Good article -- a few tips that generally only us very frequent travellers know. He failed to comment on one item. The very best way to get good benefits is to have a lot of lifetime miles on one airline. I read about this 32 years ago, and have only flown on one airline since then. I'm glad I chose United, because after the UA/CO merger, I can go anywhere (pretty much) on earth. I sure wouldn't choose Jet Blue or Southwest -- I like a big airline company, one like United or Delta that has plenty of back-up reserves in case something goes wrong. All of those people stranded by JetBlue a couple of years ago were stuck because there is no back-up. They have just enough people to run the airline -- but when something goes wrong passengers are out-of-luck. I've found that it is better to pay a somewhat higher fare, and travel on a large airline company -- and once you choose one, then don't bother to look at fares on other airlines. As a United million mile flyer -- I can say that the benefits you get far outweigh the small amount you save by fare shopping and travel on who ever has the lowest fare.

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