"Next month, United Airlines and American Airlines will strip frequent-flier miles from accounts that have been inactive for 18 months, half the time they had been letting accounts sit idle previously.

Infrequent fliers can preserve their miles by taking action that adds to or subtracts from their account balance before the deadlines.

American and United are among many airlines that are cracking down on casual customers by shortening the time an account can remain dormant before miles disappear.

The old industry standard was 36 months. Now, most major airlines require action every 18 to 24 months. Among old-line carriers, only Northwest is still at 36 months. Continental says it has never expunged miles from accounts, although it reserves the right to do so after 18 months of inactivity.

The good news is, you usually don't have to take a trip to generate activity in your account. "
[Via www.sfgate.com]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
To read the rest of this article click blue line above.

Don't miss the chart at the bottom of the article that gives you all the airlines and their expiration policies.

Labels: american Airlines, frequent flyer, miles, United Airlines

"Know if your carrier adheres to this rule — it could be your saving grace

Even though U.S. airlines have weakened the Rule 240 clauses in their contracts of carriage, it still pays to have a copy with you to show the airline's ground service agents what your rights are when your flight is badly delayed or canceled.

Before the deregulation of the U.S. airline industry in 1978, every U.S. airline had to follow the same set of rules — including those dealing with "irregularities" such as canceled flights.
In those days, airline fares and routes were regulated by the Civil Aeronautics Board, the predecessor to today's Federal Aviation Administration.
One of these rules, number 240, specified that if an airline couldn't get you to your destination on time, it was required to put you on a competitor's flight if it would get you there faster than your original airline's net flight. Airlines were even required to put you in first class if that's all that was available.

They rarely advertised this perk, however, since airlines naturally didn't want to fork over scarce cash to fly customers on a rival carrier. But seasoned road warriors have always known they could approach the counter and say the magic words "240 me" to be put on the next flight out.

Airlines formed after deregulation — such as JetBlue, Southwest, and Spirit — were never required to follow these rules. Even so, some of these newer airlines may attempt to put you on another airline if there's no other choice.
"While we don't have a traditional Rule 240, we will purchase confirmed seats as necessary on another airline to get customers to their final destination in the event of irregularities within our control," Todd Burke, JetBlue Airways' vice president for corporate communications, told Airfarewatchdog.com.
In addition, if there's a "significant delay," JetBlue's compensation may include a "partial or full refund," in addition to accommodation on another airline.

However, in recent years, as "legacy" carriers such as American, United, and Delta have struggled to remain profitable, and some have slashed costs to emerge from bankruptcy, many have quietly weakened their Rule 240s.

United Airlines, for instance, no longer states in its contract of carriage that it will fly you in first class on a competitor, if that's all that's available, although it will transport you in coach class on another airline.

Although Delta Air Lines still has a Rule 240 in its contract, it no longer makes any mention of transporting passengers on other airlines in the event of a flight disruption.

Continental Airlines will upgrade a delayed passenger only on its own flights—not on a competitor's—and only if doing so will get you to your destination earlier than would otherwise be the case.

US Airways has nothing in its terms of transportation concerning Rule 240, though spokesperson Amy Kudwa said the airline still applies the rule on all flights except international flights.

The good news is that Northwest Airlines still has a very traditional contract, little changed from the days of regulation. It will put you on another airline, in first class if necessary, if your original flight is delayed 60 minutes or longer.

It's important to emphasize that these rules generally apply to situations within the airline's control, such as mechanical problems. But if the flight irregularity results from a "force majeure event" such as bad weather, a riot, or a work stoppage, then all bets are off. And the legacy carriers may not have agreements with their newer competitors such as JetBlue and Southwest, so that they might not re-route you on those carriers.

Even if you are flying an airline that adheres to Rule 240, its employees may be reluctant to rewrite your ticket on a competitor because of the financial implications of doing so. So it pays to print out and carry a copy of the contract of carriage and present it to the gate agent if necessary." By George Hobica [Via msnbc.msn.com]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Know your rights. We did another post on this topic on April 7. 2007

Labels: Airlines, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Northwest Airlines, rule 240, United Airlines, US Airways

As a valued United® Mileage Plus member, we offer you a special opportunity:
Receive an extra 1,000 bonus miles on your next United roundtrip for just $20.
Simply register and pay $20, and your account will be credited with 1,000 bonus miles after your next paid, qualifying flight on United, United Express® or TedSM.

