How many of you use FF miles?

I guess it depends on how much you can charge each month. Over the years I have used my amx to get ff points on delta. Along with pretty much only flying delta I also keep my eye out for ff deals. Often there will be an incentive to change amx points to delta miles. For example changing 1000 points will get you 1.3 to 2 times the miles. I "work the system" best I can. We have used the points almost every year for 12 years to upgrade a coach ticket to business or get business seats outright. I manage my trips so that I can get the tickets for only 100k miles. So yes, the small fee per year plus the small redemption fee is very worht it to us.

Have flown of FF miles many times, and booked our trip into brussells and out of zurich next June using ff miles. We used to stick to American racking up quite a few miles. My husband and I both got the cc that gave 30K miles when you sign up, then got rid of them before our first annual fee was due. I also have a southwest card with several miles that I plan on using to visit grandchildren in the future. (we pay off our cc every month so don't pay any interest or fees). One downside to going to Europe on ff miles in the summer is it requires planning pretty far in advance. I bought our tickets the first day they were available, and have noticed that they seem to sell out (of ff seats) pretty quickly.

Back when we were going to Eruope twice a year, we used FF miles to upgrade to business class almost all the time (once we had enough). First with British Air then with USAir.

I used to fly American a lot for business. I got a lot of miles, but I preferred to use them to upgrade to business class. Now, of course, I'm thoroughly spoiled and am dreading the next trip which will surely be in tourist. Pam

I use them all the time - to get 4 tickets each time for the entire family. Just got back from Poland, Georgia and Armenia on UA freq flyer miles. Have taken almost 2 dozen trips with miles - one needs to know how to play the game and the tricks to getting tickets.
Go to flyertalk.com to learn how to use your miles.

Neither of us fly for business so we try to use a couple of credit cards to keep us in the game for getting tickets to Europe when prices are high, like they've been the last 2-3 years with very few sale periods. We land in a centrally located European airport where our miles can be redeemed and take it from there by train or whatever. We too watch flyertalk.com and have learned some valuable tricks from those fanatics!!! Last year I got 2 AA cards that were giving 75,000 each for signing up. We also started to convert some very hard earned points (son's college tuition bills, etc) that stopped being a value to use to a plan run by Air Canada called Aeroplan where 50,000 or 60,000 will still get you a round trip ticket to Europe. This summer our UA miles worked out with a "deal" from that airline where you only had to use 1/2 of your normal miles for a ticket to Europe plus the taxes which of course was no small change but still we felt like it was a real bargain for the two of us as prices remained high all year. We don't like credit cards where 1 point equals $1 towards a flight. Also, we don't use ff miles for flights if the price of a ticket seems reasonable to us at the time. Don't give up, just try to maximize what you have but don't get caught up in credit card debt. Ours are paid off every month. We consider the annual fee into the price of what it costs to use ff miles these days.

I use them as often as I can. Sometimes it can be trying, but it helps me get to Europe more often than I otherwise could. I use an Amex card to charge everything I can, and it is paid off monthly. I also fly Delta (my hub) so you get extra miles for elite status. The amex can be used on any airline, or transfered into Delta account. I am thinking about going to Europe this Nov. and right now there are tickets for 60,000. Usually I try to book as far ahead, but I am a spontaneous traveler, so that does not always work. I also keep trying different routes to get where I want to go. It does take a lot of time, but worth it to me. (also car rental places gives miles)

I've taken several FF flights to Europe over the past 10 years. Miles add up from getting new cards and flying to Europe, plus using my credit card for almost everything. I recently signed up for a Continental credit card, used it enough to get "free" 25,000 FF miles, then merged those miles with my United FF account. That gave me enough FF miles to schedule a FF flight (60,000 miles) for my trip to Europe next April. For that trip I was charged almost $170 in taxes and fees in addition to the FF miles charged to my account. If and when the time comes that I stop flying, I will switch to a "cash back" credit card and will probably use credit cards less. My system won't work for everybody. I am able to pay my credit card bills monthly and am careful not to charge more than I can afford.

