We’re continuing our series on how to get the most out of United award tickets by looking at the airline’s free open jaw. With an open jaw, you can fly to one destination and return from another, or you can depart from one city and return to a different one. Either way, you can visit more places for the same price as a round-trip award ticket.
Using United’s free stopover, you can see more places for the same amount of miles. But did you know that you can save miles by adding a stopover to your itinerary?
In our last post on stopovers, we talked about how to use United’s free stopovers to see two places in Europe for the same amount of miles as a roundtrip. In this post, we’ll discuss how to visit two destinations on two continents using United stopovers.
Stopovers are an underutilized mechanism that can be used to see more places on an award ticket for the same amount of miles as a direct flight. While most people want to get from point A to point B as quickly as possible, seasoned travelers know how to get the most for their miles.
A reader asked:Â Can I use my LANPASS miles to buy a ticket on SriLankan Airlines? Do I need to create a SriLankan Airlines FlySmiLes account? We explain how it all works.
The smartphone has revolutionized the way we travel. Having a few killer apps installed on your phone can help you find your way around the airport, get delay and gate change notifications, track flights in the air and know exactly when a flight has landed. Here are a few awesome apps that you should download and start using the next time you head for the airport.
There are a few promos offering big bonuses in the six-digit range this summer. Here’s an overview of how to get those massive miles, and some ideas for spending your earnings. What would you do with that many miles?
Spring break has come and gone, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities to be rewarded for travel to sunny southern destinations. If you’re ready for a relaxing beach vacation, or looking for an excuse to explore the cities of South America, you can earn major bonus miles.
There was a time when airports had very little security. By the late 1960s, terrorists recognized how vulnerable civil aviation was. Skyjacking reached a crescendo of 40 attempts on U.S. planes in 1969, forcing the implementation of new security measures designed to protect the flying public.
There are two major airport lounge programs, Priority Pass and Lounge Club, that have credit card partners that subsidize the cost of membership. There are also credit cards that can get you access to the lounges, but they come with hefty annual fees, so you should weight the cost against the benefits to see if any of these cards are a good fit for you.
For many people, spending extensive time at an airport can be miserable. Overcrowded restrooms, overpriced food and seat shortages at gates add to the general stress of flying. Fortunately, there is a more civilized way to spend your layover: in an exclusive oasis of peace and tranquility called the airport lounge.
Once you’ve learned a bit about redeeming
Not everyone can earn a significant number of frequent flyer miles quickly, so once you do have enough for an award, you treat those miles like gold. After all, they are a precious commodity that can help take you all over the world, but sometimes you just need to get home to see grandma. When should you pay cash for your airline tickets and when should you use miles? Here’s some advice.
If you’ve discovered the power of tapping into your good credit to sign up for new credit cards in order to snag hefty frequent flyer mile bonuses, the inevitable has probably already happened: your wallet is stuffed to the gills with plastic.
One of the most annoying things about frequent flyer programs is that there is often no easy or free way to transfer miles from one account to another. If you fly often for work but your spouse doesn’t, there are probably times you wish you could move some of your miles to your partners account.
No one likes paying taxes to Uncle Sam, but its something Americans must do every year on April 15. If you’re like most frequent flyers, you’re looking for ways to earn a few miles for paying your share. Here’s some advice to help you maximize your earnings at tax time and a warning about why paying taxes with a credit card is usually not the best idea.
Some airlines like American Airlines have predictable off-peak mileage discounts to various destinations, but there are also several programs that offer reduced mileage bargains throughout the year.
Using off-peak awards with American Airlines is one of the best ways to make your AAdvantage miles go further. If you don’t mind traveling off-season, they offer exceptional savings on flights to Europe and South America.
Most hotel loyalty programs allow you to convert
The Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan has a unique program-within-a-program that is exclusively available to the 735,000-plus residents of Alaska: Alaska Airlines Club 49.
