Travel Tips: Extreme Ideas for Frequent Flyer Miles

Well, once you’ve booked your vacation rental getaway, you’ve gotta get there. And getting there can be the most expensive and complicated part of a vacation. Airline travel apps for your smartphone can help you find deals and organize your trip to the airport. Frequent flyer miles can help you save money, if you plan very carefully. To make the most of them, you’ll have to stay informed. Time- and money-saving blogs like Wise Bread and Lifehacker give good, solid advice on how to get miles and redeem them for the best value. There are plenty of other frequent flyer mile-maximizing tips out there, too—some surprising, and some downright strange. We don’t recommend all of these ideas, but we think you’ll enjoy reading about some of the amazing things people do to get frequent flyer miles, and one surprising way to use them.

• “Mileage runners” make a habit of buying cheap tickets on long-distance flights. They’ll fly all the way there and back again for no reason other than to rack up frequent flyer miles.
• Other people “churn credit cards,” meaning they’ll apply for a card that gives a big bonus in frequent flyer miles for signing up, then cancel the card. Next, they’ll sign up for another, get the bonus miles, cancel it, and repeat the process as often as possible. We definitely don’t recommend this plan. It can wreak havoc on your credit rating.
• Still others buy cash with their airline rewards credit cards, then spend the cash—often to pay off that very credit card balance. Beleive it or not, it’s legal! The U.S. Mint sells one-dollar gold coins by the roll, at cost, and rolls can be easily ordered by mail. Shipping coins isn’t cheap, but the Mint offers free shipping on orders over $500.
• Once you’ve racked up all those miles, what’s the most fun way to use them? How about a trip into outer space? If you have frequent flyer miles from Virgin Atlantic airlines, you may be able to do just that. The airline’s sister company, Virgin Galactic, plans to send its first pleasure-flying spacecraft into orbit later this year. Members of the Virgin Atlantic frequent flyer program can enter a drawing. The winner will be allowed to buy a flight into space for two million frequent flyer miles.

Posted by on 3/14/2012 2:44:48 PM