FAQ - Miles & Points
You can always email me using the contact form for any questions you have and I would try and help to the best of my ability. If you have questions regarding planning a vacation or booking flights you are welcome to send them to me. Below are few FAQ I have tried to answer:
Q: What are miles?
A: Miles are the frequent flyer currency given by the Airlines primarily for flying with them.
Q: Why should I collect miles and what can I get with them?
A: Miles can help you take free flights to many destinations which are too expensive to fly on regular tickets (You still need to pay taxes and other charges). You can also use miles for car rental or hotel reservation. Some program also allows you to exchange miles for gift-cards and prepaid cards for some of your favorite stores.
Q: How do I collect miles?
A: There are number of ways you can collect miles. This includes using airline branded credit cards for daily purchases, online shopping malls of airlines, car rentals, hotel stays and of-course flying. Check out one of the blog post here.
Q: Do you need to be a US resident to be able to collect miles?
A: No. You can collect miles even if you are resident of any other country, but most of the best promotions for accumulating miles are available for US residents, followed by UK and Canadian residents.
Q: Who provides miles?
A: It's the airlines which provides miles. That being said various airline companies have co-branded credit cards with merchant banks. This credit card earns miles that can be used for redemption with the airlines.
Q: Are the miles earned through credit card tied to specific airlines?
A: Yes. For e.g. if you take United Airlines co-branded credit card from Chase bank you earn miles of United Airlines only.
Q: Are there credit cards which allows transfer of miles to multiple airlines?
A: Yes. There are few credit cards which earn points in their own program. These points can be transferred to their partner airlines. AMEX & Chase both have such credit cards.
Q: Can I redeem miles earned on any airlines?
A: Yes and No. Most of the airlines (not all) are member of different alliances. Also most airlines have multiple airlines as partners. You can redeem your miles to fly on either the partner airlines or alliance member airlines.
Q: What are alliance airlines?
A: There are 3 difference airline alliance in the world. Star Alliance, One-World and SkyTeam. Most of the major airlines (with few exceptions) will be part of one of these major alliance.
Q: Are there any specific airlines which are not part of any alliance?
A: Mostly regional airlines or low cost no frill domestic airlines are not part of any alliance. The examples are Southwest Airlines, JetBlue airlines etc in the USA.
Q: How many credit cards I need to sign-up to get a free flight ticket within continental USA?
A: One card is good enough to get enough points to fly within continental USA in off-peak season. In fact sometimes the bonus points are sufficient for a flight from Continental USA to Europe.
Q: How many credit cards I need for a free flight ticket from USA to Asia?
A: Ideally one requires anywhere from 80k points to 100k points for a free flight (off peak season in coach class) from USA to Asia. Ideally two to three credit card sign-up can get you 80k to 100k points which are good enough for your flight.
Q: Why would credit card company give huge amount of miles in return for nothing?
A: Firstly credit card company wants you as their customer and want's you to use their card for your spending. Secondly, they are banking on that you would not pay your dues on time and that way they would be able to charge good amount of interest which would recover their cost of the miles. But if you are diligent with your payments on time you are going to enjoy all the perks of free miles without any cost to you.
Q: Do credit cards have minimum spend requirement to get the bonus miles?
A: Most of the credit cards are having this requirement, but there are still good amount of credit cards which has either very low spend requirement or no spend requirement at all.
Q: How hard is it to meet the minimum spend requirements?
A: An average household has a monthly spend (excluding rent) of anywhere from $1k to $2k. If you are one of those than its relatively easy to meet the requirement. But even if you spent less than that there are still ton of ways to meet the spend requirement. Check out this article here.
Q: Does accumulating miles take lot of time?
A: This is not completely true. If you can sign up for credit cards or get on the bonus promotion you will not even realize how fast you can accumulate miles. In addition there are various partner promotion which helps you accumulate miles faster.
Q: The miles are useless as I cannot find award availability to the place I want to fly.
