Frequent Flier

I just found out about the new Aeroplan Be a Miles Millionaire contest which runs from now until June 20th. The grand prize is 1 Million Aeroplan miles and there are 160 prizes of 25,000 miles.

This contest runs from today until June 20th, 2008. To enter you just need to collect Aeroplan miles from selected companies- each mile earned gives you one contest entry. Qualifying miles are any  Aeroplan Miles earned through Home Hardware, Esso, Tropicana-Quaker, Uniprix, Rogers Magazine Service, Primus Canada, Bose and Aeromove.

Usually I don’t enter contests, but the chance of winning a million miles will probably sway me to give it a shot. What I like about this contest is that there is a variety of retailers to choose from.

See full contest info here.

A couple of days ago I received a newsletter from Lufthansa.

Usually I would delete the email (except for Aeroplan) but this time I opened it and while reading the latest Lufthansa news I spotted an interesting number in the corner- I actually have 47,000 Miles and More points.

47,000 is not a huge number of points- but it is enough for a free flight in North America- or if I can manage to get 13,000 more I will have enough for a flight to Europe, or 2 flights within North America.

If I had not signed up for the newletter I would have forgotten for sure and the miles would have expired, probably without me even knowing about it. I checked if these miles expire and sure enough they do expire after three years- which gives me only 11 months to use them. Many miles programs expire even sooner than three years.

So this is a reminder to check your old plans- you may get a nice surprise like I did.

Web Check-in must be something new for Air Canada. I don’t know for how long they have had it but read about the promotion for July 2007 which gives you 250 Aeroplan miles for using the service.

With web check-in you can check in, choose your seat, and print your boarding pass up to 24 hours before your flight. This can save you some time at the airport. I have used it on British Airways and it worked very well.

For more details on the Air Canada promotion check here. For full information on Air Canada web check-in click here

I was hoping to use this and get some extra miles- I will be traveling in July but unfortunately I will not be flying Air Canada.

For more info on other Aeroplan promotions, check out my Aeroplan page .

I recently redeemed some of my Aeroplan miles for my girlfriend to come and meet me for a weekend in Las Vegas. Here are some tips for Aeroplan miles redemption:

• Be flexible with your dates- and check all of the different combinations. In my particular case the option was to come back on monday which would have cost 40,000 miles, or tuesday which cost only 25,000 miles.
• Check alternative airports if there are other convenient ones you can get to- this could save you money on the taxes you have to pay.
• Make sure that the route is reasonably convenient- sometimes you may have to transfer several times to get to your destination.
• I used to think it was worth it to call air canada to redeem your points- but now that the website has improved I think it is better to redeem online- you have to pay an extra fee if you want to make your reservation by phone.

Remember- Aeroplan miles do expire after 7 years so it is important to use them before 7 years or face losing them. Aside from flights there are many other things you can exchange your Aeroplan miles for such as gift cards at various stores. Check out all the options at Aeroplan, or on my Getting the most our of Aeroplan page

 

If you are not a member of Alaska Airlines frequent flier program, you can join now and get 3,000 miles into your account straight away. Here is the sign-up. I have not checked into the program in detail, but it is a nice way to get 3,000 frequent flier points just for filling in a form.

Thanks to Flyertalk for this

I recently received my first bill from CIBC Aerogold, and I am pleased with the new feature of 1.5 Aeroplan miles for money spent at gas station, groceries, and drugstores.

I spent $535 on the card last month and got 137 additional Aeroplan miles, which gave me a total of 672 miles. Plus, I got my 15,000 miles for applying online.

The thing that I really like about the additional miles is that you can get them almost anywhere. A full list of participating merchants can be found here.

As a reminder, I also have an Aeroplan page where you can find the latest limited time bonuses that Aeroplan is offering.

I finally got my new CIBC Aerogold and have been using it for a few weeks. Because I applied for it online I received 15,000 bonus Aeroplan miles.

