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Student traveler on budget
Hi,
I’m a college student who has been doing a lot of study abroad, academic and personal traveling in the past few years. I’ve been mostly traveling in South America but also in Europe and a little bit in Asia. I’ve used various airlines and have only recently started signing up for points programs. I’ve done most of my bookings through Expedia but have also used some other sites as well. I’d like to know what the best rewards programs are as I’d like to start getting some discounts on flights. Would love your input.
Thanks,
sylvie l d
Hi,
I’m a college student who has been doing a lot of study abroad, academic, and personal traveling in the past two years. I’ve been traveling mostly to South America but also in Europe and a little bit in Asia. I have used various airlines and have only just started signing up for points programs. I’ve booked mostly through Expedia but have used a few other sites as well. I’m hoping to find the best rewards programs and to start getting points and discounts for my flights, and was hoping to get your input on the best programs and strategies for this.
Thanks,
sylvie d l
Welcome [USER=2701]@sylvie d l[/USER] – one of the first questions we’d have is: how do you intend to use your miles? More economy travel? Gaining status with an airline? Premium cabin travel? That will help us narrow down our answer.
Definitely the goal is to use miles for more economy travel. Thanks
I’m hoping to find the cheapest flights possible from South America to Hong Kong, any ideas?
In formulating a good strategy for the best acquisition of points/miles along with their best utilization it helps to have your future travel destinations and timeframes outlined well in advance. I try to keep some flexibility with the timeframes in order to take advantage of sales and non-peak pricing. I’m an American Airlines loyalist so for my needs their AAdvantage program works well. I’ve never routed a trip from South America to Hong Kong but on most US based airlines, you will route back through the US before proceeding to Hong Kong. I’m sure if you come up with specifics the resident braintrust here will have some good advice. Best of luck with your studies and travel.
I’d also add that if your goal is to fly Y (economy) you might want to consider a 2% cash back card which gives you the flexibility to grab cheap fares as and when you see them without worrying about routing rules and award availability.
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