Minimizing Your Vacation Expenses By Collecting More Airline Miles

Anyone who has travelled by airplane once should be familiar with the idea of airline miles or frequent flyer miles. They are points that are accrued every time you fly, and they can help you save a lot of money on your vacation expenses if you use them right. However, airlines miles programs offer a lot more benefits apart from low cost air flights, and the best part is that there are lots of ways to collect more airline miles.

The basic idea of airline miles is that they are an incentive for customers to buy tickets from the same airlines whenever they fly. You get to earn airline miles if you fly certain airlines, and that way the company gets lifetime customers, and the more frequent your flights, the better your rewards. The history behind frequent flyer programs can be traced back to 1981, when the Advantage program was introduced by American Airlines. As part of its rewards program, the company provided special offers on Hertz rental cars and hotel stays at the Hyatt, and it was successful. Other companies followed suit, and today every major airline follows the same concept in their own airline miles programs.

Over time, hotel chains entered into the program as partners to airlines, starting their own frequent stay programs. Today, there are also airline alliances that consist of various other airlines working together to provide one comprehensive airline miles program. Flight tickets purchased on any airline in an alliance will add to the miles account of the customer. Moreover, many of these alliances include non-airline companies as well, so you can actually add miles to your account or points that can be converted to miles later on. These non-airline points come from rental services, hotel stays, credit card purchases, long-distance phone calls, and even stock trades or mortgages. It also includes purchases made in certain online and brick and mortal stores.

The points and miles that you earn over time are collected in your account in a way similar to a bank account. As you travel and make purchases, they collect but do not earn any interest, unfortunately. While the airline miles programs can differ from alliance to alliance or with each airline, most programs are designed so that the miles do not expire so long as there is some activity every couple of years or so. When the number of miles reach a certain amount, you can then spend them on an award, which could include free air tickets, discounted hotel prices, and other prizes that lower your vacation expenses in the long run.