TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Dividend Miles - Useless

Several years ago after continuous travel with a former airline, we signed up for dividend miles thinking that someday we would be able to fly down on their dime. Lately my wife has started receiving e-mails notifying her that she would have to use them by October or buy more miles to keep the account open. So I started the process of looking online to see how to go about this. Wow! is all I can say. I don't know how the rest of you are able to use them but boy are there restrictions and stupidity involved. I looked at my "flexible dates" first and found that I could use a low # of miles but that the flight would leave at 8 in the morning out of Detroit and arrive an hour later in Chicago. I would then get to wait at the airport until 10 that night where I would fly to Philadelphia and spend the entire evening. In the morning I would finally fly direct to SXM. The flight home was not any better. I would leave SXM at 10 in the morning and fly to Miami and then onto Phoenix and finally home to Detroit. Makes a lot of sense to me to fly west when I live north doesn't it? So I plugged in my exact dates that I wanted (which by the way was only a day or two from their lowest mile chart and early in the week by the way) and found that to use what I had in my account which was 33,000 miles, I would need an additional 31,000. The cost of buying more miles would be $927.57. Pretty darn good math if you ask me. I use all my dividend miles which I have been saving for years, then pay them $927. What is so incredible to me is that the regular ticket price is $712 per ticket. (if you recall I ranted about this a month ago since I could not figure out how with fuel prices lower than ever, ticket prices were still through the roof.) Where were any savings for us the consumer? So my conclusion is that dividend miles are a fictitious illusion created by the airlines pretending to give you something in return for your loyal patronage, but screwing you over in the end process. The airline I am referring to is at the beginning of the alphabet by the way. Forgot to mention that to share your miles with your spouse is not free either. There is a huge fee associated with sharing even though you paid for them in the first place. Great eh? <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />

Miles are not all that easy to use, many expire and with limited availability, they just don't work for many people. Delta does not expire (at least as of earlier this year) and I was able to use them for a trip but all my USAir/AA miles expired.

My personal advice, get a cash back credit card, rack up the credits there and take the $$$ and put it towards a ticket or whatever you choose.

Discover was doing a double cash back for new accounts for purchases made in the first year. Capital One VISA is 1.5% cash back from what I recall. Look around, find a card that fits your needs and go that route.

I just booked RT from Dallas for 2 for 55,000 miles on Aadvantage. The return trip is great - depart 3:25 to CLT with 2 hr layover, then arr in DFW at 10:24. The outbound is not so great, DFW at 9:00, IAH, MIA, then arr SXM at 10:24.
Last March we went from SAT at 6:05 to MIA, arr SXM 2:15, the return pretty much the same as this year, but SAT instead of DFW, for 50,000. Today it would have been 27,500 pp each way. Anything cheaper would require an overnight both ways. We have to drive to Dallas and back, but we're travelling with friends from Dallas, so no big deal. Taking out a new card every 18 months and getting 50,000 miles for charging $3000, makes it pretty cheap, even with the $150 or so fees.

Like you, I looked at buying 20,000 miles or transferring from wife's account, would have cost $600.

Airline miles suck compared to Capitol One. we were AA FF for years. Every time we tried to book, they would route us from Colorado to N.Y., Philly, or some out of the way airport, long layovers and the direct flights were always available for cash, but not with miles, or the the mileage .increases exponentially to get a direct flight. Cap 1, book your own ticket on your terms and Cap 1 reimburses the flight, easy peasy.

It really depends on where you're flying from. We have been pretty lucky with AA miles from Miami, even fairly last minute.

As far as miles expiring, it depends. On AA, it's every 18 months now. I no longer have a credit card that I get AA miles on, so I have to watch my AA account sometimes, since we generally fly on FF tickets. Recently, I booked a rental car and paid a bit more, and got FF miles for it. Now I'm good for another 18 months.

We gave up on using our miles years ago. We have the CapOne Venture card and get double "miles" for every purchase, which we use to erase travel purchases. Since our timeshare maintenance fees are charged to that card, we're able to erase them, and other hotel stays, etc. Much better than airline miles.

Years ago we did get a couple of trips to the island using miles, the last one was actually first class. That's when my husband was traveling a lot for work and racked up a ton of miles. We knew that was ending soon, so decided to use up all the miles while we could. I do check each time we fly to see if we can use the miles in some way, but it never works for us.

You can always buy magazine subscriptions with them. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

Just booked our flights back from SXM for the two of us on First class. Got the flights we wanted. Leave at 9am and in SEA at 7:50pm same day. Love those AA FF miles.

What about paying to fly to [and back] from Phily and use the miles to fly Phily nstop to and back from SXM

Does that still work out to lower price?

