Frequent Flier Accounts

Posted By Paul

A simple little tip for everyone when traveling is to always sign up for frequent flier accounts. Even if you don't travel very often it never hurts to sign up for the frequent flier club for an airline.

Why do I recommend this? Well for years I traveled so rarely that I never bothered to sign up for any frequent flier accounts. Then out of nowhere my work needed to send me on this trip to Asia. I was running around crazy getting packed and getting my passport updated so I didn't really get time to sign up for the frequent flier accounts.

My plan was to sign up for the frequent flier clubs after my trip, and then apply the miles, but that ended up being a big pain. I've heard that some airlines specifically won't let you count miles for flights that were taken prior to creation of your account (even if you sign up for the frequent flier account at the gate when you just got off the flight).

In my case I was able to get credit the miles, but this was several years ago and I've heard numerous airlines have become more strict about this.

Now that airlines let you sign up for frequent flier accounts via their web pages, I recommend doing that. Signing up for the frequent flier clubs at the airport can be a hassle if the terminal and gate agents are especially busy.

To be honest I still have yet to fly enough to earn a free frequent flier ticket, but I figure that all I'm out is the few minutes it took to create the account, and I'm ready to reap the rewards if I ever get sent on another big unexpected trip.