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Thread: Frequent Flyer Miles?

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    Featured Member MadisonM's Avatar
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    Default Frequent Flyer Miles?

    Ok so with all the traveling that I'm going to be doing coming up, I think it would be a good idea for me to get a credit card with frequent flyer miles, but I'm not really sure how they work. I've never done much traveling, and I've never booked a flight or done anything like that before, so I really don't know how frequent flyer miles work. Do any of you guys use them? Any suggestions on particular cards or any tips for me? I tried looking for info on miles, but I can't find anything easy to understand. It all seems kinda confusing.
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    God/dess Emily's Avatar
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    Default Re: Frequent Flyer Miles?

    First thing about frequent flyer miles is that you can earn them a couple ways.

    By flying, obviously. You generally get one mile for one mile flown.

    And then there are promotions. Maybe signing up for a certain cell phone carrier, or buying flowers, using self-check at the airport for the first time, or....getting a certain credit card. So you see you don't have to get the credit card to get the miles, but they generally go together.

    And you can even buy miles. I think they are 3 cents each. It depends.

    However, the thing with the credit cards that give you miles is that they often have an anual fee. When I had my card, I had to pay $90 per year. But it was cool because I got 10,000 miles just for making the first purchse, one mile for every dollar I spent, and if I bought plane tickets, I got 3 miles for every dollar spent. I also got $99 companion fare vouchers.

    This is a good deal if you use a credit card a lot, and especially if you use it to book flights with a particular airline. I chose US Airways because it has a hub in Philadelphia, which is my airport. You'd want to pick an airline that has a lot of non-stop flights to/from your main airport. If theya re in a network (like Star Alliance), then even better because you can fly all sorts of airlines and get/use the credit on any of the airlines. I eventually cancelled the card because it wasn't worth the $90/year fee to me. I just don't use a credit card that much. Now I have a no fee card with regular cash-back rewards.

    My advice...only get a card if you plan on using it for a lot of purchase and booking a lot of flights (I mean at last 4-5/year).

    You will need somewhere around 25,000 miles to get your first flight, and that's going to be a US round trip coach ticket....with certain blackout dates. More miles for longer flights and better seats, obviously.

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    God/dess VenusGoddess's Avatar
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    Default Re: Frequent Flyer Miles?

    To add to Emily's post...a lot of Banks now offer "Debit cards" that have frequent flyer miles on it. We have that in addition to Scorpio's frequent flyer credit card. That way, no matter where we spend money, we're getting free miles. In one year alone, we've accrued enough miles for 2 free tickets.

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    Featured Member MadisonM's Avatar
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    Default Re: Frequent Flyer Miles?

    ^^^ So let's say that in one year I fly 5,000 miles. Does that mean that I'll get 5,000 miles free? If my feature career goes well, hopefully I'll be getting 35-40 bookings a year, and unless the booking is within a state or two of where I live, I'll be flying. So this definetely would be worth it to me. Do you have any suggestions on a good card to use?
    Take the road less traveled- just make sure you have a map.

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    Default Re: Frequent Flyer Miles?

    You are going to fly a lot more than 5,000 miles; I do that about every month and I'm not even traveling for work!

    What you want to do is look at the airline you're going to pick and see which cards they have deals with--Continental has a Chase Mastercard where you also get an additional bonus every time you use it to pay for a flight with them. Each airline has their own card in addition to deals with some other cards, so shop around to find the best combination of miles/fees/interest rates.

    Also, another important thing is that if you fly enough you'll have elite status and get things like free upgrades and use of the club in the airport which can be really handy. That's a pretty important perk.

    Look into the other partners with your airline like hotels and car rental companies too to make sure you get miles from your hotel stays.

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    Default Re: Frequent Flyer Miles?

    Quote Originally Posted by MadisonM
    ^^^ So let's say that in one year I fly 5,000 miles. Does that mean that I'll get 5,000 miles free?
    Uhh, doubtful.

    Each card has a different FFM program so its best to shop around, and as Emily suggested read the fine print as there are all sorts of restrictive terms of service involved with these things.

    Here's a good place to start your homework.

    http://frequentflier.com/card-intro.htm
    Former SCJ now in rehab.

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    Default Re: Frequent Flyer Miles?

    IMHO most of these frequent flyer programs are not extremely useful for 'feature travel' which can take you all over the country. I do participate in two frequent flyer credit card programs, for Southwest and AirTran, neither of which have hard 'blackout dates' and both of which allow additional card charges for rental cars, hotels etc to contribute towards the future free ticket.

    I have tried a couple of the major airline frequent flyer programs/cards in the past ... and still use them once in a while if I have to fly cross-country or out of the country or something ... but I usually found that the other costs associated with flying on major airlines plus hassling around hard 'blackout dates' generally resulted in less 'bang for the buck' than concentrating on the 'bargain' airlines whenever possible. But even with the bargain airlines, if you start adding up the cost of a $200 bargain airline plane ticket plus $100+ for 5 days worth of cab fares (or $150+ for 5 days worth of car rental) it really starts to make a dent in your profit margin.

    It also really pays to compare the cost of flying plus taking cabs or car rental with the cost of driving ... especially when your booking is in a city that either doesn't have a major hub airport (making tickets muy more expensive) or where you're forced to stay more than walking distance away from the club you're booked into (meaning that you'll have to lay out significant bucks for cabs throughout the week). Plus, if you drive, you can take lots of money-saving stuff along with you such as a 12 volt electric cooler full of food and small microwave oven to save on the cost of restaurant meals. Even if you do a restaurant breakfast after your club gig, whipping up your own 'healthy' dinner before starting work at the club can save you an easy $100 a week (as well as a potential 3 pound a week weight gain from eating restaurant dinners every day !)

    Also, if you wind up doing a circuit to say three different clubs in three different cities for three consecutive weeks before returning home, all of a sudden you discover that 'one way' air fares aren't treated very well by most airlines and most frequent flyer programs (Southwest and AirTran are exceptions). You also discover the serious need to do laundry, to pay utility / car payment / credit card bills while on the road, etc. If you drive you'll have room to take along some of your favorite laundry stuff, your household bill folder etc. Also, if more than 50% of the miles that you drive can be written off as a business expense, you can get some nice income tax depreciation by listing your vehicle as a business asset. If you structure things this way, and if you have a dependable vehicle which gets reasonably good gas mileage, the actual out of pocket cost of driving winds up being somewhere in the 30 cents per mile ballpark. Because of this I routinely drove to any booking that was less than 700-800 miles away (= 12 hours driving time on Sunday) for a cost of $200-$250 tops.

    For all of these reasons, most girls who feature, who do not also escort or do 'private sessions' during their feature gigs (which is where the REAL money is to be found in featuring these days !!!), and who are not in the very top echelon for feature pay scale (i.e. Jenna Jamison) wind up driving between bookings on Sundays instead of flying, and wind up making a 'circuit' from home to three different clubs (max 700-800 miles apart) in three consecutive weeks, and then returning home again for a couple of weeks of R&R .
    ~
    Last edited by Melonie; 04-05-2006 at 02:12 PM.

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