The 1.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar on gas, groceries, and pharmacies is my favorite feature on this card. If you use your Aerogold credit card at places that take Aeroplan- for example Uniprix, you can get 2.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent!

This makes a huge difference in collecting for your next trip.

I have to say I am already liking this card….

As reported in Upgrade- Travel Better, there are two new websites for people wanting to figure out the best deals they can get with their frequent flier miles or hotel points.

MileMaven helps travelers find the most number of frequent flier miles for your flights. PointMaven does the same thing, but for hotel points.

I often find it is difficult to find information about ways to earn extra points and these guys consolidate it pretty well.

There is a lot of info available- check them out!

I have used CIBC Aerogold visa in the past, but stopped using it a couple of years ago in favour of the CIBC Aventura card. I have decided to switch back to Aerogold instead of staying with the Aventura Visa.

Why am I doing this? The cards are actually similar in benefits and cost- they both have a not-so-small fee of $120 per year.

Benefits of Aventura over Aeroplan

• You can transfer Aventura points to Aeroplan miles but not the other way around
• Aventura points can be used on several different airlines

Benefits of Aeroplan over Aventura

• The big difference is that now you get 1.5 Aeroplan miles at grocery stores, gas stations, or drug stores. This will allow me to collect many more miles
• Applying over the internet gives you 15,000 Aeroplan miles as a bonus. This is more than half of the points needed for a trip within North America

I know that using Aeroplan more extensively will sometimes be limiting because Air Canada does not fly everywhere, but I think that the additional points will be worth it.

In addition I still keep the MBNA Starwood card which is a great way to earn Starwood points which can be transferred to many airline programs (other than Aeroplan). For those of you who do not like to pay fees this card gets you points, it is a platinum card so you get additional benefits such as rental car insurance, and best of all it is free.

As part of my effort of trying to consolidate my points earnings- I have just applied for the CIBC Aerogold card. This will be replacing my CIBC Aventura card which I have been using for the last couple of years.

Why am I making this change? There are three main reasons:

Firstly, I do a lot of my travel on Air Canada, so if I am collecting miles for my flying, I thought that I might as well also collect some using my credit card.

Secondly, if you apply for this credit card now now you get a bonus of 15,000 Aeroplan miles, which is more than half of what is needed for a economy fare inside North America. But you must apply from the CIBC website.

Finally, you now get 1.5 miles for every dollar spent for at gas, grocery, and drug stores. This will allow me to accumulate Aeroplan miles much faster.

I am not the biggest fan of Aeroplan- for some destinations I find that the number of miles needed are a much more than the use of other airlines- but for use in Canada- Aeroplan is the only real choice in frequent flier miles.

For more information on Aeroplan offers, check my Aeroplan page

Yesterday I posted about Rewards Network, the dining program which gives you extra frequent flier miles.

If you are an Air Canada Aeoplan member you probably noticed that they are not part of the rewards network. Why? Because they have their own program.

It is called Advantex and it is done with CIBC. It is a similar idea to Rewards Network only that it works for restaurants in Canada, gives you less benefits (usually 1 or 2 miles per dollar spent) , and you can’t choose which credit card to use; you have to use specific ones- either the CIBC Aerogold card or the CIBC Aventura card.

However, if you do live in or visit Canada a lot- the selection of restaurants in canadian cities is much better than Rewards Network.

If you have the CIBC Aerogold card, the website you can check to learn more about this is http://www.aerogold-advantex.com/

If you have the CIBC Aventura card, the website you can check to learn more about this is http://en.aventuraadvantex.com/

This is a post for those of you who are always looking to increase your frequent flier miles. Take a look at Rewards Network

Rewards Network is a dining program which allows you to get Cash Back or frequent flier miles at many restaurants across the US and canada.

