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Budget airlines tempt you with cheap fares, but they charge extra for everything from seat assignments to carry-on bags. Is it worth it? Which low-cost carrier is the best? And what about their frequent flyer programs? Let’s take a closer look at Allegiant, Frontier and Spirit.

What if you could travel for free whenever you want to get away? It seems far-fetched, but some people do it and it may not be as difficult as you think.
Free travel, sometimes called travel hacking or travel rewards, is all about collecting points or miles and redeeming them for free airline tickets, hotel rooms, gift cards or cash.

In 2002 GlobalGiving introduced a new model of charitable giving that connects individual donors with grassroots nonprofits around the world.
Through this crowdfunding website, you can choose the projects you want to support, knowing that your donations will have a direct impact on those communities. And thanks to Hilton’s partnership with GlobalGiving, you can give HHonors points to help support these causes.

With so many travel rewards credit cards on the market, it can be difficult to decide which ones are worth getting and which should be ignored. If you get too many cards, you may end up paying more in annual fees than the value you get out of the cards. On the other hand, if you have too few cards you might miss out on programs and points that fit your travel needs.

Earlier this year American Airlines made the latest copycat move in the world of frequent flyer program devaluations when they announced the addition of an Elite Qualifying Dollar (EQD) requirement beginning in 2017. EDQ requirements mean that you must spend a certain amount of money with the airline in addition to flying a certain number of miles or segments to qualify for elite status.

The Boeing 777 is the most widely operated wide-body commercial jetliner in the sky today. There are over 1,100 of these planes currently in operation with orders for many more on the way. Here’s a rundown of who’s flying them and what they are offering.

Who Is the AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Red World Elite Mastercard^® Good For?

The AAdvantage^® Aviator^® Red World Elite Mastercard^® is Barclays’ midrange American Airlines co-branded card. If you often fly on American, this card comes with some nice perks, including an annual companion certificate, free checked bags, priority boarding, in-flight discounts and access to Reduced Mileage Awards.

The Aviator cards were originally only offered to US Airways cardholders after the merger with American. New customers had to get their AAdvantage credit cards from Citibank, American’s long-time partner.
That changed thanks to a July 2016 agreement that gave Barclaycard the ability to sign up new AAdvantage Aviator cardholders at airports and on American Airlines flights. Citi retained the rights to get new customers online, through the mail and at airport lounges, making American the first carrier to offer co-branded cards from two different issuers.
The AAdvantage Aviator Red is very similar to the Citi^® / AAdvantage^® Platinum Select^® World Elite Mastercard^®. The most notable difference is that the Aviator Red comes with an Anniversary Companion Certificate after spending $20,000 on purchases in a year. The Platinum Select, on the other hand, has a $125 American Airlines Flight Discount for spending $20,000 or more in purchases, that is not available with the Aviator Red card.

Sign-Up Bonus:

This Aviator Red card comes with a rather generous sign-up bonus: you can earn 60,000 AAdvantage bonus miles after making your first purchase and paying the $99 annual fee in full, both within the first 90 days.

In addition to the welcome bonus offer, the card also allows its cardmembers to earn a Companion Certificate for 1 guest at $99 (plus taxes and fees). To qualify for the certificate, you will need to spend at least $20,000 on purchases and account should remain open for 45 days after your anniversary date. The certificate can be earned each anniversary year.

Miles Earned:

• 2 points per dollar spent with American Airlines
• 1 point per dollar on all other purchases

What Do Your Miles Get You?

The AAdvantage program once offered four different award levels: MileSAAver Off Peak, MileSAAver, AAnytime Level 1 and AANytime Level 2. However, Saver and Anytime awards were eliminated and replaced with a new pricing chart for American Airlines flights in 2023.

American Airlines now has a new award chart that presents pricing as “starting from”. This form shows the minimum pricing and does not show the exact price to expect, which is not a surprise as most American awards were already dynamically-priced. Now you can find awards for domestic flights for as low as 7,500 miles each way.

