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Free airfare saves hundreds of dollars on dream vacations. Too bad many travelers miss frequent flyer mileage building opportunities and misuse the miles they accumulate. Here are some strategies from a former flight attendant and travel expert that will help you build miles faster and reap the benefits.

Build Miles Faster
While it pays to join the frequent flyer program of any airline you fly with, it pays most to consolidate your efforts in programs of airlines that serve your area and fly to destinations you want to visit. If you live in a small metropolitan or rural area where there are only one or two carriers, your choices are clear cut. For instance, I live in NW Florida. Delta Air Lines and Northwest Airlines (NWA) are the primary carriers. Both airlines require 25,000 miles for a free domestic roundtrip ticket and 50,000 miles for a roundtrip ticket to Europe. Delta has more flights to the most destinations I use, but occasionally I fly with Northwest when the fares are lower.

Switching airlines could dilute mileage, but because Delta and NWA have a “partnership agreement” you can use NWA miles for a trip on Delta and vice versa. You can fly NWA and credit the miles to your Delta mileage account and vice versa. When you fly you can also have miles credited to partner airlines. In major cities served by multiple airlines, it’s important to learn which airlines are partners. Visit airline web sites to learn the logistics of transferring mileage between partner airlines.

Look Beyond Actual Flight Miles
Many travelers believe they only earn miles for flights. Actually, the majority of miles for non-business travelers are earned through non-flight channels. I have over 100,000 miles. Only 30% of those miles came from flights. Sixty percent came from my affinity charge card and 10% from miscellaneous sources.

Affinity charge cards (those linked to an airline program) offer a way to “double-dip.” Here’s how it can work for you. Book your flight on-line for 1000 bonus miles. Let’s say it is a short trip and the actual flight credit is only 1000 miles. The flight costs $300.00. Pay for it with your American Express Skymiles card. With double mileage credit, you will earn 600 miles. The total is 2600 miles instead of just 1000 miles for the actual flight…over 10% of the miles needed for a free flight.

Sign up for an American Express Gold Skymiles card and get 10,000 bonus miles. Amex will waive the $85.00 fee the first year. Charge all you can. You always get double miles for every dollar charged at home improvement stores, grocery stores, drug stores and the U.S. Postal Service. Get the miles. Pay the card off each month to avoid high interest charges. At the end of the year if you want to avoid the annual fee, cancel the card and move on to the next promotion.

Whenever you rent a car, check for partner offers. Dollar Rent A Car offers triple miles on Delta for every dollar spent. But, you have to know about the promotion and enter a special code when you rent the car online. Always give partner hotels your frequent flyer number at reservations and again at check-in. Credit is not automatic.

When we book a cruise we charge the cost of the cruise and shipboard charges on the same card. It’s easy to rack up 4000-5000 miles – 20% of a free ticket. MCI and NWA offer up to 10,000 bonus miles and five miles per dollar spent. Restrictions apply. Read the fine print carefully. Alert leisure travelers can almost earn a free roundtrip ticket a year through proper timing and attention just in the communications market.

How do you find out about these “secret” ways to maximize your mileage? Monthly Delta Skymiles and NWA Worldperks charge card statements are loaded with bonus mileage opportunities. Read every word. A recent postcard offer for double miles on every purchase through December 15 came from my Amex Skymiles charge card. Guess how I am paying for my holiday shopping?

What about web sites with offers to buy miles or sell miles? Seller or buyer beware. The airlines forbid selling or purchasing miles through third party vendors. You can only purchase miles directly through the airline if you are short a few. If you succumb to the temptation to sell or buy miles through a third part vendor, you could end up stranded with your mileage account cancelled if you are caught. Stick to approved avenues for building and using your miles.

Subscribe to www.frequentflier.com for a free online newsletter loaded with mileage bonus tips and promotions. Delta and Northwest have links on their web site for “Ways to Get Miles” and “Ways to Use Miles.” Also visit www.mileageworkshop.com and www.webflyer.com. A couple of hours each month researching new mileage promotions is time well spent.

Finally, track your miles carefully. Airlines and their partners sometimes lose miles. Keep records and receipts. Reconcile your mileage statements. If you find a discrepancy, you will need receipts to get retroactive credit.

Make the Most of Your Miles
Once you reach your mileage goal, use those hard-earned miles wisely. Frequent flyer space is limited. It¡is discouraging to get excited about a FREE TICKET and discover you can’t seem to use it. So before you dash out to cash in your valuable mileage points, do your homework. Check the price of tickets to the destinations you are considering. If the airfare is at a low peak, you save your miles for a more expensive ticket later. For instance, a recent trip to Miami was only $188.00 roundtrip. A trip to San Francisco was $455.00. Both trips required 25,000 miles for a free ticket. Since I was taking both trips, it made the most sense to use the mileage points on the more expensive ticket.

Booking frequent flyer reservations is a challenge. There are only a set number of frequent flyer seats available on each flight. Reservations for allotted seats go fast. There are also blackout dates around holidays. Unless you want to use double miles to avoid the blackout period, you may have to adjust your travel plans.