When you join the program you initially qualify for 3 miles per dollar spent, but if you go to a lot of Rewards Network restaurants (more than 12 in one year), you get an incredible 10 points for every dollar spent. This can be a great bonus if you are taking clients out to dinner.

There are three things I really like about this program

1. The extent of points earnings. On the rewards network you can earn points from Alaska Airlines, American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Midwest Airlines, Northwest Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways.

2. The ease of use of the program. Once you are signed up, you give them one or several credit card numbers that you will use at the restaurant- and your points will automatically be sent to the airline of your choice.

3. The range and selection of restaurants. It is very easy to find a restaurant on the rewards network website. The number of member is good, and there is a wide variety of tastes and prices for any occasion.

Try it, it is free. Rewards Network

As of January 2007, Aeroplan miles now expire. As a result, Aeroplan collectors must be aware of the changes and how they can be affected. The rules related to expiry are the single most important thing to know about Aeroplan, because if you are not careful, all of your miles can be taken away.

There are two aspects of expiry that you need to be aware of, keeping your account active and making sure your miles don’t expire.

First, for those who are not active Aeroplan collectors, it is important to note that in order to keep your Aeroplan account active, you must make a transaction on the account every 12 months. This used to be every 36 months so make sure that you do something with miles at least once a year. For example, if you collected Aeroplan miles today, February 19th, you would have to do something else by February 18th of next year. Keep in mind that any activity on the accounts does count, which means that you can add miles or redeem some to keep the account active. If you are not planning a trip, check out my Aeroplan page to give you ideas about how to collect them elsewhere.

The second element of expiry is that now all Aeroplan miles expire after 7 years. The rules are slightly different from the rules regarding keeping the account active, as they are considered earned in a year of their accumulation. All miles that are collected in 2007, for example, will be removed from the account if they are not used by December 31st, 2014.

You can find out all of the details about expiry on Aeroplan’s help page.

There are a few new limited time hotel offers from Aeroplan

Hotel Offer #1

At Intercontinental hotels- Between January 15 and April 30, 2007, earn 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles for every third qualifying night—up to 10,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles at any InterContinental^®, Crowne Plaza^®, Hotel Indigo^TM, Holiday Inn^®, Holiday Inn Express^®, Staybridge Suites^® or Candlewood Suites^® Hotel worldwide.

Hotel Offer #2

Earn up to 500 Aeroplan Miles every stay with two new partners Sofitel and Novotel. Better yet, celebrate this new partnership with Double Aeroplan Miles at eight hotels in Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa until June 30, 2007! That’s 1,000 miles per eligible stay at the Sofitel Montreal and 500 miles per stay at all Canadian Novotels

Hotel Offer #3

Triple Aeroplan Miles with Choice Hotels

Earn triple the miles for every eligible stay** starting with the second one between February 1 and April 30, 2007. That includes stays with Choice Hotels^® at:

• Comfort^TM, Comfort Suites^®, Quality^®, Sleep Inn^®, Clarion^®, Cambria Suites^TM or MainStay Suites^® hotels in Canada, the U.S., the Caribbean or Mexico
• Econo Lodge^® or Rodeway Inn^® hotels in Canada

As it happens, I will be staying at a Comfort Suites hotel next week so I will make sure to sign up…

For more Aeroplan offers check out my Aeroplan page

Aeroplan has a new offer with Rogers Magazine Service. The ad says that you can choose from over 100 of Canada’s top magazines including Maclean’s, Chatelaine, Men’s Health, Today’s Parent, Canadian House & Home, and Moneysense. The prices are pretty good, You can save up to 83% when you subscribe to magazines through this offer. If you subscribe to one magazine you get 350 Aeroplan miles, with two subscriptions you get 1,000 miles, and with three you get 1,350 miles. Click here for more info.
The offer is valid until the end of 2007. It may be worthwhile if you buy some of these magazines.

When I went shopping last week I bought some Quaker oatmeal. It was only when I got home that I noticed that it was a box where I could register for the 10 free Aeroplan miles.

