I made the mistake of looking at my frequent flyer airline miles today and quickly got overwhelmed. Apparently I have gobs of miles that are going to expire next year. I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise since I can’t remember the last time I used miles to purchase a free ticket – I’d pretty much given up because they are seldom of use when I really need them (during holidays etc.) and I’ve begun to rely much more on the Capital One miles, which are much more use-able and easy-to-use. Of course, I decided to see if I could use my American miles for my ticket to Panama City in February but found the process so cumbersome I quickly gave up. It looked like the only way I could use them was by flying in a completely inconvenient way that involved spending the night in Miami. Don’t think so.
Plan B: I’m going to look more closely at the NYTimes Practical Traveler story I saved from last Sunday “Swapping Miles for chocolate” to find other ways to use these darned miles. Word has it I can now use my American Miles to book car rentals and hotel stays. And Delta will let me exchange miles for gift cards to places like the Gap and Lands End. I did use some spare miles recently to get a six-month subscription to People Magazine, which I thoroughly enjoyed (and now miss now that my time is up) and I gave away some other miles to charity.
