What if Tuition Came With a Plane Ticket?

Posted on 25. Oct, 2010 by PointsAdvisor.

Tuition Costs:

Tuition expenses can be a more than a little daunting with the average American public college cost for out-of-state students coming in at $11,528 and $26,273 for a private four-year.  Canadian students also take a hit with average tuition fees sitting at about $5,138 for one year of study. Then start adding books, food, and supplies to that list and before you know it you’re wondering how you’re going to stay afloat let alone how you (or your child) are going to come home for the holidays.

The good news is that with some innovative thinking and loyalty reward program memberships in-hand, education can be the gift that keeps on giving in more ways than one!

Earn miles/points when you pay tuition:

Instead of writing a check to the tuition office, pay tuition fees with a credit card that offers points/miles, and then pay everything off.  This is money you were planning to spend regardless and by using your reward credit card to pay that pricey tuition, you could earn as many as 20,000 points/miles, depending on the loyalty program you participate in, and your school. The points/miles that you rack up paying your tuition can then be used towards a  flight for you (or your child) to come home for the holidays!

With the average domestic flight sitting at about 25,000 miles round trip (depending on the carrier, reward program, time of year and other variables) a family should be able to get at least one reward ticket from a year’s worth of tuition.

Still don’t have enough points/miles to redeem for a flight?

You can earn extra points and miles by using the same rewards credit card to purchase  school supplies, books, and food to help you reach your goal. Just be sure to pay off your balance each month.  If you’re still short on points/miles, you can often top up your account in some cases by buying points or miles directly from your reward program. For example, Delta SkyMiles, American Airlines AAdvantage and Aeroplan all allow customers to top-up their mileage.

Be sure to keep an eye out for sales on the cost of buying your chosen loyalty program currency to get a deal.  You can do this by subscribing to your loyalty program’s promotional emails, or checking-in on Points.com to make sure you don’t miss a sale.

Have points/miles, but in multiple programs?

You can use the Points.com Trade and Exchange features to move your  points and miles between your programs to top up your balances.

If you have points/miles in two programs that are able to Exchange on Points.com (see full list of programs here), then you can move the points/miles you have in one of your programs into the other.

If Exchange doesn’t suit your fancy, you could also Trade points/miles that you’re not using for the points/miles you need to redeem for that flight home. Post a trade on the “get & move” page on Points.com to see if any other users are interested. You can learn all about Trade in our demo.

Class dismissed:

With a little planning, your tuition payments will soon be flying you (or your child) home for the holidays!

Happy collecting!
The Points.com Team

Continue Reading

Points.com Trade: New Enhancements

Posted on 14. Oct, 2010 by PointsAdvisor.

Points.com Improvements:

This month we added several new enhancements to the Trade points and miles with others feature on Points.com!

Read on to learn all about it…

View Trades in the Earn Opportunities Feed:

You can now filter your Earn Opportunities to view all available trades for your programs! On your Points.com home page, scroll to the Earn Opportunities section at the bottom of the page, then click “trades (all)” to see the trades other Points.com users have posted. If you see a trade you like, you can click “accept” to make the trade. Don’t see what you’re looking for? Post a trade of your own by clicking the “post a trade” link next to any of the trades in your list.

There’s more!

Share a Trade Through Facebook or Email:

Just posted a trade on Points.com? Perhaps someone in your social network would be interested in accepting it!

As a part of the trade posting process, you’ll now have the option to share your trade on Facebook, or send it to your friends through email. Your friends will be able to accept your trade right from your Facebook post or email.

See for yourself:

Log in to your Points.com account (or create one) to check out these new enhancements at www.points.com!

Continue Reading