Usage Perks:

• Up to $25 back as statement credits annually on inflight Wi-Fi purchases
• Receive 25% inflight savings as statement credits on food and beverages
• First checked bag free
• Preferred boarding
• Travel and lifestyle services
• Travel coverage
• No foreign transaction fees

Usage Quirks:

• High yearly minimum spend of $20,000 to receive a Companion certificate
• Bonus miles for American Airlines purchases only

How Far Do Your Miles Go?

The Aviator Red card comes with a few benefits that will help you earn AAdvantage miles faster.

With the new AAdvantage program you will earn Loyalty Points for one eligible AAdvantage mile. Now you can earn Loyalty Points when you fly and when you buy (AAdvantage eShopping, AAdvantage Dining, SimplyMiles and more). And once you have AAdvantage status, you’ll earn more miles and Loyalty Points when you travel with American and their partners.

Earned miles can be redeemed for flights, as well as hotel stays, rental cars, vacation packages and other retail products.

You’ll get 10 percent of the miles you’ve redeemed back. That means you’ll save 2,500 miles on a 25,000-mile redemption, which is the cost of a domestic roundtrip. The net cost of the flight after the discount is only 22,500 miles. You can save up to 10,000 miles a year with this perk.
Cardholders also get access to American’s Reduced Mileage Awards. These awards are available for different routes at different times of the year. If you book a qualifying flight, you can save up to 7,500 miles.

Additional Cardholder Benefits

• Auto rental collision damage waiver
• Travel accident insurance
• Trip cancellation and interruption coverage
• Baggage delay insurance
• $0 fraud liability protection

There are some opportunities to score bonus points with many travel companies this week. Scoop ‘em up while you can! And American peeked in some good news announcing a partial waiver for the elite qualifying dollar spend requirement put into place for next year’s elite program. We have all the details.

Who has a better business class product between Qatar Airways and Emirates? Let’s compare the two airlines on flights from the U.S. to the Middle East in two broad categories to figure that out. Wed’ll look at:

• Hard product: Planes, seats and entertainment
• Soft product: Service, food and amenity kits

Allegiant Air’s reward program, myAllegiant, is a bit unusual. You can’t earn points by flying and the airline doesn’t offer elite status. In fact, the carrier’s gone out of its way to say that its program is for “infrequent flyers.”

Mobile apps are all about convenience, and there is no better time for efficiency than when traveling. As you plan holiday travel, take a look some of our favorite travel apps out there to help you from planning to packing.

Renting cars by the hour—car sharing—is no longer just a city phenomenon where gas and parking cost make owning a vehicle burdensome. Now that Zipcar has vehicles available in 50 airports worldwide, air travelers can take a spin during a layover or delay.
Zach Ellard, head of Zipcar’s airports division, spoke with RewardExpert.com about the benefits of short-term car rentals and rewards for air travelers.

Between now and the end of the year, Barclaycard is offering one of its biggest signup bonuses ever for new cardholders. If you are approved for the card before the end of the year and spend $3,000 in the first 90 days, you can earn 50,000 bonus miles, which is equal to $500 in travel redemptions.

When it comes to redeeming points and miles for a dream vacation, Thailand is often at the top of the list. Low prices for hotels, tours, and dining combined with lots of flights with relatively decent award space into Bangkok create the perfect, friendly storm for an amazing trip.

There have been several big rumors floating around the blogosphere recently regarding changes to the business card offerings from Chase. These have included rumors of a new product, possible changes to bonus categories, and the possible elimination of one of Chases’ current offerings. We now have official confirmation from Chase of exactly what is in store.

American Express rewards spenders at small businesses

Between now and the end of the year, earn double miles and points when using your American Express card at qualifying small businesses in your area. Included in the offer are more than 50 Amex-branded cards including the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express and Hilton HHonors American Express. What’s unique about this promotion is that Amex is doubling whatever rewards currency your card offers.

