Being up until now, pretty much a homebody, I’m fairly new to the world of “miles”. You know, those points you earn by shopping here or going there or using this agency vs. that? Yeah those kind of miles.
Today I was reading Chris’ blog as usual and he discussed his travel plans for 2009…all of which pretty much run circles around my own plans. But toward the end he pointed out how cheap most of his flights were, and how he got upgrades, because of miles. Considering some of his destinations are pretty off the tourist track (Eritrea!), a $150 ticket is nothing to scoff at.
So naturally I’m more aware of when and where I can pick up points for my own future travels. Being in Houston, I’m pretty much a slave to Continental, since this is their hub. Fortunately they do have a points program, One Pass. It will take me about 20,000 minimum just to get a ticket within the Continental US, Canada, and Alaska. Right now I only have 4,546.
The good news is, while planning my trip to Puerto Rico, I made sure to be on the lookout for places I could get miles via partners of Continental. The Hilton I’m staying it gives 500 miles per stay (I’m seriously hoping “stay” means “night”) and I get Hilton points as well (I’m in the Hilton Honors program as well). I wanted to use Enterprise rental cars, only because I’m used to using them, but they aren’t a partner. Avis is, so I’m going with them to the tune of 50 miles per day.
All in all I should be earning a total of 3150 miles on this trip, not including the miles earned from the flight itself. That almost doubles my current total!
1000 Bottles of Sand 