Mileage Pro The Insider's Guide to Frequent Flyer Programs

AS ANY TRAVEL MARKETER WILL tell you, airline frequent flyer programs are designed to gain and retain the business of travelers by rewarding them for their...

FOR THE MAJORITY OF TRAVELERS—those who fly either occasionally or moderately—often the goal of earning miles is a free trip. For true frequent...

IN THE WORLD OF MILES and points, earning is the name of the game. At one time, racking up frequent flyer miles was fairly simple: You signed up, boarded...

MILEAGE EARNING CREDIT CARDS HAVE been fixtures on the travel rewards scene since the mid 1980s, but the landscape has never been as cluttered as it is...

AS WE HAVE WRITTEN, EARNING miles is easy these days but redeeming them for awards can be difficult. Here is a simple, if hard-to-believe fact: On any...

THE TYPICAL FREQUENT TRAVELER PARTICIPATES in five or more airline and hotel programs. Within any one of those programs, opportunities to earn miles and...

SOMETIME DURING YOUR MILEAGE CAREER you will likely need to exchange miles or points between programs. Generally this is due to one of several circumstances: ...

IF FREE TRAVEL IS THE heart of frequent flyer programs, elite status is the soul of these programs. After all, loyalty programs are about increasing revenues...

REPEAT AFTER US: HE WHO hesitates sits in coach. He who fails to rack up miles sits in coach. He who fails to follow the rules sits in coach. Now repeat...

RAISE THE SUBJECT OF AIRLINE alliances in a group of travel savvy consumers and watch the sparks fly. The universe of frequent flyers divides roughly evenly...

HOW DOES ONE GO ABOUT choosing the best awards from the thousands upon thousands of awards offered each year by all the assorted frequent travel programs? As...

AIRLINE LOYALTY PROGRAMS HAVE PROVEN themselves to be uncommonly powerful. That power derives from two sources: one purely emotional (the aspirational...

SOME OFFICIAL ESTIMATES CURRENTLY PUT the number of lawyers in the United States at about one million. That is approximately one attorney for every three...

LOVE MAY BE ETERNAL. MILES and points are not. When American’s AAdvantage program launched in 1981, members’ miles expired after 12 months....

OK, WE DID PUT a lot of information in Mileage Pro. Information we hope you will be able to go back to time and time again. But we also know that your...