Want To Win An All Expenses Paid Trip To Australia? ENTER HERE!
A few weeks ago Boarding Area & Hilton Hotels allowed the Boarding Area bloggers to each give away a free night any Hilton in the United States. Well apparently that was so much fun, Boarding Area has now teamed up with American Express to give away something even better…
…what could be better than a free night in a hotel? How about an all expenses paid trip for two from the United States to Australia’s Gold Coast for eight days and seven nights.
Is that not good enough for you? What if Boarding Area and American Express were covering not only your airfare and hotel, but also your transportation, your meals, some activities … and also just for the hell of it, covering all of your taxes (since most contests like this require the winner to pay the taxes).
For the mileage run geeks, there is an added bonus … you’ll get full mileage credit and hotel stay points for your journey. If you’re flying from New York, that’s roughly 19,272 frequent flyer miles!
How could this get any better? You can enter 20 times!
Well you can only enter once on Flying With Fish, but you can enter once on each of the participating Boarding Area blogs.
Musings of The Global Traveler
I hate fine print, but American Express requires some fine print be added. This fine print includes entrants must be legal residents of the 50 United States and be aged 18 or older. One winner will be selected from each blog to be entered in the final drawing. From those 20 eligible entrants, one winner will be selected at random. Yadda yadda yadda yadda. For complete rules of entry and eligibility click HERE.
To enter simply leave a comment below detailing your top tip for earning or using airline or hotel loyalty points.
Remember you must enter with your real name and an email address you can be contacted at if you win.
I’m pulling for one of my readers to win for two reasons. One, I like my readers – Two, the blog with the selected winner takes home a new Apple iPad.
All entries must be received by the 28th of March … so what are you waiting for … ENTER!
Happy Flying!
learn from those who write these blogs and post on flyertalk. the information available can put you on your way to frugal, while luxurious, travel
1)Make sure your miles program matches your
award goals.
2)If you have a mileage credit card make sure it
allows you to redeem awards with numerous
carriers.
3)Start looking for your award seats 6 months in
advance of your trip.
4)Don’t forget to check code-share partners for
award seats.
5)Look for award seats on midweek days.
6)Since carriers change their award inventory on
Friday & Saturday nights at midnight, check then
for award seats.
7)Try BookYourAward.com. Worth the price to get
the seat you want.(According to Wendy Perrin at
Conde Nast Traveler.)
Keep your focus on what is most valuable. I burned 50,000 miles for a trip to California. Now my wife has enough miles for a trip to Australia and I don’t. Bummer!
*** Learn the intricacies of status matching ***
Occasionally there are promotions with hotels and airlines that temporarily boost status in their program. Take your new status level and match to competing programs! With some careful planning you can quickly attain status in several programs with an opportunity to
“challenge” to further upgrade or keep your new level of status.
Brand loyalty seems to work best for me. Find the best deal to match your circumstances and then, stick with it!!
Strike up an email correspondence with the general managers of your chosen hotel programs if you stay at any one more than once. Especially if you stay locally, you can cultivate a relationship with them, which can only help your upgrade possibilities.
If you were planning to use miles on a trip and find a great fare – go ahead and pay for it (if you can) and save the miles for a more expensive itinerary!
Buy a subscription to Mileage Manager and use it to keep track of all of your balances. If you want to redeem for a trip to a specific destination, it will do a daily check of all your qualifying programs to see what’s available, when, and in what class and keep you up-to-date by email.
When the CSR says no, don’t give up!
My tip would be:
Spend your miles!
While it’s wise to accumulate your miles towards a goal that’s has better value (first class tickets), everyone should keep in miles that miles WILL be devalued sooner or later! It’s better to get something out of your miles as opposed to accumulate them for an increasingly distant goal.
I use Yodlee MoneyCenter to keep track of my miles. It’s free.
Awesome contest, I like the odds
Set a goal and work towards it. This year, my goals was free travel in F to Africa. Best way for that, is BA mileage card from CHASE and spend my 30K a year on that card. Badabing, we (yes, two is better than one) will have two F tickets to SA.
Australia I write for an Aussie Podcat I should Go!!
make friends with experts like @briadavi and then nag them everytime you’re planning a trip.
If you travel Southwest a lot, use Hilton HHonors. They let you double dip so you get your hotel points and flight points. 🙂
Book far in advance! Number of miles needed often increases with time.
Make friends with me, oh.. wait.. already been done.
My top tip is to fly during the off season.. no sense in traveling when everyone else is!
Make sure to provide your frequent flier numbers when you go to a hotel, especially when you stay in hotels often. The points add up FAST!
Take advantage of credit card sign-up bonuses for new card applications.
Do not use your miles on routes with low fairs.
