Today, even infrequent flyers are enrolled in one or more airline frequent flyer programs. With the volume of air travel reaching and surpassing pre-9/11 levels, more and more people are hitting the skies. This article provides some tips and tricks to maximize those frequent flyer miles given out by most airlines as a reward or incentive for flying their airline or within a given airline group.
First a brief history of the airline frequent flyer program. Two events were key to the creation of the frequent flyer program, deregulation in 1978 which created a marketing environment and computerization which created the necessary infrastructure to support these programs. Without these two events frequent flyer programs would be either unnecessary or impossible to implement. In May 1981, American Airlines introduced AAdvantage, the first frequent flyer program. The goal was to retain their best customers by rewarding them for their loyalty. The program tracked members miles flown, and provided incentives in the form of free flights and upgraded amenities. Today, there are more than 70 frequent flyer programs, with over 100 million members. Members receive over 10 million...