Which airmiles and rewards programs should I join?

It should come as no surprise that not all airmiles programs are created equally. What are the differences? And which ones should you join? These are important questions. We can't answer them all in one post, but we can help get you on the right path.

How you collect points in these programs varies. Most programs award you miles based on how many miles you pay for and fly, and they also provide numerous ways to earn additional miles through non-flight-related activity. A handful of programs reward you with points for each segment that you fly, e.g. a non-stop flight is 1 point, but a flight with 1 layover is 2 segments and thus 2 points. Some programs even provide both types of rewards system. We lean toward programs that offer miles rather than points.

Every major airline has a travel reward program. We believe that it is a good idea to belong to several of them. At the moment, we recommend Continental OnePass, Northwest WorldPerks, and Delta Skymiles, because these programs provide the best opportunities to both earn and redeem miles. Many other programs out there tease you with great opportunities to earn miles, but then make it very difficult to find available seats when you try to redeem those miles. The three programs that we recommend don't always provide you with the perfect seats on the perfect dates, but they do so more often than other programs. We also really like that they are a part of the SkyTeam alliance and have reciprocity with each other (as well as other airlines) which gives us more options. They also offer very competitive prices for their airfares which makes earning miles on paid flights a bit easier on our wallets, which is a farily important part of our strategy in collecting miles.

There are some major changes on the horizon however. In December of 2009, Northwest WorldPerks will collapse into Delta Skymiles. Also, in October of 2009, Continental OnePass will no longer be affiliated with the SkyTeam program. This, of course, means that we may need to change our strategies for collecting airmiles... more about that in a future post.

So, when should you join these reward programs? Often, the programs will give you additional miles when you sign-up. Ordinarily, you may want to monitor for a while to see when they have one of these promotions as it can sometimes net you a great deal of bonus miles. Of course, the longer you sit out, the longer you are NOT accumulating airmiles. We recommend that you just jump in and get that airmile wheel running as soon as possible, esp. since there are changes to these programs on the horizon. It is in your interest to collect as many airmiles as possible, before some of these opportunities go away for good!