A: This is where it helps to identify the Mileage program which suites your needs. Sure, you need to be flexible with your travel plans but most often the awards are available. Specially the US domestic routes availability is great.
Q: What are miles?
A: Miles are the frequent flyer currency given by the Airlines primarily for flying with them.
Q: Why should I collect miles and what can I get with them?
A: Miles can help you take free flights to many destinations which are too expensive to fly on regular tickets (You still need to pay taxes and other charges). You can also use miles for car rental or hotel reservation. Some program also allows you to exchange miles for gift-cards and prepaid cards for some of your favorite stores.
Q: How do I collect miles?
A: There are number of ways you can collect miles. This includes using airline branded credit cards for daily purchases, online shopping malls of airlines, car rentals, hotel stays and of-course flying. Check out one of the blog post here.
Q: Do you need to be a US resident to be able to collect miles?
A: No. You can collect miles even if you are resident of any other country, but most of the best promotions for accumulating miles are available for US residents, followed by UK and Canadian residents.
Q: Who provides miles?
A: It's the airlines which provides miles. That being said various airline companies have co-branded credit cards with merchant banks. This credit card earns miles that can be used for redemption with the airlines.
Q: Are the miles earned through credit card tied to specific airlines?
A: Yes. For e.g. if you take United Airlines co-branded credit card from Chase bank you earn miles of United Airlines only.
Q: Are there credit cards which allows transfer of miles to multiple airlines?
A: Yes. There are few credit cards which earn points in their own program. These points can be transferred to their partner airlines. AMEX & Chase both have such credit cards.
Q: Can I redeem miles earned on any airlines?
A: Yes and No. Most of the airlines (not all) are member of different alliances. Also most airlines have multiple airlines as partners. You can redeem your miles to fly on either the partner airlines or alliance member airlines.
Q: What are alliance airlines?
A: There are 3 difference airline alliance in the world. Star Alliance, One-World and SkyTeam. Most of the major airlines (with few exceptions) will be part of one of these major alliance.
Q: Are there any specific airlines which are not part of any alliance?
A: Mostly regional airlines or low cost no frill domestic airlines are not part of any alliance. The examples are Southwest Airlines, JetBlue airlines etc in the USA.
Q: How many credit cards I need to sign-up to get a free flight ticket within continental USA?
A: One card is good enough to get enough points to fly within continental USA in off-peak season. In fact sometimes the bonus points are sufficient for a flight from Continental USA to Europe.
Q: How many credit cards I need for a free flight ticket from USA to Asia?
A: Ideally one requires anywhere from 80k points to 100k points for a free flight (off peak season in coach class) from USA to Asia. Ideally two to three credit card sign-up can get you 80k to 100k points which are good enough for your flight.
Q: Why would credit card company give huge amount of miles in return for nothing?
A: Firstly credit card company wants you as their customer and want's you to use their card for your spending. Secondly, they are banking on that you would not pay your dues on time and that way they would be able to charge good amount of interest which would recover their cost of the miles. But if you are diligent with your payments on time you are going to enjoy all the perks of free miles without any cost to you.
Q: Do credit cards have minimum spend requirement to get the bonus miles?
A: Most of the credit cards are having this requirement, but there are still good amount of credit cards which has either very low spend requirement or no spend requirement at all.
Q: How hard is it to meet the minimum spend requirements?
A: An average household has a monthly spend (excluding rent) of anywhere from $1k to $2k. If you are one of those than its relatively easy to meet the requirement. But even if you spent less than that there are still ton of ways to meet the spend requirement. Check out this article here.
Q: Does accumulating miles take lot of time?
A: This is not completely true. If you can sign up for credit cards or get on the bonus promotion you will not even realize how fast you can accumulate miles. In addition there are various partner promotion which helps you accumulate miles faster.
Q: The miles are useless as I cannot find award availability to the place I want to fly.
A: This is where it helps to identify the Mileage program which suites your needs. Sure, you need to be flexible with your travel plans but most often the awards are available. Specially the US domestic routes availability is great.