Crystalline azure waters, near-constant sunshine, and overwater bungalows are the images conjured up when one thinks of their dream vacation to French Polynesia. Most people know of Tahiti, which is the largest island in French Polynesia, but there are many others with stunning resort properties like Bora Bora and Moorea.

British Airways Executive Club is a great program that can really stretch the value of your Ultimate Rewards points. Since BA is an airline partner of UR you can transfer points to Execuive Club, the airline’s frequent flyer program. While British Airways is not a U.S. airline, you can use Avios to fly on its partner airlines, which include American or Alaska.
Also, unlike most U.S. based airline programs, British Airways Executive Club is a distance-based program, and it works best on relatively short, non-stop flights. Redemption levels start at 7,500 Avios per one-way flight (15,000 roundtip) in the U.S. and 4,000 Avios (8,000 roundtip) elsewhere.

Ultimate Rewards to British Airways: Best Redemptions

Short flights in the U.S.

Nonstop flights for distances up to 1,150 miles in the U.S. are priced at 7,500 Avios one way, which is a much better rate than reduced United flights priced at 10,000 miles for distanced up to 700 miles. The next level is 10,000 Avios for distances between 1,151 and 2,000 miles.
1) For travel originated or terminated in the U.S., consider transferring your Ultimate Rewards points to BAEC if:

• You hold a Sapphire Preferred card and your desired roundtrip ticket costs $187.50 or more on the Ultimate Rewards site or
• You hold a Sapphire Reserve card and your roundtrip ticket costs $225 or more on the Ultimate Rewards site.

2) For travel not originating or terminating in the U.S., consider transferring your Ultimate Rewards points to BAEC if:

• You hold a Sapphire Preferred card and your desired roundtrip ticket costs $112.50 or more on the Ultimate Rewards site or
• You hold a Sapphire Reserve card and your roundtrip ticket costs $135 or more on the Ultimate Rewards site

For better understanding of this valuation, read the Best and Worst Examples of Using Chase Ultimate Rewards Points – The Portal.
A few examples of flights under 1,150 miles are: NYC – Miami, Toronto/Montreal, Washington, Chicago or Bermuda or Los Angeles to Seattle on the West Coast. You can find the distance between cities with this free tool.

West Coast to Hawaii on Alaska or American

Flights between the continental U.S. and Hawaii cost 22,500 one way, but the West Coast lies well within a 3,000-mile distance from Honolulu, so if you transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to BAEC, you can fly between the West Coast and Honolulu on American or Alaska for 12,500 Avios or 25,000 per roundtrip.

Boston to Dublin on Aer Lingus

One of the most amazing Ultimate Rewards values is redeeming Avios between Boston and Dublin on a British partner Aer Lingus for 25,000 per roundtrip. Even a business class ticket (redeeming Avios for business class tickets are not usually recommended) for 75,000 Avios per roundtrip is a good deal compared to United’s 100,000 miles price tag.

Northeast to Western Europe on Airberlin or Iberia

Transfer your Ultimate Rewards points to BAEC and fly from New York to Berlin/Dusseldorf for 40,000 Avios on Air Berlin (per roundtrip), or to Madrid for 34,000 Avios on Iberia. United charges 60,000 miles for flights between the U.S. and Europe.

London to Europe on BA

We generally discourage people from using Avios to fly British Airways over the ocean due to high fuel surcharges, but short- and medium-haul flights between London and Continental Europe can be a real bargain. The fees on intra-Europe BA flights are capped at £35 (which is slightly above $45 with current exchange rates), so you can connect anywhere in Europe for cheap. You can fly to Marseilles or Copenhagen for 9,000 Avios per roundtrip, Rome, Ibiza and Budapest for 15,000 Avios, or Moscow, Athens and Istanbul for 20,000.

