My United loyalty started when I lived in Wyoming, with a teensy airport that had commuter flights that partnered with United. Back in the day, it was much more difficult to book flights on unconnected airlines, so we ended up flying United.

I stuck with United, more or less, across the years as they consistently had service where I needed to go. Including Wyoming. But as I traveled to Wyoming less and less, I realized my loyalty was habit rather than function. Plus, I'm still feeling the nostalgia for the amazing McDonald's happy meals, complete with awesome airline-themed toys, they used to serve. Those were the days.

The straw that broke the camel's back was the US Air and American merger. Living in DC, and flying frequently out of DCA, we almost always were on US Air, so it's switch from Star Alliance to OneWorld made me really reconsider our Star Alliance loyalty. 

I need to be honest, I was feeling way to lazy for a flashback photo Friday post today, but I promise to have one next week. Plus, I'm hoping to get around to an extra post on something DC-related this weekend. 

I might not spend a lot of time trying to earn every last mile here or there, but I do try to be strategic about the acquisition and de-acquisition of credit cards, both in terms of potential impact to credit as well as miles/points earned. This year, my major points haul was the Amex Platinum Card. I received a targeted offer for 100,000 points, with an incredibly reasonable minimum spend requirement. Despite the $450 annual fee, I couldn't turn it down.

I think there is an important line between playing the points/miles game, and obsessing about them. If you don't do this as a profession, and if you usually take between 3-10 trips a year, I think it makes zero sense spending hours a day looking for the 'next best deal', having 15 open credit cards, and doing anything for a nominal amount of miles. And it makes even less sense to refuse to fly unless it's with miles (3 layovers for a "free" domestic trip? absolutelyfreakingnot). 
 
Here are 7 tips of what has worked for us to strategically use points without obsessing about them. We are full-time workers and part-time travelers, headed to a mix of international and domestic destinations.  These tips are not time-consuming, and they don't take a lot of effort--but they do pay off!  Two important notes that I should add: first, we have good credit and get frequent targeted offers, and no, we are not budget travelers (ahh yes, a perk of working full-time).  
 
1. Never book a ticket with miles if the ticket is under $350. Sure, if money is tight for some reason, this might appeal to you. But I'm a huge proponent of spending within your means, so I'm sticking to this one. There isn't a reason to book a ticket with miles if the ticket is less than $350.  Let's say a domestic ticket is 25,000 miles round-trip (at best).  That's 1.4 cents per mile: not theworstever, but you could do a lot better. I typically don't even look at miles options unless the ticket is $500+, and even then, I weigh the options carefully.