U.S. Senator Calls for Probe of Frequent Flier Programs

U.S. Senator Charles Schumer is calling for a federal review of complaints by consumers that they are losing millions of frequent flier miles without notice in confusing agreements.

Schumer wants to establish industry rules for frequent flier programs that are billed as a free benefit to help attract and retail customers. There are few restrictions now on how airlines can manage and redeem the miles. Read more.

Earn 1,000 AsiaMiles for Booking Online With Cathay Pacific

Now for a limited time, earn 1,000 AsiaMiles for booking a one-way or round-trip ticket between San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Toronto or Vancouver and Hong Kong and beyond - or between Vancouver and New York. You must register for this promotion, purchase qualifying tickets at cathaypacific.com, and travel by December 20th to qualify for the bonus miles.

Double Miles With SuperShuttle And Friends Ride For Five

SuperShuttle, the blue van service that takes you to/from the airport is running a couple promotions for the next few weeks. First, earn triple United airline miles (150 total) for each one-way drive through August. Second, bring friends along and they pay just $5 bucks each. That deal runs through September 15, 2009. Click here for more information on both promos.

More posts on SuperShuttle

Earn 100 Bonus Miles With Continental Airlines

Here's a quick and easy way to earn 100 bonus miles with Continental Airlines: Simply opt-in to receive Continental news and offers by email, and the miles are yours. Offer for new subscribers only. Click here and use promo code 57064.

Airlines Seek to Unload Frequent-Flier Miles

From the Washington Times Monday comes a story discussing why airlines, United Airlines in particular, are suddenly choosing to unloading miles from their "books" at an accelerated rate. For example, United recently offered discount award redemption's, and effective August 1, 2009 eliminated all "close-in" processing fees. Are United Airlines and other carriers putting customer service back into focus, or is there something more at play here? Read the full story here.

Earn Bonus Miles With New Netflix Subscription

First time Netflix customers can earn bonus frequent flyer miles when signing up for new service. Netflix offers the convenience of ordering movies online, and having them shipped, usually within 24 hours, directly to your home. Some titles can also be watched online, real-time.
Here are direct links to some of the participating airlines:

American Airlines: 2500 Bonus miles offer
United Airlines: 2000 Bonus miles offer
Delta Airlines: 3000 Bonus miles offer

Tip: Be sure to print out a copy of the offer in the event your miles do not automatically post. This will serve as proof of your registering for the offer.

Earn Frequent Flyer Miles for Using Super Shuttle

I'll warn you in advance...it ain't much! Still, if you use the Super Shuttle "blue van" service to/from the airport, why not earn some bonus miles? So here it is: 50 miles for each one-way trip. Not much more to add; that's it!  In addition to partnerships with U.S. Air, Frontier, Delta and Northwest, you can now earn United Mileage Plus miles for your next ride in the blue van. 

'Learn and Earn' 300 Bonus Miles from Continental Airlines

Here's another something for nothing deal: Visit the Continental Airlines website, click on each of the three icons describing benefits of the Continental Airlines credit and debit cards, and earn 300 bonus OnePass miles (100 for each icon). Offer expires April 30, 2009.

If you are not currently a member of Continental's frequent flyer program, click here to sign up for free.

Earn Double Elite-Qualifying Miles on American Airlines

Link now active
American Airlines is offering a double elite-qualifying miles promotion for travel between March 18 and June 15, 2009. Simply register* your American AAdvantage account for this promotion, then fly any American Airlines, American Eagle or American Connect flight during the promo period to earn your bonus.

Elite-qualifying miles are used to calculate various elite levels within the AAdvantage program.
For example, if you flew 12,500 qualifying air miles during this promotion, those would convert to 25,000 elite miles, earning you a Gold-level status with the airline.

*Note, as of 11:30 PM Monday evening, the promotion was not yet open for registration. You may need to wait until the start of the promo period to register.

