4 Ways to Maximize Your Miles and Boost Frequent Flyer Status

If you travel often, it's nice to have frequent flyer status with your favorite airline. Many airlines, including all the top U.S. carriers, have frequent flyer programs. Once you qualify, you get special perks, which can include upgrades, bonus miles on flight bookings, and free checked baggage.

Program rules and status requirements vary from airline to airline. Most airlines base your status on either how much money you spend with them, the number of flights you take, or a combination of the two.

Frequent flyer status can be valuable, especially if you make it to the highest program tiers. The benefits can make for a better travel experience and be good for your personal finances. Fortunately, there are a few ways to speed up the process of getting to those high status tiers.

1. Pick the right airline

Unless you fly all the time, you're probably not going to get frequent flyer status with multiple airlines. It wouldn't make much sense to try, either. You could end up spreading yourself too thin. Instead of reaching a high status with one program, you might get a lower status, or no status at all, in multiple programs.

You're better off focusing on maximizing your status with one airline. For that reason, it's important to choose an airline you can use often. Here's how:

• Pick an airline with plenty of flights out of your home airport: For example, if Atlanta is your closest airport, Delta Air Lines would be a good choice, as it has its main hub there.
• Make sure the airline has flights where you want to travel: Some airlines have much more coverage than others. If you're planning to travel to Europe or other international destinations, you wouldn't want to choose Southwest Airlines, because most of its routes are within the United States.

Once you've chosen an airline, fly with it whenever possible. By funneling your air travel spending to that airline, you'll have an easier time qualifying for frequent flyer status.

2. Earn miles through partner airline bookings

Most airlines are part of airline alliances. An alliance is a group of airlines that are all partnered with each other. When you have a frequent flyer account with one airline, you can also earn miles with it when flying on any of its partners.

Let's say you have a United MileagePlus® account. United is part of the Star Alliance, which currently has 26 members, including Air Canada, Avianca, and Lufthansa. If you fly with any of United's partners, make sure to add your frequent flyer number with United when making your reservation. That way, you earn United miles, and those flights can count toward your MileagePlus® status.

3. Consider opening an airline credit card

When you're loyal to an airline, getting one of its airline credit cards could be a good idea. These cards normally include lots of airline-specific perks. They often have similar benefits to those you'd get with frequent flyer status, such as free checked baggage and priority boarding.

Many of them also earn points that qualify toward the requirements for frequent flyer status. So, not only can you earn miles that you use for free flights, but you can also earn points that help you move up that airline's loyalty program. To find the top credit cards with your airline of choice, check out these lists:

• American Airlines credit cards
• Delta Air Lines credit cards
• Southwest Airlines credit cards
• United Airlines credit cards

4. Be mindful of how long you have to qualify

With frequent flyer programs, you have a one-year period to meet status requirements. Once you qualify for a status tier, you keep it for the rest of that year and the following year. The qualification period is typically the calendar year, but not always. For example, with American Airlines, it's the 12-month period starting March 1 of every year.

Make sure you know the deadline to qualify for frequent flyer status in your program of choice. And if you're planning to get an airline credit card, it could also pay to be strategic about when you open it.

Let's say you're looking at an airline card with a sign-up bonus of 60,000 points. You're 80,000 points away from the status you want. It'd be a waste to get that card and earn the bonus right before the deadline, because you still won't qualify. It'd be better to earn the bonus early in next year's qualification period. You can start the year with 60,000 points, and you'll have plenty of time to earn the rest.

Your frequent flyer status largely depends on how much you fly and spend with an airline. However, there are still ways you can raise your status as much as possible. If you follow those tips, you could be on track for a higher status.