How Do You Get Frequent Flyer Miles Airline Tickets?

[travelfan Member Find all posts View Profile Close travelfan]

We just had a great experience with American Airlines ff miles. We need to fly to Las Vegas for my sil's BIG 6-0 birday right in the middle of our Hawaii vacation in January. After transfering some miles from my account to my husband's, we now have 2 rt ff tickets KOA-LAS for $200. Sooooo much better than the ~$1200 we were looking at previously.

We had no trouble doing all the reservations and transfer of miles on-line.

Previously, our biggest usage of ff mile cards is the United Mileage Plus Visa. We are using our miles to upgrade to business class rt London in May/June. We had no problem there either and we still earn miles.

However, we now use our HawaiianMiles Visa more as we do more flying to Hawaii than any other place.

Both these cards come with ~$80 yearly fees, but we get more than that value back in the programs.

[Cat Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Cat]

I think the fee is $75. However, I believe it is worth it because I use my card for everything. For my 1st year's fee, I was able to get 4 roundtrip tickets to Mexico, and 1 roundtrip ticket to Hawaii. Also, for Mexico, they charge 30,000 miles instead of the 35,000 with United. So, that's a little savings.

The best thing with this card is that they will give you miles for airline tickets charged to your account. For example, if you paid $400 for a ticket to Hawaii. You get 5000 miles (airmiles) and the 400 miles (ticket price) for a total of 5400 miles. It really adds up. Also you still get the miles with the airlines too. I planned a Mexico trip for my whole family, including my inlaws, and I got two free tickets to Mexico. I heard the Amex Starwood Card is good too.

Blr, we have Citibank's PremierPass Elite, too. Don't forget the other bonus that you get double points with supermarkets, gas stations, drug stores, and mass transit ticket purchases. We never use the last one, but the supermarkets and gas stations have REALLY added up lately! Nice that you can get tickets on any airline you want. The downside is that you can only use their travel agency, that only operates during regular business hours M-F. However, that's more than offset by not having to get up in the wee hours of the 331st day before travel.

[3kids4me Super Moderator and Super Mom Find all posts View Profile Close 3kids4me]

Is there a limit on on the amount you can charge yearly on the Premier Elite Card? (What I mean is, are the miles capped?) Any problems getting a whole bunch of tickets at once? (Like, five tickets?)

I guess I'm trying to figure out if there is any downside....

Sharon