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Members must register for this offer between August 10, 2007 and December 31, 2007. Click blue line above

Labels: bonus, United Airlines, United Airlines Mileage Plus

"CHICAGO, Aug. 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United Airlines and Mileage Plus are proving that redeeming frequent flyer miles is short and sweet by offering its members more value for their loyalty. United Airlines is temporarily reducing the amount of Mileage Plus miles needed to redeem award travel on some of its shortest flights.

For a limited time, certain United Economy(R) Saver award travel booked on united.com will be available for 15,000 redeemable miles instead of 25,000 miles *. This award travel is for nonstop, roundtrip flights that are 700 miles or less each way on United, United Express or Ted flights." [Via money.cnn.com]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Tickets must be booked on united.com by Dec. 12, 2007 for travel between Sept. 1, 2007 and Dec. 14, 2007
Click blue line above for all the info.

Labels: free flight, United Airlines, United Mileage Plus

TD AMERITRADE has teamed up with United to bring you a special offer. Open and fund a TD AMERITRADE account by September 30, 2007, and earn up to 25,000 United Mileage Plus bonus miles. The more you deposit, the more miles you earn.

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Ends September 30, 2007

Labels: bonus miles, TD Ameritrade, United Airlines, United Airlines Mileage Plus

Save up to $35 & Earn up to 1,000 Miles.

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Labels: Hertz, Mileage Plus, United Airlines

"For all the complaints about award travel, and this is something I've written about before (and by no means to brag), I really don't have too much trouble finding award seats.
That's partly because I have a critical mass account balance with several different airlines and major alliances, so when I go to redeem if there isn't availability with one I simply query another.
But it's also because I redeem mostly for premium class international travel, and while those tickets aren't always available on all routes by any means, I've often seen the biggest complaints - with a few notable exceptions - to be about the old fashioned 25,000 mile domestic awards. And those are hardly the best value anyway.

I'd just assume pay my $250 - $400 for a flight between DC and California, earn miles on those flights, and use the miles for a much greater return: the $10,000+ ticket I could never afford to purchase but that makes travel more than just an uncomfortable means to get from A to B. Plus, there are a few tricks to the process.
Recently I used United Mileage Plus miles for two international first class awards from DC to Phuket, Thailand, with a stopover in Hong Kong on the return. That's not the kind of award that the United website lets you search for, so it requires a phone call.

Customers call and get told nothing's available. But that doesn't mean nothing's available. Agents may be poorly trained. It may take work, the computer systems they're working with aren't perfect by any means and may only check a limited number of simple routings. And they may not want to go through all the work of testing segments one at a time, even if it occurs to them that they could.
So I've found one big secret to booking award travel is to do the legwork yourself. That's hard to do on the phone with testy agents. But it's much easier to do by yourself. But most airlines don't let you do it! On their own websites, anyway.

The first thing to do is know the routings. Know the partners. Who flies where you're trying to go? And especially if you're looking for a premium class seat (and you really should be...), but even for coach, start with the hardest part of the trip to get. In this case it was the transpacific segmetns. Look, I know I can get from DC to Chicago or the West Coast and back. The hard part is going to be finding first class seats across the Pacific.
So before I call United I write out United's partners that fly across the Pacific and the routes that they fly. Then I check for availability on those specific flights. And once I find availability, I work forwards and backwards from there, in order to (1) get to the transpacific gateway city, and (2) get from the destination of the flight I've found to the city I'm actually trying to get to, if necessary.

The way I do this when redeeming United miles is that I've signed up for an ANA Mileage Plan account. And ANA Mileage Plan members can use that program's website to check availability on most of their Star Alliance partner's flights. (Swissair seems not to come up as an option on the ANA site.) Air Canada offers something similar, though the ANA site performs better for me.
Working with other airlines it is often the case that you'll need to sign up with frequent flyer accounts with many of the carrier's partners and check each partner individually. A pain, perhaps, but worth the payoff when looking for the elusive three-cabin first seats to Asia.
Now it should be said that the results found on the ANA website are not going to be a perfect match for what United will let you book. ANA does a good job telling you what seats a Star Allaince carrier is making available as an award. But United then filters availability with some parnters on certain routes. So while Thai Airways might be offering an award seat from London to Bangkok, United might reply "not available." They make it sound like Thai isn't offering it, when in reality United just refuses to pay for it.