So, I went to breakfastcentral.ca, put in my Aeroplan number and last name, put in the pin that I found on the inside of the oatmeal box, and asked for the miles to be deposited immediately in my account.

I found the miles were deposited two days later. The breakfast central website says that miles are deposited twice a month so you may have to wait up to 2 weeks to see them.

Altogether a painless experience, though I still think that 10 miles is not really enough to sway me to buy a Tropicana or Quaker product.

There is a lot of talk about valuing points and as with any kind of discussion there are a variety of opinions on this.

Aeroplan is one of the programs I use and collect a lot- so what is the value of Aeroplan Points?

One way to value points is to look at what you can buy for an equivalent cash value. 60,000 Aeroplan for example can get you a 500 dollar gift certificate at Future Shop. This works out to less than one cent per point (around 0.8 cents per point). Not a great value but better than nothing.

A one hundred dollar card for Futureshop will cost you 13,000 points, which is an even lower value- around 0.7 cents per point.

The best value is usually to look at the number of points it will take you to fly somewhere. Last year I took a trip to Scotland which cost me 80,000 points + 350 dollars in airport taxes. This same flight would have cost me 1,600 dollars if I had bought the ticket at a regular price. So in this case my points were worth 1.5 cents per point. If you are redeeming points for flying, you usually get best values when you fly further.
On average, the rule of thumb is that you should get more than one cent per point. Two or more points is really good. If you are not getting that much you should pay cash. But this rule of thumb ignores the fact that you may not always have cash for a trip.

The best advice I can give is that if you are a member of a points program, look everywhere for opportunities to collect them, because at some time in the future they may add up to be enough for that trip you have always wanted.

Check out my Aeroplan page for some ideas.

As I am starting to plan the various trips I will be taking this year, I thought it would be a good time to discuss the best ways of using frequent flier miles.

You have various options for using frequent flier miles- and the nice thing is there are more and more available options for redemption. In many cases you can now redeem your miles for hotel stays, car rentals, and even merchandise.

If you are trying to get the best value for your miles- your best values will usually be for using your miles to redeem for business class tickets. When you compare the cost of purchasing these tickets to the number of miles required for redemption you can get great deal.

If you do not have a lot of miles but you like to travel in style, another good option is to use your miles for upgrading from an economy ticket to a business class ticket. Be careful though, not every class of ticket can be upgraded. Very low fares usually do not qualify for upgrades with miles.

It used to be the case that even if you had enough miles you may not be able to get a seat on the flight you wanted. Airlines have noticed this and are starting to do something about it. If you use Air Canada Aeroplan for example, they have now introduced a program called ClassicPlus Flight Rewards which allows you to use more aeroplan miles get a seat on any flight. For more information on this, scroll down to the ClassicPlus Flights Rewards section on the Aeroplan help page.

For myself, I usually tend to use my miles for travel in economy, this way I can take twice as many trips for the same number of miles.

When you have finally decided what you are going to redeem your miles for I strongly suggest to call the reservation number of the airline. There is usually a fee when you do this, but you are sure of what you are getting. When I have redeemed miles for travel on airline websites directly I have had problems with missing reservations.

New offer: Until December 31st, 2007 you can earn 10 miles each time you use a Tropicana or Quaker product.

It’s a bit of effort though.

The way it works is as follows:

1. buy a specially marked package of Tropica or Quaker product-
2. find a 12 digit pin number on the item
3. go to breakfastcentral
4. type in your aeroplan number- then the PIN

you will receive 10 Aeroplan miles per item for this.

I don’t know- it seems pretty complicated for 10 Airmiles. I don’t think I will be doing this.

For more details go to breakfastcentral

Air Canada is offering the chance to get additional Aeroplan miles as part of their Winter Bonanza program.

