Travel Spork

Although airlines reward frequent flier miles for flights that we have taken, it often takes FOREVER to build up enough points to reward us with a free flight. (Unless, of course, if you are a flight warrior who practically lives on an airplane.) For the rest of us though, the question remains, “How can I get more frequent flier miles without flying?”

In addition to flying, the next most important source of building up frequent flier miles is the credit card. Why not earn points for things you are already purchasing? There are many categories that these cards fall into, but one of the easiest changes you can make that will significantly increase your frequent flier miles is UPGRADING YOUR DEBIT CARD.

Check with your bank and see what options you have to upgrade your debit card from your checking account to one of their travel rewards cards. I will use Chase as an example.  Chase has several options, such as Continental Airlines, Disney Rewards, and United Mileage Plus, as of now. Choose which is best for you and your travel. 

I prefer the Continental Airlines card, because I like Continental and their affiliate airlines (Star Alliance).  The annual fee is $25 ($65 for Preferred), and it earns you one mile for every $2 in qualifying purchases (or one mile for every $1 if Preferred).  When they mean “qualifying”, it means run EVERYTHING as credit verses your debit…sign for it, instead of pushing in a pin number. This is one big mistake I made at first, and sadly learned all the miles I missed out on from using debit!

There are a lot of other perks to this debit card, but my favorite perk is you get to check your FIRST BAG FREE each time you fly on Continental!! Just get your OnePass account from Continental (it’s free), and they will waive your first checked luggage, which will save you around $40 per person on a roundtrip flight. Not bad, eh?