How to Redeem Frequent Flyer Miles

Guide Note: Money is made for spending, and frequent flyer (or flier) miles are made for redeeming. How to Redeem Frequent Flyer Miles will explain the best ways to get the trip you're dreaming of for the lowest number of miles, or, if you're frustrated with your inability to get rid of your miles, alternative methods of getting value out of your mileage stash.

Table of Contents: Introduction

You Could Fly

You Could Upgrade

You Could Buy Stuff

You Can Donate Them to Charity

You Can Gift Your Miles

You Can Sell Your Miles

Conclusion

Introduction

Your journey awaits. (Creative Commons photo by Yuichi Kosio)
Your journey awaits. (Creative Commons photo by Yuichi Kosio)
  • Well, now you have over 1.2 million miles from your latest pudding coup, or from paying for your aunt's lavish funeral with your credit card. Now how the heck do you use them all?
  • Here, we will give you some tips on how to redeem your miles for the seat you want, using the fewest miles possible. It's hard to get good seats now, but not impossible. Persistence and research pays off.

Step 1: You Could Fly

  • Stop flapping your arms. On an airplane, silly. The number one way travelers use frequent flyer miles is, not surprisingly, for flights. But trying to redeem your miles for flights can be surprisingly difficult. Here's some tips for how to get the most mileage out of your mileage.

Use the fewest possible miles for the ticket you want.

  1. In the past few years, as many major carriers have gone in and out of bankruptcy, airlines have made it more difficult to use the minimum number of miles to receive a ticket.
  2. A standard domestic flight within the United States used to cost 25,000 miles for a coach seat.
    • However, it is often difficult to find available seats on heavy travel days on popular routes for this amount, and most airlines will try to get you to pay 50% or even 100% more in mileage. As The New York Times notes, while 25,000 miles may get you to Dublin in April, you'll probably need 50,000 to get you there in June.

Be flexible about your travel dates and times.

  • It usually pays to be flexible, since airlines do not want you to occupy a seat that a paying traveler might want.
    1. You have a better chance of using the minimum number of miles if you fly between Tuesday and Thursday.
    2. Flights on the weekend are often difficult to receive frequent flyer seats for.
    3. Want to travel for the minimum number of miles to be with your family on a big holiday like Thanksgiving? Try leaving on your vacation early and returning late, or, while this may seem counter-intuitive, you might try flying on the holiday itself. People generally like to stay put on big holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, but if you're willing to fly on that day, you may be able to get a seat.

Be flexible about the route you take to get to where you want to go.

  • Want to fly from Los Angeles to Hawaii, but you want to use miles? You would think that it would be best to take the most direct route there. Well, you would be wrong.
  1. The Today Show's Peter Greenberg recommends that if you can't find a seat for the minimum number of miles from Los Angeles to Honolulu that you ask the representative if they can route you through Las Vegas.
    • Why? There may be more award tickets available between Sin City and Honolulu, than between Los Angeles and Honolulu. As long as you don't mind the extra air time, plane transfer hassle, and partial responsibility for the environmental effects of spewing jet fuel into the air over the Mojave, then add on the extra leg.
  2. In the same vein, try to get flights out of or into alternate airports. Using the above example, it may be easier to get your award ticket flying out of Long Beach Airport or Ontario Airport, than out of LAX.

Know where you want to go far ahead of time.

  1. As a rule of thumb, you should book your ticket early. Seats reserved for frequent flyers disappear quickly, and you may never find any on the most popular routes, during the heaviest seasons.
    • However, booking early gives you a shot, and it also helps you avoid having late booking fees assessed.
  2. Airlines typically release seats for frequent flyers 330 days prior to the departure flight. Since the best seats on the best routes get gobbled up faster than you can say "Why 330?," savvy travelers know to do the math and plan ahead. (330 days = approximately 11 months.)
    • Visit Award Grabber to find out when award seats will be released for your flight. They also offer a feature where you can add these dates into your Google or Yahoo Calendar.

Play chicken with the program if you can't find anything right away.

  • The opposite of booking far ahead is waiting until the last minute. Often, airlines will release award seats close to the travel date if they believe these seats won't sell to regular paying customers. While you may have to pay a late booking fee, it may still be cost-effective depending on the route you are flying.

Be aware of rules concerning the redepositing of miles.

  • If you book an award ticket, and then decide not to take the trip, it may cost you a fee to redeposit your miles into your account. However, the risk might be worth it to reserve that special ticket.

Call the airline when redeeming miles for international travel.

