Frequent Flyer Miles for Newbies - You didn't know you had them!

Do you have unclaimed frequent flyer miles?

I can recall when I got my brother into the world of frequent flyer miles.  Starting out he had zero miles in his accounts, or so he thought!  About 4 months prior to entering the wacky world of mileage addicts, he had gone on a vacation to China with his fiance.  I told him to sign up for a frequent flyer account on the airline's website and to then call the airline.  When he called he had requested that they award him retroactively for the miles he earned on his flight.  After giving the agent the details of the flight, him and his fiance had earned a nice chunk of miles to start their frequent flyer account off!

Most airlines will credit you frequent flyer miles to your account retroactively, usually up to 6 months in the past.  So even if you are getting started in this mileage world today, you've got about 6 months of mileage earning history that you need to think about.  Every mile counts, it is definitely worth the phone call!  Remember, you can't earn miles on flights that were paid for with miles, only flights that were paid for.

I take advantage of this often for my work.  I have a lot of opportunities to attend conferences at my job, which means they'll fly me out to the location.  The flights are usually booked for me by different travel agents. After I get the flight information, I have the airline credit my account once I get home.  I do the same thing with the hotels they book for me too!

Start thinking back, you could have unclaimed miles and hotel points!

-Jason of TWiBT