America's Most Crowded Airports

Forbes is out with its list of America's Most Crowded Airport. They used an interesting metric to determine this list:

                 "To determine the rankings of America’s Most Crowded Airports, we looked at the 20 
                 largest airports in the U.S. in terms of 2012 passenger traffic, and then compared that 
                 traffic with each airport’s available terminal space and gates. The final ranking is 
                 based on an equal weighting of passengers per square foot and passengers per gate."

The Ten Most Crowded Airports by passengers vs terminal space:

1.     Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson
2.     Charlotte's Douglas International 
3.     Los Angles
4.     Chicago's O'Hare
5.     Seattle-Tacoma 
6.     Las Vegas's McCarran
7.     Denver 
8.     San Francisco
9.     Dallas/Fort Worth
10.     Newark's Liberty

The list was a little surprising, but overall makes sense.  Shocking, JFK did not make the list. However, I bet JFK has the passenger traffic, but the size of the terminals there must have knocked it out of the running. 

Why this list makes sense is that most of these airports are hubs for airlines? Atlanta is Delta, Charlotte is US Airways, Chicago and Dallas is American, Denver is Frontier and Newark is the old Continental Hub.

 Does this list change your travel plans?

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Great Change to e-Miles

Back in January, I wrote about receiving an email from e-Miles indicating positive changes were on its way. I wrote about it here. Overall, the change was that you would soon be allowed to transfer miles to a number of different airlines/programs; regardless, of which one you signed up. Previously, one could only deposit miles into the airline that they sign-up for.

Last night, I was playing around with their site and I noticed that the change is now live!!! I signed up for Delta miles (no longer available), but I now have the ability to deposit miles with the following companies:

United: 1:1

Hilton: 1:2

US Airways: 1:1

AirTran: 500: .5 credit

Priority Club: 500 : 750

Frontier: 1:1

Alaska: 1:1

Southwest: 1:1

Another major change is that I can deposit more than 500 miles at a time. Previously, one could only transfer 500 miles, once a quarter. Now, they have options to transfer 500, 1000, 2000, 3000 at one time.

Last night, I moved 500 miles into my Southwest Rapid Rewards account. Crossing my fingers that they count towards my Companion Pass total….I’ll report back.

e-Miles are now worth a little more to me. It’s very rare that a rewards program makes a change for the positive. Thanks e-Miles for making the program better!!!!

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Grand Slam Update // 2012 Q4 CC Applications

After finally getting my body back on the Eastern time zone, I wanted to write a few things about my points related things:

Delta Grand Slam Update

I have completed 8 partner rewards out of the 10 possible. The last three reward credits were from my Hilton Mattress runs, at the end of December.

The interesting part about this is that all three of the stays triggered the 500 mile bonus. It was my understanding that you only received the bonus for the first reward with a particular partner. At first, I thought Delta was treating Doubletree and Hilton has two separate partners, but the third Hilton partner award was at a Hilton. This may be a flaw in the computer system or how the program is set-up. The reason I write this to give a heads-up to anyone participating the Grandslam with me!


2012 Last Credit Card Applications

This may be a non-story for many, but I feel the need to share anyway. I decided not to get any more credit cards in 2012 and skip my credit card applications. The last time I applied for credit cards was late July, so December would have been the earliest for me to apply safely. 

However, there were not three cards the excited me. I need to apply for at least 3 credit cards, at one time, to justify the inquiry on my credit. I looked at the credit card offer out there and I could not find three that I needed. Yes, I said need. I am strategic in which credit cards to get. Should I get the Frontier credit card? No, I have no need for the Frontier points, so why get the card. 

Over my time in this game, I have seen two thoughts to earn points: those who get every point out there and those who are strategic. I fall into the strategic category. The points I earn must get to one step closer to completing my goals. Is the first category (point hording) bad? No,just make sure you use the points: expire points = many tears.

Back to the point of this part of this post. I did not see credit cards the excited me, so I passed this churn. No real loss, but possible bigger gain: longer time since my last credit inquires. Time can only make my credit stronger. January might be a churn month. I am looking at the following cards:

  1) US Bank Club Carlson
  2) Delta AMEX (only if I get a 40,000 point offer - result in 45,000 due to the Delta GrandSlam)
  3) Chase Priority Club

What happens between now and the churn, only a crystal ball will tell. What I do know is Q1 of 2013 will result in new cards entering my wallet.

e-Miles

One of the passive ways I earn points is using e-Miles. I use the word "passive," because you won't get point rich with e-Miles. One can only cash out of e-Mles once earning 500 miles and this takes time. Why bother you might ask? Every point counts and sometimes airlines have bonuses for transferring points into your account (ie the now dead US Airways Grandslam, my Delta Grandslam).

I have been a member of US Airways e-Miles for a very long time. It was once of the first point earning strategies that I did. Yesterday, I shut my account down. Why you might ask? To open a Delta e-Miles account and earn my bonus 500 miles by transferring 500 miles into my account, as part of the partner section of the Delta Grandslam.

Under the e-Miles FAQs:

        "What happens if I receive an invitation from another sponsor which I prefer? 

               Member can cancel their e-Miles membership at any time. To re-enroll, you will need to visit e-
               Miles.com and complete the member enrollment process.

               NOTE: Once you cancelled your membership any e-Miles miles earned that have not already been 
               deposited to your preferred frequent flyer or sponsor account will be lost.

This question gives us valuable information. For one, you are not allowed to have more than one active e-mile account, but more importantly two: you may switch between programs freely.


I did just that last night. I shut down my US Airways e-Miles account and applied for a e-Miles account with my Preferred Sponsor as Delta. Check your email accounts for special offers from your frequent flyer programs  Often, they will send offers to join e-Miles with 250 miles automatically deposited into you e-Miles account, meaning you are half way to you first deposit.

e-Miles has partnerships with Delta, US Airways, United, AirTran, Southwest, Hilton Honers, Priority Club, Frontier, Alaskan, Southwest and Amazon. As I previously stated, I am focusing on Delta to trigger the 500 point bonus, but e-Miles is almost the same for each partner.


After signing up for e-Miles, you will be taken to a front page with various offers. Many of the first offers will be asking you to create your profile. While creating your profile, I would recommend choosing the first two columns (High Interest or Somewhat Interest.) By doing this, you will increase the number of offers that you get.

Every few days, you will receive an email saying that you have new opportunities available to you. After receiving this email, click on the link to go to your homepage to see the offers. Each offer normally gives you 5 miles + additional miles for signing up for the offer. The only requirement to get the 5 base miles is to click on the"continue" button and answer a few short questions. Again, always try to pick "high interest" and "somewhat interest". 

The time commitment for e-Miles is a few minutes every couple of days. Nothing major.

Once you earn 500 miles, you are able to deposit into your preferred frequent account (mine is Delta). The deposit normally happens within a week of your request.

Again, e-Miles won't make you points rich. However, combined with partner bonuses, a few minutes every couple of days may result in a good chunk of miles.

I am currently at 115 miles after one day. I will report back to show my progress and how long it takes to earn 500 miles.

I hope you give e-Miles a chance.