I do totally what Mona does. I pay all bills with mile earning card too - oil, insurance, kid's.camp,.everything I can. Get new.cards a lot, read FlyerTalk. Use links on airline site. My family (3 people) travels at least once a year using miles. Also - hooked on first class.

We travel a fair amount either for business or personal but also have a United Mileage Plus cc and charge almost everything to the card and pay off every month. We've yet to pay a dime of interest in the 10+ years we've had this card. So between the cc and miles earned, we accumuliate enough to always have miles to use if the timing and flights are available. For our Europe trip we booked as soon as flights were available last October and for Miles (50,000) and Cash ($890) we have two direct flights from San Fran to Frankfurt. Cheapest flights would have been around $3000 for 2 tickets. Last year we used miles to fly to Hawaii for $0. If you decide to obtain a credit card for a specific airline's frequent flier program, be sure to choose one that is hubbed at the airport(s) you would be most likely to fly out of. That would give you more options for travel using miles.

We've only gotten to go to Europe once, r/t, using ff miles - that was such a great feeling to fly for "free"! We don't fly for work so it takes us a long time to accumulate enough, even though we also have one cc that gets us miles.

We have some points with Alaskan Airlines, and then we have some from a credit union. Does anyone know if we can combine these points? I would love to learn more tricks or ideas you use to get the most of your credit cards or pointers on which card to get or how to choose. Thanks for any ideas. I just can't wait to get back to Europe again. The only thing stopping us is money...I hate that!

We used miles for our trip last year. All miles were accumulated by flying for pleasure. No business travel for us unfortunately. I had to pay $66 in taxes for my ticket. Jim didn't have as many miles (sometimes I just have to 'pleasure' fly without him!) so he bought some miles from family members. I think we ended up paying about $250 for his. This year I got a United Mileage Plus card. I wish I had it before I bought this years ticket, because I would have gotten a lot more miles. Anyway, I pay it off each month and including the miles they gave me for getting the card, I will hopefully have enough for a ticket next year.

I don't get near as much out of ff miles as I should. I still choose flights based on price/schedule more than brand so I have a bunch of miles on a bunch of different airlines. If I paid better attention to the partnerships, I might be able to put something worthwhile together. I mostly just send free tickets to my mother or MIL so they can visit us.

I use a frequent flyer debit card for almost all purchases. True you don't get as many miles but it only costs $30 a year and there are no bills to worry about. It easily pays for itself, because as I said, I use the card for everything.

For those of you who often apply for new credit cards to get the ff mile deals, I always wondered if all those applications can screw up your credit score? Anyone know? Thanks. :)

Brad in Charlotte, What bank has a ff atm card?

No, they don't affect the credit score. My husband's and mine are 815 and 825. But the score depends on your payment history, your balance (if you carry a balance), your open credit as well as numerous other things relating to your financial history.

I don't think applying for multiple cards affects your credit score, as long as you pay everything off every month. Actually I've heard that the more credit you have available, the higher your score will be. I went a little overboard in 2010, and applied for 9 different cards for my husband and myself from various airlines ... we earned 550,000 miles total. We made the required purchases (i.e. some of them required a spend of $2500 in 3 months, etc.) and now that the annual fees are coming due, I'm cancelling. I thought all this activity might impact our credit score, so when Capital One offered the "match your miles" card last March I wondered if we would qualify. Sure enough, we both got one, with 100,000 Capital One points instantly. We charge everything to credit cards (including insurance and utilities). It takes a spreadsheet to juggle all of this but I thought it was time well spent!

Susan, The ones I know about are: American / Citibank US Airways / Bank of America Alaska Air / Bank of America
Delta / SunTrust I believe Continental and United had them but with the controversy over swipe fees they are no longer available.

