Category Archives: Airline Programs

There have been numerous times when people have thrown away their reward points and travel miles because they think they have become useless. This is not the case however, as you never know when the miles and the points may come in handy. If you like to travel then it is highly recommended that you start investing in Hawaiian Airlines Miles.

Why Hawaiian Airlines specifically you ask? Well, the answer is quite simple, they offer the easiest and the best online redemption programs, not to mention the wide range of other useful stuff, which are as follows:

Monthly 1000 Miles as Free Rewards

Don’t you love to get free stuff? If yes then you need to start searching and get rewarded for it too! The Hawaiian Mile Finder is a toolbar that allows the members to download it and use it for searching. If you do enough searches you can earn up to 1000 miles every month. For every 3 searches you do, you get 1 Mile. Imagine doing this for a year and getting 12000 free miles!

In fact, you can get your family and friends on this too and earn even greater number of miles year round. So why not save on your next holiday by earning these free points and spending on your travels.

Free Miles Sharing For Visa Cardholders

As mentioned earlier, you can get your family to start earning Hawaiian Miles and the y can share them with you for free over your Visa card. There is so much you can do by simply having your family and friends transfer some miles your way. For example, if you are short of some points in order to get a bonus, you can ask your close ones to send some of those points your way.

Get More Value for Your Miles

What if you get the chance to convert your points into some other honors you wish to use, such as the Hilton Honors. You get a ratio of 1:1.5, which is something no other reward program offers!

Decent Redemption Rates

You can get your reward points redeemed to other several rewards online without you having to talk to any of the customer service people. You can even redeem your miles to travel to amazing places like the French Polynesia and Australia. All this can be done easily online!

No Need to be an Elite Member

You don’t have to be an elite member to benefit from the Hawaiian Airlines reward points. Regular members also get occasional deals on redemption rates and discounts on baggage fees. For families, these discounts can save a lot of money.

If you wish to become an Elite-Status holder, you have to do the following:

• Pualani Gold – Either earn 20,000 Miles OR fly 30 eligible segments
• Pualani Platinum – Either earn 40,000 Miles OR fly 60 eligible segments

For those who frequently fly to Asia, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles might be one of the best programs you can enroll in. The airline offers frequent trips that are affordable, which means that you are likely to get a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to using your miles and earning them. Cathay Pacific is continually offering new and improved ways to reach your location. If you like to fly business or first class, it is even easier to redeem your rewards.

There are so many ways to redeem your miles. You can redeem online on Dragonair, British Airways, and Qantas Airways or by phone on many others, including Aer Lingus, Air China, airberlin, American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Malaysia Airlines and more.

How to Earn Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

To earn Cathay Pacific Asia miles, you can fly with Cathay Pacific Asia or any of their partner airlines. You can also stay are partner hotels or use a rewards credit card. NO matter what you do, the miles add up very quickly, especially when compared to the other airlines.

Some Things to Keep in Mind

You have to know that with Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, there are a lot of rules and things that you need to learn. However, once you know them, you will be able to use all of the online platforms easily.  There are so many opportunities with this rewards program, though you do sometimes have to act quickly in order to get your seat.

While it might seem annoying that you have to call for so many airlines, it can actually work to your advantage. Itineraries are possible when you talk to a customer service agent that you might not have found on your own – this will save you from wasting time and help you to get the best possible trip.

Many people believe that Cathay Pacific Asia has the easiest system to redeem miles as well – you can easily see everything that you are getting, see any limitations, and see how you can move your itinerary.

Why You Should Buy Cathay Pacific Asia Miles

Buying airline miles is an easy way to cap off your miles when are nearly at the limit for a trip you want to take. Even better, you can use them to quickly upgrade seats you already have or to reach a new level before your points expire. Also when you buy miles, you are not only adding to your total so that you can get to the next tier on Cathay Pacific Asia but it can also help keep your miles account active. While some may be afraid to buy airline miles, doing so can help you take that trip to Asia that you have always dreamed about and in the end may save you money as well.

British Airways and Iberia merged in 2011, which isn’t quite known. This means that Iberia also picked up many of the same characteristics of the Avios product that British Airways used. There are ways to transfer credit between the two programs, which can be helpful for people in North America because they can gather points on Avios and then transfer them to Iberia Plus.

To do this, one can gather miles the old fashioned ways, use connected credit cards, or spend money with partners.