Until March 15th you can extra Aeroplan miles for travelling to various destinations. The offer is for some flights within Canada, some flights to the US, and there are some European destinations, as well as Hong Kong. You get an extra 50% if you are travelling in first class, and an extra 25% if you are travelling economy.

If you are planning a trip this could be a nice extra.

For full details on this offer- click here.

This offer is for a limited time (until February 9th) and it is only for Uniprix Option+ products, but if you are an avid Aeroplan mile collector (as I am). And, you were planning on making some purchases at the local pharmacy, the chance to get double Aeroplan miles may be of interest. More details of the offer can be found on the Aeroplan website.

You will still get 1 Aeroplan mile per dollar spent on any other items you buy, but 2 per dollar on the Option+ brand, which is the Uniprix house brand. The items under the Option+ family range from shampoo, paper towels, vitamins, anything you could usually find under a no name brand. You can see more about these items at the Option+ section of the Uniprix website.

I have one small criticism of Aeroplan. The reason I know about this offer is that I am subscribed to the Aeoplan newsletter. I just received this newsletter today, which is five days after the promotion has started. It would be much better to get this information out before the actual offer begins.

Happy New Year everybody!

To start off  the new year, there was a good article in Smarter Travel today called Five Frequent Flyer resolutions for 2007

 The two resolutions I especially liked were:

• I will reevaluate my frequent flyer affiliation. This is something that all of us need to do periodically. I used to be a big fan of British Airways, but with the problems I have had with them, I am now leaning back towards Aeroplan. I also recently joined the Delta Skymiles program as I happened to take a couple of flights with them.
• I will choose the credit card which makes most sense for me. As I have mentioned previously, In my own case, my choice is the MBNA Starwood preferred guest Mastercard. This is available if you are Canadian. You get Starwood points which can be transferred to most airline mileage programs- and it has no annual fee. The only problem is that you cannot convert miles earned on the credit card to Aeroplan. As I have been dissapointed with British Airways, I am on a hunt for a new credit card on which I can earn Aeroplan miles.

As an update to my post a few days ago- Using Aeroplan at Uniprix.

I just checked my Aeroplan account and the miles were credited for my spending at Uniprix just a day or two after using my Aeroplan card there.

I am very happy that there is no need to chase after them, and I will be using Uniprix more often.

In order to make it easier to track what is going on with Aeroplan- I am starting a dedicated Aeroplan page which you can find here. The idea of this is to create a place where all of the up-to-date information about Aeroplan can be found.

I posted the other day about how Aeroplan is now partnered with Uniprix to give you one Aeroplan mile for every dollar spent.

So I went by yesterday to try it out.

I did have to ask if they would take Aeroplan, the cashier did not offer. But when I did ask it was no problem, they simply scanned the back of the card. As I paid the bill with a MBNA SPG Mastercard, I also managed to collect Starwoods points for the same purchase.

If I had used an CIBC Aerogold visa I could have collected 1.5 points per dollar spent on the card and the extra one point per dollar from the Aeroplan card. So for 2.5 points for each dollar you spend- this can really help towards your next trip.

I think this is one of Aeroplan’s better partnerships because everybody needs to buy things at the pharmacy.

Now I just need to wait and see how long it takes the miles to be credited to my account.

Today I got home and have received an Aeroplan newsletter in the mail. Snail mail. The Newsletter is dated November 8th so does that mean it took almost six weeks to get to my house— in downtown Montreal?

In any case I was surprised because I often get notices in my e-mail but it is rare to get a hard copy of information. But I guess not everybody reads the e-mails…

So what’ new for Aeroplan (not all of this is new, but it is in the newsletter)?

• If you get insurance at ING or at Belairdirect you can get 1 Aeroplan mile for every 2 dollars of insurance
• As I have previously mentioned you can now get 1 Aeroplan mile for every 1 dollar spent at Uniprix
• You can now get Aeroplan miles with XM radio plans
• For a limited time (until January 2nd 2007) you can get Aeroplan miles when you are buying or leasing a Chrysler or Jeep
• Though the Aeroplan partnership with Esso, but until December 31st,  you can get 400 extra miles if you link your aeroplan number to your speedpass.
• There was also a reminder that you can get Aeroplan miles through paying your Bell bill.

