Skift Take
You have about a one in three chance to redeem miles with US Airways, a survey found, and that doesn't bode well for frequent flyers in the American Airlines-US Airways merger.
Your rewards credit card, of course, is in your wallet. But where are the rewards? Do you know how many points you have, how you can use them and when they might expire?
Probably not.
"The good news is most people collect miles," says Brian Kelly, proprietor of ThePointsGuy.com, a site dedicated to maximizing consumers' travel points. "The bad news is they don't know how to use them and many let them expire."
Almost three-quarters of Americans who collect frequent-flyer miles or credit-card rewards points don't know how many they have, according to a recent study by Princeton Survey Research Associates International commissioned by ThePointsGuy.com. The study also found that only 41 percent of Americans even understand how frequent-flyer programs work.
Sounds as if it's time for a rewards card/miles/points intervention, with help from The Points Guy, who once collected $3,000 in rewards points for signing up for two credit cards. (His secret to how you can make a score is below.)
How To Keep TrackOf Points, Miles
Kelly recommends two free online services, AwardWallet.com and Tripit.com [TripIt Pro], to track account balances on miles, hotel points and rewards points. These two sites also e
