Money Blue Book

I used to fly a lot and racked up a lot of frequent flyer miles over the years, but now I have to be extra careful. Airline travelers who don’t use their frequent flyer miles…well, frequently, may soon discover that their miles have expired. It is a growing trend, but airlines have shortened the time period that an account can remain inactive before miles expire. In most cases that time period ranges between 1 to 2 years.

Here Are the Expiration Policies For Some of the Biggest Airlines:

1. AirTran: Points in A+ Rewards expire after 12 months.
2. American Airlines: AAdvantage ® miles expire after 36 months of inactivity.
3. Continental Airlines: OnePass miles do not expire. There is a written policy that says they do, but the airline does not enforce the policy.
4. Delta Airlines: Delta SkyMiles expire after 2 years of inactivity.
5. JetBlue: TrueBlue points expire one full year from the date that they are earned.
6. Northwest Airlines: Northwest WorldPerks miles expire if none are earned for 3 calendar years.
7. Southwest Airlines: Rapid Rewards points expire after 2 years.
8. United Airlines: Mileage Plus miles expire after 36 months of inactivity. Starting December 31, 2007, miles will expire after 18 months of inactivity.
9. U.S. Airways: Dividend Miles expire after 18 months of inactivity.

How You Can Easily Prevent Mileage Expiration

The way to prevent your miles from lapsing due to inactivity is to simply generate miles-earning activity for each airline that you have an account with. Other using than using a specialized miles-generating credit card rewards like the Starwood Preferred, another relatively easy way is by making a purchase at the airline’s own shopping portal, where you earn miles for each purchase. This will allow you to earn a few miles, enough to reset the inactivity clock. Most of the popular stores such as iTunes, Best Buy, and Circuit City can be found at each airline’s shopping website.

Links to the Major Airlines’ Shopping Websites:

• American Airlines: AAdvantage ® eShopping
• Continental Airlines: ShopOnePass
• Delta Airlines: Delta SkyMile Shopping
• Northwest Airlines: WorldPerks Mall
• United Airlines: Mileage Plus Mall
• U.S. Airways: Dividend Miles Shopping Mall

Make Sure Your Purchases Count To Reset the Account Activity Clock

1. To ensure that you receive mileage credit for the purchase made through the airline’s shopping portal, make sure your shopping cart is empty before doing the click through. For example, don’t visit Best Buy, add something to your cart and then revisit Best Buy by clicking through the airline’s shopping portal website. You may not receive mileage credit for the items already in your cart. Visit the store through the airline’s website first before making purchases to receive proper mileage credit.
2. There is no minimum mileage you need to earn to reset the inactivity clock. If you can make a quick purchase for a $1 item that allows you to accrue a few miles towards your frequent flyer plan, that is sufficient to reset and prevent expiration.
3. One way to track your miles and monitor your most recent activity in each of your frequent flyer accounts is by using USA Today’s downloadable MileTracker application.

It looks like I may be taking a few overnight road trips in the next few weeks. It’s a pleasure to stay at an elegant hotel, but sometimes you just want to crash at a more basic place to save some money. The hotel and motel partners of TripRewards don’t offer five star accommodation, but they do deliver a comfortable stay at a cheaper price. Their hotels include brands such as Days Inn, Ramada, and Super 8. You pretty much get what you pay for, but without breaking the bank. Through Trip Rewards, you can earn reward points for stays at participating hotels, redeemable for future stays or gift cards.

I’m not going out of my way to participate in the promotion. It’s just something extra for something I was planning on doing anyway.

Earn Bonus Points, Enough For a $25 Gift Card

This fall, Trip Rewards is offering a bonus points promotion, for the redemption equivalent of a $25 gift card. Complete two separate stays at a participating hotel from now until December 27 and you’ll earn enough points to redeem for a free $25 gift card. Remember, it’s two separate stays so consecutive nights still count as one stay, regardless of check in and check out. You will still earn the usual 10 Trip Rewards points for every $1 spent at a participating hotel.

The terms and conditions indicate that the bonus points awarded will be equal to 5,500 less the number of regular Trip Rewards points you earn for your stays, but will be at least 3,500 points. To participate you have to register for TripRewards if you haven’t already done so, and select the TripRewards points option.

Earn 500 Bonus Air Miles or Rail Points

The other promotional option lets you earn 500 bonus air miles or rail points if you stay twice at a TripRewards participating hotel from now until December 28. This is on top of the 2 miles per $1 you will still earn. To participate you have to register with TripRewards and select to earn air miles or rail points in your membership profile.

I think this company has been around for a few months now but it wasn’t until recently that I heard about them. If you have been searching for ways to earn more frequent flyer miles or have been trying to find ways to top off the accumulated miles of your frequent flyer plans, now you have another option through E-Miles. E-Miles is offering to give you mileage points but in return, you guessed it, you have to view video ads and then complete surveys pertaining to the products featured on the ads.