If you are use or are planning on buying or using any of these goods or services it could be an easy opportunity to add to your Aeroplan miles total.

Just a quick comment on something I mentioned in a previous post.

A couple of weeks ago I gave a tip about how important it is to subscribe to the newsletters of the points programs you are member of. Today I got a chance to confirm this tip again. 

Just a couple of days ago I was thinking about how much I need a card scanner. Today I was checking the prices on several models on Tigerdirect, and later on in the evening I was looking through my e-mail. Well, I got a recent airmiles newsletter which showed me how I could get double airmiles until December 31st at Tigerdirect!

I didn’t even know that I could collect airmiles at that Tigerdirect but now that I know, and even better, that I can get double airmiles, it is much more likely that I will buy my card scanner from them.

Once again the guys at Flyertalk are on top of the latest info. They pointed out this week that the CIBC Aerogold Visa is now going to be offering 1.5 Aeroplan miles per dollar spent on groceries, gas, and drug stores. You can find the post from Flyertalk here and info from the CIBC website here.

This is a great improvement for everyday users of this card for collecting Aeroplan points. I currently use the CIBC Aventura card for business and the MBNA SPG Mastercard for personal use but I have been thinking about switching my Aventura back to Aerogold. Now I may switch back to the Aerogold for everyday spending and the MBNA SPG card for business.

It looks like Aeroplan is becoming very agressive with their partnerships. Just recently they also announced that Uniprix is also becoming an Aeroplan partner.

These are good times for Aeroplan collectors.

Today I would like to offer another tip about frequent flier miles.

Previously I have talked about collecting frequent flier miles here and here. I have also discussed additional ways to find miles in unexpected places. Today I found another way to find miles. This is something that I have been doing for a while, it just happened to come in handy today.

My tip for the day is to subscribe to the e-mail newsletter of the points program you are a member of.

As I am an avid collector of Aeroplan miles, I get the Aeroplan newsletter sent to me. Every so often I go through my e-mail and scan the newsletters. Today was such a day. I was scanning through a bunch of these e-mails when I saw the title: Stay with Best Western for Triple Aeroplan Miles from an newsletter I received November 10th.

I mentioned in yesterday’s post that I am travelling to New York next week. What I did not mention is that I happen to be staying in a Best Western hotel. I usually prefer to stay at Marriott hotels but this one is very well located for where I need to be.

I was not a member of the Best Western hotel program. However, upon seeing this e-mail I followed the instructions and joined. The best part is that now I am registered to get three times the number of aeroplan miles that I would normally get. The entire process took less than 5 minutes.

It’s nice to see that sometimes things work out well.

I have been a big fan of British airways up until this year.

On my last trip to the UK I had two major problems. The first of which was that BA overcharged me by $1,000 for my return flight.

You would think that this issue would be easily cleared up by calling in to customer service right? Wrong.

A bit of history… I had booked the flights using BA miles. At the end of my vacation when we got to the airport for our return flight the counter staff could not find my reservation, even with the booking reference that they had sent to me.

The counter staff at Glasgow airport sent us to the service counter where I explained the situation- including the fact that I had bought the tickets with points. The staff there gave me paper tickets and told me that everything was fine.

Imagine my surprise next month when my credit card statement arrived and I was charged an extra $1,100 for my return flights.

So, I called the British Airways Customer Service line. After going through the whole story, and spending some time on hold, the agent confirmed that in their system, instead of giving me the rewards ticket that I ordered- they had issued me regular one way tickets for the return.

What this means is that because I unknowingly used the regular fare return tickets, in their system I still have two unused return tickets which were issued on points. Of course my intention was to travel on the points tickets.