  • Many airlines now allow you to redeem miles for international tickets online. However, you typically have a much narrower range of choices than if you speak directly with a customer service representative.
    1. You should always call if you want to book international travel using miles because most airlines have international partners that can only be searched by a representative.
    2. A route that may look unavailable online can usually be accommodated with the tools the representative has at his or her disposal.
    3. Some airlines charge an extra fee to book with a representative. If you can book your ticket for the minimum number of miles online without speaking to a human, do so.
    4. One of the best reasons to talk to an representative when redeeming miles for international travel is that you can sometimes plan in free stopovers in foreign cities on your route for no extra fee. If you want to fly to Bangkok, for instance, and would like to see Tokyo on the way, the representative has the power to build in a multi-day stopover in Tokyo. It is nearly impossible to do this online. "Open jaw" tickets (flying into one airport and leaving from another) are also only available if you talk to a representative.

Step 2: You Could Upgrade

A first class cabin. (Creative Commons photo by Richard Moross)
A first class cabin. (Creative Commons photo by Richard Moross)
  • Some seasoned frequent flyers recommend using award tickets for upgrades to first class on long flights. Not only will you fly in comfort while others on the plane suffer and develop deep vein thrombosis, but you will also earn miles for the flight at the same time.
    1. Many travelers prefer to use their miles this way, since it sometimes avoids the hassle of trying in vain to use miles to get a seat during busy travel times. It is typically easier to use your miles to upgrade, especially on underbooked flights.
    2. As Tim Winship of Smarter Travel points out, your miles are worth more if you use them to upgrade.

Step 3: You Could Buy Stuff

  • Not only can you earn miles through frequent flier mile programs, you can often buy products from a range of merchants affiliated with the airline.
    1. Depending on your program's affiliates, you can buy newspaper and magazine subscriptions, gift certificates, book car rentals or hotel stays, or receive discounts off of the price of retail items. American Airlines AAdvantage program has perhaps the most comprehensive choices.
    2. Some programs, such as Delta, even allow you to use your miles to bid on auction items.
    3. At Points.com you can use your miles to buy gift certificates to a wide range of popular merchants.
    4. While the opportunities to use miles this way are broad, it is usually a poor and inefficient way to spend those hard-earned perks. Frequent flyer miles should generally be saved for flying or flying-related activities.

Step 4: You Can Donate Your Miles to Charity

  • If you can't find the ticket you want, or if you only have a few miles in a particular program with no prospect of accruing more, you may want to give those miles away to a good cause.
    1. Many organizations accept these miles as a form of payment, including the Make-a-Wish Foundation, the American Red Cross, or the National Marrow Donor Program. Again, different frequent flyer programs have different affiliates.
    2. Lately, one of the most popular ways of donating miles to a good cause is to give them to U.S. soldiers through Operation Hero Miles. Originally, the program was founded to give soldiers returning to the states on R&R free tickets home. But the Department of Defense began paying for these flights, and now the program provides tickets to the family members of troops wounded in battle so that they can visit their loved ones, recuperating in hospitals far from home.

Step 5: You Can Gift or Transfer Your Miles

  • Even if you can't find a suitable frequent flyer seat, you may know a family member or friend who is looking for a flight. Or you may want to transfer your miles from one airline's frequent flyer account to another airline's account.
    • Most programs allow you to either transfer miles to another member's account, transfer to an affiliated account, or buy an award ticket in someone else's name. Transferring miles often involves a fee, which varies between airlines. The longer the transfer chain, the more miles you lose in the process. Buying an award ticket for someone else costs nothing extra and makes a great gift.

Step 6: You Can Sell Your Miles

Be Wise in Using Miles

Not only are fewer award seats available lately, but airlines have fewer seats in general. (Creative Commons photo by Ma1974)
Not only are fewer award seats available lately, but airlines have fewer seats in general. (Creative Commons photo by Ma1974)
  • Miles are fun. Reading your program's monthly newsletter, and keeping up on trends in the world of frequent flying are vital to assuring that you will get the maximum benefit from your miles. Free sites such as FrequentFlier.com, WebFlyer.com, and FlyerTalk.com have an overwhelming amount of information and advice from travelers and experts across the globe. Before redeeming, poke around these sites to become a savvy traveler.

Resources for How to Redeem Frequent Flyer Miles

Donating Miles

Frequent Flyer Program Alliances

Frequent Flyer Mile Programs

North American Carriers
African and Middle Eastern Carriers
Asia-Pacific Carriers
Caribbean Carriers
European Carriers
Latin American Carriers

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