Saving money on flights

Even better, get ONE credit card with frequent flier miles and put EVERY dime you can on that one card. Put your spouse also on that one card so each has a card. Utilities, home and car insurances, health insurance, life insurance, taxes, car tags, eating out, buying EVERYTHING YOU BUY, however small EVERY DAY. Many cards give you 30-40K miles for spending $3000 the first 3 months. 40K miles is one round trip from Dallas to say Istanbul or any city in Europe. We (two of us)currently have a trip to Rome at the end of this month, a trip to New York before Christmas, and a trip to London and who knows where next spring, all with FF miles. We are currently nearing another FF miles round trip to Paris or maybe Seoul, or maybe Istanbul next fall, 2014, on one card. We also have another card with a second airline that requires a bit more FF miles but we are using that one exclusively now and when we go to Italy. The trick is to pay off the cards in full every month. You can sometimes purchase additional miles plus a bonus package of FF miles for a reasonable fee from the airline. We also know how to stay cheaply across the UK and Spain by joining a motel website that offers rooms in London for about $15 per night. Cost for a FF trip is around $175 each, the cost of the taxes.

What motel website???

What airline gives you a round trip to Europe for 40k? I haven't seen that in years, 75-100k is common now. I'd like to know so I can save up for a flight faster than my current ff account.

You can get tickets to Europe for about 40k miles - but typically it's for flights originating in the mid west to the East Coast. For those of us on the West Coast, the mileage is higher. One strategy (especially if you have miles on both domestic and international carriers) is book a flight (using domestic miles) into an east coast city and then use your international carrier miles for the flight to Europe. Definitely has it's pitfalls but it's one way to get a cheap flight to Europe and a way to use miles in different programs.

For really great room bargains go to www.travelodge.co.uk and register. They have spectacular sales on rooms all over the UK and Spain. The $15/night was actually 9 GBP booked in advance so we stayed 5 nights for around $45 at the Marleybone Travelodge, London. Not all sales are that low. We booked later this fall at one on the outskirts for around 20 GBP or $35USD. You have to be quick when the sales hit and allow for the time difference between the US and Great Britain.

Nancy, my flight last month from Chicago to London was regularly 38,500, but was on sale for 28,000 when I booked in June (round trip). That was on Virgin Atlantic. They also have a credit card that offers miles.

Still did not answer which airline has tickets for 40,000 miles. Are you talking round trip? What city flying out of and what destination? the cheapest on Delta is 60,000 and I think American is 50,000...so 40 sounds like a real bargain.

Try booking spring and fall rather than in the high season, do your research 330 days prior to a travel date, and as previously stated, Dallas to London, Paris, Istanbul, Rome, pick one or all. You'll learn a lot of tricks on flyertalk.com

The correct Travelodge site is www2.travelodge.co.uk. www2 is not a typo.