Have you ever thought that you shouldn't join a frequent flyer program because,well, you're not really a frequent flyer? Or have you been deterred because you don't always fly on the same airlines for each trip but just shop for the best deal? I myself thought this for years, and now feel a bit queasy thinking of all the miles I could have earned even from infrequent trips!
One new exciting site I found is www.points.com. Let's say you have 3,000 miles from a trip to Europe on US Air. Let's say you don't plan on flying US Air all that frequently but usually fly, say, Northwest (soon to be Delta). Should you just chalk those miles up to a loss? Not anymore!
Points.com allows you to swap points from one program to another! So you can take those US Air points and swap them right on over to your NorthWest WorldPerks account or your Delta SkyMiles account. As a disclaimer, I have not done a swap yet to see how it transfers and what the rate is, but I think it certainly looks promising! There are many programs you can transfer between to actually get a benefit from these trips.
Of course, if you don't want the hassle of all this or aren't trying to accumulate frequent flyer miles, sign up for free for the plan anyway, especially if you're going on a long flight to somewhere. You can do something even better and donate them to the Make A Wish Foundation, which uses people's donated miles to help make terminally ill children's dreams come true! So don't let your miles go to waste--there's something wonderful that can come of your travel if you just take a minute! http://www.wish.org/help/donate_airline_miles
