Airline Mile Deals | How to travel for free with airline mile deals.

Buy Airline Miles for 1.1 Cents Each

Posted on April 9, 2014 by Daniel Peckham — No Comments ↓

Here’s an amazing deal that expires this Sunday April 13, 2014. This is one of the best deals you’ll see to buy airline miles, and the best way to get miles besides signing up for credit cards. I will be taking advantage of this deal. See below for more details.

Summary: US Airways is running a promotion where you get a 100% mileage bonus when you share USAirways miles. Through April 13, 2014 when you share up to 50,000 USAirways miles to anyone, USAirways will double the transfer. The cost to share 50,000 miles is $567.50. So if you transfer 50,000 miles to a second account, that account will receive 100,000 miles instantly and you will have effectively purchased 50,000 miles at a cost of $567.50 or 1.135 cents per mile.

Here are some things to consider.

These US Airways miles can be redeemed on any of their parter airlines, so you’re not just stuck flying US Airways. The posts below detail which airlines.
There is some risk involved because you will be paying money upfront for potential flights in the future and it can be hard to find award seats on the specific flights you want. The key is to be flexible.
The other primary risk is that the award chart may be devalued in the future, meaning the number of miles needed for a specific flight may go up. It is best to redeem the miles as soon as possible, though my guess is that for the next year or so we should be fine.
This makes most sense if you want to redeem the miles for first class or business class since in many cases you could pay the same price that you would for economy and get first or business class instead.
Some examples of why this can be a great deal:
- $567.50 for a first class round-trip ticket from LA or San Francisco to New York.
- $1,362 for a first class round-trip ticket to Asia. Plus you can even stopover in Europe or even Israel on the way to Asia for free for as long as you want, or you can even stopover in multiple cities as long as you are in the additional stopover cities for less than 24 hours.
- $1,248.50 for a business class round-trip ticket to Australia or New Zealand.

This has been covered extensively elsewhere, so read these posts for more details:

Feel free to ask me questions in the comments as well. Let me know if you need someone to transfer with.

Posted in Advanced Tips, Specific Deals

Cheap Business Class Tickets to Tokyo & Guam using Miles

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Daniel Peckham — 5 Comments ↓

Update July 9 2014

This deal is now dead as LifeMiles has changed the number of miles needed for flights to GUM.

How to get very cheap business class flights to Tokyo

This is an advanced topic for those willing to take a bit of risk and do some work.

There is an airline called Avianca with a mileage program called LifeMiles. Avianca is part of the star alliance which means you can use their miles to book flights on other airlines like United and Singapore Airlines (just to name a few). There are 2 main features to LifeMiles that make them such a great deal to fly to Tokyo or Guam for less:

You can buy LifeMiles for cheap

Avianca often runs promos where you can buy LifeMiles for 1.5 cents per mile (which is a great deal). Recently they even had a better deal where you could get LifeMiles for 1.1 cents per miles by sharing between 2 accounts.

There are some sweet spots in their award chart

LifeMiles have some interesting “anomalies” in their award chart. This is where things get kid of crazy. They only charge 12,500 miles for a one-way ticket from the mainland US to Guam in economy and 25,000 miles in business class. For those not familiar with using airline miles, that’s the same price that it costs to fly within the continental US. But Guam is far away. Usually it’s 50,000-65,000 miles for the same flight in business class instead of 25,000.

But I thought you were talking about flights to Tokyo? Well, here’s where it gets even more “interesting.” To get to Guam you often have to fly through other cities like Tokyo. If you want to continue on to Guam, that’s fine. But there’s nothing preventing you from stopping in Tokyo instead. (This is much cheaper than booking a flight straight to Tokyo.) There are some things to consider if you decide to skip your last flight, though. First of all, don’t check any baggage because it will end up in Guam. Secondly, only book this as a one-way to Guam, not a round trip. Otherwise your return flights will get canceled if you miss your flight to Guam.

United Airlines flies this route with nice business class with lie-flat seat that turns into a bed (see photo at the top).

Cheap Economy Class tickets to Tokyo & Guam

This same deal can be used to fly economy class for 12,500 miles to Tokyo and continuing on to Guam. This is also a fantastic deal.

How do I get back?

If you go all the way to Guam, the return is the same great deal (just book it as a separate one-way). If you get off in Tokyo, you’ll have to book a separate flight back. I decided to use American Express membership rewards points to book Singapore Airlines Suites class.

Summary

You can get a business class flight to Tokyo for 25,000 LifeMiles or $275-$375 (depending on the deal you use to purchase the miles). You can get the same deal on the return if you fly all the way to Guam.

