Should you put all your miles in one program?
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Gary Leff slams Peter Greenberg’s frequent-flyer advice, but is Gary’s advice any better for the common traveler?
Gary argues that Peter’s restatement of the conventional wisdom — that cashing in frequent flyer miles is getting harder, if not impossible — is wrong.
And yet I’ve never failed to redeem for the award I’ve wanted, as I’ve mentioned here several times. In the next 10 weeks I have first class award bookings to South Asia, business class award bookings to Europe, and a domestic award as well. All on the dates I needed.
But I’ve accumulated miles in a variety of accounts, if United doesn’t have availability I can check to see what American (or British Airways) has to offer.
Good for Gary, but let’s face it, not everyone has the luxury (or curse?) of multiple accounts with 6-digit mileage balances.
It’s like saying, “Well, my checking account at Citibank was tapped out, so I just paid for my bills, a vacation, and a new house with the interest I earned in my WaMu account.” It’s easy to be glib when you’re a multi-millionaire.
Most people don’t have that luxury. So Gary’s argument, while factually accurate, is not applicable to most travelers. Certainly not most leisure travelers. And, I’d argue, it’s unlikely to work for many business travelers either, whose loyalties (and corporate travel policies) make accumulation in one program more probable.
There IS potentially one way to follow Gary’s advice without getting a sore butt-bone from flying on dozens of different airlines. My weapon of choice: The Starwood Preferred Guest Program and the Starwood Preferred Guest American Express card. You can collect points in the Starwood program, and when the need arises, you can transfer miles to a laundry list of airlines, with no devaluation. (Caveat: Some airlines don’t participate, and some, like United, only accept transfers at a 50% haircut. Stick to the programs that take full-value transfers.)
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February 20th, 2008 at 12:28 pm |
I do a moderate amount of business travel — mostly domestic, but enough to earn me status for a good 8 or 9 years running — and I agree with Gary.
There are plenty of ways to earn miles in multiple programs other than butt-in-seat travel, with credit cards a prime example. Although the Starwood card is good for general accumulation (it’s the one I use by default), there are times you can get a better return on your spending through other cards & programs. For instance, Delta just ran a triple miles promo in December, and the USAir & UAL card signup bonuses can be quite attractive.
Over the course of the past 15 years, I’ve built up decent balances (mostly 50-100K, with one 300K outlier) in about 5 different FF programs. For various family reasons, I recently started burning miles at a fast clip, including a) family trip for 4 of us to Colorado on UAL, b) sending the kids with relatives on a ski trip to Utah (Delta miles), c) my wife taking a long weekend to see friends in Boston (NWA miles for Delta seats), and d) older son flying cross-country to a summer program (UAL). In each case, only one program had the availability/policies that met our needs, and having multiple pots of miles to draw on made it possible.
To my mind, there are several reasons you want to have miles in more than one program. They include
Award availability. Pretty obvious.
Fee policies. Some carriers (e.g., NWA) don’t clobber you for trying to book award travel a week or two in advance, while others sock you for $50-$100.
Unaccompanied minors policy. Being able to send my responsible, mature 14-year-old on travel by himself (thanks, UAL!) is nice. Some carriers would require a lot of paperwork, parental gate dropoff, and fees.
February 20th, 2008 at 2:12 pm |
I don’t think there’s really any difference in what we’re saying here.
My advice has consistently been that if you fly enough for elite status, credit your flights to that one program and your miles from other sources to another, at least once you’ve earned enough miles in the first program in order to redeem for the awards you want. (And without enough flying for elite status, just concentrate your miles in a single program until you earn enough for the redemptions you think you want and then start on another program).
I believe I’ve made the point you’re making here on my blog three times in the past month.
And while the average American may not ever get hundreds of thousands of miles in multiple programs, the average reader of these columns may well.
Besides, the non-elite flyer who accumulates their Delta, Continental, Northwest, and American flights all in Alaska can rack up awards pretty quickly that way.
As you suggest, a Starwood American Express is a good idea. I’ve also been a big proponent on my blog of the Starwood American Express card, even in spite of last year’s substantial devaluation of SPG hotel awards. (And while recognizing that certain other cards offer a better value in specific situations, like the Citi Drivers Edge Card which can earn as much as 36% back on gas and groceries if spending is matched with driving, converted to Thank You points, and redeemed for best uses via the fixed point redemption chart).
Still, we need to think about not just a primary airline program and Starwood. There are plenty of great ways to earn miles besides flights and credit cards, I talk about them frequently on my blog. Starwood isn’t a great place for rental car points earning, they don’t participate in Rewards Network (which I still insist on calling iDine), etc.
The point I’m making in my critique of Greenberg is
1. the sky is not falling
2. you should not redeem NOW for ANYTHING regardless of VALUE because you’ll get NOTHING later as Greenberg seems to suggest.
Still, I have also long argued that miles are always worth more today than they will be tomorrow, so don’t save miles for the far off future. Earn them and burn them in the same general period, and hopefully at the same general pace, so that you can enjoy your rewards without suffering too much from point inflation.
August 6th, 2008 at 5:54 am |
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