What’s the easiest way to book flights with miles?
64% Miles to Memories
16% Points with a Crew
20% Other
Booking award flights with miles can be straightforward if you follow a few simple steps.
Direct Booking on the Airline’s Site
- Use the airline’s own website or mobile app to search for and book award tickets, as this usually offers the best value and the simplest process.
- Avoid converting miles to cash, gift cards, or merchandise, because those redemptions rarely provide good value.
- If you have miles with a specific carrier (e.g., American Airlines, Delta, United), log in to that carrier’s site and complete the booking there rather than using third‑party tools.
Booking for Someone Else
- Many airlines let you enter another traveler’s name during the booking flow, letting you use your miles without paying extra fees.
- Programs that support this include Air Canada, Air France, Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, EgyptAir, Emirates, Etihad, Frontier, Hawaiian, Iberia, JetBlue, KLM, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, Southwest, Spirit, and United.
- Simply log into your mileage account, start the normal award booking, and replace the passenger name with the intended traveler’s details.
Tips to Keep It Simple
- Stick to redeeming miles for flights on the airline you hold the miles with or its alliance partners, as this avoids complex transfer steps.
- If you need to book a partner award that isn’t available online, be prepared to call the airline’s reservation center, but many carriers now allow phone bookings without additional processing fees.
FrequentMiler The easy foreign airline frequent flyer programs you should be using
On Monday, I published a post arguing that a popular transferable currency is relying too much on a single domestic hotel transfer partner. In the spirited response in the comments, a few people mentioned valuing familiar domestic frequent flyer miles over foreign programs. It was implied by some that domestic programs like United MileagePlus are easy to use and that foreign programs involve difficult hoops to jump through. While there certainly are some foreign carriers that make redemptions particularly challenging (which I’d argue isn’t always a bad thing as the sweet spots that require more effort are often more available!),
Points with a Crew How Do Frequent Flyer Miles Work?
I first started paying attention to the world of miles and points back in 2013. I had an upcoming family reunion scheduled for Lake Tahoe in the Summer of 2014, and I knew that 8 cross-country plane tickets were going to cost at least $3000. I had heard of miles, points and frequent flyer miles before, but that trip was the impetus for me to get serious about it. I opened a few credit cards, and used the signup bonuses to accrue 140,000 Southwest Rapid Rewards points to get a free flight for my family of 8 to Lake Tahoe
View from the Wing Do Frequent Flyers Have an Advantage Over Frequent Buyers When Claiming Awards?
Over at the Perrin Post a reader asks the following question: I’m not able to book a business- or first-class mileage award on AA/Cathay Pacific, even though I try for 335 days out, calling at different times of the day and night. Do the agents make a distinction between miles earned by flying vs. by spending money on the affinity credit card? Most of my miles are from credit card transactions. Please advise. And I answer in the comments. There’s no distinction between earning your miles via flying versus credit card spend. Some mileage programs allow
Running with Miles Dubai Marathon Trip – Cathay Pacific First Class (Part 1)
I arrived at JFK and returned my rental car. I made my way straight to Terminal 7 which is home to Cathay Pacific (and other Oneworld airlines). You can check-in and print your boarding pass out 48 hours ahead of your flight so I already had my boarding pass and just my back pack for a carry-on (so not checked-luggage). I bypassed the counters since I had my paperwork (note: when traveling international – for most destinations – you will need to have your passport checked by an airline agent before you depart) and went to the Fast Track security
Miles to Memories Can I Book An Award Flight For Someone Else? What About A Hotel Using Points?
Today, we’ll look at when and how you can book an award flight for someone else. We’ll also look at when/how you can book a hotel room for someone else using your points. We’ll cover which programs allow these bookings for other people and what rules/restrictions are in place. I previously covered which programs allow you to share your points and miles with others. There are tons of reasons why you might want to do this: There are tons of reasons why combining points and miles can be beneficial. But what if the program doesn’t participate in points
God Save the Points What Airline Booking Codes Mean And Why They Matter
My sister in law has seen Laura and I jet set back and forth between New York and London in style too many times. She decided it was time to get in the mileage game so that she herself could join the turning left club and earn enough miles for a flight of luxury. The problem is that knowing how many miles you’re earning is complicated. Really complicated. Some airlines give one frequent flyer mile for every mile you actually fly in the sky, some only give a quarter and depending on the fare type, some give you up