Anyone can collect more airline rewards miles, by following a few simple tricks. Learn how to cash in on past vacations, get credit for your current travel plans and begin collecting miles even before you book your next trip. Use your miles for free flights, luxury upgrades and travel rewards.
Use alliances to limit your enrollment in frequent flyer programs and maximize your miles. Choose one airline within each airline alliance; this may or may not be a frequent flyer account you already have, but it should be the one you most frequently book travel with. If you have an account already, have that information ready. If not, sign up online. To find out how many frequent flyer programs you should be using to collect airline miles, use a search engine and type the name of your favorite airline and the word "alliance." Look for a list of all airlines within the alliance. Some of the most common alliances are SkyTeam, Star Alliance and OneWorld. Compare your past travel or upcoming travel plans with the airlines in each alliance. If you have existing accounts on these other partner airlines, contact customer service to request a transfer of your miles to the airline you chose for your Frequent Flyer program. Have all applicable frequent flyer information ready. With some airlines a transfer is not possible. Donate or cash in those miles before they expire, rather than keep a duplicate account in order to collect miles faster.
Register your frequent flyer data with the website or provide it to the agent you use to book your travel. Travel websites can store this information inside your personal profile. To add information, log in and edit your travel details within your personal profile. By keeping this information ready you ensure that you get credit for all your miles whenever you book a flight. Store your frequent flyer numbers in your phone or in your travel documents. You can list the main airline along with frequent flyer number and a list of partner airlines. This ensures that you can supply last-minute changes or missing information at check in.
Get to know your frequent flyer program and sign up for their newsletter. By spending some time reading about your airline and how to redeem miles you can learn which hotels and car rental companies will give you miles for spending money with them. When you receive your airline's member newsletter, new offers and deals will be sent to you automatically. Some airlines offer double miles or other bonus offers for certain travel times and destinations, allowing you to collect airline miles faster.
Sign up for a household account. Whether you want to sign up with a relative or a spouse, a household account lets you collect and spend miles as a group. Some airlines, like British Airways and the OneWorld Alliance, make the household account easily visible to the head of household as soon as you log in to your frequent flyer program.
Call your credit card company. Most credit cards now offer the option to earn miles for spending. Speak with your customer service department by calling the number listed on the back of your card, or go to their website to find out what airline miles reward programs you are eligible for. While you are checking, ask about the miles you may have already accumulated or make the switch from a "cash-back" program to frequent flyer miles.
