Ways to Check Your Accumulated Airline Reward Miles
After building up frequent flyer miles over time, you may be ready to redeem them. Knowing your current balance is the first step, and there are several methods to obtain that figure, including airline loyalty program tools.
By Hayden Bailey
Couple on airplane looking at laptop
After spending months or perhaps years accumulating frequent flyer miles, the moment may have arrived to redeem them for complimentary travel. To do that, however, you first need to determine your current balance. Each airline's frequent flyer program offers a way to check how many air miles you have.
Accessing Your Online Frequent Flyer Account
One approach is to go to the airline's website and sign in to your online account. Should you not yet have an online account, many airlines let you create one at no cost by supplying your email address. Within your online account, you can view your present mile total and, when relevant, any expiration date attached to those miles. As an illustration, the Delta SkyMiles program displays your overall miles, along with miles accumulated through partner airlines and miles that count toward elite status.
Reaching Out to Customer Service
Alternatively, you can telephone the customer service department of each airline to ask for your mile balance. Each airline's website lists its customer service number in the "Contact Us" area. In cases where you hold a credit card co-branded with an airline, your credit card statement frequently shows both your cumulative miles earned and the miles you earned during the most recent billing cycle.
Using Point Tracking Websites
A further method for checking your miles involves online tracking services such as Points.com or AwardWallet.com. These platforms let you monitor multiple reward programs, giving you the latest totals across all your frequent flyer accounts in a single location. After you enter your frequent flyer number and login credentials for each airline, the site connects your accounts and displays your point balances at any moment.
Estimating Miles You Will Earn
Some larger airlines, United and Delta among them, have revised how customers accrue frequent flyer miles: miles are now awarded according to the ticket price instead of the distance traveled. If you wish to estimate the miles a particular trip will yield, a number of airlines provide mileage calculators. Delta, for instance, offers a mileage comparison calculator on its website that shows the miles you would earn based on your elite status, the price of your ticket, and your flight class. Additionally, most airlines supply charts that describe their frequent flyer program and the number of miles earned for specific flights.
