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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
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Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
Best way to get flier miles
My DH just started a new job which invovles a fair amount of traveling. We are trying to figure out how to capitalize on his business trips to accumulate miles. Unfortunately, he does not get to pick which carrier he uses for the trips. So, do we just sign up for mileage programs for any carrier he uses? What is the best credit card to gain miles?(he has to charge and expense everything so we could earn miles that way too).
I am hoping that my rewards for managing my own job and two kids, while he travels, is a free trip to Europe next fall! Help me get there, ladies!
Re: Best way to get flier miles
When I traveled a lot for business, we were encouraged to fly American Airlines. So, I always flew AA. I signed up for their points, as well as Hilton Honors, and I used the American Airlines credit card which also accumulates points towards free flights. The great thing, is the more points you accumulate with one airline, the more likely you are to be bumped to first class for free. Who wouldn't want that?
Honestly, the best frequent flier program, which won't help you any, is Southwest. I can accumluate enough points to get a free flight without any effort at all. After four years of traveling 90%, I only earned enough AA points to send my husband and I to sh!ttastic Mexico for four nights during the off season. And we didn't even get to stay in that nice of a resort. Sure, it was a free trip but I was kind of...eh about it.
A lot of car rental places and hotels will let you earn miles instead of points with them if you want. Parking places may do this too. If you can select airlines to fly then choose ones that do not have a limit on how long credits/points are good. I used continental for this reason. I also like Southwest which just recently went to this. You can do dining for dollars with your favorite airline too (or rotate if you need to keep points valid - another thing I do with AA).
I have gotten a free flight on SW, flight for DH to Amsterdam (mini-moon), free parking at airport for HM, and have enough points for another flight or two. Good luck.
I keep one account with each of the three major alliances:
SkyTeam
- Delta
oneworld
- American
Star Alliance
- United
- US Airways
...Man! Now that I look at it, there really aren't a lot of major international US airlines any longer! (Back when I opened my accounts, there was still NWA, TWA, Continental, and I feel like I'm missing one. Now they're all merged into just a few!)
I guess that's not such a big deal if he's flying domestically. Is it all domestic? Or is he flying international as well? Almost all of the international carriers are a member of one of the alliances, so he can earn miles on those flights by giving the American partner frequent flier account number. For example, you can earn United miles by flying Star Alliance airlines like Lufthansa, Air China, etc; KLM and Air France can earn Delta miles; British Airways can earn American miles.
If he can choose his rental car companies, he should pick one that he can earn miles with (i.e. not Enterprise). As PP mentioned, ditto for hotels. Sometimes you have to sign up for the car/hotel frequent customer account and then request that the points be converted into miles. A lot of the time all the major US airlines are included, so you can choose what airline you get the miles on.
The problem you're facing is that to be able to buy a ticket you will need enough miles in one account. So he should pick a single account to pump extra miles (cars, hotels, etc) into. Ideally that should be the account that's already earning the most flight miles. If you live in a hub, that airline is probably your best bet because there will be the most flight options in/out on that airline (Minneapolis-Delta maybe?). Also, keep an eye on the airlines he's flying most. If it turns out he's visiting another airline's hub city quite often, he might actually be flying another airline more. Anyhow, whichever airline/alliance he's flying most, that's the account you'd want to top up with extra miles.
I'm guessing that if he doesn't get to choose the airline, he doesn't get to book the tickets? Otherwise, there are certain fare classes that earn more miles. Does he get to fly business class? That will boost the miles he earns. Also, if keep an eye on elite status qualifications, and if he's close to qualifying for the next elite level towards the end of the calendar year, you might consider booking a trip on the appropriate airline to boost his mileage into the next elite tier, since elite members often get a mileage bonus on every flight. Check the details for the program, but usually higher elite levels earn a bigger bonus.
And if you get really into it, forums like FlyerTalk are full of the super elite of the frequent fliers who can quote fare codes off the top of their heads.