If you’re a fan of travel, you’re probably well aware of the existence of frequent flyer programs and maybe even have the vague, constant feeling that you should probably sign up for one. But you’re not exactly taught in school how they work, which can make them confusing and intimidating. So here is a simplification.
Benefits For Flying
Pretty much every airline has a rewards program that gives you benefits for flying with them in order to encourage you to be loyal to them. You can think of these pretty much like a grocery store reward program. You sign up for free and whenever you buy a plane ticket, you get points that you’ll eventually be able to exchange for things like free flights and seat upgrades.
There’s pretty much no reason not to sign up for these, although it’s a good idea to do some research and pick an airline that you know you’ll be flying with often in order to get the most out of it.
Further Perks
Then, there are also airline credit cards, which help you earn benefits just for spending money, not even only on flight tickets. But these do have a catch, as they usually require you to have excellent credit and generally make you pay annual fees. It’s up to you to do the math and decide if it’s financially logical to pay that fee, but if you travel a lot, it’s worth looking into.
