Beginner’s Guide
Putting together an effective points strategy can be a daunting task. This site alone has hundreds of posts on a variety of topics, so I understand it can be difficult to find a place to start. Well, thats what I want this page to be, so welcome to The Points Guy’s Beginner’s Guide to Setting Up an Effective Points Strategy!
Step One
First things first, you should open up accounts with the major loyalty programs. Below is a list of the top programs for your convenience. Once you sign-up, write down your user name and password for step two. Here is a link to my ranking of the major frequent flyer programs.
Airline programs (included is also whether that airline is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, Chase Ultimate Rewards and/or the Starwood Preferred Guest program):
Air Canada Aeroplan (Amex, SPG)
Air France/KLM Flying Blue (Amex)
Airtran (Amex)
Alaska (SPG)
Alitalia (Amex, SPG)
American (SPG)
ANA (Amex, SPG)
bmi
British Airways (Amex, Chase, SPG)
Continental – Now United Mileage Plus (SPG, Chase and Amex until 9/30/11)
Delta (Amex, SPG)
Emirates (SPG)
Frontier (Amex)
Iberia (Amex, SPG)
JetBlue
Korean (Chase)
Lan (SPG)
Qantas
Qatar (SPG)
Singapore (Amex, SPG)
Southwest (Use promo code GNAVRPDRWDS for 250 free points)
United
US Airways (SPG)
Virgin America (Amex starting October 5, 2011)
Virgin Atlantic (Amex, SPG)
Hotels
Accor
Best Western (Amex)
Club Carlson
Choice Hotels
Fairmont
Hilton (Amex)
Hyatt (Chase)
Intercontinental Ambassador
La Quinta
Loews
Marriott (Chase)
Omni
Priority Club (Amex, Chase)
Ritz-Carlton
Starwood (Amex)
Stash
Voila
Wyndham
Cars
Avis
Enterprise
Hertz
National
Thrifty
Other
Amtrak Guest Rewards (Chase)
Step Two
Join an online mileage manager. I personally use Awardwallet.com which is a free site that will track your balances in one convenient spot and even alert you if your miles are going to expire. Other managers include Usingmiles.com and Tripit.
Step Three
Choose the right credit card(s). Having powerful cards with big sign-up bonuses is the easiest way to jumpstart your points strategy. Below are my recommendations for top overall cards. To view the current hot offers by hotel/airline check out my Top Deals page by other metrics like APR and Annual fee, check out my other site travelcreditcards.com.
Before you actually apply, I’d recommend getting your free annual credit report and making sure all of your accounts are in good standing. Most banks use FICO scores to determine your creditworthiness and that official score can be purchased from myfico.com, though you can learn about how FICO scores are calculated here. Other sites like Credit Sesame will give their own estimations of their credit scores, but none of them are official.
See also: Maximizing Category Spend Bonuses on Credit Card Spend , My Year to Date Credit Card Sign-up Haul: 553500 Points/Miles, My Experience Getting the Chase Sapphire Preferred, My Credit Confessions and 8 Tips to Improve Your Credit, A Round-up Of 50,000+ Point Credit Card Deals
Overall Best Cards:
Chase Sapphire Preferred Benefits: 50,000 points when you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months and $95 annual fee waived for the first year. Points transfer 1:1 to Continental, British Airways, Korean Airlines, Hyatt, Marriott, Priority Club and Amtrak. No foreign transaction fees.
American Express Premier Rewards Gold Benefits: 15,000 point sign-up bonus when you spend $1,000 within 3 months and $175 annual fee waived for the first year. 3 points per dollar spent on airfare (4x when you book with Amex Travel), 2 points per dollar spent on Gas & Groceries and 1 point for every dollar on everything else. 15,000 point bonus when you hit $30,000 in spend within a calendar year. Downfall: Foreign transaction fee of 2.7%, so I do not recommend using this card for purchases outside of the US. Full comparison review here.
Capital One Venture Card Benefits: 10,000 points with first purchase, which is $250 to be used towards any airline ticket/ hotel room and the $59 annual fee is waived the first year. 2 points earned for every dollar spent on everything and each point can be redeemed for 1 cent towards travel. So 50,000 points = $500 towards travel, plus you earn miles and elite status on all airline tickets and hotels redeemed.
Starwood American Express Benefits: 25,000 point signup bonus and $65 annual fee waived the first year (10,000 points with first purchase and another 15,000 when you spend $5k within 6 months). Starwood points are extremely valuable because they can be redeemed for hotel stays, including Cash & Points as well as be transferred to over 30 airlines- most at a 1:1 ratio and 5,000 mile bonus for every 20,000 points transferred. See more here.
Step Four
Put all of your finances on your credit cards and then make sure to pay them off each month or else the interest paid will most likely negate points accrued. Use cash only when you absolutely have to! In general though, if a merchant is going to make you pay a 3% fee to use a credit card (like most universities these days), it’s not worth it in my opinion.