Weekend Trip to Tokyo, Japan – LAX-NRT

Posted on February 21, 2014 by Daniel Peckham — 1 Comment ↓

Yes, I’m crazy.

I’m taking a weekend trip to Tokyo from LA. I’ll be on the ground in Tokyo about 48 hours. I’ll fly 11 hours each way.

Why??

I love travel and photography.
I got a great deal on business class tickets to Tokyo.
I had miles and found space on Singapore Airlines Suites class for the return flight. More details on that soon.
This means I will be enjoying a full lie-flat bed and excellent food in both directions. This will be my time to relax before and after
I get to take along my father-in-law (who also loves to travel) to visit some of his relatives in Japan.
I don’t like being away from my family for too long, but sometimes it’s nice to travel without kids.
And there are other things in life like a job to think about.

Want more details? Read this post where I explain how I got my cheap business class tickets to Tokyo.

My flight is about to take off, so I’ll sign off for now.

Photo credit: Trey Ratcliff (soon I will have my own Tokyo photos to share)

Posted in How to Use Airline Miles, Travel Resources, Trip Reports

Free Flights to Hawaii from the West Coast using Miles

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Daniel Peckham — No Comments ↓

Free Flights to Hawaii

You can get 2 roundtrip tickets to Hawaii from the West Coast with 1 credit card signup. If you and your spouse each did 1 credit card signup, that would be enough for a family of 4 to fly roundtrip to Hawaii from the west coast. I’ll use this as a specific example to illustrate one way to get great value using airline miles.

Kauai Na Pali Coast – come here for free.

Only 25k (25,000) Miles Roundtrip to Hawaii

British Airways calculates the number of miles (they call them Avios) needed to redeem a free flight based on distance, whereas most other airline programs calculate based on region. In many cases this is not a good thing, but for those of us who live on the West Coast, this is a great value for Hawaii because the cost is only 25k miles which is much less than one other airlines charge (the going rate is around 40k). If you’re not on the West Coast you can still get to Hawaii, but it will cost more miles.

British Airways partners with American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, meaning Avios can be used to get to Hawaii on either airline. Update: now that American Airlines and US Airways are merging, you can also use US Airways flights, such as from Phoenix.

Here are the options on American:

These are your options to Hawaii from the West Coast on American Airlines (map from gcmap.com)

American Airlines routes to Hawaii.

KOA (Kona) to LAX (Los Angeles), OAK (Oakland), or SJC (San Jose)
OGG (Maui) to LAX (Los Angeles), OAK (Oakland), SJC (San Jose), SMF (Sacramento), or SEA (Seattle)
HNL (Honolulu) to LAX (Los Angeles), OAK (Oakland), or SJC (San Jose)
LIH (Lihue / Kauai) to LAX (Los Angeles), OAK (Oakland), or SJC (San Jose)

Here are your options on Alaska Airlines:

KOA (Kona) to ANC (Anchorage), OAK (Oakland), PDX (Portland), SJC (San Jose), or SEA (Seattle)
OGG (Maui) to ANC (Anchorage), BLI (Bellingham), OAK (Oakland), PDX (Portland), SMF (Sacrament), SAN (San Diego), SJC (San Jose), or SEA (Seattle)
HNL (Honolulu) to ANC (Anchorage), BLI (Bellingham), OAK (Oakland), PDX (Portland), SAN (San Diego), SJC (San Jose), or SEA (Seattle)
LIH (Lihue / Kauai) to OAK (Oakland), PDX (Portland), SAN (San Diego), SJC (San Jose), or SEA (Seattle)

Alaska Airlines flights to Hawaii for 25k Avios (map from gcmap.com)

How to Get the Miles

If you don’t spend much each month, the best option is the Chase British Airways card which currently gives 50,000 Avios (points/miles) after spending $2,000 within 3 months of opening the credit card. There is a $95 annual fee, though you can cancel at the end of the year to avoid this fee the next time around. Note: If you’re wary of signing up for a credit card, read my introduction in which I discuss the issues related to signing up for credit cards. Before signing up for the card, get a free British Airways Executive Club account here and note your account number, since you’ll use that in your credit card application.

Another option is the Chase Ink Plus which gives 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $5,000 in 3 months of opening the credit card. These ultimate reward points can then be transferred to British Airways. There is no annual fee, but some may find it hard to spend that much on a card within 3 months. However, there are many creative ways to meet these spending requirements.