The British Airways agent I spoke to agreed that I should be refunded for the regular tickets, but that she couldn’t do anything herself and that I had to send a fax or e-mail to Customer Service.

That seemed reasonable. So I prepared a seven page fax including all relevant information and faxed it to the customer service department.

This was six weeks ago.

I received Nothing. Not even an acknowledgement, reference number, or confirmation.

I have faced many odd situations in my travels before but never this one- so I took it to the experts. And based on recommendations from the great people at Flyertalk; two weeks ago I initiated a charge dispute with my credit card company.

So I called my credit card company, they asked me to fax all of the information I had, and I have already received a letter confirming the complaint and telling me that they will be investigating this issue.

I am now more comfortable that this will be resolved soon. But it does highlight an incredible deficiency in the way customer service issues are dealt with at British Airways. They could learn something from credit card companies. 

Once you have collected some miles there is the question of what to spend the points on. Hopefully you went through some of this process when you started to collect points. To make sure you are getting the best value for your points you need to figure out what they are worth. How to do this? There is some excellent information on how to value your frequent flier miles or points on Gary Steiger’s website freefrequentfliermiles

Using the formula Gary recommends, I end up with my British Airways and Aeroplan miles being worth 2 cents each, my airmiles miles at 12.5 cents each, and my Marriott points at 1 cent each. This is going to be helpful for the next time I look at whether or not to use my points for something.

I find that having points is like collecting change in a piggy bank, it takes a while to get anything useful, but over time it is definitely possible. In most cases it is worth using the miles when you can because the managers of these loyalty programs can, and do, change the rules at any time.

In one of my earlier posts I talked about mandatory documentation when you travel. In this post I would like to address what I call “secondary documentation”. This is the kind of thing which will could cause you some difficulty if you do not have it, but will not ruin your trip.

1. Maps (especially for road trips). I am often one of the first to give out advice to others, and also one of the first to ignore my own advice. The last time My girlfriend and I went to New York city I thought I just needed to print out a Google map of where we needed to go. Google maps are pretty good if you are going to a familiar area- the big problem with the directions that you get from Google Maps is that it often does not show surrounding streets. What ends up happening on a long trip is that if you miss one exit, you have to backtrack until you can find the latest reference point. Unless you are familiar with the place you are going- bring a street map if you are driving, or a train schedule if you are taking the train, etc…. So what happened when we went to new york? Well, let’s just say that a drive from New York to Montreal which normally takes 8 hours took us 15.
2. Copies of your frequent flier numbers. It has happened so many times to me that I have checked in for a flight, or checked into a hotel, and they do not have my number in with the reservation. Now I keep a card in my wallet with the most common ones written down. You can always collect miles /points later if they do not get posted to your account but I find it much easier to ask the question when I check in.
3. Receipts- reason #1. if you are traveling internationally, you may need these when you are coming back into your home country, to prove the prices that you paid. It is helpful when the customs duty does not believe the great deal you just got on an item purchased outside. I am not sure about other countries, but here in Canada if you owe tax on an item purchased outside of the country I have seen two things happen. Sometimes they will charge you tax on the price you actually paid, other times they use the standard tax value of what you would have paid for this item in Canada.
4. Receipts- reason#2. In many cases you can also claim tax back by submitting your receipts. Sometimes this only works for things you are bringing back to your home country but in other cases it can include things like hotel bills too. Tax refund forms can be found at most airports and must be handed in before you leave to go to your home country.
5. Receipts reason#3. If the airlines lose your luggage (as British Airways did on my last trip), you may need the receipts to claim back money for replacement items you purchased.

Any thoughts on this?

At the last company I worked for I did a lot of international travel on different airlines to different airports- and corporate policy was always to travel economy class. At some point I was introduced to Priority Pass and I have been using it for the last three years.

