Author: Holly Johnson / Source: Wise Bread
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Please visit our Advertiser Disclosure to view our partners, and for additional details.So, you signed up for an airline credit card and met the minimum spending requirement to earn 50,000 miles. Now what? With your miles tucked safely in your account, you’re probably stoked to start searching for the flight you want. How exciting!
Unfortunately, this is where the dream of earning free flights can turn into a nightmare if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Anyone who has long been a player in the frequent flyer game will tell you that earning miles is the easy part. No matter how many airline miles you’ve accrued, limited award availability and archaic rules can make it difficult to redeem your miles in the way you want — or at all.
You may want to go to Mumbai or Phuket or London, but you can only use your miles to go there if you find award availability on dates you can actually travel. If not, well, you may wind up redeeming your miles for something other than airfare — or letting them languish in your account until they expire.
Regardless of how lucrative airline miles can be, they aren’t for everyone, and they’re definitely not for people who aren’t willing to jump through hoops to use them.
Here are five signs airline miles may not even be worth your time and energy.1. Flight tickets to your destination are cheap and plentiful
Before you sign up for a travel credit card to rack up frequent flyer miles, it’s always worth checking the current price of the airfare you hope to book one day. You may be surprised at just how affordable travel can be to certain destinations around the globe. And if you don’t check, you might waste your time and energy earning airline miles to get there.
This is especially true if you live near an airport that caters to discount carriers like Norwegian Airlines, WOW Air, or even Allegiant Air. You will likely have to pay extra for an assigned seat and luggage if you opt for a discount airline, but their fares can be so affordable that it’s more than worth it.
If, for example, you live in Boston and want to travel to Norway, you may be surprised to find that Norwegian Airlines offers one-way flights on a 787 Dreamliner from Boston to Oslo for as little as $264 in early fall.
In another example, WOW Air is famous for offering fares for $99-$150 for itineraries like Cleveland, Ohio to Reykjavik, Iceland, or Pittsburgh to Copenhagen.
If the flight to the destination you want isn’t too pricey, it can make more sense to save up the cash instead of dealing with airline programs and…
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