There was a day when airlines would truly reward you by collecting frequent flyer miles by taking several flights per year or earning them by spending money on your credit card. You could collect points, and every few years take a trip on behalf of the airline at no cost to you, and enjoy a much more affordable vacation. Unfortunately, those days have come to an end. Frequent flyer miles are now as a valuable as Confederate money was immediately after the civil war.

In an effort to cut costs and increase revenues, the companies that operate frequent flyer rewards programs have made it much more difficult to redeem and use flights. If fewer trips are taken with frequent flyer miles, which means their expenses are lower and they make more money at the end of the day. Because of this profit incentive, airlines have systematically made it much more difficult to actually use the frequent flyer miles that you have.

Airlines have dramatically reduced the number of frequent flyer seats available on flights, so that you have to book months ahead of time to find available seats for you to use. This allows them to have more seats for paying customers, and makes it almost impossible for you to redeem your miles. Airlines have also made it so that you will need to pay ‘double miles’ to many of the frequented vacation spots in the United States.

There has also been a dramatic increase in the number of junk fees that you can expect to pay when making use of your frequent flyer miles. You’ll be hit with things such as fuel surcharges, convenience fees and other fees that don’t do much more than paid the profits of the airlines that operate the programs. You can expect to be hit with anywhere from $50.00 to $75.00 in fees per ticket whenever using your frequent flyer miles to book a flight.

About a decade ago, frequent flyer miles had about the equivalent value of about a penny each, but now that value is much more like .40 cents. Frequent flyer miles are essentially “fools gold.” When considering a rewards program for your credit card, you should probably choose another option than frequent flyer miles. Cash back is usually a good option since it’s guaranteed money in the bank, but there are some instances when it makes sense to get some of the other types of rewards.