When turning your frequent flyer miles into award tickets for flights, there are many things to think about. After all, you’re worked hard to earn those miles, so who wouldn’t want to get the best value for them. And in the beginning, when you’re first becoming a miles and points enthusiast, there’s a lot to learn about maximizing value when you use your miles. Here are three concepts to understand for getting the maximum value from your miles:

1. You have to understand what’s possible with stopovers. Some people won’t book an award ticket without using the stopover option, when it’s available. In essence, utilizing stopovers means you’ll see more places for fewer miles.

2. Then there’s the concept of open jaws. An open jaw is when you fly into one city and fly back from another city, rather than flying in and out of the same city on your award ticket. Similar to stopovers, an open jaw ticket will let you see more cities for the same amount of miles. Another popular reason to use an open jaw is to avoid fuel surcharges on your award ticket. As an example, this is commonly done when flying to Europe. Flying out of London means paying high taxes, so people often fly into London and out of another European city to avoid paying the high London departure taxes/fees. Continue reading →