Trading in airline miles for magazines
Ever wonder what to do with some frequent flyer miles sitting in an account you don’t use enough to turn into a free ticket or upgrade?
You can trade in various sorts of airline miles for magazine subscriptions. I did this a while back to use up some orphaned miles on Northwest Airlines, which I basically don’t fly on. I had been considering trying their trans-Pacific service, as an alternative to United Airlines, as a hedge against United going out of business or otherwise being unreliable for travel to Asia a couple of years ago when UAL entered bankruptcy.
When I signed up for a Northwest frequent flyer account number, it gave me 2000 miles as a sign up bonus, which I used to get a free subscription to Time magazine. Over the course of the year I also realized that I mostly ended up tossing the issues in the recycling bin before reading them, since they’re usually available on the airplane, so I let the subscription lapse.
This might be a good use for a few stranded miles in an infrequently used account, though, if you’re interested in any of the (somewhat limited) selections that are available.
You can also convert miles to hotel points or convert them to other airlines.