We had a discussion last night about our differences in frequent flyer mile earning styles and it has become clear to me that we do differ in our approach. It makes us both better at what we do. Gary’s approach is to collect frequent flyer miles known as RDM “redeemable miles”. Every frequent flyer mile is a RDM.
I look at both types of frequent flyer miles, RDM’s and EQM’s or elite qualifying miles. All EQM’s are RDM’s, but not all RDM’s are EQM’s (repeat 3 times fast then memorize).
An elite qualifying mile is much more valuable to me. I will only buy (ugh, I hate that word) or acquire redeemable miles at 1 cent each. Elite qualifying miles are worth about 3.5 cents to me and I will pay that for an airline ticket that gives me EQM’s in my frequent flyer program of choice. When I switched away from using airline affiliated credit cards for everyday purchases, I sacrificed earning RDMs for the sake of better EQM earning capabilities because I do fly so often.
Elite qualifying miles are what give you status within a airlines frequent flyer program. The status gives you: more RDM’s per mile flown, free or discounted upgrades, higher standby priority on full flights, a dedicated Elite phone line to the airline, and extra assistance in the event of irregular operations.
It is “travel today” tommorrow. I am taking 4 friends to Hawaii for a four day quick trip. The fare was a mistake fare I found, that ending up costing us $217 each from Atlanta to Honolulu. I did some trading with other friends and got us upgraded to first class on most of the segments at about $50 for each of us. So we are off to Pearl Harbor on Oahu, and Waimea Canyon, Hanalei (home of Puff the Magic Dragon) and the NaPali coast on Kauai, the filming spot of Jurassic Park.
I’ll blog again from Hawaii.
