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Title pretty much says what it's about. My dad seems to think that they're only really for business people, but I've seen plenty of other individuals who have these sort of things... what do you all think?
Last few years, I've averaged about 3 round trip (or equivalent) flights and 10-20 hotel nights, and have gotten enough points & miles that the plan for the Big Vacation for 2017 is a week in London with the airfare and hotel covered by points I've gradually bult up over the years.
1. Does it make sense to use the same companies regularly when you travel? I live near a small airport where Delta has most of the gates, and airfare prices are similar from carrier to carrier. So might as well take Delta most of the time since they've got decent customer service and bigger planes flying out of VPS- not fun to be hitting your head on the ceiling of an Embraer 135 that United flies out of here. I've also tended to concentrate my hotel stays with the same companies. IHG/Holiday Inn is my primary program (good global footprint at many different price points) and I also end up participating in programs for La Quinta (USA) and Le Club Accor (Europe) for times when IHG doesn't make sense.
2. Do you enjoy going down the rabbit hole chasing points? I think it's fun so I'm willing to do things like run the Checkpoints program on an old cell phone to get Southwest points (husband likes them for trips to visit family, even though they require departing from a further out airport) or mailing out a whole bunch of postcards to take advantage or a loophole in an IHG promotion (last winter's 'Priceless Surprises' promotion- IHG Priceless Surprises: More than 40,000 points, More than $46)
I also do market research surveys for points in some programs- get many of my miles/points for IHG, Accor, and have gotten enough for a few round trips on United that way. So no cash outlay for those points if you enjoy doing the surveys while watching tv at night.
Recently, I've averaged about one free night per year on hotel points. With the airlines, I've scored about 3 round trip int'l trips in 1st/business over my lifetime, so that has been a nice perk. It is harder now than it used to be. Now I am more likely to use my points to try to upgrade vs. buying a R/T coach ticket, if possible.
Title pretty much says what it's about. My dad seems to think that they're only really for business people, but I've seen plenty of other individuals who have these sort of things... what do you all think?
When I traveled 200+ nights per year, I had a great number of free FF tickets, hotel stays and car rentals. However, twenty years ago, these programs were very generous. At one point, for example, I could get a free ticket for two round trips St. Louis - Yuma, AZ.
back then, you got points for the mileage that you traveled. However, you get mileage on the dollars you spend. For example, on Southwest, you could get a free ticket after eight round trips. So if you found a LAX-LAS trip for $99RT, you could get a free ticket for spending only $792. Now, you would get about 4,000 miles which won't get you far.
The hotel situation isn't much better.
Now that I travel a lot but for pleasure only, I take a different approach. If I get miles or points, I will collect them but I make no special effort to get them. I shop strictly on price and looking for the best deals. I will use Hotwire/Priceline and forego the points for a discounted price.
If you are in the US & have decent credit you can apply for credit cards that will award you 40-50,000 miles once you spend a certain limit (don't carry a balance!). I have about 450K miles this way, I'm taking my mother to visit family in Europe next month & I traveled to Asia 3 years ago.... First Class - at least a $10k worth ticket - for $125.
If you plan to travel a lot it is worth considering to buy cheap tickets for overseas' flights & upgrade to business class with the points, although they have recently raised the $$ copay & it may not be worth it anymore. For example recently there have been sub $600 tickets to Southeast asia, a good price to a fascinating, & cheap region. That less than $600 would net you about 20k miles + 50K miles for the CC bonus + whatever you charged on the CC = miles. So you would end up with 75K miles to use in the future.
These days the cash back cards may be a better deal though, I don't know, I still have a bunch of FF miles to go through yet.
You get a lot more out of these memberships if you fly/stay in hotels a lot. You will obtain some slight benefits if you are a more occasional traveler. Those who travel often on business (or often for leisure) can earn very useful and valuable rewards from these memberships.
My basic and overly simplified answer, that I think is fairly accurate though, is that hotel programs are not worth it if youre not a frequent business traveler but airline programs are IF
1) you like to travel. The worthwhile rewards are only going to be for redeeming flights and services related to those flights.
2) you spend an average amount on credit cards. Airline cards are good for churning...their return after signup bonus is well-below average but the signup bonuses themselves make them worthwhile.
I at one time flew every other week and stayed in hotels every week. An airline credit card helped.
We went to Australia and Holland, using points and miles. That was over 25 years ago, so you would need to research today's rules.
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