How to Collect Airline Miles Faster

Outdoor enthusiasts look for the best ways to keep their adventure plans buzzing, including practicing a regular means of racking up frequent flier miles to access their favorite sport and recreation destinations. Recognizing that flying is not the only way to gain mileage points opens up the possibilities of how to collect miles more quickly over a shorter period of time.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Step 1

Read up on frequent flier programs and associated rewards programs. Websites that publish travel information for frequent fliers include Frequentflier.com, Mileageworkshop.com and Webflyer.com. You can also check carrier websites for information about their programs.

Step 2

Focus your mileage points with the one or two carriers you use most. The more you spend with a company, the more loyalty rewards they will offer you. Learn which airline carriers are "partners" with each other and will reciprocally redeem miles for flights. For instance, Delta and Northwest (NWA) allow customers to use miles across the two accounts.

Step 3

Consider other ways to rack up miles, such as affinity credit cards like an American Express Skymiles card. Using these cards for travel purchases can double your mileage accumulation. Read the details to know what other vendors will gain you mileage rewards such as gasoline or grocery stores when you use a Skymiles type card there.

Step 4

Find out which of your standard credit cards offer mileage rewards for non-travel related purchases. Use those for home improvements, occasional big dinners out or other large purchases that will rack up significant mileage points in one shot. Keep both these and Skymiles cards current and pay them off monthly to avoid extra, high interest charges.

Step 5

Show your frequent flier card when you make hotel reservations, car rentals and other travel related purchases. Shop with partner companies like Dollar Rent-A-Car or Hilton that will offer double or triple miles for purchases. Ask if those companies have reward clubs that can be linked to your frequent flier cards and sign up for those cards as well.

Step 6

Reserve your miles for flight rewards. Airlines will offer other promotions to redeem your points in the form of magazine subscriptions or small gifts. These eat up your points incrementally and increase the time it will take you to achieve free ticket rewards.

Tips & Warnings

Read the fine print on your credit cards about purchases that collect airline rewards to see if there are extra costs for you to redeem the miles in the form of tickets

Just because your miles are free, you still need to follow 21-day advance booking protocol to avoid extra fees. Don't buy or sell miles with a third party vendor via phone or website. Airlines prohibit mileage accumulation this way and may cancel your frequent flier account if you are caught.

Just because your miles are free, you still need to follow 21-day advance booking protocol to avoid extra fees.

Don't buy or sell miles with a third party vendor via phone or website. Airlines prohibit mileage accumulation this way and may cancel your frequent flier account if you are caught.

Resources

Article Written By Contributing Writer

Editor's Pick

5 Top North American Wildflower Hikes

Springtime brings a sense of new beginnings and new life as flowers begin to bloom and fill the air with their sweet and pleasant fragrance. Luckily we can see wildflowers all summer long, since spring hits at different times throughout North America. See flowering cactu...
More National Parks...
Popular Article

National Park Substitutes: Great Spots Without the Crowds

Coping with crowds at national parks can get tiresome, especially during the peak tourist season. If you want to escape from the herd, or just take a breather from the bustle of bigger attractions, the United States has plenty of less-visited but still worthwhile spots t...
More National Parks...
Featured Destination

Prevent Yourself from Getting Lost While Hiking

When you're hiking you're going to want to make sure you stay found. What I mean by that is that you've put an itinerary in the car, you know the area that you're hiking to, you know the route and the trail you plan on being on, you know what the trail markers are going ...
More Camping Basics...