what do you do with airline miles?

[alison]

It seems like they're basically useless. Dh has something like 60k and I have 50k for United. But dh's work schedule is far too inflexible to be bumped in any sort of way, and the flights we need/want usually require more miles than the minimum.

Are magazines really our only option?

[JDAZ11]

We finally just a great flight out of delta miles. But I've never used them for anything besides tickets, upgrades, and magazines. I didn't even realize there were other options!

[alotofyarn]

On Southwest, we really use them. I'm not sure we've ever accumulated enough on another airline to actually get anything. We have a miles credit card, and we exchange those for Brooks Brothers cards for hubby (they have the best exchange rate).

[alison]

It looks like if you're a premier member at United, you can get gift cards at Amazon, rei, zappos, and a few others where we actually shop. I'm thinking Dh is pretty close to becoming a premier member--he will soon have flown 3 transatlantic flights in one month... I think he just needs one more leg to be a premier member, and then all our Xmas shopping will be done. . I just wonder what the catch is.

[oceanchild]

Oh man, my husband is a FlyerTalk reader and has all sorts of opinions about this. We mostly fly Southwest and United and seem to fly them enough that we don't have to worry about miles expiring. The Southwest ones we basically use when we've gotten enough for a trip (though many of our Southwest flights are cheap enough that DH doesn't think it's worth using the miles - we try to use them at expensive times or on expensive routes). On United we hoard for big international trips. We have a credit card with points that can be converted into a lot of things, and he recently converted them to United miles, which, along with our existing United miles, will get us to Europe on business class next summer. We put nearly everything on that credit card and pay it off monthly. I'm not totally sold on this strategy, because there's an annual fee involved, but DH is convinced it's worth it. To get the Europe trip, we literally booked the day they released the flight schedule and are just doing our best to make the dates work out.

For the rare occasions that we fly other airlines, we mostly just leave the miles there and eventually they expire.

[alison]

, Julia. I'm impressed. Dh hoards starwood points, but they aren't so great for flights, because you need SO many. So we use them for hotel stays, but with two kids and two adults, we'll pretty much need bigger rooms or a suite or two rooms from here on out. Dh uses the points for when he stays at an airport Sheraton just before flying home (the nonstop is always SO early on the return flight). I'm not wild about annual fees. Does anyone have the amazon visa?

[niener]

, Julia. I'm impressed. Dh hoards starwood points, but they aren't so great for flights, because you need SO many. So we use them for hotel stays, but with two kids and two adults, we'll pretty much need bigger rooms or a suite or two rooms from here on out. Dh uses the points for when he stays at an airport Sheraton just before flying home (the nonstop is always SO early on the return flight). I'm not wild about annual fees. Does anyone have the amazon visa?

I have the Amazon visa with Chase, it's great although the only thing I use it for is Amazon purchases (though that's a lot of stuff over a year) but it gives you 3% back which just goes straight into my Amazon account so all I do is apply the points to my cart when I get enough to make a dent in my purchase. I think it gives 2% back on drugstores or something random like that (I rarely shop at drugstores so I didn't pay that much attention) and 1% on everything else.


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[OrionGrad]

We use our SW miles all the time, and we used to use our JetBlue miles pretty frequently when we were in NY. I've never been able to accumulate enough miles on legacy airlines to get anything other than magazine subscriptions. I didn't even know gift cards were an option.

[wiva]

We use ours regularly, but I think ours are good for multiple airlines.

We even were able to fly first class on a transatlantic flight on British Airways with them (for free!). It was pretty sweet!

[alison]

How on earth are you getting enough miles to fly business or first class to Europe? Isn't that something like 200k??

[MrsC]

We always fly United to Europe and generally save miles for free flights. It takes about 50k miles each way although I think we got one to Hawaii for 25k miles. Last year we got an upgrade to business at check in for 20k miles and $500. Absolutely worth it flying to Europe.

[spotty_dog]

We use the points on our "Flex Perks" credit card to fly to Hawaii each year. We haven't run across significant blackouts. I'm not sure if we get to roll our Alaska/Hawaiian Air miles in to the transaction or not -- DH always handles the actual purchase of the tickets.

[alison]

We always fly United to Europe and generally save miles for free flights. It takes about 50k miles each way although I think we got one to Hawaii for 25k miles. Last year we got an upgrade to business at check in for 20k miles and $500. Absolutely worth it flying to Europe.

I just paid $2000 for a ticket; I don't think I'm willing to spend an additional $500... .

[MrsC]

I just paid $2000 for a ticket; I don't think I'm willing to spend an additional $500... .

I wouldn't either! Not when the fare is that expensive.
We usually fly to Ireland from New York so it's probably cheaper to begin with. Those business class seats are amazing though. We've only done it twice, for our wedding and the last time because I was pregnant. Not for every trip but worth saving miles for I think.