Travel Cheaper!

Jonathan · Joined: 05 Apr 2004 Posts: 185

If you knew there were a few simple, straightforward steps to take in order to make your traveling less expensive would you do it? What if these easy steps would provide you with free hotel rooms and flights, would you do it then?

Well, it's even easier than you may think. The key is to consolidate your frequent "X" programs as much as you can. How many airlines do you have frequent flyer miles with? I bet you that many of them are members of different alliances... consolidate your miles! From now on, choose to have the miles posted to one airline only from each set of alliance partners you use to fly.

And, in a like vein, most hotel chains now offer you the choice of hotel points or airline miles. If you want the hotel points, again, consolidate... and, if the miles serve you better, figure out which airlines each hotel will let you credit miles towards and, again, consolidate!

And guess what? Its even easier than that! What are some things you do every day, regardless of if your traveling or at home? Use a credit card? Use your home phone? Eat out? Most airlines now have deals with different credit card companies whereby you earn one frequent flier mile per dollar spent... and remember, this is on the expenditures you'd be making anyway! Same case for phones... if you keep your eyes open you can find deals where you get miles for the money you'd be spending on your phone bills anyway! And, in the same vein, some airlines (American Airlines for example) have dining out partners, restaurants with whom you can earn up to 10 miles per dollar spent... on meals you were going to eat out anyway!

And, to make it better yet, use an airline linked credit card on flights, hotels, airline linked phones, and airline linked meals to build your miles even faster.

It really is possible to earn a free flight or hotel stay without ever leaving home and, if you do travel, than consolidating your travel earnings will bring you your rewards that much faster! :D