Once you register with them and complete a profile, you are paid mileage points for every ad you view. You can earn 10-20 miles for each 30 second video, and even more points for longer ads. The ads are provided to you based on your previously completed profile in which you indicated your interests. I recommend having as many interests as possible. I actually enjoy the process because it’s relatively painless and fairly quick. Earned mileage points are automatically deposited every quarter into the participating frequent flyer program of your choice.

Earning and Using the Miles

In general, a free domestic flight through most frequent flyer programs will run about 25,000 miles. If you regularly view the ads, you could reasonably earn a free domestic flight within a year. However, I only plan on using the program to help me get over the free ticket hump for my various frequent flyer plans. I could try to accumulate from scratch but than it would take much longer than I’d personally like.

Now the bad news. Currently, points earned through E-Miles are only good for Continental Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Northwest Airlines, and US Airways. If your preferred plan is through another carrier, you’re out of luck for now. Hopefully the company will add more airlines soon.

Fortunately for me though, Continental and Northwest are my biggies. I should be able to rack up free flights in no time. I hope you can get something out of it as well.

Don’t forget the Starwoods Preferred Guest American Express Card. It’s my recommended travel rewards card for earning frequent flyer miles and for topping off your assorted frequent flyer plans.

I’m a big believer in using the right combination of cash rebate and credit card offers to maximize one’s purchasing potential. In the search for the best travel rewards credit card, I’ve noticed that some people opt for airline specific cards. However, these types of cards tend to offer unimpressive deals. Not only do they offer higher interest rates and annual fees, but their redemption options are also much more limited.

Review – The Starwoods Preferred Guest American Express Card

I’m a big fan of credit card reward plans that offer versatility such as Citibank’s Thank You Network, which I use to earn points redeemable for gift cards and free flights. However, my favorite stand alone travel rewards card is the Starwoods Preferred Guest American Express Card. It has been referred to as the swiss army knife of travel rewards cards and deservedly so. Not only can you redeem your rewards for the frequent flyer miles of over 30 airlines (view points to miles conversion list), you can also earn reward points for stays at any of the 800+ Starwoods hotel properties. For every $1 you spend using the card, you earn 1 Starwood point, and ultimately 1 mile on any participating airline. The conversion rate from points into miles is generally 1:1, with a few limited exceptions such as United Airlines, which converts at a ratio of 2:1 (making it a bit less desirable for those who want to ride on United).

Card Users Can Earn An Extra Free 25% Frequent Flyer Mile Bonus

The Starwood Amex card is great because it offers you an impressive 25% points to miles bonus on top of the normal conversion rate. When you convert 20,000 points into miles, Starwood adds an extra 5,000 bonus miles to your transfer, which is often enough for a domestic flight. If you maintain this conversion rate, for every dollar spent on the card, you can earn the equivalent of 1.25 miles. This is 25% better than what you’ll get with other airline credit cards.

The Card Offers Great Frequent Flyer Flexibility And The Ability To Top Off Your Miles

One of my biggest gripes with airline frequent flyer programs is that it is difficult if not impossible to transfer one airline’s points to another airline’s program for use in purchasing a free ticket. So what you end up with is a bunch of frequent flyer programs, each with its own set of miles, but none of them individually eligible for a free flight. This is where the Starwood Amex card really shines and shows why it is such a versatile card when it comes to converting points into frequent flyer miles. Not only do you have a variety of airline frequent flyer programs to choose from, you can essentially use your miles to fill and top off each program so that each can qualify for free flights. Also, some airline frequent flyer points expire after a period of inactivity. You can prevent this by transferring Starwood points into those programs, thereby generating the necessary account activity to prevent points expiration.

Low Annual Fee

The Starwood Amex card does have a low nominal annual fee. The good news is that it is relatively low at $45 a year. I find that the card easily pays for itself in the long run due to all of the frequently flyer miles you ultimately rack up.

You Can Earn Double Points for Hotel Stays

While not as popular as redeeming for frequent flyer miles, you also earn double points for every stay at a Starwoods hotel, which includes the Westin, Sheraton, Four Points by Sheraton, St. Regis, and W Hotels. All room taxes are covered and there are no blackout dates. If available, rooms can be reserved for as low as 2000 Starwood points a night, despite what the regular price is.

Current Starwood Card Promotions and Offers

• The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card is currently running a deal where you can earn 10,000 Starwood points after your first purchase, enough for up to 3 nights at a Starwoods hotel. Also remember that the first year’s annual $45 fee is waived.
• There is also the Starwood Amex Business Card, which is offering an additional 10,000 Starwood points. If you applied for both, you could be on your way to rack up some serious points for free flights and hotel stays in no time.