Free First Class Next Month: Signing Up for Airline and Hotel Programs

Hey there, you're reading an outdated post! The updated series from April 2015 can be found here.

This is the second post in a monthlong series. Each post will take about two minutes to read and may include an action item that takes the reader another two minutes to complete.

The Five Types of Frequent Flier Miles

There are five basic types of frequent flier miles. I'll detail each, including how best to take advantage of them. Then I'll explain why it's important to diversify across the types (not just across frequent flier programs.)

1) Region-to-region based miles. American, Delta, United, US Airways, etc

Region-to-region miles are the most common type of miles. These miles can be redeemed according to award charts, so a flight from North America to Europe costs a certain amount of miles regardless of where in North America and where in Europe and regardless of the (valid) routing.

One Day Sales: JetBlue and Southwest

JetBlue, my favorite coach cabin in the world, and Southwest are both having one day sales that end today, May 15, at 11:59 PM ET.

First the JetBlue sale: Here's a complete list of the city pairs with fares on sale. If you want to fly one of those routes between May 22 and June 21, the deals are generally pretty good. Click on a city pair for black out dates and day-of-the-week restrictions.

Save $20 to $500 on a Roundtrip JetBlue Flight

I just received an email from JetBlue that probably went out to all True Blue (its loyalty program) members. The email contains a promo code that will discount a mystery amount from any JetBlue roundtrip that originates in the U.S..

What do I mean by a mystery amount? To take advantage, you have to go to jetblue.com/promo, type in your code, perform a flight search, and select flights.

Then on the right side of the screen where the total cost is displayed, your mystery discount along with the new total will be displayed.