I admit I don’t travel extensively (one day…), but I do book a heck of a lot of travel plans for my employer. Over the last 10 years I have become a pro a booking flights, hotels, cars – you name it. I have a select number of websites that use for deals and steals and I compare them against each other to get the best possible deal.

I also read Peter Greenberg’s advice on his website www.petergreenberg.com. Peter is an Emmy award-winning writer and producer. He is the Travel Editor for NBC’s Today show, CNBC and MSNBC, a best-selling author and host of the nationally syndicated Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio show. Greenberg is contributing editor to Men’s Health and Forbes, and was also Contributing Editor for America Online (AOL), a contributor to The New Yorker magazine and a frequent guest on ABC’s Oprah Winfrey Show and The View.

Here is an article that I read that really has some great advice. Happy flying!

FREQUENT FLYER MILES – USE ‘EM OR LOSE ‘EM
By:  Peter Greenberg

The programs are now more than 26 years old, and chances are you’re a member of at least one of them. Some of you are members of multiple programs. And the numbers, to say the least, are absolutely staggering. Welcome to the addicting, confusing and frustrating world of the airline frequent-flier programs.

 You’ve worked hard to earn your miles — either by flying or using a credit card — and chances are just as good that you’ve had difficulty in redeeming those hard-earned miles.  The inducement for so many of us to join these programs was that first 25,000-mile mileage award level, which promised us a free domestic coach ticket. Now, in almost all cases, when you go to redeem your award, you’re told that there are no seats available at 25,000 miles, but the airline might have them at 50,000 miles.

Under most state laws, that constitutes a violation of the bait-and-switch laws. For example, if I’m a car dealer and I want to sell you a Camry, I must list the vehicle identification number of that Camry and how many other Camrys I have for sale. That way, when you come into the dealership I can’t tell you there are no Camrys available and then try to step you up to a Lexus. But the airlines, under deregulation, practice this every day with their mileage programs.

Then, you can lose your miles. United, for example, now deletes all your miles after 18 months of inactivity. (It used to be 36 months.) And two months ago, Delta announced it was making even fewer seats available on popular flights, even for loyal customers willing to redeem double the miles to get that “free” ticket.

Want the real insult? Assuming an airline does, in fact, redeem your mileage for a ticket, the actual average cost to the airline to do so is slightly more than $23. That’s it. Just $23. Now you can understand how wildly profitable these programs are.

And it’s only going to get worse for consumers. Without regulations or government supervision, the airlines continue to change the rules. And while many airlines allow you to search up to 330 days out to redeem your mileage, the reality is that on many flights there’s no availability nearly 11 months out.

So what can we do?
Some attorneys (who are frequent fliers themselves) are suggesting a class action lawsuit, charging the airlines with essentially running an unregulated lottery with their frequent-flier programs. For some folks, including at least one legislator, the idea is simply to give up on mileage. A bill just introduced in the Washington State House of Representatives would allow people to sell their unused miles. This isn’t likely to happen, but it does reflect the growing frustration out there.

My advice, if you want to successfully redeem your miles: For starters, think alternate airports, and even more important, alternate routings. Want to go from Los Angeles to Hawaii? Instead of trying to redeem miles from LAX to HNL, think LAX via Las Vegas or Phoenix and then Honolulu. Then think partner airlines. All the major airlines have strategic alliances with international carriers. Want to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo? Think JAL and their One World partnership with American Airlines.

Think off-season — Paris in March, Sydney in June, Madison, Wis., in February or even Denver in July. Don’t think nonstop when redeeming miles. Instead, book frequent-flier tickets on flights with more than one connection (this allows you to find flights with available seats) and on partner airlines. For example, if you want to fly Los Angeles to Athens, instead of going the normal route: Los Angeles to London and then London to Athens, go Los Angeles to Chicago, Chicago to Zurich, Zurich to Athens. If you’re flying New York to Hong Kong, go New York to Vancouver, Vancouver to Hong Kong. And finally, if you’re trying to get from Dallas to Hawaii, again, the nonstop will probably not be available for frequent-flier award tickets. Instead, fly Dallas to Phoenix, then Phoenix to Honolulu, and on the return, Honolulu to Seattle, Seattle to Dallas.

Then if that doesn’t work, go to plan B. What’s really important here is to confirm the outbound flight and date you really need, and worry about the return flight later. For example, want to fly from San Francisco to New York on March 29 and return April 7? The airline might be able to confirm an award seat on the 29th but not the flight on the 7th. No problem. Get the airline to confirm a flight on the April 8, 9, 10 or later, and then stand by for the flight you really wanted on the 7th. You need to get that ticket issued in order to use any portion of it.

Also, even if you’re not sure about where you want to go or when, try to redeem your miles now for future flights at the current mileage award levels. You can always try to change the ticket later, but remember, those mileage eligibility levels are only going to increase, and at the same time the number of available seats will decrease.

Some other tips: Using miles for merchandise, ranging from appliances to magazine subscriptions (there are some programs that offer this) in lieu of free tickets is perhaps the most inefficient use of mileage.

Let me explain. Fifty-four percent of all mileage earned these days is earned on the ground (credit card purchases, etc.) where you receive one mile for every dollar spent. What this means is that a 25,000-mile award actually breaks down — in real dollar terms — to your having spent at least $12,000 in goods and services, not counting the money you spent on airfare for the other 13,000 miles to get you to the 25,000-mile level. Now, let’s do the math … if a magazine subscription costs 800 miles, you just spent the equivalent of $450 for 12 issues of your favorite periodical!

If you have miles in another account — like American Express — you gain nothing by leaving those miles in that account. Transfer them over to one of your individual airline frequent-flier mileage accounts — even if you have no plans on flying soon. If you don’t, it can take two to three weeks to make the transfer when you want to redeem the miles later. And the airline won’t recognize your miles until they are in your airline account.

Here are more tips:

• Dump your airline mileage credit card. Credit cards like Visa and MasterCard linked to airline frequent-flier programs cost more, and generally charge higher interest rates. Instead, consider getting a rebate credit card. Lower interest rates, no annual fee — and you actually get money back, not the promise of miles you may not be able to redeem. For example, a cash returns MasterCard from Citibank has no annual fee and offers a 5 percent rebate on all purchases during the first three months and 1 percent rebate thereafter.
• It’s now more important than ever to track your miles in various programs. www.Milemaven.com  lists bonus mile promotions that you can get based on the route you’re taking. www.webflyer.com has a mileage converter that tells you how to convert miles from one loyalty program to another (like how many miles on Alaska it takes to redeem for flights on American, or how many Starwood points it takes to get a free flight). www.Awardgrabber.com calculates the date when award seats are actually released and available for booking free flights (about 330 days before your flight date).