental's award desk, armed with several itinerary options, and was able to book two business class tickets on partner airline, Delta (JFK to DKR to CPT and JNB to DKR to JFK).
Success! And I Become Obsessed
The addiction began to grow after that initial conquest. I turned my attention to my American Airlines account. I had a few miles, but not enough to book a trip anywhere. So, I began playing word games at Live Search Club in order to convert winning tickets into frequent flyer miles. Seventy-five thousand miles later I booked tickets to Papeete, Tahiti.
My AA AAdvantage account kept growing due to various promotions, the use of a branded credit card, and the program's online shopping mall.
Moving On to Hotel Loyalty Programs
As I learned more about travel rewards, I realized that hotel loyalty programs were another avenue for low-cost, luxury getaways. For my Africa trip, I took advantage of a sign-up bonus for the American Express Starwood card. I focused all of my spending on this card for the next few months and built up a vacation's worth of points to be used at hotels across the globe.
And, just recently I found out that American Airlines miles can be converted to Hilton HHonors points...yet one more excellent way to plan an inexpensive but top-notch vacation.
Resources to Bookmark Now
If you aren't yet mesmerized by the possibility of loyalty program rewards, visit the following resources to learn more:
If you've got additional frequent flyer/loyalty program hints and tricks, please let me know. My compulsion to snag low-cost, high-class travel isn't going away anytime soon!
On March 27, news agency Reuters reported that Somali pirates hijacked a yacht from the Seychelles in February as it sailed from the islands toward Madagascar. Two men, Gilbert Victor and Andre Conrad, both residents of the Seychelles, were on board.
