Honig estimates that if Liu converted his Membership Rewards points into one of a number
of airline frequent flier programs, he and his family could travel anywhere, in style.
For instance, passengers on the same flight at the same airport might experience different wait times depending on different levels of benefits they receive
from airline frequent flier programs.
Commonly,
airline frequent flier program allow miles in your account to not expire if you have account activity (purchase a ticket or redeem miles) at certain intervals (such as once every three years).
For example, you can not transfer miles earned from your United MileagePlus Explorer card to your Delta SkyMiles account but you can transfer your SPG Starpoints earned from your American Express SPG credit card to
other airline frequent flier programs such as American, Delta and United.
Airline frequent flier programs have become less rewarding over the last few years by offering fewer upgrades to elite fliers and requiring more miles than ever for award tickets.
Become a member of
every airline frequent flier programs.
You can earn miles through
an airline frequent flier program or with a co-branded airline credit card.
But unfortunately, instead of looking for
another airline frequent flier program that's going to reward us the most, it's a battle to find one that's going to screw us the least.
You can earn miles through
an airline frequent flier program or with a co-branded airline credit card.
Become a member of
every airline frequent flier programs.
For the process to work, be sure to enter your Global Entry number on
your airline frequent flier program profile.
While most other types of credit cards, even rewards and cash back credit cards, do not have an annual fee, the cost of
airline frequent flier programs is such that an annual fee must be charged for it to be profitable for the credit card issuing bank.
And you might be able to wring more value from airline cards and other travel reward cards if you are willing to master the complexities of
airline frequent flier programs and accept limitations on availability.
It should be noted that you can not transfer miles earned from one
airline frequent flier program to another but you can transfer certain hotel points to some airline partners.
Dear Cashing In, I read about the changes to
airline frequent flier programs.
It's important to note that
each airline frequent flier program and hotel loyalty program has it's own points expiration policy, which will be the subject of a future post.
In the case of
airline frequent flier programs and their credit card - based programs, attempts to regulate them years ago through the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) failed as it kicked the regulatory process back to Congress, which pretty much gave airlines immunity from these types of laws.