For those of you unfamiliar with Priority Pass , it is a service which gives you lounge access at over 500 airports worldwide, so if you are in an airport pretty much anywhere, there is a good chance that you can access one of the lounges using your card.

Priority Pass isn’t cheap. For occasional travelers you can have a basic membership for which you pay $99 +$24 each time you access a lounge. If you have more than 6 lounge visits per year you should use a standard plus membership for which you pay $249 but you have 10 free visits- and subsequent ones are $24 each. At the top end is the prestige membership which costs $399 but you do not have to pay anything more for any visits. Prestige works out best if you have more than 16 visits per year.

What are the downsides to Priority Pass ?

• The staff at airport lounges are not always familiar with it- although this has been improving. On one occasion (at the lounge in Luanda, Angola) I was refused entry even though I knew for sure that I should have lounge access.
• The program changes all the time. On another trip I was denied entry (at Air Canada lounge in Montreal) because that particular lounge was no longer part of the program.
• Many times there are no signs which show you can use Priority Pass, so you have to go and ask.
• If you bring a visitor you always pay $24 for them

These kinds of incidents range from embarrassing to downright infuriating as I pay $400 a year for my pass out of my own pocket. Case in point, I was just at the Delta lounge in Laguardia. I was traveling on an A ticket- first class- which sometimes give you lounge access. At first when I tried to access the lounge the staff said that I needed a Delta Club card- the lady at the counter smiled at me and offered to sell me this for $400 per year. When I then asked if I told her that I already pay $400 for my Priority Pass they said that I could use it. I would have shown the Priority Pass sooner, but there were no signs for Priority Pass at all.

The really nice thing about this card, though, is the wide availibility of access. I don’t know how they do it but it is rare than I cannot use it at all and generally it works well. Check it out if you are unfamiliar with it.

For those of you who use Aeroplan, Yahoo Finance has an article about how Aeroplan is changing some of the rules of its program. Check out the article here.

Included  in this are expiry of miles after 7 years, and the mandatory use of the program once every 12 months.

As I mentioned in one of my previous articles; understanding the expiry of miles in these programs is very important, if you are a collector. It may be good for Aeroplan to have a seven year expiry on their miles, but I do not see how this benefits the Aeroplan collector in any way.

This is one more reason to make sure that if you collect Aeroplan or other types of miles, that you watch them closely to make sure that you get to redeem them.

Additional ways to find miles and points

Here is an idea for all of you collectors of airmiles or points. I am a big believer in getting as many points as possible, as long as it does not interfere with your normal spending pattern.

The idea is- when you about to buy something, there is a quick and easy way to check that you are getting as many points as you can-

1. By checking the website of the points or miles program and
2. Another way is by checking at the website of the place you are going to buy from.

Here is an example of each of these that I use:

For the first one, I love books and I read a lot. I usually buy my books online (either at Amazon or at Chapters/Indigo) because of their selection and price. As I am also an Airmiles collector, from visiting the Airmiles.ca website I have found that I can go to http://www.airmilesshops.ca/, go in to the Amazon website from there, and collect additional Airmiles on the same books at the same prices that I would be buying them at anyway. This also works for dell.ca and a bunch of other online retailers. 
 
Here is an example of the second kind. Many people like the fact that Airmiles can be collected in stores like grocery stores, pharmacies. However, to be aware of all of the opportunities, you should check the website of your favorite store. I happen to shop at a grocery store called IGA for most of my groceries because a) it’s near to where I live, and b) I can collect Airmiles. It is well known that you can collect Airmiles there as the cashier will always ask fir your card, however, it is not very well known that lGA has an online flyer every week at www.iga.net that can give you extra Airmiles if you print out a coupon online and use it at the store. It may not always be useful as the coupon requires the purchase of a specific item or of a certain amount of groceries, but if you are going to go there anyhow it is worth it to look before you go.

The check only takes a couple of minutes… why not do it?

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…