Triangle Trip

I am a frequent car renter as I do not own a car myself. I use car rentals to earn airline miles to keep my frequent flyer accounts active as most have expiration rules. Car rental companies claim to be very flexible when it comes to earning points.

All car rental companies allow you to either:

1. Earn Car Rental points which can be converted to free rental days or upgrades
2. Earn Frequent Flyer miles
3. Earn hotel points

Of the three choices, the only one that is worthwhile is #2 — Frequent Flyer miles. Here are the reasons why:

1. Car rental points do not hold value. Most car rental companies (mainly Hertz) change their redemption policy on an annual basis and increases the number of points you need to get a free car rental or upgrade. All major car rental points expire after one year if you do not use them.
2. Although all car rental companies list hotels as partners but you do not get hotel points from your rental unless you are staying at the hotel. You will also need to book the hotel during your car rental or book the car rental from the hotel’s website. This is a huge scam. Most car rental companies will not give you any points if you do not meet the requirements which appears as fine print.

In summary, always bank frequent flyer miles whenever you rent a car. Additionally, bank it on Northwest’s WorldPerks account as NWA is the only airline that doesn’t carry a surcharge at Hertz, Avis, and National. All rental car companies will charge you $0.50 per day for accumulating points on other airline programs aside from Northwest.

I received an email from Delta today telling me that I can link my Delta and Northworst (NWA) account. I clicked on the link and it took me to a page where I can enter my Skymiles and WorldPerks accounts with my PINs. After entering the information, I received instant confirmation that the accounts have been linked.

The Delta site brought to my attention that my emails were different between the two accounts and asked me to select my preferred email address. I also got an opportunity to transfer miles between my Skymiles and WorldPerks accounts. You will receive an extra 500 miles from Delta if you perform a transfer before March 15. I took advantage of this perk and emptied out my NWA account to focus on earning Delta miles.

The Delta Skymiles/NWA WordPerks accounts merger has been awesome experience compared to the US-scare (USAir) and AmericaWorst (AWA) merger. For US-scare, I’d to enter my personal information on both sites and had to make sure they were identical — as the two systems weren’t sophisticated enough to rationalize accounts based on first and last names plus address.

Huge kudos to Delta as it’s their system that is managing the process!

After merging these two accounts, I have successfully consolidated all my alliances with Delta (SkyTeam), United (Star), and American (OneWorld).

As a frequent flyer of United in and out of San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Terminal 3, here are some hot tips for you:

1.  When flying on a domestic flight out of Terminal 3, you should always go through TSA security checkpoint near Gate 74 and 75. Gate 74 and 75 is located between the domestic and international terminals. It is called out “Boarding Areas” (the bottom red dot) if you refer to the map below.

The Gate 74 and 75 checkpoint is to the left of the Ticketing area, opposite side of the regular boarding area. No one is aware of this security checkpoint as it is geared towards travelers coming from the international terminal or BART. Lines here are always shorter than the Premier lines.

2.  When you are in transit through SFO from domestic to international terminal, the best approach is via the bus interlink. The bus is located near the Yankee Pier restaurant or Gate 72. Referring to the map above, it is the 2nd red dot from the top. You will need to go through a door near the information booth, then down the stairs to the waiting area. The bus comes every 15 minutes or so. Going by bus means you will be able to avoid going out of Terminal 3, taking the Airtrain, and go through security screening at the International terminal.

Try these two tips and let us know your thoughts.