Step Five
Sign up for dining programs. They are free and once your credit card is linked, you will automatically earn miles/points every time you swipe you use your linked credit cards at participating restaurants.
Reminder – Join a Mileage or Points Dining Program
Current Dining Bonuses
Step Six
Shop online! Never go directly to a favorite retailers website if possible. Click through one of the online mileage malls and you will automatically get points for every dollar you spend. It’s amazing- they take you to the exact website, but as long as you click through the mileage mall, you get miles- plus the miles from using a mileage earning card. This adds up quickly!
Popular online mileage malls:
Air Canada: Aeroplan EStore
American: AAdvantageEshopping.com
American Express: Bonus Points Mall
Chase: Ultimate Rewards Shopping
Delta: Skymilesshopping.com
US Airways: Dividend Miles Shopping Mall
United: Mileageplusshopping.com
Step Seven
Stay up to date with the top deals. Of course, read my site daily and follow me on Twitter. I also recommend reading the following other blogs:
The Frugal Travel Guy
View From the Wing
One Mile at a Time
Loyalty Traveler
Mommy Points
There are also two main forums that serve as great resources for the avid points collector.
Flyertalk.com is the oldest and has tons of information. It’s main downside is that it’s not exactly user friendly and the discussion in certain forums can be hostile at times. See also: 9 Flyertalk Tips for Newbies
Milepoint.com is the new kid on the block. It was founded by Flyertalk vets who wanted to create a fresher new forum for newbies and experts alike. I know the founders and they are good people. While they have good intentions, the site does lack the deep levels of content that Flyertalk offers.
Step Eight
Understand that attaining elite status (building loyalty with a brand) is a huge aspect of a successful points strategy. Not only can elite customers get enhanced customer service and upgrades, they almost always get bonuses on points and miles earned. Once you get status, you can “match” or challenge it to other airlines and hotels per my post on Airline Status Match and Challenge Information.
See also: How to Cope With Losing Elite Status, Mid Year Hotel Elite Status Check-in: How Have You Fared So Far, Mid Year Airline Elite Status Check-in: How Have You Fared So Far, My Year End Elite Status Sprint Begins, My Mileage Run Decision
Step Nine
Understand that accruing points is only half of the equation. Familiarize yourself with the tips and tricks of the programs that you are focusing on. Highlighted are some of my key posts on redeeming miles and points:
General tools everyone should know how to use:
ANA search tool for Star Alliance availability
Expertflyer for Award Alerts
Other tools that many people use to help book awards: KVS Tool and Awardnexus.com
My Consolidated List of Airline Award Charts and Partner Airline Lists- Remember, you always reference the award charts of the carrier whose miles you have- not the carrier that you’d like to travel on.
Air Canada Aeroplan:
One of the biggest benefits of Aeroplan are the extremely generous award routing rules. Read more about them in the post on creating a Round the World Award.
American Airlines:
Maximizing Stopovers, Transfers and Open Jaw Ticketing on American Airlines Awards
American’s Million Miler program is changing December 1, 2011. Read this post on how to maximize your miles before the new changes go into effect.
American Express:
I did a 10 part series on Maximizing Amex. See Maximizing Amex Post 1: Understanding the Card Offering and the table of contents includes links to others in the series.
British Airways:
I did a 10 part series on Maximing British Airways Miles. See the first post How to Use British Airways Miles: Post 1
British Airways is also revamping their program on November 16, 2011 so read about the changes here.
Delta:
Skymiles are among the hardest to use, but as a Delta Diamond who has earned and redeemed millions of Skymiles, I’ve come up with a bunch of ways to creatively use them for maximum value.
Maximizing Stopovers, Transfers and Open Jaw Ticketing on Delta Awards
Delta.com Quirks and How to Work Around Them to Find Low Awards
How to Book a Delta SkyMiles Award
How to Get To Australia With Delta SkyMiles
United
Maximizing Stopovers, Transfers and Open Jaw Ticketing on United
United Makes Changes to 2012 Mileage Plus Program
US Airways
Maximizing Stopovers, Transfers and Open Jaw Ticketing on US Airways
US Airways Grand Slam 2011 Master Guide
Step 10
Set a goal and achieve it! Do you want to use your miles to fly first class or would you rather take two trips in coach? Want to take a family trip when your budget would not normally allow it? I always recommend putting a goal in mind so that you can always come back to it when you are tired and don’t feel like collecting miles and points anymore or you run into roadblocks- like a promotion that didn’t work out as planned. It will inevitably happen, so as long as you have your eye on the prize it makes it easier to persevere and come out ahead! Here are some links on example of how I’ve used points to travel to places in a way I’d never thought I’d be able to.
My Summer Trip to Spain and Mauritius and How I Used Miles To Make It Happen
Intercontinental Mauritius Royal Ambassador Experience
My Paris/ Seychelles Trip (Intro)
Using Points and Miles for Last Minute Travel and Emergencies
British Airways First Class Experience and Encounters with Madonna
Review: British Airways NEW First Class