New, from the people who brought you hundreds of different fares for the same seat, a gazillion more frequent flier reward redemtion levels! You are now being rewarded for your loyalty with an every more complicated formula of award tiers, booking fees, and fuel surcharges.

What Will My Reward Cost Me?

This is a crucial question, as reward card holders are constantly looking to maximize their return per dollar spent. In the old days, this was simply a matter of dividing their miles by the cost of the airline ticket. The airline industry, not wanting to keep anything simple if they can help it, has made it so you will almost always be paying something for your “award”.

Know The Costs Ahead Of Time

The airlines will disclose these fees, in small type on page 46 of their membership guide. Fortunately, airline travel guru Rick Seaney has put together this useful guide to the current state of airline frequent flier programs. Among the low points are the American Airlines $5 fee for booking on the internet (I thought that saved them money!), and Delta/Northwest’s fuel surcharge for “award” redemptions. You thought fuel would be included in your “award” when you were earning those miles? Sucker!

Finally, before you go about accruing mile towards a trip with a specific airline, be sure to know how you will be charged for baggage. What good is an award flight to your favorite ski slope if you have pay hundreds of dollars to bring your skis?

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 23:54 and is filed under Maximize your Credit Card Rewards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.