Make the Most of Your Miles

December 12, 2013

While making my travel plans for this holiday season, I went to use my American Airline Aadvantage miles to book a free flight home only to realize that my miles had expired! I now had to spend several hundred dollars on a flight that I could have had for free.  Needless to say, I wasn’t very thrilled with this. I contacted American Airlines and found out that I could get my miles back by either paying $200 or paying $30 and booking a roundtrip ticket with them in the next 6 months. I guess I’ll have to keep a lookout for a good flight on American. Here are some tips on using mileage points to make sure you don’t end up paying more for a flight too:

1)      Don’t leave home without them. I’m always surprised to learn that someone books a ticket without getting mileage points. After all, it’s free so why not? Even if you don’t think you fly enough on the airlines to earn a free flight, you can redeem smaller mileage balances for other rewards. Besides, you may end up flying on that airline more than you thought.

2)      Look for other ways to earn miles. To help you reach a free plane ticket faster, see if you can get additional miles from credit cards or other companies. (I get Southwest Rapid Rewards points from my Dollar Rent  a Car purchases.)  Just be careful of signing up for a credit card that can cost you a lot more in fees and interest than the additional miles are worth.

3)      Keep track of them. This was where I dropped the ball. Since I fly so often, I’m usually able to keep my miles from expiring since they don’t generally expire as long as you have activity with that airline. In this case, I must not have flown American Airlines in a very long time. Less frequent fliers are in even more danger of having their miles expire. Consider using a free site like Yodlee, Award Wallet, Points.com, and UsingMiles.

4)      Use them or lose them. Miles are like FSA contributions. If you have an opportunity to use them, do so before you lose them. Redeeming them for flights is generally a better value than other options but your mileage may vary (literally!). If your miles do expire, contact the airline and see if there’s anything you can do to get them back.

5)      But do so wisely. According to behavioral finance research, we tend to create pockets of money in our minds where it’s easier to spend windfalls on things we don’t really need. You shouldn’t necessarily take a trip that you wouldn’t otherwise take though. I like to think of my points like money in the bank. If I wouldn’t spend the money, I won’t spend the points unless they are about to expire. Keep in mind that you’re not really saving anything if you use them for a  trip you wouldn’t otherwise have taken and that free trip may end up being quite expensive when you add up all the hotel, food, and other costs.

Like getting the match in your retirement plan, mileage programs allow you to get something you want for free. You don’t have to be this guy to want to take advantage of them. If you have other tips to maximize the value of your mileage program, feel free to share them in the comments section below.