Note that the Chase Ultimate Reward points are more flexible than Avios since they can be transferred elsewhere (like United Airlines, Southwest, Hyatt hotels, and others) instead if you decided not to use them via British Airways. If you can do either credit card, do the Chase card.

How to Book the Flights

The first step is to find award availability (seats that are available to book with miles) on either American Airlines or Alaska Airlines. Use this link to search on American Airlines’s site. American Airlines partners with Alaska Airlines, so they will show results for both airlines. They will also show US Airways flights since they are merging. Note that you can only book tickets that show up in the low level availability which American calls MileSAAver. Also note that you only want to look at results that are on American or Alaska (not other airlines that may show up). Don’t worry about the number of miles that it shows for the cost of the award. You won’t actually book the flights through American or Alaska. The booking will be done through British Airways since that’s where you have the miles. British Airways which charges a different amount of miles (25k roundtrip in our case). But British Airways can only book you into flights that show availability at the lowest mile level.

Important: the key to finding flights is being flexible in terms of dates/times, but also in terms of routes. For example, if you’re going from the LA Area but can’t find the flights you want, consider checking flights from San Diego also. This would be less convenient, but might still be worth it if you can’t find anything else.

On American Airlines’ website choose the full calendar view and then select the MilesSAAver option

Once you’ve found flights that match your schedule, make a note of what dates and flight numbers you want. If you’re going to use American Airline miles, you can book the flights online via British Airway’s website. Here’s a good tutorial on how to book flights on BA.com. If the flights you found are on Alaska Airlines, you’ll have to call British Airways (800 452 1201) because they don’t show Alaska Airlines flights via their online booking system.

Having trouble finding flights?

American Airlines seems to open up more award space / seats a couple weeks before departure or even a couple days before departure. I realize most people can’t make plans last minute, but one thing to keep in mind is that changes to bookings made with British Airways Avios are essentially free (you just lose the taxes) up to 24 hours before departure, so you can often change to better flights later. Read this post for more on that.

How to Earn and Use Airline Miles: An Introduction

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Daniel Peckham — No Comments ↓

Use airline miles to travel to places like this: Deserted Island, Indonesia

This post gives an overview how to get free airline miles (frequent flyer miles) using credit card signup bonuses and the best way to use airline miles for free flights.

Why Airline Miles?

Airline miles or frequent flyer miles can be redeemed for free airline tickets (or mostly free; there are minor fees involve). Miles are especially a good deal for tickets that would normally cost a lot of money, like business class or first class, or tickets to places that are often expensive. Another less known advantage of using miles is that in most cases you can add stopovers to your trip for free, allowing you to visit more than one place or even get free one-ways for a different trip. I’ll be sharing many examples of how to use airline miles for the best value on this site.

How to get Airline Miles

The traditional way to get airline miles is earning miles for flying. This is fine, but most of us don’t fly enough to get a meaningful number of miles this way.

You can earn frequent flyer miles without ever flying. The better way for most of us to get airline miles for free travel is via credit card signup bonuses. You apply for a credit card, get accepted (hopefully), and then meet some sort of required spending on the card. Then you get a certain number of bonus miles. There are plenty of credit card signup bonuses out there, but some are better than others. I will only mention the best airline mile deals on this site.

Some of you have a fear of credit cards, and some of you don’t fear them enough. There is no doubt that the credit card industry is evil and out to take advantage of consumers. But if you are moderate and smart about these credit card deals you can get great value without putting yourself in debt. Never carry a balance on your credit card. Use the card for things you would be buying anyway, staying within your budget. These deals don’t make sense if you’re going to be paying interest, so you have to be responsible with the credit card. Of course, that’s exactly what the banks are hoping you won’t do. Here’s a post that talks more about the dangers of applying for credit cards.

Many cards have annual fees, but they are usually waived the first year, and you can cancel the card before the one year mark when the annual fee kicks in, or you can ask to convert the card to a non-fee version. But the bonus miles are often worth it, even if the annual fee is not waived.

Example credit card offer to get free airline miles

What about my Credit Score?

That’s a very good question, and something you should pay attention to. My summary answer: whenever you apply for a new card, the “hard pull” on your credit reduces your credit score slightly, but in the long term (months later) your score will generally improve if you continue to pay off your account online. I’ve been doing this for 5 years and in that time I’ve probably applied for two dozen or so credit cards (most of which I’ve since canceled) and my credit score is the best it’s ever been. Credit Karma is a great free site for managing your credit.

Read this excellent article for more in-depth analysis of how applying for credit cards affects your credit score. Here’s another short post to check out.