Triple American Airlines Miles From Boston and California

Starting March 2, 2009, American Airlines will offer triple miles for flights from Boston to San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego*. According to the terms, after registering (promo code: BOS3X), customers who purchase a new ticket and fly between March 2 and May 31, 2009 are eligible for the bonus miles.
*Nonstop San Diego-Boston flights begin April 7, 2009.

Earn Bonus Miles Linking Your Delta and Northwest Accounts

Here is one result from the merger of Delta and Northwest Airlines announced earlier in 2008.: For a limited time, Delta SkyMiles and Northwest Worldperks members may transfer miles between their own accounts fee free - and earn a bonus 500 SkyMiles for doing so.

For instance, let's say your Delta frequent flyer account has 2,000 miles and your Northwest 23,000. Simply transfer the 2,000 Delta miles over to Northwest (or vice versa).

Click here for more information.

SuperShuttle and Delta Partner Up, Offer Frequent Flyer Miles

Delta SkyMiles members who book a ride online with SuperShuttle will now earn frequent flier miles. In a press release this week, SuperShuttle announced the new partnership with Delta will reward passengers 50 miles for each one way trip to or from the airport. 

SuperShuttle has similar partnerships with Northwest Airlines, Frontier Airlines and U.S Airways frequent flyer programs.  

250 Bonus Delta Miles For New Shutterfly Customers

For a limited time, Delta SkyMiles members can earn 250 bonus miles for registering as a new customer at Shutterfly. In addition, a 1000 mile bonus will be awarded for purchases over $25.
Shutterfly is one of several online sites that enable customers to upload, share and print photos, among other services. Click this link for more information on this offer.

When Buying Air Miles Is A Bad Purchase

By Mike Grasso

Purchasing airline miles directly from the airline is often a poor method of accruing miles, both economically and practically. But purchasing miles for a near-immediate redemption opportunity can be quite beneficial.

First, the airlines usually price these miles at a premium, valued far higher than earning miles by most other means (flying, car rentals, credit cards, etc.)For example, let's say you are 10,000 miles short of a free flight to New York. United Airlines will gladly sell you 10,000 miles - but for $357 dollars. Instead, purchase a ticket to New York City for about the same price, and you'd earn 5,000 miles in the process. In that scenario, there is no direct value added when buying miles from the airline. Always weigh purchase price options with award redemption opportunities.

Also, redeeming miles into a capacity controlled frequent flier program means the airline will limit your redemption opportunities on days, flights or routes it chooses. If it's a popular route, high-season, or holiday, you will have a tough time finding availability. They would rather sell expensive tickets than fill the plane up with people redeeming miles. And guess what? You are not the only person trying to redeem miles on a flight. Many people are competing for what is often limited overall availability. Thus, buying premium-priced miles for use on low-value flights with the added uncertainly seats will even be offered by the airline, isn't very practical.

And simply buying miles to fill up your frequent flyer account, with no specific purpose for using them, would be like depositing money into a bank savings account that earns 0% interest. Worse off, if the airline goes under, your miles will probably vanish. Whatever you do, don't buy miles and let them sit.

But, buying airline miles can be situationally helpful. If you are 1000 miles short of 50,000 - enough for a free economy ticket to Europe on some airlines, you may want to fork up the $50-$60 cost. In this case, call the airline first - check for award redemption availability before buying miles. Another example is maybe you are 5,000 miles short of 90,000 - enough to fly Business Class on Singapore Airlines to Asia. The true value of that business class ticket is probably $6,000 or more. Paying $150 to cover your miles shortfall does seem tempting. Again, check for availability of award seats before buying the miles.

Lastly, as if they airline doesn't already have a strong-hold on these frequent flier programs already; buying miles is not a real-time exchange. United Airlines says it can take up to 48 hours to post to your account, American Airlines up to 72 hours. So while you are waiting for those purchased miles to post to your account, award availability may vanish from under your eyes. If you are in a situation like this, call the airline first, explain your scenario. They may do a courtesy hold if you provide them with your confirmation number of your miles purchase.

