Tag: American

How to Donate Your Miles and Points to Support Hurricane Florence Victims

I know watching the news stories about the devastation caused by Hurricane Florence can make you feel helpless. The scope of this event just causes you to feel numb and you want to do something but don’t know how you can help.

Luckily, most of the airline and hotel programs are making it easy to contribute in any way you can. Even if you don’t have cash to spare, you can donate those random points you have here and there to the recovery effort. Face it, it’s better to donate them than redeem them for some magazines that you’ll never read.

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Buyer Beware: Do Your Homework Before Booking a Flight With A “Basic” Fare

I’ve been doing some serious planning for our upcoming domestic travels. Since I’ve booked most of our recent flights on Southwest or JetBlue, two of our favorite airlines, I haven’t been paying much attention to changes the major airlines like American, Delta and United have made to their basic economy fares. I know they started to offer bare bone, or basic airfares, claiming that this will help them remain competitive with low cost airlines.

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What’s The Best U.S.-Based Airline?

When booking an airline ticket, you usually have a choice between several airlines and the question of which airline is best will go through your head. You might always fly on one airline, maybe you have status with them, or you have their co-brand credit card and get a free bag and preferred boarding. Whatever the reason, you have a reason. For me, it’s a little more difficult. I have co-brand credit cards from almost every airline. I have no status with any of the airlines and I’m not looking to achieve any status level either. For me, I’m looking about the flight experience with the airline and price. So that means I’m looking for the lowest price but I’m willing to pay more for an airline that I’d prefer to fly with. Please understand that these ratings are mine alone (with some serious input from Sharon since I’m not a stupid husband) (Note from Sharon: Yup. Happy wife = happy life, my love!). Your situation and rankings might be totally opposite from mine (ours). That’s OK because like many things, Your Mileage May Vary. 

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How To Sign Up For Airline Frequent Flyer Programs

You should always sign up for airline frequent flyer programs. First of all, it’s free. In addition, having your information on file with the airline saves time when making a reservation. You can also put your Known Traveler Number (KTN) into your profile, if you have enrolled for TSA Pre✓® or Global Entry, which you should do if you travel even somewhat regularly.

Here are links to the major US airlines loyalty programs along with how long the miles you earn are good for. Note that while many plans will claim your miles will “never expire,” they will deactivate your account, thereby causing you to lose any miles earned, if you don’t have a qualifying activity within a certain time frame.

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How To Avoid Extra Credit Card Fees During International Travel

Going on an international trip is very exciting but it can also be very expensive. Using a credit card to pay for purchases when traveling internationally is often the best way to get a good exchange rate and the rate your bank gets will be better than the one you’ll get on your own if you exchange cash. Using a card also means that you don’t have to carry around a bunch of cash with you. However, many cards will add on a “foreign transaction fee” to any transactions made with anything except your home currency. Here’s an easy way to keep from paying that extra 2-3 percent on all of your purchases while away.

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