Sherman's Travel

Every frequent flier keeps at least a loose eye on his or her available miles. To those who board airplanes more frequently than any other means of transportation, a skyrocketing mileage count takes on a life of its own.

You’ve probably heard nightmare stories of those who can’t seem to find a good way to spend all the miles they’ve earned, and, in fact, you may be one of those distraught fliers. Every airline treats award miles slightly differently, enabling you to spend them in varying ways, but there are a few tricks of the trade that tend to work across the board.

Regardless of which airline you favor, there’s a good chance you’ve considered using miles to buy tickets for a vacation, or perhaps to buy a ticket for a friend or family member. Generally speaking, there are a few levels of award redemptions, and finding a “low” award – one that lets you travel for the fewest amount of miles – is the goal. Airlines tend to charge more miles for flights that they think will have higher overall demand. Flying in the days prior to Thanksgiving, for example, will practically never be a wise use of miles. You’ll always be extorted, because the airlines know that they’ll sell those flights out regardless. Read more

Today’s announcement of a new online media store for United MileagePlus members seemed like a good idea: use your extra frequent flyer miles to fill up your iPad or other device with music, movies, and TV shows for flights. But then I saw the price tags for said media, and I changed my mind.

Albums will run you about 900 to 1,300 miles, while individual tracks are mostly 150 miles. For movies, MileagePlus members have the option of renting the film for 24 hours or purchasing outright; a rental will set you back 460 miles and owning the movie costs 2,545 miles. TV episode pricing is not yet available (the TV section launches in the fall).

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British Airways is back with what it dubs “the most generous enrollment offer of the year” : New cardholders who sign up for its Chase Visa by May 6 earn a whopping 100,000 miles – enough for two round-trip transatlantic coach tickets, one business class flight to the Far East, or an economy jaunt to Central Africa.

Even without the lavish signing bonus, the British Airways Visa claims plenty of travel perks: Foreign transaction fees don’t apply to card purchases abroad, each dollar spent earns 1.25 miles (compared to one mile in most other programs), and points only expire if your account has had zero activity for three years. Anyone who charges $30,000 on the card within a calendar year also gets a free companion ticket, eligible for use with a reward ticket.

Still skeptical? Here’s what you need to know before swiping that plastic:

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