Are frequent flyer programs dying?

by Grant Martin on

With all of the recent cutbacks in the airline industry, frequent flyer programs are taking a beating. While passenger loyalty rewards are a great perk to air travel, any freebies given away by the carriers cut into the bottom line — a mark that has fallen under intense scrutiny over the last six months.

To mitigate some of the loss from award mileage and ticket redemptions, airlines are making it harder and more expensive to use to earn and use your miles. Just last month, Delta Airlines instituted a fuel surcharge for booking an award flight; now in addition to taxes that you pay for that ticket you’ll have to pony up up to fifty dollars for the privilege of booking it. Others, like American Airlines, are increasing the number of miles that you have to redeem for certain tickets and charging an additional fee to upgrade your seats into a higher class.

All of these changes are provoking industry analysts to worry about the future of frequent flier programs. George Hobica, founder of Airfarewatchdog.com, points out that some alternative reward credit cards are now more beneficial then keeping a miles card. Others, like Clark Howard point to the devaluing mile and wonder if it’s even worth accruing miles at all, saying “Don’t waste any effort chasing frequent flyer miles, which are like fool’s gold.”

Is the situation really this dire?For the casual traveler, it may be. Those of you who only fly once in a while and slowly earn miles up to a free ticket every five or ten years may see their award programs changed or their miles devalued from under their feet — such is the nature of business in a tight, evolving industry.

But for the acute traveler, there are many many reasons to still keep banking miles. Elite status, the key to getting upgrades, better seats and more miles is still a huge part of any mileage program and is still worth attaining. And there are still many uses for your miles — even if those avenues are harder to approach. Patience, timing and strategy play a critical role in making the correct award booking and with the right perspective it’s still possible — if not easy — to find award tickets.

If you want to bore down into the nitty gritty of making your miles work for you, here’s a tip: think about how much you travel and think about how much time you want to devote to working the system. If mile accrual is an every-so-often occurrence and you’re having a hard enough time finding a chance to cook dinner, you might want to relax, have a couple of bottles of wine and ask your neighborhood geek to look into your miles situation.

Alternatively, if you’re a 150k mile/year earner with some time at the airport lounge, orient yourself with Flyertalk, Airfarewatchdog and your local airline’s website. You’ll quickly learn how to best apply your miles.

Just don’t stop plugging your frequent flyer number into your reservations — trust me, it’s worth it.

Can’t afford Europe? Head to a theme town!

by Catherine Bodry on

With the dollar dropping into a bottomless pit, there will likely be fewer US visitors to Europe in the coming months. But if your hunger for polka and liederhosen can’t be satiated, head to a theme town to get your European fix. When researching this post, I discovered that most themed towns rely on Oktoberfest and architecture to draw tourists there, so if you like beer, brats, and wood you won’t have to travel across the Atlantic to get them. Here are a few European “villages” the States has to offer:

Solvang, CA

This California-wine country town was founded as the center of a Danish academy, and those roots can still be seen not just in the Danish architecture, but in small details like immaculately-kept gardens. The name Solvang means “sunny field,” and the town’s website promotes a “bright happy cheery feeling.” You might recognize the town from its appearances in both The Simpsons and the movie Sideways.

New Glarus, WI

This “Little Swizterland” isn’t quite as authentic as Solvang, though the Chamber of Commerce’s web site boasts that many Swiss tourists visit the town (isn’t that a little like Americans traveling to Switzerland to visit Wal-mart?). Though it was a Swiss settlement, after WWII, a faltering agricultural industry gave way to the tourist sector. Swiss-styled architecture began popping up, and the alpine meadows created a perfect backdrop for a Swiss-themed town. Today, you can partake in Oktoberfest activies or hear polka bands honking their horns.

Helen, GA

Helen is a completely re-created town. You won’t find much European heritage here — in fact, the town is celebrating a meager 35 years as “a mountain community with a touch of Bavaria.” Complete with cobblestone streets and specialty shops selling everything from cuckoo clocks to schnitzel to wooden toys, Helen is a European stereotype at its tackiest. The town holds a two-month celebration of Oktoberfest, complete with a beer hall housing live polka music. You can also visit the Christmas Shoppe year-round (and it just wouldn’t be a European town if something wasn’t spelled “shoppe” or “olde,” would it?)

Leavenworth, WA

I grew up visiting Leavenworth, and to be honest the Bavarian-modeled village actually was my first taste of “Europe.” Granted, it’s a cheesy reconstruction, much like Helen, Georgia, but it was always fun to visit during Oktoberfest. Much as you would expect from a town that decided to model itself after a stereotypical German mountain village, you can hear live polka, eat bratwurst, visit a nutcracker museum, and shop in “quaint” wooden toy shoppes. It’s a nice town to visit during the winter, when ski trails cross town and the mountains are packed with snow.