Those Free Miles Are Flying Away

Those Free Miles Are Flying Away

Airlines are making it harder and harder to get freebees

Rembember the day when 20,000 frequent flyer miles bought you a free flight anywhere in the United States? No longer. In the past five years, veteran frequent flyer mile gatherers have watched their stashes slowly but surely devalue. Travelers who have been saving their miles for a rainy day are in danger of being washed out.

More than 200 billion of the trillion miles awarded since the inception of frequent flyer programs remain unredeemed. Airlines are making it harder for travelers to do so by raising the number of miles needed to claim a free trip, lowering the number of miles awarded on popular routes, imposing expiration dates on miles awarded, and limiting the seats available for coupon award tickets.

The savvy flyer can still beat the miles crunch, though. If you need an extra five thousand or ten thousand miles to get a coupon, you can get them without flying by using a credit card or long-distance telephone carrier aligned with a frequent flyer program. Travelers who need fewer miles can take advantage of the many hotels, car rental agencies, and airline frequent flyer clubs that have ongoing frequent flyer promotions. Hotels and car rental companies listed in airline frequent flyer newsletters often offer double mileage promotions, while airline clubs such as TWA Ambassador’s Club award 5.000 miles for a one-year membership.

Beyond these backdoor methods, travelers would do well to compare their frequent flyer programs with other major programs. Where there is a choice, it pays to sign up and fly with those programs that are the most lucrative.

Free Miles Flying Away. Photo by Elena.

Expert List: How frequent flyer programs stack up: Here’s how Randy Peterson, editor of Inside Flyer magazine, rates the airlines’ frequent flyer programs. Peterson has analyzed frequent flyer programs since their inception in the 1980s.

Program: NortherWorldPerks, American AAdvantage, USAIR Frequent Traveler, United Mileage Plus, America West Flight Fund, Alaska Mileage Plan, Continental OnePass, Delta Frequent Flyer, TWA Frequent Flight Bonus, Southwest Company Club. (Grade, Ease of Earning, Blacjout, Seat Availability, Customer Service, Hotel partners, Tie-ins.

Four Ways to Fly For Less

Couriers, rebaters, consolidators, and charters are cheap – but tricky

In 1959, when How to Travel without Being Rich was a hot seller, a 10-day trip from New York to Paris including air fare, lodging, and sightseeing cost $553. Today (in 1994), that price would elude even most serious of cost cutters. But bargains still abound for creative travelers willing to do a modicum of research.

Air Couriers

The absolute cheapest way to fly is a courier. Although most large courier companies such as Federal Express and UPS use their own couriers, smaller companies use “freelance couriers”. A typical courier fare can beat low as one-fourth of the regular airline economy class fare. Last-minute tickets are especially cheap – one courier company recently listed a fare from Los Angeles to Tokyo of $100. A full-fare ticket would cost around $1,800.

In exchange for a drastically reduced fare, couriers have minimal duties. It works like this: After booking a flight with a company, the courier meets a representative of the company at the airport two to four hours before departure. The agents hand baggage checks for the courier and other paperwork over to the courier then assures the arrival at his international destination. He accompanies the cargo through customs. Once through customs, the courier hands over the paperwork to the company agent. After that he is free to go.

Drawbacks: Because air courier companies use a courier’s allotted baggage space for cargo, couriers generally are limited to carry-on baggage only. More important, courier travel can be unreliable. On rare occasions, for instance, their shipments because of last-minute cargo changes. In this instance, if a courier does not have flexible travel plans and cannot wait for the next courier flight he or she may have to buy a full-fare economy ticket from a regular airline.

(Old News from 1994)