Tag Archives: travelers
Miles Credit Cards Strategies to Accumulate Miles (Page 1 of 2)
Put simply, miles credit cards allow cardholders to earn points for every dollar charged on the card. The accumulated points can be redeemed for reduced or, in some instances, free airfare. There are many promotional offers and some cards offer more points than others. To entice the customer, certain miles credit cards offer no annual-rate, no APR fees, additional bonus miles with new sign-ups, balance transfers at reduced or no interest rate for a certain period as well as no blackout date for miles redemption.
Credit card companies have also come up with affinity card programs that allow cardholders to collect airline miles with purchases at some of their most preferred retailing outlets and merchants. This lets cardholders add more miles at a faster rate with purchases from their favorite retailers. On the downside, these cards tend to have high annual fees and interest rates.
Frequent flyers tend to be mostly business travelers, who travel often due to work. However, careful planning can help normal travelers to accumulate good miles. Some tips to accumulate miles at a fast rate are:
1) Utilize Partner Services – Miles cards normally have tie-ins with car rental companies and hotels as part of their marketing strategy that also provide mileage points accumulation. Using these car rental companies or hotels and charging them to the miles card will also help to increase the points accumulated by using necessary travel expenditures.
2) Vacation or Tour Packages – Miles credit cards offer vacation or tour packages to encourage customers to travel and thus to increase demand for their airlines. Once again, by utilizing these vacation or tour packages, cardholders can accumulate more mileage points on the card per trip, earning more points while vacationing.
3) Non-frequent Travelers – For less frequent travelers, it is better to charge any travel related expense to the miles card when you travel. The travel related expenses could be anything from buying souvenirs, groceries, fuel while in a different location, etc, which also helps to accumulate additional miles on the card.
4) Affiliate services – Some miles card programs partner with a network of allied airline carriers. Examples of these kinds of network alliance services include the Star Alliance or Flying Blue programs. If your preferred airline does not fly to the location that you desire, try to choose from another airline that is part of the alliance network, giving cardholders yet another opportunity to accumulated miles.
Most miles credit cards have numerous benefits for frequent flyers. However, the benefits could vary, based on the specific program. Some mile cards provide additional or bonus points while making certain purchases. The points can later be traded for airline miles. Some miles credit card programs allow portability or the transfer of points to other frequent flyer accounts, and some even offer consolidation of all accumulated points to one single card. These earned miles give you free or reduced travel tickets. In addition, most of these cards also offer various other travel-related benefits, including free additional tickets, upgrade opportunities, lost baggage insurance, car rental insurance, and greater coverage amount for travel accident insurance.
Importance Of Travel Insurance
Travel is one of the lifes greatest joys but even the most carefully planned trip can be complicated by unforeseen events. Whether it is lost luggage, cancelled flights, or medical emergency, an unexpected mishap can turn a relaxing vacation into a taxing experience. But by opting for a good holiday travel insurance policy, you can save your money, safeguard your journey and make your vacation a truly memorable one.
There are many things to consider when planning for a vacation where to go, what to pack and what do once you reach your destination. No matter how well you plan, there are some things that go out of your control. This is where travel insurance comes to your aid by compensating you for the unforeseen emergencies while traveling.
What does travel insurance cover?
Trip Cancellation/Trip Interruption: Reimburse travelers who are unable to take their trip due to illness or death, weather, airline strikes, terrorism, bankruptcy, becoming unemployed or home being rendered uninhabitable due to fire, flood etc.
Medical/Health: Reimburses medical or emergency dental costs. All most all insurance plans work by reimbursing the traveler after he has paid locally for the treatment. Medical evacuation insurance covers the cost of an air ambulance, attending physician and nurse if you are badly injured or become so ill that you are unable to come back home.
Accidental Death:
Air Fight Accident: Covers death during an air flight only. Usually covers the highest amount of coverage due to lower risk.
Common Carrier: Covers death while traveling in public transport such as ferry, train, bus or taxi.
Accidental Death: Covers death at any time on your trip. Usually provides the lowest amount of coverage due to higher risk.
Travel Delay: Reimburses travelers for hotel, food or clothing expenses in the event of a flight delay.
Baggage Loss: The plan includes reimbursement to travelers for their, lost, stolen or damaged personal items. This coverage is generally for the duration of the trip and not confined to baggage damaged or lost by the airline.
Rental Car Damage: A specific amount is reimbursed to the traveler for damage or loss of a rental vehicle.
Is travel insurance necessary?
One issue that often strikes us while planning for a vacation is the necessity of travel insurance. Nobody likes to think of the odds that could make you cancel or shorten a vacation. No matter how well you plan for your vacation, things go wrong due some unavoidable circumstances. And it is here that you seek for shelter of travel insurance.
As with most things in life, we are exposed to a certain amount of risk when we travel. This is the sole reason why we require travel insurance. Now, whether a person is a student or a professional, it is applicable for both. For students, however, there are certain separate rules and regulations compared to the insurance policies for the other groups of people.
So before you finalize your vacation plans, be sure you have given careful thought to whether you need to purchase an insurance policy while you are traveling. There are circumstances that could cause you to cancel your trip, return home early or force you to seek emergency medical treatment while traveling. Travel insurance provides you with that extra protection cover you need.