Saw this article and thought, “This is taking advantage of a miles program”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/06/23/united-airlines-very-frequent-flyer/
2 Likes
I read that this morning. It’s a very entertaining article!
1 Like
Unfortunately, there isn’t. Delta is part of SkyTeam (one of the three airline alliances). What’s different about SkyTeam (from the other two alliances) is that how much Delta is able to exert its influence/control over the alliance (unlike AA or UA in their respective alliances). Delta did it through its investments in its SkyTeam partners (Air France/KLM, Korean Air, China Eastern, Virgin Atlantic, etc.). Those partners have either all gradually adopted Delta’s model or coordinated their pricing of award tickets with Delta, at least on routes that interest flyers from North America.
Frankly, loyalty doesn’t mean much in the airline industry these days. If you fly Delta (because there isn’t a good alternative), you may be better off crediting your miles to Air France, rather than Delta.
1 Like
I really like Delta. They have great seats, staff and timeliness. As a result I signed up for a Delta AmEx without looking into their rewards program. It’s a bummer that it’s so bad. I’ll use it for one trip and then continue the Chase Rewards route. Thanks!
Obviously the amount of rewards depend on how much people charge on their credit cards. So how much makes it worth it? I feel like it might take me 6 years to earn a domestic flight 
We charge like $30K a year on our CCs.
1 Like
We use our CCs for everything, but never carry a balance. In fact I pay them twice a month. It makes it easy to track expenses, plus we get the travel benefits.
3 Likes
Same here. Except for insurance premiums & planet fitness, pretty much everything is charged to a credit card. The bills are set to autodeduct the statement amount each month from my checking account. Occasionally if I have a large purchases or several large purchases, I’ll pay some extra in between. But that’s rare.
This way it makes it very easy to balance the checkbook! (And yes I still do that.)
1 Like
@RookieCollegeMom This is where learning about how to collect bonuses and (for some) how to churn points* is the way people get lots of miles quickly. If you had enough money to spend enough yearly to get massive points - you probably are less likely to be looking at points as a way to get travel (you don’t need them) and it might not be worth the keeping track versus just booking what you want when you want it.
As I said earlier in this thread - I think you have to be willing/happy to figure out how the system works (and how it changes pretty frequently) in order to take best advantage of earning miles/points and using them.
*Churning points and rotating cards for bonuses is an involved process. My most “successful” at-the-points-game friends literally have spreadsheets they are working off to know when they are eligible to get bonuses via opening new cards (and when a card issuer is ‘fallow’ and they need to wait), when they should shift points to travel partners, etc.
1 Like
Our credit card bill is also paid in full monthly, but monthly charges aren’t where the vast majority of our points come from.
4 Likes
There’re ways to generate more credit card spending. For example (I’ll use a college example since we’re on CC), if your kid lives in an off-campus apartment, you may want to pay rent using Bilt MasterCard without fees. You can generate up to 100k points a year that way. If s/he lives on campus, some universities let you pay the cost of room and board (but usually not tuitions) with a credit card without fees.
3 Likes
Ok, I’ll bite. Why? Seems like that would get complicated, but I know you have a lot of good ideas and thought I should ask.
It decreases the credit companies perception of utilization, because on the day they check the balance, it’s lower, because you’ve already paid some of it off. It’ll raise your credit score. 
1 Like
Ah. For us we already have a decent credit score. At our age we’re not planning to taking out any new loans, but it is good to have high score sometimes qualify for insurance discounts etc.
1 Like
We do too, but I made a mistake several years ago and cancelled some cards we’d held for a long time. Then we went all in on one card for the miles. Both dinged us. I just got in the habit back then.
1 Like
Almost makes me wish my kid rented off-campus. 
I do like that the Bilt Mastercard transfers to AA since I don’t know another program besides Marriott points that transfer to AA. And having Hyatt as a transfer partner is also terrific.
Your baseline should be getting at least 2% cash back on your CC spend (on $30K → $600). There are a couple $0 annual fee CCs (Citi Double Cash, Wells Fargo Active Cash) that offer this in a straightforward manner.
However, as @beebee3 says, the fastest way to gain outsized rewards is by collecting the bonuses for CC signups. This correlates directly with effort spent on this activity.
1 Like
Yes, this is an example of industry jargon that is misleadingly different from common use. On some airlines, a “direct” flight may even include changing aircraft, with a risk of missing the connection.
2 Likes
Us too. There are a few thing we can’t use a CC for. But we we are not high income and don’t charge like $60K+ a year. Guess I will just have to do some math! 
Right now we use an AMEX that has cash rewards.
1 Like
Well, if I had a spare $290k in 1990 (I didn’t and still don’t), I could have done what this fellow did with United:
I am actually impressed with United. American had something similar and was involved in litigation with one of its lifetime passholders when it unilaterally cancelled the pass.
Back on topic, IHG points, if you purchase them at the right time and get bonus points, can come in really handy. Some of the travel websites actually show you the dollar value of the points at IHG hotels.
I knew that our family was going to be a doing a lot of traveling for DD to see colleges in 2022 and 2023. We did travel a huge amount and have essentially zeroed out those miles.
I haven’t sat down to figure out how much we “saved”, but it wasn’t a small amount. My last IHG points purchase was on the IHG card, so I racked up a good number of points on the card (I think) and got some decent hotel prices for all the travel we’ve done in the last couple of years. The last points purchase I made was at a 100% bonus.
And, sure, I am fully aware that this committed us to staying at IHG properties. I guess that’s the whole point: these basically commit us to IHG hotels, and quid pro quo is we get discounted rates for effectively prepaying.
As I noted above, there are so many of IHG hotels in the US and the world at very varied price points, so IHG properties were always going to be ones we at least looked at.
Plus, we get GREAT upgrades, early check-ins, late check-outs, and great treatment pretty much everywhere we go.
Thankfully, though, the travel is over for a while.
2 Likes
That’s a great story. Just to put that buy into perspective though, it would be $675k today in inflation adjusted dollars. That was a bigger spend than it feels like on the surface!
3 Likes