Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

As most savvy travelers well know, the only thing better than cheap airplane tickets or cheap vacation packages, is free travel. However, just because you are an infrequent traveler does not mean that you should fly without participating in a frequent flier program.

The problem faced by infrequent travelers is that it can take years to earn enough miles to secure a free ticket. Most frequent flier programs require the purchase of eight or more roundtrip tickets before qualifying for a free domestic flight.

People who do not fly often should employ one of two strategies to best take advantage of frequent flier programs:

• Do your best to fly on the same airline whenever you travel and through an airline affiliated credit card program earn miles through your purchases.

• Just earn a small number of miles and spend them on things like restaurant gift certificates, concert and sports tickets, magazines or even newspapers.

The most important thing to remember in accumulating miles is that they expire, often if your account does not have any activity for between 12 to 18 months. Also miles have the chance of becoming less valuable over time. For example Delta recently increased the number of miles needed to secure many of its free domestic tickets from 25,000 to 40,000 miles.

Don’t automatically sign up for every frequent flier programs. Some airlines cooperate with each other. For example Alaska flights can earn miles on either Delta or American. United, US Airways and Continental also cooperate.

Every part of a trip can earn miles. Car rental companies and hotels often offer airline miles to guests that request them.
www.cheapfares.com