You save up all year to take your family on a vacation. But it just seems to take so long and the tickets keep getting more expensive. Isn’t there a better way? We’re going to show you how to earn airline miles quickly so you can save money by booking your next vacation with those miles.

As a general rule that award tickets do not earn frequent flyer miles since they are paid for with miles, the same way you do not earn hotel points when you redeem points on an award stay. Frequent flyer programs will usually exclude award booking classes from mileage accrual. This applies to partners as well.

With that being said, there are a few exceptions or situations when award tickets might earn you miles after.

While we all love award flights, we certainly pay for a ticket occasionally–or even frequently for some. After all, even though flying may not always be the best way to accrue miles anymore, it is still a good way. But should you focus your earning by choosing a preferred carrier and frequent flyer program or do you need more than one?

Credit card rewards are a great tool for travelers who want to score a free vacation, and the only thing better than one sign-up bonus is two. Navigating the world of points and miles as a couple can be twice as rewarding, but also twice as complicated. Let’s take a closer look at some of the pros and cons of playing the credit card game in two-player mode.

When you collect points and miles you do it for the value, not for the mere pleasure of accumulating millions of them–although there is certainly some excitement when you see them piling up. I still remember how thrilled I was to accrue my first 30,000 miles. But I was even more excited to make my first redemption for a round-trip flight to South East Asia with the return flying Thai and Lufthansa first class. This was a ticket worth a few thousand dollars in value. The economy round trip-ticket would have easily run $1,200.

Barclaycard has one of the best bargains available for credit card signups at the moment offering 50,000 miles for being approved for the Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard and spending $3,000 within the first 90 days of holding the card. For those not familiar with the bank’s mileage program, there are lots of perks to take advantage of whether using them for miles or everyday purchases.

The new year is upon us and so are a variety of new frequent flyer and loyalty program changes. Here’s what you need to know to get the traveling year started off right especially if you’re one of American’s coveted Concierge Key members.

Act fast to redeem Virgin Atlantic miles before the upcoming devaluation, and Citi ThankYou points transfers to Virgin Atlantic might get you to that award even faster thanks to a new bonus offer.

You may not be a New Year’s resolution type of person, but you’ll actually do yourself a disservice if you don’t make a few promises related to your travel hacking hobby. Earning miles and points that will help whisk you and your family around the globe in style isn’t easy, and it takes planning and organization.

Before you sing “Auld Lang Syne” at the dawn of the New Year, make a few resolutions that may help you get where you want to go in the next 12 months. Here are some resolutions shared by us at RewardExpert. You may want to commit to them as well.

Part of an effective miles and points earning strategy is to take advantage of every opportunity to rack up extra miles. Here are some tips for earning miles in places you may not have thought of before.

As we approach the holiday season, sign-up bonus offers for new credit cards are proving to be generous and rewarding. Also, read on to find out how Hilton is making lifetime Diamond status easier to achieve and how to bypass part of American’s new elite status spending requirements in the new year.

If you are a fan of online shopping and you’re a miles and points junkie, you have to get in the habit of using your favorite airline or hotel’s online shopping portal. Delta Skymiles Shopping is just such a portal, and we’ll show you exactly how to sign up so you’ll be rewarded with extra miles on purchases made through this venue. We’ll also show you how to spot deals at SkyMiles Shopping and how to know when to pass up that purchase.

Big companies get discounts and special deals for committing their business to one airline. This is often done behind the scenes and is a common and expected practice among airlines. It might even include complimentary elite status and fee waivers for corporate travelers.

But what about smaller companies? Isn’t their business valuable, too? Isn’t that the entire idea behind loyalty?

Delta is surprising us with a Cyber Monday mileage sale; it’s not often that Delta lowers the price of a mileage ticket. And JetBlue is helping us to feel extra thankful this season by matching our TrueBlue point donations to charity.

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.”

This week brings good news in terms of rich promotions, but also sour news in terms of more restrictive airline fees. Read on to see who the winners and losers are in the world of travel this past week.

Until now, Etihad has kept its Airbus A380 private residence an option for big spenders only. Now, the airline is allowing big mileage spenders to get in on the luxurious experience. Plus, there are plenty of bonus miles and points up for grabs this week.

It might not be your favorite airline, but there is a new player in the game when it comes to travel loyalty. Allegiant is launching an “infrequent” flyer program while Marriott expands the minds of its frequent travelers with a new TED Talks partnership.

This week’s roundup has both good and bad news. The Chase Sapphire Reserve applicataion went live this past week with its 100,000 point sign-up bonus. But while there are lots of great ways to earn bonus miles, Etihad has squashed one of our favorite benefits on first class award tickets. Read it and weep amidst the plethora of other good deals out there.

Based in Germany, air berlin is expanding their existing services to North America. Most recently, they launched flights to San Francisco, CA (SFO) and Boston, MA (BOS) and increased frequencies to other destinations. It’s yet another way for you to cross the Atlantic Ocean and redeem your miles.