Identifying your Travel Goals

What’s The Point?
How Loyalty Programs Work
Credit Cards and Credit Scores
Types of Miles & Points
Identifying Your Travel Goals
How Alliances Work
Credit Card Strategy For Beginners
Earning Miles & Points
Hotels Matter Too
What’s Next?

What one must remember is that how you are going to travel is going to affect how you plan to accumulate points.  A family that is primarily interested in domestic travel is going to have a different approach to a company that wants to travel to Europe.

 With points approach there is not a one-size fits all solution, plus there is the added to the mix is that each airline program has different rules as far as what routings are allowed.

 However with the correct accrual strategy you should be in a much better position for getting the flight and therefore getting to the destinations you are hoping for.

 As a general rule, there are miles that you should accrue based on the regions that you are hoping to visit which are detailed below.

 Domestic Economy – One could accumulate Barclaycard Arrival Miles or British Airways Avios.

 Hawaii – The best value to get to Hawaii is usually in the off season from the West and often is very difficult over the peak dates from the East Coast. A fixed-value point currency could be a value if you need to travel over peak dates such as the Barclaycard Arrival Miles. However if you are originating from the West Coast the British Airways Avios are good, and if originating from the East Coast, the Singapore Airlines KirsFlyer miles. This is also where you are maximizing your use of the flexible points currency, by using points on the right programs at the right times.

 Europe Business Class

 In this case all the flexible points currencies are good here. Good programs are the Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards, or Starwood Preferred Guest.

 Africa

 Africa is quite difficult for award travel, good programs for this include Alaska Mileage Plan, American AAdvantage, and Chase Ulimate Rewards

 India

India is also quite difficult but look at flexible-points currencies such as American AAdvantage, and United MileagePlus.

 Asia Business Class

With Asia it is good to look at the business class products. Often these programs are better than what you will find on a transatlantic route. All the flexible points currencies are good here, such as the Chase Ultimate Rewards.

 Asia First Class

 In this case all the flexible points currencies are good here, such as the Alaska Mileage plan but remember that advance availability is difficult to come by with this case. Sometimes it’s easier to look at splitting your group, or booking business class, or an extra connection, or changing your itinerary closer to departure.

 Australia/New Zealand

In this case Delta SkyMiles is a good option, plus American Express Membership Rewards are also good.

 If you have a destination in mind, take a look at the Wikipedia page of the airport, which can tell you which airlines fly there.