J&B

We've found the same to be true.
USAir miles converted to AA but are basically worthless.
Credit cards are all over the place. Recently there was an article on internet that listed best 8 cc for excellent credit people. Especially with regard to travel.
I took their advice and got most bang for buck and cancelled my other credit cards. You may want to check it out.

Everything is relative to you own situation. Many different deals out there, some good and some not good. Depends on your own situation. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/duh.gif" alt="" />

Currently we are fine with AA FF. Every Program has their own perks or whatever, we have taken advantage of the AA perks, so that is also a consideration for us anyway. Your FF milage could vary a lot, depends on your situation.

You need to choose the "program that works for you!"

Simple as that. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" /> What works for Jim may not work for Joe. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />

We joined IDINE.com a program that gives you miles/points for an airline or hotel chain. I used to get AA miles. Now I've changed to Hilton Points.

I turned my AA miles into gift cards for Lowes, Home Depot, restaurants. Remodeled a room in the house and didn't cook. I still have two one hundred dollar Home Depot cards and one Appleby's left.

I too found it almost impossible to utilize the points on flights.

I agree with the AA miles ticket comment...I have over 300k and have NEVER been able to get a decent flight to SXM.

On the other hand I have booked at least one way (x2) on JB for the last two years with no issues...if there are seats for sale available then they are also available for FF miles/points. Same with SWA but not applicable for SXM.

obviously some people have better luck than others...we've used AA miles to fly from houston to SXM via miami many times, in first/business, using the lowest point requirements, and on the exact dates we wanted...the key has been looking for our seats as early as possible, usually 330 days in advance

but we now prefer to use our points for trips to europe, as we feel we get more bang for our buck (points)...again, we've had no trouble getting the seats we wanted on both AA and United <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clever.gif" alt="" />

Over a lot of years we've made a lot if trips compliments of AA FF miles, sometimes booking free tix and sometimes buying inexpensive seats and doing upgrades. A couple of months ago, but as soon as the flights were announced, I was able to book FF first class seats from NY to HI on exactly the flights I wanted for 70000 miles each round trip so I'm not complaining. If I were to try to book the same flights today they're showing 150000 miles each for first class. We still maintain our AA Business card but I really like my Cap One that sends me checks every couple of months and has all kinds of benefits that work for me, but I've found you really need to plan ahead and book very early (or get very lucky...) to really make the FF miles work for you. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/handshake.gif" alt="" />

I always try for miles as soon as flights are available and have been very lucky in the past. That's the thing "Past". Every one is always saying how lucky we are to fly out of NY, but I think other places have it easier to use FF miles, since NY is so busy they don't have to give anything away.

We have been using US Air/AA out of Providence through CLT to SXM for years With miles. I think 300,000 miles would get the wife and I 3 trips.

Great advice. I checked into points.com and found that the way to go since using the AA dividend miles for flights out of Detroit impossible. Might as get something out of them and then cancel AA advantage!

I have a large number of miles on an airline which I rarely fly on anymore. I keep those miles "alive" by "trickle charging" them. Every time that I rent a car from Avis my account with Delta gets a hit. My 600K miles stay alive. One day I will use them for F tickets to SXM, but for now I'm draining my account with a different airline.

So, to keep miles alive:

1) Fly
2) "Trickle charge" with partners, rental cars, hotels, etc.
3) Online shopping thru airline website
4) Buy miles

1, 2, and 3 are good. Never do 4.

I really feel lucky after reading some of these posts. Here in Seattle I use Alaska Airlines a lot. With American being a partner I was able to book the round trip Seattle to MIA with miles for two of us without any problems for dates and seats. The MIA to SXM was a separate ticket. Trust me, this is great coming from the West Coast which is a hassle every year as you can't get to SXM in one day but you can get home in one day due to time change.

I have recently booked two flights to SXM, one in November and the other in June, from Portland to SXM, using Alaska miles on American. I'm able to get to SXM in one day although arrival isn't until 10 PM.

We are very happy with the miles program. Using American miles in Sept.-Oct. for Italy and Spain and Delta to Italy Dec. 19-Jan.4. Paying for tkts. to SXM February.

Jet Blue has a very user-friendly miles program, and you can sign up for a family plan and share miles. The miles required are a percentage of the cost of the ticket. I keep our account active by linking the Barclay's MC to my Amazon account. We have used miles a few times for the direct flight from BOS -SXM.

I didn't read through the entire thread, so, if this is a repeat I am sorry.

The best card I have found is a Capital One Venture Card. Double miles that don't expire. You can find your flights and book through them. Or you can book your flights, use their card and apply for the refund. You get points per dollar spent. It converts like this example. $500 spent earns 1000 points. 1000 points = $10 So if you have 50000 points and spend $500 on a ticket you are covered.

