Frequent Flyer Tips for Experienced Travelers

A tip of the hat is deserved toward Delta Air Lines for being the first of the major North American carriers to heavily invest in reinventing its lounge network.

United flyers have been pleasantly surprised over the past year thanks to significant investment being made in the airline’s club network and amenities. When the airline merged with Continental years ago, it acquired several more clubs into its vast network, which spans North America and many international locations including Hong Kong, London’s Heathrow, and Tokyo’s Narita.

American has a strong roster of airport clubs, which ballooned in number when it acquired the network of former US Airways Clubs. Now, all are known as Admirals Clubs, which offer a slew of benefits for those with access. This guide gives you the ins and outs of how to get in, what to enjoy inside, and some tips on the best clubs and discounts to enjoy them.

In addition to saving up miles for a “free” trip, don’t forget to consider the taxes, fees and fuel surcharges you may have to pay. It’s impossible to avoid government taxes and fees, but the fuel surcharge is very dependent on the specifics of your ticket.

Once American Airlines devalues their award chart on March 22 you’ll find that the cost of many tickets becomes less than affordable. First class awards, for example, are increasing between 20% and 63% on flights originating in the United States. Is this going to be your last chance to experience some of the best premium cabin products in the sky on American? Not necessarily.

American Airlines is making several significant changes to its award chart for travel booked on or after March 22. Fortunately, American allows customers to book flights up to 331 days in advance. The last day to book before the devaluation takes effect is on March 21, 2106, meaning you could lock in current rates for travel through February 15, 2017. 

American Airlines will be changing the award chart for its AAdvantage frequent flyer program on March 22. Many award levels will be going up — some by over 60% — and this could make it more difficult to book your dream vacation. If you’ve been stockpiling miles in your account, consider redeeming them for an award now before those miles lose value next month.

Frequent flyer programs used to award miles to members based on the distance they’ve flown, but most programs have now moved to a revenue-based model. That means the number of miles you’ll earn on a flight is determined by the cost of the ticket, but elite status can multiply that. The details of how that works depends on the airline. Let’s take a look at United’s policy.

With a few exceptions which we’ll deal with later, United flights booked through the airline’s website will earn award miles based on the price of the ticket and your elite status.  If you’re not sure where to go, read our article on how to find the best places to use the MileagePlus miles you have or plan to earn.

We discussed how to use Aeroplan‘s stopover rules to visit more places in South America. Aeroplan (Air Canada’s program) allows two stopovers or one stopover and one open jaw on a roundtrip award ticket.

Air Canada is one of the world’s largest airlines and a member of the Star Alliance. Aeroplan, Air Canada’s loyalty program, has generous routing rules on award flights. A round-trip ticket can include two stopovers or one stopover and one open jaw.

You might be surprised to find that you can use Alaska Airlines miles to fly to South America. And Alaska’s flexible stopover policy makes its loyalty program, Mileage Plan, a great option for booking that itinerary.

Alaska Airlines allows you to make a free stopover on one-way award flights, even if they’re booked on one of the carrier’s partners. This flexible policy makes it possible to go to multiple destinations without spending more miles. In this post, we’ll look at several possible itineraries that include Fiji, Australia and New Zealand.

Alaska Airlines’ generous booking policies allow you to make one free stopover per one-way domestic award ticket, or two stopovers per roundtrip. But you also get free stopovers on award flights booked with Alaska’s excellent international airline partners, including Emirates, Cathay Pacific and Qantas.

Alaska Airlines’ generous stopover policy allows you to take one stopover per one-way flight, or two per roundtrip, without adding any cost to your ticket. The best part is that the rule also applies to domestic flights, not just international itineraries. In this post, we’ll look at how to take advantage of these rules to visit three destinations in the U.S. for the price of one round-trip award flight.

Alaska Airlines has a generous booking policy that allows passengers to make a stopover on a one-way ticket. That means that you can make two stopovers on a round-trip ticket, which is even better than United’s policy, which allows for one. In this post, we’ll show you how to use that rule to see more places without spending extra miles.

Delta’s free open jaw on round-trip award tickets will allow you to see more while paying the same price in miles and cash. But the airline’s booking policy is important to know about if you’re traveling to Europe, since it adds fuel surcharges to one-way flights that originate there.

Layovers are usually involuntary. They occur when travelers have make connections and transfer from one plane to another. Nonstop flights are normally more expensive, so you’d typically include an unnecessary layover in your itinerary for only one reason—to save money. But, if you time it right, you can also use a layover to see more without spending extra miles.

In this post, we’ll show you how to use United’s free stopover policy to save miles on an award flight to Australia. As an added bonus, this mile-saving itinerary also takes you to the exotic island of

United’s frequent flyer program, MileagePlus, allows you to use one stopover and two open jaws for free on a round-trip award ticket. By taking advantage of this generous booking policy, you can see more places without paying more miles. For example, you could spend a few days in Hawaii on your way to Japan for the same cost as flying directly to Tokyo.

United allows MileagePlus members to use a stopover and two open jaws for free on a round-trip award flight. You can use this policy to your advantage and fly to more places for free. Sometimes you can even save miles by adding a stopover to your itinerary. In this post, we’ll see how to maximize the destinations on your itinerary and save miles at the same time.

A stopover is when you stop somewhere on your way to your final destination for more than four hours on a domestic flight, or for more than 24 hours on an international flight. On a United award ticket, you can visit two cities in Europe or two cities on different continents for the price of a round-trip flight.