When you are ready to book your ticket, plan ahead. The further ahead, the more likely you will be able to book frequent flyer space. Frequent flyer tickets can be purchased up to one year in advance. Last year we wanted to use frequent flyer miles to fly to Paris. I called Delta in February and asked the agent to check the computer for a date when we could fly to Paris non-stop from Atlanta on a Thursday and return non-stop to Atlanta on a Tuesday. The closest available dates were May 9 returning on May 14. By letting the airline “pick my travel date,” I could plan the rest of my trip knowing free airfare was nailed down.

Flexibility is the key to booking a frequent flyer mileage award flight. If seats are not available on the first date you request, try a few days earlier or later. If you can’t get space into your first choice city, is there another airport close by? Be willing to fly early or late. If all else fails, you can use double miles and not be restricted to the allotted seats.

What if you never want to get on an airplane again? There are many ways to use mileage besides in the air. Free hotel stays at resort hotels such as Hilton and Marriott are options for using your points. Be sure to join the clubs for every hotel you stay in whenever you travel. Often those points can be transferred into mileage points. You can purchase Hilton Honours points at the rate of one cent per point for 10,000 or more points and transfer those point to miles. (The formula is complicated but it works!)

Got just a few hundred points and no plans to use them? Subscribe to your favorite magazine. For 1200 points you can subscribe to the Wall Street Journal or TV Guide. For only 700 points subscribe to CondeƒV Nast Magazine and be an armchair traveler.

If you have mileage to spare and are feeling generous, gift your miles to family, friends, or charity. Operation Hero Miles was signed into law by President Bush on October 28, 2004. It provides a way for you to help our troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan by donating unused frequent flyer miles to soldiers on R & R or Emergency Leave. So far more than 500 million miles have been donated by airlines and travelers in the USA, enough for over 22,600 round trip flights. Visit www.heromiles.org or contact Delta or Northwest for more information on Operation Hero Miles.

Now, go forth, earn more miles and spend them wisely. Happy Travels!

(NOTE: This article can be divided into a two-part series of approximately 750 words each. Part One – How to Earn More Frequent Flyer Miles and Part Two – Making the Most of Frequent Flyer Miles.)

Travel writer Lynne Christen is author of Travel Wisdom – Tips, Tools, and Tactics for All Travelers (www.travel-wisdom.com). Contact Christen at travelwisdom@cox.net

Herbs are so useful around the house and kitchen that having to say good bye to them in the winter is hard, so don’t!  Herbs grow well inside and I find that some do even better indoors than they do outside where it is a little harder to control the amount of moisture they get.  It really is not hard to plant your very own miniature herb garden for the winter and once you are done it is even easier to maintain,  If you want to plant the entire garden on your own I have put together the following to help you, if on the other hand you want to cut out all the searching I have listed some places you can find some really neat herb garden kits. I like being able to hunt for unique miniature pots to mix and hand picking my herbs knowing what I use the most in the kitchen and in tea.    

Choosing Pots

The best pots for planting herbs are terra cotta or ceramic ones because they are very porous.  I have found a huge selection of cute mini terra cotta pots in stores and online.  Ceramic pots are also good to use but I have not had luck finding a wide variety of smaller ones that can be placed on windowsills.  

Soil

Soil is a little harder to find inthe fall or winter when you are starting your indoor herb garden but if you go to a florist or local plant store they should have some on hand.  You want to choose a potting soil that is not too rich and with a higher sand content so it drains well.  To begin first put a layer of small rocks in the bottom of the pot to aid in drainage. Add potting compost, soil and sand to create a good herb potting soil.  

Choosing Herbs to Grow

Unless you want to just plant a random herb garden based on favorites selecting the herbs that you are going to grow is very important.  For a culinary herb garden favorites are: parsley, thyme, cilantro, chives, savory, garlic, mustard sage, basil, dill, and oregano.  If you are looking to cultivate a medicinal herb garden then you want to plant german chamomile, lemon balm, St. Johnswort, Valerian,  Echinacea, Cayenne, Sage and Yarrow.  My favorite type of herb garden to grow though is a tea herb garden.  The herbs you will need for this are rosemary, sage, german chamomile, anise, lemon grass, feverfew, lemon balm, angelica and orange gem marigold.      

If you were not lucky enough to have a winter herb garden that you could just repot and transplant indoors or did not do so in time do not despair there are still places where yyou can find herb plants of seeds.  The first place to try would be a local nursery or plant store they will sometimes have herbs stocked year round for purchase.  A second option would be to take cuttings from woody herbs by cutting off a small part of the stem and placing in soil.  To start your herb garden from scratch you can also purchase seeds and plant those in the potting soil you have mixed.  

Caring For Your Herb Garden

Once you have potted all your herbs you need to make sure you follow growing instructions for each individual herb to ensure its longevity.  In general though try to keep your plants clustered or close to each other as they will grow better that way.  Also choose a sunny location near a window where they will receive direct sunlight for at least eight hours a day.  Most herbs do not like to be kept really moist so do not over water and be sure to leave them in a place where they can drain sufficiently.  To help in them drain try to water your potted herb garden early in the morning or at the end of the day.

Herb Garden Kits

If you prefer a quick and easy started garden there are plenty of online sites or nurseries that carry herb garden kits that are easy to use.  I have found some really nice ones with great selections but I like to add to them when they are lacking my favorite herbs.  You can try Herb Kits, an online store that sells herbariums to start growing your own herb garden.  Mountain Valley Growers is also a good site to find kits that have several different selections of herbs available.

Happy Growing!