In my last post I talked about frequent flier miles and some basic rules to consider. Aside from the obvious, which is collecting frequent flier miles directly from the airlines, there are many other ways to collect miles. Here are a couple of ideas:

• Car rental agencies have their own programs, but they will often also give you frequent flier points as a bonus for renting with them.
• Credit card companies are probably the best way to collect additional miles; many cards will allow you to collect one mile per dollar spent on the card. If you travel for business this can add up to a lot of miles. I have averaged 50,000 spending per year in the last few years which is enough for 2 short haul flights in North America or one flight to Europe ever year. Even if you do not travel for business if you put most of your expenses on credit cards it will add up to a lot.
• There is a third category which will also give you miles but in actual fact you are probably better off signing up to their own programs and that is hotels. Hotels usually have points programs of their own which can be very useful. Starwood hotels has a very good program called preferred guest which allows you to collect points to use for hotel rooms, but it has one other special feature- these points can also be converted to points on most major airlines- so if you are missing some points for your next reward ticket you can transfer it from your preferred guest account.

If you get a credit card which is partnered with Starwood preferred guest you have the best of all worlds- you will collect a lot of points for hotels which can be transferred to airlines if needed. In Canada we have the MBNA MasterCard and in the United States there is the American Express for this.

Some people do not bother collecting points or frequent flier miles. I used to be one of those people. However, I had been traveling quite a lot for work and one day my boss asked me how many British Airways points I had (as I was usually flying BA). When I told him that I was not a member of their frequent flier club he told me to join immediately and to log my previous six months of flights. Upon doing so I immediately collected 50,000 BA miles, which is enough for a trip from North America to Europe. Wow. That’s how I became very interested in points and miles.

 There are a few basic rules to consider when collecting frequent flier miles- or any kind of points for that matter. These are my top three-

The first rule is to always collect them where you can. They do not cost you anything and they can add up to future flights, hotel stays, or merchandise. My rule is- if you can collect some kind of points you should - and if you are not already a member of their plan- join. It’s free and may add up to something later. The only exception to this is when the item that you are purchasing costs more to collect the points (unusual but it happens).

The second rule is to try and stick to the same points programs, so have primary and secondary programs- it is better to have 60,000 Aeroplan points, for example, then 30,000 Aeroplan and 30,000 BA. The first one can give you a trip to Europe or 2 tickets around North America; the second can’t even get you to Europe. This may seem like it contradicts the first rule, but it does not- try to use your primary program first, then your secondary one, and so on…

The third rule is the importance of understanding expiry, because you do not want your points to go to waste. Either try to use points without expiry, or if your points do expire, know the rules related to this. For example, many people in Canada collect Aeroplan points, but many are not aware that they expire after 3 years of inactivity on the account. Inactivity does not necessarily mean flight inactivity; Esso gives you 1 Aeroplan point for buying $3 of gas; so if you have not collected Aeroplan points in  2 1/2 years you can just buy $3 of gas to collect 1 point and keep the account active. Don’t find out the hard way that you have lost all of your points.

I am going to get into more detail of points programs in future posts. Stay tuned…

Of course when you go on any trip you will be needing money. So, what is the best way to get money in a foreign country? As is the case with many things the answer is, it depends.
 
The first thing to consider is the country itself, you can pay for things with credit cards in most first world countries, but developing countries are not quite as simple- usually major hotels will take your credit card, but you may be out of luck in other places like restaurants, etc… If you do have a large amount of cash, you can usually leave it a safe in your hotel, either in your room or in the lobby.

The simplest and most convenient option that I use is to bring cash and change it at the airport when you arrive. The main problem with this is that the rates are not always good, and you also usually have to pay a service fee. I do recommend this to get some small amount of local currency just to get you started- for lunch, taxis etc… When you have to change a relatively large amount of money however, you really have to look around for the best rate. On a recent trip to Scotland for example, I changed 500 USD at the airport for 242 pounds, then a few days later exchanged the same amount again in a store for 252 pounds- that’s a 10 pound or 20 dollar difference- which is the price of a nice lunch.

Another option if you are a person who likes to carry cash, is to take money out directly from a bank (ATM) machine. This is possible in many places by checking the back of your debit card to make sure that one of the networks is listed on your card and also on the machine you are withdrawing money from (examples of these are cirrus or plus)- your bank will sometimes charge a fee for this, but the exchange rate is usually pretty good. DO watch out for suspicious people around ATM machines- I have had my bank account accessed in the UK after I had used a particular machine, I had not noticed anything unusual at the time but a few days later I checked my account and had $2,000 withdrawn over the period of five hours. Somehow they managed to copy my card and pin number from a particular machine.

 A third option is to pay for everything on your credit card, you will not need to pay a separate fee, however, the exchange rate they give will include a small percentage exchange  (usually 2-3%)- this is probably around the same rate as you would get from your bank?

I usually tend to use a combination of the above ideas- varying the amount of cash I carry depending on the country I’m visiting- the less I think I will be able to use my credit card, the more cash I will carry. But I always carry some cash because you never know when you will need it.

If you are traveling to a new country may be risky for any reason I would add one last item: keep a note with the address and phone number of your nearest embassy/consulate in a safe place- this can save you a lot of hassle if your documents are lost or stolen.