TripHip - Travel Tips and Advice for Traveling on a Budget

Do you travel a lot, particularly by plane? Did you know that its not only the major airlines that offer frequent flyer programs?

Many smaller airlines have grouped together to form larger plans, so you can collect miles even if you fly with more than one airline. For example, several Scandinavian airlines are part of the EuroBonus frequent flyer plan, and the Flying Blue plan includes KLM and Air France.

Basically, don't assume that the smaller airlines that you use don't have a frequent flyer program. Make sure you ask.

If you travel a lot, definitely sign up for the airline's frequent flyer program. Those miles really add up.

Even if you don't travel a lot, but you are planning a trip overseas, (say from the US to Asia), you'll defiintely want to sign up for the airline's frequent flyer program as well. You'll rack of loads of miles just on that one trip!

It’ll probably only take a few minutes to call and sign up, and yes, it is definitely worth the few minutes it will take to sign up, even if you don’t know if you’ll want to travel again in the future. The truth is, you just never know what the future may bring – you could very well end up traveling again sometime soon (either for leisure, work, or an emergency), and all those miles you’ll rack up by flying from the US to India are just too darned good to pass up. You should go for it. Even if you don’t end up flying again before the miles expire, you can usually redeem the miles for things like magazine subscriptions or other cool stuff.