Anne: Where were you this past weekend? I tried calling you on Friday to see if you wanted to go to the movies with me.
Jurgen: I was in Chicago for a long weekend.
Anne: Chicago? I didn’t know you were planning a trip. I thought you were pretty strapped this month. A ticket to Chicago would set you back at least $300.
Jurgen: I am pretty strapped, but I wanted to go to my friend Rachel’s wedding. I was able to use my frequent flyer miles to get a ticket. I was lucky that those weren’t blackout dates.
Anne: Oh, that explains it. You’ve been traveling a lot using your frequent flyer miles. How do you rack up so many miles? I’m enrolled in the frequent flyer programs of three different airlines, but I never seem to have enough miles to redeem them for a ticket or even an upgrade.
Jurgen: The trick is to get a credit card that gives you miles. For every dollar I charge on my credit card, I get one mile. Since I use my credit card for a lot of business purchases, the miles add up pretty quickly. I also use a lot of the hotels and restaurants that partner with the airlines, and doing that gives me bonus miles.
Anne: Aren’t there a lot of restrictions? Do you ever have problems redeeming the miles?
Jurgen: Yeah, there are some restrictions, but I work around them. There are fewer restrictions if you have elite status, but I’m a long way from that.
Anne: So I need to get a credit card that gives me frequent flyer miles.
Jurgen: Yeah, but a word to the wise: spend carefully. You don’t want to rack up credit card debt for the sake of racking up frequent flyer miles!
Anne: Point taken. Thanks for the tip.
Script by Dr. Lucy Tse
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