Credit Karma is a free tool to check your credit score and credit history

Buying Airline Miles

Sometimes there are promotions where it makes sense to buy airline miles and then use them to get flights rather than spending money on airline tickets directly. I’ll go into specific examples as they come up, and explain why it might make sense.

How to Use Airline Miles

You can redeem airline miles for almost anything, but the best use of miles in most cases is for flights, and sometimes for hotel stays. The biggest downside to using airline miles for flights is that airlines limit the number of seats they give out as award redemptions, so sometimes it can be tough to find seats on the flights you want. I will be showing you ways to get around this, but the bottom line is it will be easier if your travel dates and times can be flexible.

But there are huge advantages to using airline miles, the first of which is getting a free plane ticket, but that’s just the beginning. I’ll be focusing on the more creative and lucrative use of miles in future posts.

The number of frequent flyer miles needed for a flight depends on which airline miles you have and where you want to fly. As an example, most airlines charge 25,000 miles for a roundtrip domestic economy ticket anywhere within the USA and Canada. Miles can be redeemed on partner airlines as well which opens up many possibilities. As a simple example British Airways miles (called Avios) can be redeemed on American Airlines flights.

Airline miles from different account usually cannot be combined, though you can use miles to book tickets for anyone else, so there are ways to share the miles around. Whenever there is a good credit card signup bonus, my wife and I each sign up separately so we each get the bonus.

I will be covering redeeming miles a lot more on this site, so consider this a very brief introduction.

Are there Risks?

Very few things are truly free and nothing is without risk, so naturally there is some risks in playing the airline mile game. It takes work, patience, and self control to do this right. You have to be smart about credit cards and be willing to take a bit of risk since finding award seats is sometimes hard. If you’re looking for an easy way to book travel, this is not for you. But a little work can pay off in huge ways to enable travel that would be impossible for most of us to afford otherwise, especially if you can be flexible about your travel dates.

Once you’ve experienced your first free international flight in business or first class, you’ll probably be hooked (and a bit spoiled perhaps).

Welcome to Airline Mile Deals

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Daniel Peckham — No Comments ↓

Cathedral Cove Sea Cave, New Zealand

Introduction

This site is for anyone who wants to travel more for less money. I provide easy-to-understand travel resources specifically related to earning and using airline miles to save big on travel. I’ll let you know about the latest travel deals as well as provide background explanations of how to use and redeem airline frequent flyer miles.

My goal is to aggregate the best mile deals in one place for those who don’t have time to keep up on hundreds of forums and travel blogs and just want the best travel deals summarized and explained clearly. There are plenty of other sites that provide mountains of travel information, and I freely link to any of these sites that are helpful. I will curate the best of these travel resources so you don’t have to wade through it all.

The second goal of this site is to help beginners understand how to earn & use miles. If you’re new to earning and redeeming airline miles, this will be a great resource for you. There is a tiny elite group of people who know way more about this than the rest of us, but I think just about anyone could benefit from learning the basics. Most people don’t realize that they can make use of miles for free travel even if they don’t travel much.

I welcome any questions and feedback via comments or email.

You can use miles to get a seat like this on Singapore Airlines for free. The airbrushed effect is generally not included.

Background to this Site

I started this site because travel is a big passion (or maybe obsession?) of mine, specifically using airline miles to get free tickets. I’ve spent countless hours learning about this and I want to share this knowledge with family, friends and anyone else looking to travel for less.

I don’t get paid for any of this; I do it because I love this stuff. Travel doesn’t have to be as expensive as you assume. I think most people could travel more if they knew about how to leverage airline miles for free tickets. I want you to be able to travel more.

About Daniel Peckham

I was born in Papua New Guinea, spent much of my early years in Indonesia, Philippines & Singapore, and have since traveled to many other places, though I currently live in southern CA with my wife and 2 kids.

I’ve always enjoyed traveling, but it wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I started learning how to use airline miles to get free tickets. Since then I have been obsessively learning more and more about how to beat the system and get the most value out of travel.

As an example, our family has used miles to fly business class (with seats that convert into beds) to Scotland, Australia, and New Zealand for free. My wife and I currently have over 1 million airline miles in our various accounts, almost all of which were earned through credit card signup bonuses and practically none of them earned by actually flying. This may sound like a lot, but I’m actually much more conservative than many others who do this and try to limit the number of cards I sign up for. I share this as an encouragement to you: it’s not as hard as you think.

My other passion is photography, which you can check out on my gallery and photo blog.

Circle me on Google+, like my Facebook page, follow me @DanielPeckham on Twitter if you want to keep up with me.