How to Maximize Airline Rewards

[Updated August 2016]

After credit card rewards, for most people airlines will offer the next best chance to earn rewards (free flights). Now who wouldn't like to fly to a tropical island for free?

First, a bit about my travel patterns and then I can explain my system for airline rewards. I am based in San Francisco which means I have easy access to the San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose airports. I travel for work to New York, Chicago and Atlanta 2-3 times each per year. This is my primary source for earning status and miles. I travel to visit my family in San Diego and my wife's family in Seattle a few times a year. I also love to ski/snowboard so I fly to Salt Lake City and Denver twice each year. Lastly, I try to do one big international trip per year with the wife during the summer. 

Most people would read the above paragraph and assume that I fly United (the major US carrier with a hub in SFO). They would be dead wrong. I hate United. In my opinion, they are the worst US airline - they are always delayed, they treat their customers with a lack of respect and they have very old planes in their fleet. So which airlines do I fly and why?

• Delta is currently my carrier of choice for three main reasons: they have a good track record of being on time, they treat me well when I have a problem and they upgrade me on almost every domestic flight (everyone in SF has status on United...no one flys Delta so the security lines are short and you get upgraded). Oh, and the most important reason: they fly direct from San Francisco to every destination on my list except Chicago. The drawbacks are that they are mediocre for international flights and their reward program was drastically devalued in 2015. In fact, their international rewards are very hard to redeem. 
• American Airlines is the carrier I will be switching to in 2017. The main reason is because they fly direct to Chicago (but not Atlanta) and because they now offer 3 status miles for every mile traveled on a business class ticket. That's huge as it means I can make executive platinum next year with my work travel + one big international trip. They also have a better reward system for international flights than Delta (though it was devalued in 2016). Their upgrades domestically are a bit more complicated and harder to come by, but that's okay for me since I fly Southwest for my personal trips anyways.
• Southwest is the carrier I fly for my personal flights to Denver, Salt Lake City, Seattle and San Diego. Free snowboard bag to Salt Lake City and Denver is clutch plus you can book tickets using Chase Ultimate Reward points and cancel for free anytime with a full refund (of points and fees paid). It's the perfect way to book ski vacations months in advance (when flights are as little as 6,000 points round trip) and then cancel them if the snow is bad or you decide to do something else. I love the flexibility of Southwest.

So now that you know what I fly and why, here is how I maximize point accumulation on these airlines:

• Earn status: Status is the key to happy flying. Every airline offers some form of status (usually for flying 25,000 miles minimum with higher tiers of status as you fly more). One of the benefits you get with status is that you earn bonus miles. For example, Gold Status on Delta earns a 100% bonus miles reward on any flight. American and United have similar benefits for their premier customers. The key to earning status is to earn all of your miles on one carrier (versus spreading your flights out). You can also try status challenges, airline credit cards that contribute to qualifying miles and mileage runs to earn status. 
• Sign up for promotions: You'll have to check forums and the airline's websites for current promotions. From time to time, airlines will offer 2x or 3x miles on specific routes. There are also long standing promotions like SPG Delta Crossover Rewards whereby I earn 1 delta mile for every $1 spent at a Starwood hotel. Double dipping rewards is a really nice feature of earning status on Delta and Starwood!
• Rapid Reward Dining: Simple enough, just sign up for Southwest's dining program and you get 3 points per dollar spent when dining out at a participating restaurant. It's not much, but it also requires no effort on your part. The best part is that the miles you earn from this dining program are in addition to your credit card rewards. For example, right now Chase Freedom's category is restaurants, so if I spend $100 at a restaurant that participates in Rapid Reward Dining, I will earn 500 ultimate reward points AND 300 southwest points. Using my minimum redemption value of 1.5 cents per point, that's $12 in rewards on a $100 meal. Not bad!
• New Account bonuses: I stopped signing up for cards for bonuses. However, before I stopped, I racked up hundreds of thousands of miles signing up for credit cards. American Airlines had a 100,000 mile bonus, Delta had 35,000, American Express Platinum had a 100,000 point bonus (which transfers into airline miles). You can easily rack up a couple free flights a year by churning cards. It just isn't worth it to me any longer.

To sum up: My main goal with airline miles is to maximize accumulation of miles on my long-haul business trips and then redeem miles for international trips (American) and short personal trips (Delta). Southwest I always fly for free using Chase ultimate reward points.

Next: How to maximize hotel reward points.

​Questions? Comments? Tweet me @RetireOnRewards.