Travel is a big part of being a professional stand-up comedian, so getting the best deals is important. Booking through OTAs (online travel agencies) like Priceline can sometimes get you better prices than booking direct through the airline.
Earn Miles by Linking Your Flight with the Airline
I recently booked a flight through Priceline, but I didn’t see anywhere to put my frequent flyer number (and track my trip through the AA app and earn AA miles). Log into your American Airlines AAdvantage account and go to the Find your American Airlines Reservation page. You should’ve received one or more confirmation numbers. Paste in this number to find your reservation. Then scroll down until you see “Add / edit Passenger Information”. Once you click that, you can put in your AA loyalty number in the box. There are tons of other airlines and probably ways to link your flights with them, but American just happened to be who I just used. There may or may not be ways to link your hotel rewards programs with Priceline or other OTAs. If you have multiple flights in your trip, make sure you’ve linked all your confirmation numbers.
Linking your trip allows you to earn miles on it, and you can also directly manage your trip with the airline. This allowed me to pick seats for free through the AA website instead of paying an $8 convenience fee (plus whatever the seat costs) through Priceline. You can earn miles when purchasing through Priceline, but there is no way to use your current miles when purchasing.
Earn Miles Through United MileagePlus Shopping
I earned United miles on my trip, even though I flew with American Airlines. I did this through the United Airlines MileagePlus Shopping program. MileagePlus gives you miles for shopping at numerous stores including OTAs like Priceline, Orbitz, and Travelocity.
To take advantage of this program, be sure you’re a United MileagePlus member and then sign up at their MileagePlus shopping website. I use their browser extension (available in Edge or Chrome browsers) to activate my miles when shopping.
Other Ways to Save
Before you finalize your transaction through an OTA be sure to search for any deals or promo codes online. You can also find discounted gift cards through sites like CardCash or Raise and buy cards for OTAs or the airlines themselves. You may have a credit card that gives you extra cash back when booking in the travel category. The only reason I ended up booking through Priceline for this trip is that my PayPal Mastercard had a special promotion, on top of my regular 2% cash back on everything. On top of that, most if not all of the major OTAs have loyalty programs with various benefits.
If you have any other tips, feel free to share them on my Medium post. Have safe and cheap travels!