ATLANTA — Casino pit bosses will tell you the best way to make your table action pay dividends is to sign up for a players card that is used to record points based on how much money you put down and how long you play. You often can get freebies on food, hotel rooms and merchandise.
The same holds true for flying. If you don’t have a frequent flier reward program number or card when you buy your next ticket, get one. The credits, miles or points you earn when you fly add up to discounted or free flights, upgrades and other rewards.
Not all airline programs are the same, so here are six tips to make frequent flier programs take off for you.
LOOK FOR VALUE
If you have 25,000 miles and want to fly Delta Air Lines, consider how much the ticket is before you use the miles. Sales abound right now due to the weak economy. If you can fly roundtrip from Atlanta to Boston for $178, it’s worth it to buy the ticket and save the miles for a free transcontinental flight that might cost you twice as much to buy.
BOOK EARLY
The best way to maximize your miles is to book your reward ticket at least several months before you want to fly. That’s because the number of reward seats available at the lowest redemption level on many airlines are limited, particularly at peak hours of the day or peak days of the year.
DIVERSIFY
Sign up for several reward programs — it’s free. Rewards on AirTran Airways add up fast. You can get a free domestic coach ticket for 16 flight credits, which take just eight roundtrip paid flights, regardless of distance, to accumulate.
But if you tend to take a lot of transcontinental flights, it may get you a faster free roundtrip coach ticket on United Airlines or US Airways, which, like Delta, give reward miles based on the distance you travel.
GET THE CREDIT CARD
Some airline branded credit cards will give you 2 miles or points for every dollar spent on the partner airline and 1 mile or point for every dollar spent everywhere else. Some of those cards carry annual fees of up to $85 or more. AirTran and Delta, however, have partner credit cards that offer no-annual-fee options, but that comes with 1 point or mile for every dollar spent on the partner airline and one-half of 1 point or mile for every dollar spent everywhere else.
WATCH FOR PROMOTIONS
Some airlines offer frequent flier members the ability to get extra miles, points or credits if they rent a car with a partner company, fly to certain locations or buy a Netflix membership. For travel between now and May 14, United has lowered the miles required for travel to Europe from 55,000 to 40,000, spokeswoman Robin Urbanski said.
DOUBLE DIP
Some hotel reward programs allow you to earn some of your rewards as airline miles with partner carriers or to transfer existing reward points to a partner airline reward program.
WATCH EXPIRATION DATES
Frequent flier miles, points or credits do not last forever on some carriers. With some airline programs, miles or credits can expire after a year or two.
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