Why Use Iberia Plus Program

The Iberia Plus Rewards program helps you to gain miles that you can redeem for trips, upgrades, and special perks. It is different (and better) than the Avios program for one bi reason: it doesn’t have the huge fuel surcharges on longer flights. In general, it will cost you just a little less to fly with Iberia than it will many other airlines.

Still, you get the chance to use many of the same airlines, including: American Airlines, British Airways, Iberia, Qantas, Royal Jordanian, SriLankan Airlines, TAM, Japan Airlines, Malaysia Airlines, and Royal Air Maroc.

Who Should Use Iberia?

Iberia Plus is for just about anyone – the casual traveler or someone that is always on the go. Iberia works with some of the most popular airlines and it is rather easy to redeem your miles or keep them up to date. You can go directly through their website and easily transfer points between Iberia Plus and Avios.

You can use Iberia Plus miles using a distance-based reward chart, like you will see with most rewards programs. You can get some intense savings here, especially for long distance travels, though you shouldn’t overlook shorter journeys.

It is important to check both Iberia airways and British Airways to see which one will give you the better deal – you can often get similar trips.

How to Earn Miles

To earn miles, one can simply use the credit card, stay at partner hotels, or book flights. You can also purchase miles, which can be extremely helpful if your points are about to expire. It is also a great way to get miles if you don’t have enough to get the perks that you want.

Speaking of those perks, some of them include: a 73 hour hold on award itineraries, distance based awards, and the transferring of miles from one airline to the other.

Overall, the Iberia Plus Program is a great one that many travelers may have overlooked in the past. It isn’t going to be completely revolutionary if you don’t earn the miles, but it is something to take into consideration when looking into frequent flier programs.

Air France Flying Blue Program is a joint venture and frequent traveler program between Royal Dutch Airlines and Air France. This miles system is becoming more and more popular. There are actually a few airlines on this program, however:

1. Air France
2. Royal Dutch Airlines (KLM)
3. Air Europa
4. Kenya Airways
5. AirCalin
6. Hop!
7. Taron

The program also partners with Alaska Airlines, Japan Airlines, Copa Airlines, and more.

The program has four levels: Ivory, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Each one has its own set of requirements that you can traverse. Once of the reasons that this is so popular is because it doesn’t just go to the “major” destinations – it goes to remote parts of the world.

Earning Air France Flying Blue Miles

You can earn Flying Blue miles by flying on the above airlines or staying at partner hotel. You can also use credit cards connected to your account.

Chase Ultimate Rewards is one of the best ways to earn miles. You can also earn points with American Express, Citi ThankYou, and Starwood Preferred Guest. Certain rewards programs will have bonuses for Flying Blue if you sign up during the promotional period.

Miles have a lifetime of about 20 months if you do not gain them. To keep them active, you can either earn more using the methods mentioned above or you can purchase miles with cash.

Redeeming Air France Flying Blue Miles

You can redeem Air France Flying Blue miles by going online and searching for a route that fits your needs. There are many perks and promos that will give you more bang for your buck, so you may want to do some research if you are open to where you will go.

Many people believe that Air France Flying Blue Program has one of the best tools to finding flights that will fit within your miles – something that will save you a lot of time.

Another reason this airline program is so popular is because there is such great availability – you will find very few blackout dates.

Air France Flying Blue Program is very popular and it continues to get better and better. If you start gaining points now, you will be able to take dream vacations quite regularly just by doing the things that you do now.

Many people (falsely) believe that they understand how credit card rewards work, but they really don’t. In fact, many credit card companies rely on the fact that people don’t really look into how their credit cards work. Instead, they do what they think that they are supposed to do, and they end up not getting enough rewards.

So how do they really work? Let’s break it down:

Types of Rewards

There are three different types of rewards: cash, points, and miles.Cash isn’t always actual cash, but rather a type of credit that takes away from your credit card bills. Sometimes it will be automatic, but on other cards you will have to wait until you get a certain amount of “rewards” before you can turn it into cash.

Points can sometimes be used as cash, they can also be points that are used to shop in some sort of portal. Or, you can get miles that you can turn into airfare.

Those are pretty self explanatory. However, there are a few other categories that each of those categories fit into:

Fixed Value: You know what you will get when you spend money using this card.

Transferable: You can use your points through programs directly related to the card and with some other companies as well through a transfer.

Co-Branded: You can’t transfer, but you get special perks and privileges with the card’s rewards.

Tiered Rewards or Flat Rewards? What is Better?

When looking at how a rewards credit card works, another thing you may want to look at is how you earn rewards. You may earn a set number of rewards for every dollar you spend. At times, this will change with where you shop or at what type of establishment that you shop. Tiered rewards have you earning more and more rewards as you continue to spend more money.