United uses a system called StarNet for booking these awards, and agents are only supposed to book what comes up there. Used to be that you could still grab an available seat via a 'manual sell'... The agent sends a message to the partner carrier asking them for the award seat, and then it would come back confirmed, bypassing United's filtering in StarNet entirely. But that's exceedingly rare these days, as customer service reps are no longer supposed to do it.
I find the biggest problems with United's filtering to be on Lufthansa, especially routes within Europe, and also premium class long-haul on Thai. They really don't need to do much filtering with Singapre, as those seats are hard enough to come by on their own! (Although I'm always surprised by how much business class availability on Singapore is out there, and how frequently I can find a single seat in First... It's that second seat on the same flights that's so often vexxing.)

Still, the ANA tool is an excellent starting place, and tells you what flights to ask for when calling United. Doing the work for the agent on the other end of the phone is one of the absolute keys to finding the award seats you want.

It's also helpful to know when to look for seats. United in particular releases seats both early and late. Check 5+ months out, check a couple weeks before departure, check 2-3 days before departure. Now, if you're like me you look obsessively more often. And revenue management will release seats at various times. The idea for the airline is to offer as awards those seats they're confident won't be sold, and at the same time ensure that customers don't book award seats that they'd otherwise purchase with cash.
Some seats get released when schedules are loaded 330 days out. But the 'I called 330 days out and the seats were already gone!' complaint misses the point. There may not have been any seats released yet. And just because seats aren't available, doesn't mean that they won't become available.

At least until United's premium cabin availability shrinks dramatically (and perhaps even then) with the introduction of their new business and first class cabins, it's pretty much a lock to be able to find premium class transpacific flights days before departure.
This isn't true with all airlines. In some cases, once seats have been booked, no more will be released, even in the case of an empty cabin. But United definitely dumps unsold seats into award inventory very frequently in the days leading up to a flight.
Check it yourself -- search for international first and business class 2-3 days forward on various transpacific routes and you'll be shocked at how easy they are to get.

Ok, fair enough, you don't want to wait to plan a spur of the moment vacation. But you don't have to. Just plan the best itinerary you possibly can when you're doing your initial booking and "trade up." Look for better seats. Maybe you found an undesireable routing, or you only found coach. Book it, lock in your trip, and then call back to make a change. Unless you're a United 1K you'll have to pay $100 per ticket, but it's a fee I'd find worth it to go from coach to 3-cabin first for a day of flying in each direction.

With 60,000 points for coach and 90,000 for business to Asia (just 15k more each way, and that gets you all the way from the US East Coast to just about anywhere in Asia!), the premium cabin represents one of the best values out there in award redemption." [Via- View from the Wing]

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
It may take time to follow the above but the end result may be well worth it.

Labels: business class, first class, free travel, Lufthansa, Star Alliance, United Airlines, US Airways

TD AMERITRADE has teamed up with United to bring you a special offer. Open and fund a TD AMERITRADE account by June 30, 2007, and earn up to 25,000 United Mileage Plus bonus miles. The more you deposit, the more miles you earn. See chart for details.
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The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Hurry!!! ends June 30,2007

Labels: bonus miles, Mileage Plus, TD Ameritrade, United Airlines

Now through December 31, 2007, enjoy the savings below and earn double miles on weekend rentals of two or more days or weekly rentals at a participating airport or off airport location in the U.S., Puerto Rico or Canada. That's 100 Mileage Plus miles per day on weekend rentals or 1,000 Mileage Plus miles on weekly rentals.

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Labels: codes, DEALS, Hertz, miles, United Airlines, United Mileage Plus

Experience more of America and Canada with United Vacations and earn up to 20,000 bonus miles!

United Vacations offers flight + hotel packages to nearly 200 cities across the U.S. and over a dozen popular cities in Canada.

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The Pointswizard.com Spin:
travel by October 31, 2007

Labels: bonus, United Airline Vacations, United Airlines, United Mileage Plus

As a United College Plus® member, you can earn miles toward free travel on United flights and with Mileage Plus® partners. But you also have many exclusive bonus-mile opportunities available to you.
Graduation Bonus

We will help you celebrate your college graduation with 10,000 Mileage Plus bonus miles. Just send the following to the address below, and your bonus will be posted to your account within 4--6 weeks of receipt:

Plus, earn miles when you stay at a hotel, rent a car, make a long-distance phone call, make a purchase on your Mileage Plus Visa®, shop or invest online- and more - with over 100 Mileage plus partners around the world.