I know it sounds like a lot, but if you use it like cash, which we do, it builds up quickly. We just remember to treat it like a cash card and pay it in full at the end of every month. Any way, it works for us.

That's exactly what we do with our Venture Card. We use it for absolutely everything, including recurring bills as long as the payee doesn't charge a convenience fee for paying by credit card. I don't bother to save my miles for a ticket, I just go online every couple of months, and use the purchase eraser to get credits. I keep track of all of our expenditures in Quicken (it's the retired banker in me, lol) so at the end of the year, I can see how much I've earned. In six months this year, we've already earned over $900, so our SXM tickets will likely be free by year-end. The key is to use the card like cash, and pay in full every month.

We take the 10:00pm red eye from SEA to CLT then to SXM. Arrive 11:30 Saturday morn in SXM. All on American Air miles. Love it. Then leave SXM at 9am and arrive in SEA same day at 8:00pm. All on miles. Already booked for next May-June.
Miles on AA have always worked for us.
I use my Alaska Air miles for domestic flights with no problems either.

For us anyway AA FF work and work well overall. It depends on where you live, connections, options for airports, etc. We have quite a few options to choose from, so that helps a whole lot. So there is no one plan that works for everybody. If there was, then there would not be any other options.

For us anyway, CapOne is more expensive than our current AA FF miles program. But that is our situation only, so it works for us beneficially but may not work for others. We fly AA the majority of the time as we can get non stop out of MIA, ALL others mean a change. We can get FF seats at this point, most of the time anyway. Maybe not the exact dates, but always options that we can live with and many times the exact dates that we want. But then again, we are not tied into a specific week each year either, so for some I can see where it does not work.

Also I am always making sure that I sign up/register for the various bonus miles that are offered. Even if I do not have any plans on that particular puchase. Many times it has been things that we do routinely, others not, but sign up regardless. Generally those for us anyway, at triple miles and a cap of course, but it adds up fast.

And for us AA FF has the best policies regarding FF tickets. So that is a huge advantage for us anyway, since we are flying on AA the vast majority of the time.

That's probably my issue...I never book 11 months in advance. I have issues with the flight I like being changed months later to an inconvenient flight.

We are presently in Las Vegas and booked one way on AA (cash) 5 moths prior...nice one hour layover connection...reasonable arrival. It was changed to a 6am departure with a 32 minute layover and a much too early arrival...but it did work out after some fancy footwork in Phily...

Article was:
"Top 8 Credit Cards For Excellent Credit"
You may want to read it and choose for your own needs.

50,000 AA FF miles got me a first class ticket from SEA to SXM on the dates and flights I wanted. That was a $900.00+ ticket. I'll stick with my Citi Bank AA card.

Use my Citibank AA card long enough to get the points necessary for 2 tickets ord to sxm, then switch to cap one and use points to partially cover cost Club O. Usually get about 50% back on resort cost - Leaves lots of extra $$$ for spending on island

Whatever works for ya. OP asked a question, I answered with a possible solution. Didn't opine right way or wrong. I had a Citi AA card years ago. It didn't work as well for me as it works for you. Venture Card does.

We also use CapOne and get double miles. We gave up the Citibank AA card because it was just about useless when it came to booking "free" flights especially when they added a fee to book those flights.

We all have to do what works best for us - but my question is when did AA add a fee for booking FF seats? I didn't pay any fees to book my tickets, and when they changed the flight time and put us on a flight that was totally NOT to my liking, as is so often the case with airlines these days, I called and they changed me to a flight of my choice at no charge to me. Is this 'added fee' something new?

There were no extra fees for our flights in May. Maybe they are thinking about the taxes, those are not part of the FF ticket?

I didn't think about taxes.......although you pay them seperately on Jet Blue tix, too. I guess you could call that a fee but they do clearly show them as taxes on both AA and JB, the only airlines I have any FF experience with.

The only fee that I know of is if you want to redeposit your ff miles. Then there is a $150 redeposit fee. But I don't consider that a fee to use your miles.

Delta charged no extra fee and taxes are a part of any ticket. I know some credit cards with "points" charge a booking fee when one goes to apply points towards the purchase of a ticket.

TY - didn't know that and again, my only experiences with free tix have been AA and JB and I haven't paid 'fees' on either one.

AA miles suck we live in the northeast I know times change we were loyal AA people only used AA it used to cost us 25000 per round trip with 1 lay over then they changed 3 years ago to go from Hartford to SXM we would have 3 layovers and arrive late on some it would be the next day and that was for 37500 each we alway travel in late October and return in November . The last time we used our miles we had to use 75000 each to get there with 1 layover in miserable Miami . Now we use capital one like they say no hassle the double mile build up fast and they are easy to work with bye bye AA