KrisFlyer Archives - Your Mileage May Vary

Since we started writing Your Mileage May Vary, several of our friends have started collecting points and miles. I feel a level of satisfaction when they’re able to go on that first award trip, partially because of our help. Just like any mentor, occasionally we’ll get a question about a topic where we don’t know the answer. While I could just say that I really don’t know about that, I like to use these situations to learn about things I hadn’t focused on before. Such was a question about how to combine points from two different bank programs.

While the answer may seem obvious if you’ve been collecting points and miles for a while, for someone just starting out this can be very confusing.

Continue reading “How To Combine Points From Two Banks To Book An Award”

When it comes to earning and redeeming points and miles, my practice model might be described as low risk and moderate reward. I’m not going to go out and spend a bunch of money to try and earn miles with a plan that may or may not work. I’ll grind away earning the easy to acquire points and strategically use them where they’ll be the most valuable. In other words, I’m pretty boring.

That’s not to say we don’t fly to some amazing places in comfort, like during our trip to Australia and Japan. That’s not because I’m lucky, I just know the odds of getting the flights I want and make sure to have the miles to jump when they become available. I’ll set alerts and check daily (or more often) to see if anything changed, and patiently wait. Well, maybe not patiently.

So why then did I transfer a combination of 152,000 Amex Membership Rewards and Citi ThankYou points just for a chance to be able to book an award ticket? Because when you even have the chance to knock off a bucket list flight on one of the most amazing planes out there, you just have to give it a shot. Continue reading “I’m Not A Risk Taker But I Had To Give This One A Try”