Cost of purchasing 10,000 frequent flyer miles (includes taxes, fees)*

• United $357.50


• American $298.75


• Delta $295.63


• Northwest $305.00

*price check performed on 7/28/08

Earn 500 American Airlines Miles From Bose

Received an email today from American offering up to 500 miles for watching a demonstration of the Bose® QuietComfort® headphones.
1. Earn 150 AAdvantage miles for watching a 60-second video (you can do this now!)
2. Earn 350 AAdvantage miles for watching an in-store demonstration.

Click here to learn more and start earning miles.

Options For Low Balance Frequent Flier Accounts

Perhaps you flew an airline once and never plan to again, or maybe you just don't fly that often. Those pesky frequent flier miles sitting around with only a few thousand miles may actually be worth something. Though you are probably far short of a free trip, many airlines allow you to redeem miles for other products and services, such as car rentals, magazines and gift cards. Visit your airlines frequent flier homepage to discover redemption opportunities other than flights.

Remember, most airlines require a transaction (earn or redeem miles) to your frequent flier account within a 18-24 month period, otherwise you risk loosing the account completely.

Earn Bonus Miles At Northwest's Worldperks University

Northwest Airlines continues to offer these very brief lessons on the advantages of Worldperks, Northwest Airlines frequent flier program. If you have not done so already, I highly recommend you take these courses and earn yourself a few hundred bonus miles.

For each course, read a short description of a product or service Northwest offers, answer three (simple) questions and earn 100 Northwest Airlines Worldperks miles. Five courses are currently available. Click here to study and take your quizzes.

Continental Reverses '500 Mile Minimum' Accrual Policy

Earlier this month Continental Airlines announced program changes to its frequent flier program, eliminating the 500 mile minimum travelers accrued in their account for flying short-haul flights effective November 15th. This meant a short flight of a few hundred miles would earn the actual miles flown, rather than the 500 mile minimum. Now, Continental has backed off from earlier announced changes, and is exempting its elite passengers from the policy change. This means Continental elite fliers will continue to receive a minimum of 500 miles for each flight, regardless the distance.

United and U.S Airways who also eliminated the 500 mile minimum recently, have yet to react to Continental's move.

Continental OnePass Program Changes

In an announcement this week, Continental Airlines announced two key changes to OnePass, it's frequent flyer program.

First, the elimination of 500-mile minimum on short-haul flights for tickets purchased on or after November 15, 2008, for travel on or after January 1, 2009. Previously the airline awarded a minimum 500 frequent flyer miles for short trips - destinations less than 500 air miles. This change matches a similar move by United and U.S Airways earlier this summer.

Second, a change that affects Continental elite members. Starting March 1, 2009, Platinum elite members receive a 100% (down from 125%) bonus miles on each flight, while Silver elite members receive a 25% bonus (down from 50%). Gold elites will continue to receive a 50% bonus. Although this comes as a sting to many Continental elite flyers, the miles adjustment matches current bonuses awarded by other airlines.

Frontier Airlines To Charge Fee for "Free Ticket"

Award redemption fee part of a package of changes announced
In a press release today, Denver-based Frontier airlines announced they will institute a $25 non-refundable redemption fee for travelers booking a free flight using Frontier EarlyReturns miles. Previously, members of their frequent flier program could redeem miles without being subjected to this fee.

Frontier also announced a 5,000-15,000 across the board increase in miles needed for a free ticket. Previously known as one of the best redemption options in the industry, 15,000 miles for a free, capacity controlled domestic ticket will now climb to 20,000 miles; still a relative bargain.

Other changes announced in the press release include adding a $75 fee for close-in redemption's - whereby travelers book award travel within 14 days of travel, and $75 bucks for redepositing miles for an unused award travel booking.

"We have always been incredibly proud of our EarlyReturns program, which offers one of the lowest redemption levels in the industry," said Frontier Vice President of Marketing, Sales and Distribution, Jim Young. "Unfortunately, with oil still nearly 50% higher than just six months ago, we had to review the current structure and revise elements that will afford our ability to remain both customer friendly and cost conscious. Even with the new fees and redemption levels, we still offer one of the most competitive programs in the industry."

The changes are effective September 15th. Some fees are waived for Frontier elite members.