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Free is the best way to earn miles. Click on blue line above to get details

Labels: bonus miles, college graduation, United Airlines, United Mileage Plus

Lending Tree With LendingTree, you can earn 1,000 bonus miles when you complete a refinance, mortgage or home equity loan request before June 30, 2007.
You can also earn thousands of miles after closing at no additional cost:

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To qualify, use Reservation Code UN28-15. Click blue line above to get started

Labels: bonus miles, Lending Tree, United Airlines

Earn 1,500 United Airlines bonus miles when you spend $1,500 or more in qualifying purchases* from May 1 to June 15, 2007. Just use your Club Card when you shop for all your grocery needs at Safeway, Vons, Dominick's, Genuardi's or Pavilions and the bonus miles are yours. The 1,500 bonus miles you will earn are in addition to the miles you already earn as a GroceryMiles member.

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Labels: bonus miles, Dominick's, Genuardi's, grocerymiles, Pavilions, Safeway, United Airlines, Vons

As a United College Plus® member, you can earn miles toward free travel on United flights and with Mileage Plus® partners. But you also have many exclusive bonus-mile opportunities available to you.
Graduation Bonus

We will help you celebrate your college graduation with 10,000 Mileage Plus bonus miles. Just send the following to the address below, and your bonus will be posted to your account within 4--6 weeks of receipt:

Plus, earn miles when you stay at a hotel, rent a car, make a long-distance phone call, make a purchase on your Mileage Plus Visa®, shop or invest online- and more - with over 100 Mileage plus partners around the world.

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
Free is the best way to earn miles. Click on blue line above to get details

Labels: bonus miles, college graduation, United Airlines, United Mileage Plus

Perfect if you are just a few thousand miles short of your next award trip. You can apply these miles toward award travel on United or any Mileage Plus airline partner, or toward upgrades on United.

* Purchase up to 50,000 Mileage Plus miles per calendar year (either through gift or purchase)
* Credit card will be billed immediately for purchase
* Program fees and mileage rates subject to change
* Miles are available in increments of 1,000
* Allow 3-5 business days for miles to process and post to your Mileage Plus account
* Personal Miles are non-refundable
* Miles do not count toward elite qualification
* All standard Mileage Plus rules and conditions apply

Labels: buy miles, United Airlines, united mileageplus

You must be a Mileage Plus member to participate.

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Promotion Code : MPD237 You must register

Labels: bonus miles, promotion, register, United Airlines

Earn up to 500 bonus miles when you book online

Now you can earn bonus miles on more types of itineraries booked on united.com, including one-way, open-jaw and circle-trip itineraries, as well as E-Fares®.

Earn 500 United Mileage Plus® bonus miles for qualifying roundtrip, open-jaw and circle-trip itineraries, and 250 Mileage Plus bonus miles for qualifying one-way itineraries booked on united.com. Once the trip is completed, the passenger booking the flight(s) and flying the trip(s) receives the applicable bonus miles in addition to the flight miles earned. See terms and conditions below for details. There is no limit to how many miles you can earn, so book now!

The Pointswizard.com Spin: click on blue line to get all the info

Labels: bonus miles, Mileage Plus, online booking, United Airlines

Pack your bags for Rome and save room for bonus miles! Beginning this April, the gracious piazzas, ancient walkways and grand boulevards of Italy are closer than ever with new daily nonstop service between Washington Dulles and Rome. Fly between April 1 and May 31, 2007, and bring home up to 15,000 bonus miles

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Don't live in Washington DC area? Fly to DC from your home airport and get the United flight from there.

Labels: bonus miles, Mileage Plus, Rome, United Airlines, Washington DC

United offers lots of ways to keep your account active:

* fly on United or one of its 28 airline partners
* use your Mileage Plus credit or debit card
* purchase products or services from more than 100 travel and retail partners
* redeem miles for award travel to one of the 841 destinations United and its partners serve
* use miles for merchandise, hotel stays and dining
* transfer miles to another Mileage Plus member
* donate miles to the Mileage Plus Charity Miles program

The Pointswizard.com Spin: Click on the blue line above for the complete FAQs.

Labels: United Airlines

If you choose miles- They are redeemed with American Airlines, Delta, Hawaiian Airlines, Northwest Airlines, US Airways or United's respective frequent flyer programs.

The Pointswizard.com Spin:
click on blue line above to enter Marriott's Dream Destinations Sweepstakes

Labels: american Airlines, bonus miles, Delta Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Marriott, Northwest Airlines, points, sweepstakes, United Airlines, US Airways