Using Your Frequent Flyer Points/Miles to Save Money

A few years ago I used to travel to North America or Europe and on the odd occasion home (Zimbabwe) at least once or twice a year. Living in New Zealand, that meant spending a lot of time on planes and covering huge distances. It only made sense for me to sign up to a frequent flyer program and with the destinations that I travelled to the most, the Qantas Frequent Flyer programme was the best programme for me to join.

Qantas & Air New Zealand @ Wellington Airport

Over the years I accumulated a lot of frequent flyer points which I eventually redeemed and got a few reward flights for my wife and I. I still had quite a few points left over after that my wife and I used them to get a few things for our baby girl. By converting our frequent flyer points to gift cards from various stores, we were able to get a few things for our daughter without having to shell out the hundreds of dollars that we would have otherwise had to pay.

What I am getting at with all of this is that it may be a good idea to consider using your frequent flyer points to save yourself a bit of money. You may have frequent flyer points sitting in an account somewhere and some which may even have an expiry date. If you are not going to redeem them for award flights you may be able to use them to get gift cards or make purchases with the points directly from the particular frequent flyer store (if they have one). If the particular program you are part of does not have such programmes available for you to take advantage of, Points.com may just be your answer.

About Points.com

[ad#Points.com 300×250]It is a site that brings a certain flexibility to points from various programs and gives it users a range of options for what to do with their points.

They allows users to:
– Trade points and miles with other people on GPX (Global Points Exchange)
– Exchange points and miles between your programs
– Buy points or miles so that you reach the required level to get the flight or reward you want
– Share points between the same programs with family or friends
– Redeem your points for gift cards from more than 200 retailers and restaurants

It’s free to join and really doesn’t hurt to give them a go. You would be surprised just how much you may get out of becoming a member.

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3 Responses to Using Your Frequent Flyer Points/Miles to Save Money

  1. Sebb75 September 17, 2009 at 10:46 pm #

    Thanks for this Gerri, I have excess points from the holiday company it had not come to my mind to redeem these points for anything not holiday.

    Will try points.com, hope I will be sorted.

    • Gerri September 20, 2009 at 9:12 am #

      Sebastian, I hope points.com works out well for you.

  2. Chris Peterson October 9, 2009 at 12:24 am #

    Hey Gerri,
    Its cool idea. I had almost forgotten to check my points. I would definitely check this site as you have recommended it.

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