Optimise Your Travel

Welcome to the second post on the blog. Today we will be talking about frequent flyer programs and how they can benefit you, as a flyer. The simplest reason to get a frequent flyer program is because you will earn airline miles each time you fly. Let's take Cathay Pacific (CX) as an example. A round trip from Penang to Japan via Hong Kong earns you 4,000 Asiamiles in Economy class. To redeem a similar ticket would cost you 22,000 miles each way for a grand total of 44,000 miles for a round trip. Hence, you are getting a 9% cashback every time you credit a trip like this Asiamiles. When combined with other sources like credit cards, aspirational awards become feasible, for example, a first class trip to the USA which would cost 125,000 miles each way. The cash cost for a ticket like this could easily cost RM50,000 or more (in this case RM80,000 for CX!) If you are wondering what CX first class is like, here's a review from my favorite travel blogger, Lucky from One...

99% of people are wastefully giving up free miles / points whenever they book a holiday for themselves or their extended families. These miles or points could translate to FREE business class or even first class tickets for you in the future, if you play your cards right. This blog will show you the easiest ways to pick up free miles from doing things that you would be doing anyway, at no extra cost. 1.) Credit Card points 2.) Airline Frequent Flyer Program 3.) Hotel Rewards Program 4.) Other Referral partners (Airbnb / car rental etc) Let's tackle the big one first, and #1 on the list: credit cards. If you are not maximising your daily spend with a credit card that has good points conversion to airline miles, you are doing it wrong. As long as you are buying daily necessities and not overspending on things you can't afford, there is really no disadvantage to use credit cards over cash. With a card like Maybank 2 Cards Amex, each Ringgit you spend earns you 1 air mil...