Save even more by flying BA off-peak

British Airways has discounts if you don’t mind flying off-peak with them. Your savings for short-to-medium-haul one-way flights are as follows:

• 4,000 Avios vs. 4,500 for Zone 1
• 6,500 Avios vs. 7,500 for Zone 2
• 8,500 Avios vs. 10,000 for Zone 3
• 10,000 Avios vs. 12,500 for Zone 4

Intra-South America on LAN/TAM

Intra-South American flights can be prohibitively expensive; a one-hour flight between Lima and Cuzco (a gateway to Machu Picchu) can cost hundreds of dollars. However, the same flight can be yours for 4,500 Avios one way. Same 4,500 Avios can get you between other popular cities, for example, Sao Paulo and Iguassu Falls or Rio and Florianopolis. Or you can fly from Buenos Aires to Santiago de Chile for 7,500 one way.

Intra-Australia flights on Qantas

Qantas holds a virtual monopoly on intra-Australia flights, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a 1.5- hour flight between Sydney and Melbourne can cost $300-400 sometimes. Instead, transfer you Ultimate Rewards points to BAEC and book the same flight for 4,500 Avios and a few dollars of taxes.

Sydney – Auckland on LAN

This is a rare instance when we can recommend paying slightly more for a business class flight. This route is served by South American LAN on the way to/from Santiago and features Premium Business class with lie-flat seats. This 3.5 hour flight will cost you 20,000 Avios in business or 10,000 Avios in economy (one way).

Intra-Asia on Cathay Pacific and intra-Japan on JAL

You can fly from Hong Kong to Hanoi or Taipei for 4,500 Avios and to Chiang Mai or Siem Reap for 7,500 Avios one way. You can also use other oneworld partners Malaysia and SriLankan, but both add some fuel surcharges to their award tickets. Or you can redeem 4,500 Avios for any intra-Japan one-way flight on JAL from Tokyo – be it to Fukuoka in the South or Sapporo in the North.

Ultimate Rewards to British Airways: Worst Redemptions

This list is amazingly short.

Avoid connecting flights

The way Executive Club is designed is that any extra segment adds costs. So if there isn’t a non-stop flight or if you can’t find a nonstop availability, the system will usually (although not always) charge you for two segments instead of one.

For example, the flying distance between New York and Tampa, is just a hair above 1,000 miles which means it would cost 7,500 Avios per one-way flight if there was a non-stop flight between these two cities on American. Unfortunately, there isn’t, so when the computer routes your flight via Miami or Washington, DC, it adds an extra segment, meaning that you end up paying 15,000 Avios instead of 7,500. That makes transferring to United or booking your trip with Ultimate Rewards points a better option.
Once again, this is not always the case, so try to price your itinerary on the British Airways website first.

Avoid redeeming Avios for premium class travel

With some exceptions, using Avios to book first, or even business class is rarely a good deal. The BAEC scheme operates with a premise of a four-class configuration.

• Economy
• Premium Economy
• Business
• First

So if an economy seat costs 4,500 Avios, then a premium economy seat is 6,750, which is 50 percent more; a business class seat is 9,000, which is twice as much as a seat in economy; and a first class seat is 18,000 Avios, which is twice as much as a seat in business.
While redeeming Avios for a business class seat may be a decent value  (like our Boston-Dublin and Auckland-Sydney examples), in general, the best value of the BAEC program is in short trip redemptions. There just isn’t much value in spending a lot of points for a two to three-hour flight. If you’re interested in business or first, save your Ultimate Rewards points for another day and transfer them into a program providing a much better value for long-haul premium class travel.

It is essential to get the Allegiant World MasterCard in order to participate in the carrier’s frequent flyer program, myAllegiant. You cannot earn or redeem points without it. The card is similar to a cash back cards, allowing you to redeem points for credit toward Allegiant Air purchases. Points are fixed at a value of one cent each.

You can get to China and Hong Kong for as little as 60,000 miles. So save your cash for a nice new bespoke suit from the world famous tailors of Hong Kong. Or head straight to Beijing and start your journey in the Middle Kingdom with a trip to the Great Wall. With the right rewards credit card, you can earn enough with just the sign-up bonus.