What to Look Out For with Credit Card Rewards

While some programs are better than others, there are a few things that multiple programs do that you should be on the lookout for when finding the right program for you. The best rewards programs are only available to those who have good credit scores. Or they have strict limits about who can actually get a credit card with those rewards. Make sure to always read the fine print.

Most importantly, pay attention to how things change over time as you use your card more frequently.

If you travel for business, you know that it can be quite easy to rack up large amounts of rewards points. But are you doing enough with them to get the most out of them? There are many different ways you could be selling yourself short with the rewards that you get and you may not even know it. Even worse, you could be cutting yourself before you even get them by not going about earning them the proper way.

So how could you use your points better? Here are a few pointers.

Get a Better Credit Card

Of course, the best thing you can do to earn better rewards from your credit card is to get a better credit card. Don’t always use the same cards that everyone else is using – find the ones that work best for you. Real value comes when you do a little bit of digging and maybe even some math to figure out which cards will work best for you.

Think about where you travel, how you travel, and what you do when you travel and you will start to get a clear idea where most of your money goes. Even if you get reimbursed, you can still keep those points.

Know the Rules

When you use your card to earn points, you have to know the rules. Generally, you want to know about how to earn more points, where you earn the most points, limitations for using those points, if your points expire, and any specials that your card may run. Knowing these rules can help you to make a better decision about when, where, and how to use the points. If you know the rules, you will know how to use them in your favor.

Book Hotels

Using a card to book hotels can be a great way to earn a reputation at the hotel – and maybe score some free points. Many hotel giants, like Marriott, Hilton, Starwood, and more have loyalty programs that allow you to earn perks like free Wi-Fi, free breakfast, upgrades, and quicker check-in. Most of the time, you do have to use the card and book directly on the company’s website, so you have to weigh the pros and cons there as well.

Use Your Rewards Smartly

Most importantly, when you get rewards, you have to know how to use them in an intelligent manner. Make the most of your rewards and always do research.

Making a choice for a credit card can be tough – you have to do a lot of research to find the one that is the right fit for you. For some they think that all credit cards are created equally and don’t know what things to consider when deciding on one. One of the most basic decisions you have to make is whether or not to pay a fee – it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to know that paying a fee probably isn’t the best choice, especially if the other choice is not paying anything at all.

Other than that, what are some of the other benefits? Let’s take a look:

You Get Better Rewards

Most no-fee credit cards also offer great  rewards that you can then use to save yourself even more money. Since there are quite a few different no annual fee credit cards, they often compete for patrons using their rewards programs. If you plan to use your card in the same places, you want to look for a place to get the most rewards – like for travel, grocery shopping, or even shopping for office supplies.

“Better rewards” depends on the rewards you are looking for, but you will definitely want to do some research here to find the best one for you.

It Is Easier To Get

Having trouble getting a credit card? It happens to the best of us. No annual fee credit cards tend to accept more people than feed credit cards. Each card has its own set of requirements and factors, so you will have to do a bit of research to see which one is likely to accept you, especially if your credit score is extremely low.

Of course, there is no guarantee that you will get a card, but there is a better chance.

Improved Credit Score

Once you do get a credit card (and spend responsibly), you will get an improved credit score. With no annual fee, it makes it easier to pay off your car every month, which will positively affect your credit score. Even better, you are more likely to keep a no fee card, which will eventually impact your credit score positively as well.

Overall, getting a no fee credit card that you can pay off regularly and responsibly will make it easier for you to get better credit cards and loan interest rates into the future.

Getting a credit card isn’t always the most responsible option for everyone. However, one of the best things you can do is apply for a no annual fee credit card and reap the benefits that come from that.

When you earn your reward points you want to make sure that you get the most out of them and don’t potentially leave any on the table. There are so many different ways that people are leaving points on the table – and we don’t even realize that we are doing it. To make sure that you are getting the most out of your reward points, these are some things that you should look out for:

You Aren’t Utilizing Credit Cards Properly

Credit cards are the main way we spend money – few people are carrying cash these days. Making your credit cards work for you is a fantastic way to earn those points. Choosing the right way to spend your money, the right cards to put it on, and even the right cards to sign up for can make a difference.

If you spend more money at grocery stores, make sure to sign up for a card that gives you the most points back for that. Or for going to certain hotels. Or for going out to eat. There are cards that give you more points for almost any activity that you can do.

