How to Use Airline Miles
By Jackson Lewis
All major airlines have a frequent flyer program to reward customer loyalty and repeat trips. As these programs have matured, the airlines have also expanded their partnerships with other companies, allowing you to use your airline miles for things from airline tickets to hotels to magazine subscriptions. Depending on your frequency of airline travel and the length of time that your miles remain valid with your frequent flyer program, you may want to consider using your miles to purchase other goods or to sell, give them to a friend or family member or donate them to charity.
Instructions
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Login to your frequent flyer account and check to see what your airline miles balance is and what the threshold is for cashing them in for a free plane ticket. If you are not planning on traveling or don't have enough miles for a free plane ticket, then consider using your miles for another purpose.
Select the "Non-Air" related miles redemption option on your frequent flyer account to view your available non-airfare ticket rewards. Available options will include newspaper and magazine subscriptions, hotel vouchers, gift certificates for retail shopping and restaurants and flower delivery. If any of these options are of interest to you for redeeming your miles, you can choose the option from within your frequent flyer account to redeem the miles.
Choose the Gift or Share miles option in your frequent flyer account to give miles to a friend or family member as a gift. You will need their frequent flyer account number for your airline in order to provide miles as a gift.
Donate miles to your favorite charity by selecting the "Charities" option in your frequent flyer account. All major airlines have incorporated charitable donation options into their frequent flyer programs to allow you to donate miles to benefit your favorite charity.
About The Author
Based in Memphis, Jackson Lewis has been writing on technology-related material for 10 years with a recent emphasis on golf and other sports. He has been freelance writing for Demand Media since 2008. Lewis holds a Master of Science in computer science from the United States Naval Postgraduate School.