We use two cards, an Alaska airlines visa (miles on Alaska are easier to use and are usable on all partner airlines such as Delta, KLM, Air France, etc.) and a Starwood Hotels Amex. We have found that it is FAR easier to use hotel points than FF miles and saved a whole lot of $ on our last trip to Europe by using hotel points for stays.

Thanks Brad!

We have convinced ourselves it is worth it. Like others, we charge everything we can--one time part of a new car--to a Delta AmEx. Personal only, no business. They seem generous with the miles/points, but on the other hand they charge a lot of miles/points for a ticket. We usually have enough miles for one RT ticket about once per year. But I wonder if the annual fee ($150) really makes it worth it. I'm sure we need to work the system better than we are currently.

I use cash rewards cards from American Express and Capital One to pay for everything possible. This nets me about $1300 per year in cash back. I then use that to buy whatever I want, including airline tickets if I so choose. This way, whenever I travel, I'm shopping for the best price without being tied to any airline at any time of year. Not saying this is the best method, but it's simple and works for me. The game of trying to build points for anything is just too much hassle. I figured out a long time ago that I can save a lot of money by using priceline for hotels, rather than trying to buy within a particular hotel group's chain to rack up their points. Why pay $110 for a hotel room to net their points, when I can stay in an equivalent hotel (maybe even the same chain) for $65 without any points accumulating?

I probably fall into the less gung-ho miles group. I fly a couple times a year for business, sometimes international, then for vacations and such. I do have the Delta AmEx, but do not use it excessively to try to pay bills and everything I buy, just if I need to use a credit card, I typically use that. Up to this year, I had not used miles for a ticket. I had tried a few times, but if there were seats available, the cost in miles seemed high, especially since we were often able to find tickets for so little. (example, using 60,000 miles for a $750.00 ticket seems not to be a deal) Where we did get some use finally was in domestic flights, since we use a regional airport, and needed to fly to another regional airport to visit family, those we can get for 25,000 miles compared to a ticket cost of nearly $475. I would also consider using miles to upgrade, but the cheapest tickets do not allow that, and if I am booking and American is a 100 bucks cheaper, I go with them, rather than book Delta to get miles.

Hubby and I have had United FF cards for years. We charge everything we can on them, and neither of us travel for work. Every couple of years, we have enough for flights to Europe - next year, we're flying our family of 4 to Europe on FF miles. We like United because it's a partner with Lufthansa, and Lufthansa is one of the two carriers (BA is the other) that has a direct flight from our city to Frankfurt. From there, we can connect to anywhere else we want to go. We got Capitol One cards last year, and use them some, primarily while we're IN Europe. Probably just as good, dollars-wise, as the United card, if you use the cash back feature. But I'm so used to using the United card that it's hard for me to change my ways.

Wife uses Amex for work and sometimes racks up 10-15,000 a month. Last trip was business class Air France and we have a ton of miles left over. We plan to go back in two years.

Before I retired I travelled quite a lot for work and had FF accounts with most of the major carriers. I have flown to Europe using miles on TWA, United USAir, American, and Delta. I have now used all of my miles on all airlines except Delta, I supplement my flying miles by using an AmMex card. In May I flew to Warsaw and in October I'll be going to Spain - all on Delta and all with FF miles.

Best advice in this thread is from Arnold. Lots of inaccurate/partial/misleading info posted here. Get thee to Flyertalk.com and start learning. Rick's website is a great resource for info on Europe, but it's NOT a good place to learn about FF travel. That is a complicated game, but you can play it to your advantage as long as you're willing to learn how the game works. 99% of people don't bother, and they end up getting disappointed and wrongly conclude that there's no point to FF miles. They're wrong. They just haven't done their homework. I do virtually all my international leisure travel using FF miles, and have been doing so for 10-15 years. I do not fly much for business and I'm certainly not well off by most standards. I just have learned how the game works, and put a little effort into it. That lets me fly all over the world for nearly nothing - so I can afford to take trips (if I was dropping $1000 for a plane ticket, I wouldn't be able to go very often).