Travelling one million miles in a year on business sounds like it doesn’t leave a lot of time for the actual business, but the rewards are certainly worth it and one lucky Canadian takes full advantage. President of ESP Wholesale, Merrick Falkenstein, reckons that he racks up a million miles per year travelling twice a month to see suppliers in China and regularly flying to other far-flung places around North America and the rest of the world.
Spending so much time travelling and staying in hotels around the world qualifies Toronto-based Falkenstein for rewards programs by the dozen including frequent flyer miles and hotel loyalty programs. The biggest challenge that Falkenstein faces is keeping track of the benefits he’s racked up, and how he’s going to use them. Imagine the number of free flights or upgrades you could accumulate just by travelling to China twice a month, never mind all the other domestic and international flights that Falkenstein takes. But, the well-traveled Canadian doesn’t have to imagine
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how many free hotel nights and free flights he can earn, his problems is finding the time to cash them all in!
Using one credit card to coordinate his entire budget offers another opportunity to score major benefits. Booking all flights and paying for all hotel accommodation and incidental expenses on one card soon racks up the loyalty points. By using certain cards such as AMEX Platinum, for example, there are a host of concierge services available exclusively to card holders and that is the card that Falkenstein currently uses. But, it is just one of many that offer similar benefits, and like all rewards programs applicants should consider how the benefits suit them before committing.
Many hotel chains offer their own guest reward program, and depending upon where he stays in North America, or indeed the world, Falkenstein has a choice of several - allowing him to accumulate a range of offers, such as free overnight stays and upgrades at a selection of hotels.
But, the real beauty of travelling so often for Falkenstein is that, because he accumulates so many air miles each year he can’t spend them all and so turns to his employees to help him out. He says: “The good thing is that I’m able to transfer a lot of air miles to other cards and use them for my employees, meaning that a lot of my staff and not just me, benefit from my frequent travelling.”
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