Spending Requirements

One thing you do have to notice is that each card has a spending requirement to get certain bonuses. Make sure to track your own spending so that you can see if you are going to get any of those bonuses. If you aren’t anywhere close, it might not be worth your while to spend all that extra money. However, if you have only a small percentage to go, you might want to find a way to get there.

Online Shopping

One of the best opportunities to make your miles work for you is to get them through online shopping. Hundreds of stores that are on virtual shopping malls – stores that you already shop at – offer points through airline programs. You will earn a different number of miles for each dollar that you spend at stores like Target, Gap, Old Navy, and more.

If you already spend money online, this is an easy way to shop and spend money without adding more burden to your bank account. Sometimes specific shops will work with specific airlines for even more of a benefit.

No matter what you do, make sure that you get the most bang for your buck when it comes to using your airline miles. Make sure you aren’t leaving anything on the table!

Flying business class is a great way to ensure that you will have a nice trip and you will get some work done on the way – or at least, you will have the opportunity to get some work done. But are all business class airlines created equally? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that they aren’t, so which ones are the best?

Here’s a rundown on our favorite business class airlines:

Qatar Airways

Globally recognized as the world’s best business airline, Qatar Airways has the most comprehensive list of amenities and luxury appeal that will impress anyone. For a truly amazing flight, book a Qsuite, a business suite with doors that will give you the most privacy. Within those doors, you’ll find a fully flat bed, storage space, and mood lighting. For those traveling in a group, all four Qsuites on a flight have sliding doors so that you can create a larger room and have meetings.

The ed itself is quite amazing, with high thread counts and as many pillows as you’d like. Wi-Fi, in-flight entertainment, and luxury toiletries are also provided.

Lufthansa

Lufthansa is a slightly lesser known airline, but it is certainly a great one for business class travelers. You get your own check-in process, private lounges, and comfortable seats that tilt back a little when you are reclined, giving you the illusion of a bed.

However, the best feature is that the seats give you a massage while inflight, ensuring you are relaxed and ready to go. Don’t forget your breakfast on the way out!

Air Canada

Many things in Canada are better, including flying Business Class. The company has a gorgeous Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft that has some of the best business class amenities around, including an Executive Pod. This pod has a fully adjustable seat, pneumatic headrest and cushion, lumbar support, and massage capabilities. Of course, you get access to spa products on international flights.

If jet lag is a concern, you can sync the mood lighting to the different times zones to help alleviate that problem.

Of course, your food and drink options are premium as well.

British Airways

British Airways Club Class seats are massive, coming it at 6’6” long and 21.37 wide. They lie down completely when horizontal, making them the perfect bed. You don’t have to get up to adjust them, and can put up a privacy screen so that you get your beauty sleep in peace.

The food really stands out on British Airways, with luxury cakes, quality wine, and fresh fruit options.

Which airline will you take for your next business trip?

Sometimes, we all hit a point when we need more money than we have, which means that we need to turn to credit cards to pay our bills for us. This isn’t a longterm solution, per say, but it is an option that many people have to turn to at some point. Instead of feeling bad about it or questioning whether or not it is the best time to do so, you may want to start thinking about situations in which it is better to use a credit card to pay your bills versus just paying them straight out. Here are a few times when you should use a credit card to pay bills:

Automatic Payments

Setting up automatic payments is an easy way to ensure that you never miss a due date on the services that really matter – like your cell phone, electricity, or insurances. Put everything on a credit card and set them to “automatic payments” so that when your bills come, the only one you need to open and worry about is your credit card bill. Save time and save effort!

Taxes

For your local, school, or property taxes, sometimes you are paying an extra 3% for someone to handle your check or cash, if your locality even still accepts cash. To save a little extra cash (and in some areas, that’s a lot of extra cash), pay with a credit card. You’ll avoid that fee and ensure that your payment is in on time – sometimes, you won’t even have to go to the country office, you can do it via mail or online.

Daycare

If you have a child in daycare, you know that the drop off and pick up time is extremely crazy and you don’t always remember to kiss your kid goodbye, let alone stop by to pay someone. Setting up your daycare expenses on a credit card allows the daycare to just charge you – shaving crucial minutes off of the day.

You Want to Earn Rewards

Miles, shopping rewards, or cash back, paying your bills with a credit card can give you more money to play with for special events, vacations, and just to pay your other bills. The rewards will stack up and you’ll be able to say that you earned them paying bills that you were going to have to pay anyway.

Next time you have to use a credit card to pay your bills, be sure to think it through first.