Sarah,
Here's another good website:
Beginner’s Guide | The Points Guy
Per another post, flyertalk is invaluable:
Miles&Points - FlyerTalk Forums
I started picking up credit cards for the miles about two years ago but haven't put that much time into it. Rather just went for the mega bonuses (as much as 100,000 miles per churn in the last year or so). Once I met the spend requirement and acquired the miles would move on to another card. Right now am just holding Chase Sapphire and Starwood American Express.
There are two skill sets here. Getting the miles is one thing; using them quite another, at least for the in-demand international runs during the summer. For flying, the greatest "return" (cents per mile) is for international business or first class (or upgrades) or, at a minimum, economy seats on overseas flights. Redeeming miles for domestic flights makes less sense.
Have turned just some of the miles for this recent spate of churning into international tickets for last summer and again for this summer. It is kind of fun to tally the "winnings," not to mention $ saved. Have cared only about seats (i.e., flew economy), not maximizing return.
Not sure I'm going to continue though. Using the points for peak demand seats seems to be getting more difficult for the unskilled (me, really) particularly when booking 330 or so days ahead to snag the inexpensive but in-demand places in prime locations that book up to a year if not more out. (Last summer's 3-week plus trip for two to expensive destinations in Europe came in at less than $5,000 total for nice flats, B&Bs.
)
Took me about 3 days off and on to figure out how to coax seats out of US Airways for last year. But again that's for booking way out. Just finished helping a friend get seats for this summer and found there was much more availability as the year progressed and the airline (US Airways again) fine-tuned demand and allocated more awards. For her, that's fine since they are staying with friends.
Here's a good article:
View From The Wing - The Myth of Booking Award Tickets at Midnight 330 Days Out - USATODAY.com
It *can* be a plus to acquire miles in multiple programs. American Airlines seems as of mid-summer 2011 to have curtailed its award seat availability at the lowest award tier. Supposedly it had been one of the best and I thought I'd gone to heaven when I booked seats over for this year leaving us scrambling for return seats when they pulled the inventory. Found upgrades on another airlines for a return of about $4000 on 40,000 miles (which was less than 1/2 a credit card churn).
For now, I'm using cards not tied to a specific airline ... Good luck !
