How Frequent Flyer Miles Work

Many people have jobs that require them to travel, but haven't yet considered enrolling themselves in a frequent flyer program. You might also want to do this if you travel a lot. Put simply, frequent flyer programs allow flyers to earn free miles of flight for every mile traveled. For those sceptical about such a program, remember, it's free.

1. What's The Catch?

American Airlines frequent flyers do not earn frequent flyer miles if they travel on a Delta flight. In other words, it's a cheap marketing ploy to get you to be loyal to a particular airline. Of course, such a catch won't really matter if you plan well in advance and would end up using that airline anyways, right?

2. Why Frequent Flyer Miles?

- You can spend them on hotels, car rentals, even restauraunts
- No cost to sign up
- Easy to understand

3. The Rewards Are Clear

Airlines typically have an 800 number where customers can speak with representatives who are knoweldgeable with the program. When redeeming miles for free airline tickets, each mile accumulated is the equivalent of two cents. Therefore, in order to purchase a $200 airline ticket for free, a customer would have to have 10,000 miles accumulated, each worth two cents each. This might not seem like a lot but consider that your average flight can be thousands of miles in length and that's just for one way, not the return trip.

4. It's About Customer Satisfaction

The airlines are currently competing tooth and nail for your loyalty. In an age where you can select the lowest airfare from one destination to another with just the click of a button, airlines simply can't hold customer loyalty like they could in the past. Also, if airlines started to compete using price every airline loses money and then the entire industry isn't profitable anymore. This has caused most flight providers to strip out many of the common features of flights - you must pay if you want a meal, pay if you want to bring carry on luggage, etc. By providing frequent flyer miles, they are ensuring that they keep your business. Which makes them happy, and you get something for free, which makes you happy!

Warning About Frequent Flyer Miles!

Just as a side note, when you plan on using your frequent flyer miles, make sure that you plan way ahead. If you wait till the last minute you'll find that you won't be able to get the flights that you want because all of the seats allocated to "points" will already be taken. Same thing goes for hotels and other stuff. But since it's free, I guess we can't complain too much!

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