Get The Flights You Want With Your Air Miles
One of the most popular incentive programs ever conceived by the airline industry, was what is known as air miles, air points, or frequent flyer miles. Basically, every time you pay for a flight with a particular airline, they give you a number of points which can be redeemed later for future flights. It sounds like a good deal, especially if you have to do a lot of flying already. Say for business or work. The thing about frequent flyer miles, is that they can be extremely frustrating to redeem. The airlines are pretty strict about only allowing a limited number of seats for air miles redemption, and blacking out specific dates altogether.  Many frequent flyers often just give up in their attempt to redeem air miles, and the points end up being just wasted.
I was in this situation a few years ago, when I first attempted to redeem a lot of points I had on US Air. My wife had always wanted to go to Aruba, and as it turned out, I had enough points to take the entire family to this Caribbean island for a few weeks vacation. The first problem I found, was that it was impossible to book 5 seats on the same flight using my air miles. It wasn’t that I wanted five seats together, it was just impossible to get five seats period. As it was, I had left the booking too late. We never got to take the trip that year. But, I did learn a lesson for the next time. The most important I can suggest when trying to book frequent flier miles is to book early. Really early! Basically, find out how far ahead you airline allows for booking flights. In my case it was about 12 months. So, call as early as possible right to the day. This time things went a lot better, and I was able to five free seats for the entire family to what was to be the vacation of a lifetime.
Another thing to keep in mind, is to try and travel during non peak periods. That doesn’t mean you have to fly to the Caribbean in the middle of summer, it may just mean avoiding Christmas, Thanksgiving, and spring break week in Daytona. The airlines will black out those dates for pretty much everyone traveling on points. When I first booked tickets this way, I was at the highest level of US Airs program, so blackout dates didn’t apply to me. Over the last few years though, those privileges have dissipated.
