Making the Most Out of Your Flight and Frequent Flyer Miles

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Topic: Flights

Anyone who has traveled a lot for business or pleasure inevitably learns the secrets to flying happy and getting rewarded for it.  This article shares some of the things we have learned over the years.  So whether you travel every week or only once a year, you’ll want to remember these pointers to get the most out of your flight.

1. Check for frequent flyer mileage promotions prior to purchasing and flying.  A good site for aggregating these promotions is MileMaven.  Alternatively, you could go to each airline’s “special offers” section to find these promotions.  Make sure to register for promotions (if applicable) ahead of time to maximize earning miles for your flight.
2. If you are traveling with someone, consider purchasing tickets on separate itineraries to receive your bonus miles for booking online.  Many of the airlines, like Continental, only award online booking bonus miles to the first name on the itinerary.  If you end up booking on separate itineraries, remember to use the seat selector tool (if available) during the booking process so you can still sit next to each other on the flight.  If a seat selector tool is not available, call the airline after you finish booking to make seating arrangements together.
3. Check in online (usually up to 24 hours before your flight) whenever you can.  Many airlines offer bonus miles for online check in.  Other airlines, like Southwest, give you an earlier boarding group when you check in online.
4. Pick your seats for your flight wisely.  Use a site like SeatGuru to find out which seats are “good” and “bad”.  If you have elite status with the airline, make sure to log in when booking a flight.  As an elite member, you will have a better selection of seats to choose from.
5. Find out which flights have a good track record.  The FlightStats website rates each flight to give you an idea if that flight has a history of being on time or delayed.
6. Use frequent flyer miles when it makes sense.  It is human nature to hoard your miles, but very often it makes sense to use miles rather than purchasing.  In order to determine whether or not to use your miles, find out (1) the price of the flight you’d like to take AND (2) how many frequent flyer miles it would take to get that flight.  Then, calculate the price per frequent mile for that flight by dividing the price of the flight by the miles required.  For example, if a flight you want from New York to Los Angeles costs $500, and alternatively, you could use 25,000 frequent flyer miles to get an equivalent flight, the value of that flight would be $0.02 per mile.  In general, you should definitely consider using those frequent flyer miles when the value is greater than a penny per mile ($0.01/mile).