Detailed planning and creative day (not just Friday and Sunday) flying. Works like a charm! (:
Ask my friend Sandy Y. She knows everything about frequent flying
I’m always accused of being Austrailain here in Colorado mate. Well cobbers I’d say yer barking up the wrong eucalyptus tree!
Anyway back to the task in hand.
Always try to use the same airline, but these days it’s increaingly difficult. I like the way SWA simply does an 8 round trips = one free round trip deal – it’s easy and had no restrictions.
out
What’s your top tip for travelers who want to earn and use their loyalty points?
The value of points tends to decrease with time, so burn ‘em rather than earn ‘em…. when you have enough for a nice premium intercontinental award.
Focus. Do you research and figure out which cities you visit often and what airlines you tend to take the most. Then try to rack up as many miles as you can with those airlines by flying and through their credit cards. Don’t spread yourself too thin by having couple thousand points in different accounts, but not enough to get a trip or qualify for a status. Limiting yourselves to two or thre alliances will do you a lot of good.
Always apply for credit cards when they have high mileage promotions for opening a new account.
I try to be a loyal as possible to Marriott, and have found that I really rack up the points by paying attention to the MEGA BONUS periods. Marriott is also great about increasing the value of staying in a full service Marriott, Renaissance, or JW by awarding more points versus select service properties like Courtyard, Fairfield, etc.
The best way to use your miles and points is to be patient! Collect, collect, collect. If you don’t have an upcoming trip, use them for a magazine subscription or another perk you’re eyeing.
Get a credit card to go with the program (or, if it works for you, the Starwood AmEx)–even if only for the signup bonus. It gives you a big head start on miles, and makes the whole game seem a lot more worthwhile.
Several airlines have recently rolled-out mileage reward check cards in partnership with various banks. I’m all about the Delta SkyMiles Rewards Visa Check Card from SunTrust Bank. Raking in the miles while spending my own money— and not racking up a credit card bill!
Don’t use your points on low cost/distance trips! Save them for the expensive ones!
Credit all your miles and points to your account,s and spend points and miles from your parent’s! This works best when accompanied by the phrase “please daddy?”
Top tip is to make sure you choose one airline partner and stick with the program. If you really want to maximize points, make sure that partner is one which has partnerships with hotels.
Consolidate your miles
With respect to airlines – Learn how to redeem the points. Learn the partners, the different types of awards available for your given program etc… Just because the online search tool only gives you limited availability, doesn’t mean your award isn’t available. Even calling in isn’t a sure bet. If you know the rules and the booking classes, you can help guide a helpful phone agent to craft the itinerary you want.
Stick with one alliance and fly tricky routings where possible. ORD-LAS-SFO is way more fun than ORD-SFO.
When redeeming, go somewhere exotic. Like the Canadian north.
Pay Attention! Watch your statements to catch any errors or missing trips, keep an eye out for promotions to increase your miles/points or standing, don’t forget to check for cross-promotions…
If you are a student or under age 26, use sites like student universe for cheap fares. Also if you are a college or graduate student, enroll in college plus and get 10,000 free United miles after you graduate!
Value your points according to what you would have spent, not what the retail price is.
Pick a milage program and stick with it. The milage program you chose depends on the type of traveler you are – what kind of hotels do you like? Rental cars? etc. If you ever have questions about milage programs, checkout flyertalk.com.
Jonathan
Read flyertalk!
When booking tickets on airlines that partner with your primary carrier (one you wish to earn miles/points on), make sure to check the fare class you are buying and how that affects mileage earning. Not all fares earn miles, particularly when it comes to partners!
One useful trick is to register for very promotion you come across on these blogs. Even if you think it cannot possibly apply to you (it may in the future), or if it’s just 50 miles (wouldn’t it suck to be 50 miles short for an award?), or for a program you don’t participate in (there are ways to transfer miles)… one never knows.
Pick a program that you like and stick to it, even if it ends up costing a little more. They’re not called loyalty rewards for nothing.
Read blogs like this one and grab the deals when they are there. Be sure to only apply for the most rewarding credit card and combine offers with your travel plans. If you don’t have one, just create.
Focus on one or two programs to maximize your benefits. Also be sure to have your member programs saved either online (google docs) or on you’re cell phone so that you can always remember your member numbers.
Pick the best alliance for your travel needs, and back that up with another airline. For me, in Seattle, United (Star Alliance) and Alaska offers a good mix of earning and redemption choices.
Don’t be afraid to take a bump. You’ll often be rebooked in full Y class, which gives you 150 percent of the EQMs you would have normally earned.
Use miles for international travel only – it’s fun to aspire to see the world, and domestic airfare, with advance planning, is unbelievably affordable.
It may take a long time to save the miles for two international premium class awards, so if you’re just a casual flier don’t worry about spending the miles on a domestic coach ticket – just make sure you’re getting a good value for the miles, such as using them for a late booking or a holiday period!