Triangle Trip

I have been getting tons of emails from all airlines about mileage promotions. Most recently I received an email from American telling me a 33% discount if I bought 1,000+ miles. Here’s the link in case some are interested.

Buying AA Miles

If you look at the offer, it’s really not worth it. The asking price for 1,000 is $27.50 — that is $0.275 per mile when the airline industry standard is $0.01 per mile. Furthermore, airlines are applying more fees when you use your miles to redeem for flights.

If you are serious about purchasing miles, ghetto Delta has a better deal. Here’s the link if you’re interested. To create confusion and masking the actual cost, Delta is asking for $59.13 for 2,000 + 2,000 free bonus miles. If you do the math, it’s $0.147 per mile – as 50% savings compared to AA.

Buy Skymiles

United is the most expensive out of the big three airlines. UAL wants $67.25 for 1,000 miles. In addition, UAL also wants to charge you a $35 service fee. I could understand that Delta & American may be higher because points.com is processing the mileage purchase for you but UAL seem to be doing the mileage fulfillment themselves.

Buy UAL miles

Are these airlines serious? Do they think people would actually pay for airline miles when they are depreciating them? I will have a follow up post on what you should do with your miles in a few days.

I am a frequent car renter as I do not own a car myself. I use car rentals to earn airline miles to keep my frequent flyer accounts active as most have expiration rules. Car rental companies claim to be very flexible when it comes to earning points.

All car rental companies allow you to either:

1. Earn Car Rental points which can be converted to free rental days or upgrades
2. Earn Frequent Flyer miles
3. Earn hotel points

Of the three choices, the only one that is worthwhile is #2 — Frequent Flyer miles. Here are the reasons why:

1. Car rental points do not hold value. Most car rental companies (mainly Hertz) change their redemption policy on an annual basis and increases the number of points you need to get a free car rental or upgrade. All major car rental points expire after one year if you do not use them.
2. Although all car rental companies list hotels as partners but you do not get hotel points from your rental unless you are staying at the hotel. You will also need to book the hotel during your car rental or book the car rental from the hotel’s website. This is a huge scam. Most car rental companies will not give you any points if you do not meet the requirements which appears as fine print.

In summary, always bank frequent flyer miles whenever you rent a car. Additionally, bank it on Northwest’s WorldPerks account as NWA is the only airline that doesn’t carry a surcharge at Hertz, Avis, and National. All rental car companies will charge you $0.50 per day for accumulating points on other airline programs aside from Northwest.