Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Be a Frequent Flyer without Flying Anywhere!
Free flights! The siren song of the internet these days for me. I'm always looking for a reason to get away and sneak off somewhere... be it to hang out with a good friend far away, or just to explore someplace that's new to me. There are plenty of ways to do that on the cheap these days - believe it or not, the price of flight has stayed relatively stable in the last 20 years, despite fuel costs that have tripled! There are the low cost carriers like Southwest, JetBlue and Frontier which can get you pretty far on $100 dollars, the incoming Ultra Low Cost class of airlines - like SkyBus and Spirit where penny airfare sales are common and tickets are available regularly for ten dollars or less!
But that's still not cheap enough for my skinflint heart. I want it for nothing, dammit! So frequent flier miles seem to be the best option. Flying not actually necessary. Seriously.
For example, Delta, is the airline I collect miles on. I'm saving up for 50,000 miles so I can get overseas on them and I'm currently a little over half way there. Funny thing is, I have only flown Delta five times in my life. Twice on miles. Last year, I earned 15,000 miles for getting a Delta branded American Express card, about 5,000 miles for fueling my Diet Coke addiction, and a couple thousand miles for eating at IHOP. That's right, I earned enough miles to fly home at the last minute last October by eating pancakes. Ain't life grand?
Now sure, there are drawbacks. Earning miles can be a bit of work - looking for special programs and utilizing them, but it will pay off. When I head to Buenos Aires next year for free on Delta, the kidneystones I formed from all that soda will be treated to a window seat 35,000 feet in the sky... and another Diet Coke.
Free flights! The siren song of the internet these days for me. I'm always looking for a reason to get away and sneak off somewhere... be it to hang out with a good friend far away, or just to explore someplace that's new to me. There are plenty of ways to do that on the cheap these days - believe it or not, the price of flight has stayed relatively stable in the last 20 years, despite fuel costs that have tripled! There are the low cost carriers like Southwest, JetBlue and Frontier which can get you pretty far on $100 dollars, the incoming Ultra Low Cost class of airlines - like SkyBus and Spirit where penny airfare sales are common and tickets are available regularly for ten dollars or less!
But that's still not cheap enough for my skinflint heart. I want it for nothing, dammit! So frequent flier miles seem to be the best option. Flying not actually necessary. Seriously.
For example, Delta, is the airline I collect miles on. I'm saving up for 50,000 miles so I can get overseas on them and I'm currently a little over half way there. Funny thing is, I have only flown Delta five times in my life. Twice on miles. Last year, I earned 15,000 miles for getting a Delta branded American Express card, about 5,000 miles for fueling my Diet Coke addiction, and a couple thousand miles for eating at IHOP. That's right, I earned enough miles to fly home at the last minute last October by eating pancakes. Ain't life grand?
Now sure, there are drawbacks. Earning miles can be a bit of work - looking for special programs and utilizing them, but it will pay off. When I head to Buenos Aires next year for free on Delta, the kidneystones I formed from all that soda will be treated to a window seat 35,000 feet in the sky... and another Diet Coke.
Labels: Delta, frequent flier miles, pancakes, travel
Roger, 7:25 PM
