10 ways to maximize your miles

If you’re not able to redeem your miles or points for the flights you want, it could be that either you’re in the wrong program or you’re not employing the new tools and strategies you need in this changing landscape. Here’s a step-by-step plan for using your miles to fly where you want, when you want, and in the best seat possible:

1. Make sure you’re in the mileage program that best suits your award goals
“Ask yourself what the purpose of your miles is,” says Randy Petersen, the world’s leading expert on mileage programs and the founder of WebFlyer.com and FlyerTalk.com. “Let’s say your goal is to travel to Hawaii. Make sure you’re enrolled in a program that requires the least number of miles to go to Hawaii or that has the most airline partners that fly there. Don’t rely on only one carrier.”

Determining the best mileage program for you is actually a three-step process, says Gary Leff, who writes FlyerTalk’s View from the Wing blog and recently founded BookYourAward.com, an award concierge of sorts. First, look at the route maps of the airline you’re currently collecting most of your miles with and its international partners and see whether they fly to the places you have in mind.

Second, consider how expensive your program’s awards are for where you want to go. “If you want to fly business-class to Paris,” says Leff, “it’ll cost 80,000 miles on Air Canada’s Aeroplan but 105,000 on United or Continental.” (You don’t need to fly Air Canada to collect miles in its program or to redeem them for a free trip—you can earn them by flying any Star Alliance airline.)

Third, factor in how generous—or stingy—your program is with award seats. US Airways, for instance, gives away only 3.9 percent of its seats, Petersen points out, whereas American gives away 9.7 percent. To find out how generous a carrier is, check InsideFlyer.com, which every April reports the percentage of seats each airline gave away during the previous year (search for “award patrol”). Another way is to compare programs using WebFlyer.com’s Head2Head tool. Leff says that, in his experience helping travelers redeem their miles for premium-class international awards, it’s toughest with Delta and its SkyTeam partners and easiest with Continental, United, and their Star Alliance partners. “If you want to fly business-class to Africa, you don’t want Delta miles,” he says.

2. If your home airport is a carrier’s hub, don’t assume that your main program has to be that airline’s
“Hub cities are difficult for the middle class,” says Petersen, explaining that those who don’t travel or charge enough to earn elite status lose out in the competition for seats—especially premium-class ones—to more-frequent fliers and big spenders. If you’re a hub captive without elite status, consider choosing the program of an alliance partner of the hub airline. Say you live in Atlanta and you don’t have elite status with Delta. Leff suggests crediting the miles you fly on Delta to its partner Alaska Airlines. That’s because you can redeem Alaska miles not only for flights on Delta and several of its SkyTeam partners but also for flights on American and several of its Oneworld partners. This makes more award seats available to you out of Atlanta. In addition, you have a better chance of earning elite status.

3. Consider using a credit card that allows you to earn miles that can be redeemed across alliances
It’s smart to have at least one credit card that provides the flexibility of being able to redeem miles on a wide array of airlines. American Express’s Membership Rewards program, for one, lets you transfer your points to 18 carriers across all three alliances, which means you’ll have many more possibilities of finding an available award to your destination. The Starwood Preferred Guest American Express Card lets you transfer your points to a whopping 30 mileage programs.