Darling Harbour (Sydney, Australia)

I’ve received a lot of requests to write about airline travel from a beginner’s perspective, so people can understand how to use frequent flyer programs to travel to more places for less money. This is the first installment of a series that will appear every Monday.

Dotonbori (Osaka)

They say half the fun of traveling is planning where you’ll go next and what you’ll do there, and I agree. Planning my upcoming summer trip to Lithuania and my first Round-the-World trip later this year has been really exciting.

Netherlands Flower Shop

With Mother’s Day just around the corner, many of you are probably planning on buying your Mom a gift. I hope! This is just a quick note to explain how easy it can be to rack up extra miles in your frequent flier account.

Lots of airlines run bonus miles offers to give you incentive to buy from their malls or their partners. Here are some examples that I’ve seen recently:

One thing I love about travel is that it can be pretty much anything you want it to be. You can use your vacation time to learn something new, improve at something you already do or just indulge. It’s fun thinking about all the possibilities.

Cats Love Shopping Online (Photo: Adrienne Lusby)

Are you getting a bunch of airline miles when you do your shopping? You should be. There are many ways to earn frequent flyer miles without actually flying. Three immediately come to mind: Mileage cards, airline dining programs and airline mileage shopping malls.

Most major airlines (American, United, US Airways, Delta, Continental, etc…) and even