Would free airfare get you and your girlfriends out on a getaway? Even if you don’t fly enough to rack up substantial miles, you can earn them in other ways and reap the benefits of free travel. However, you do have to manage those mileage accounts to get the most out of them.

Find one primary mileage program. Go with the airline you fly the most. Be sure your program partners with other airline mileage programs to give you more travel choices for earning and redeeming miles. Find out when miles expire -- expiration dates run from 12 months on Air Tran to 36 months on Midwest; however, you can keep your Midwest Miles from expiring by participating in any of the alternative mileage-earning opportunities they offer.

Get the most miles you can. Besides flight miles, you can earn them with the airline’s credit card. Often you can get bonus miles just for signing up for the card and more bonus miles after you use it the first time. The annual fee card often pays the most dividends – just about enough to get you a free roundtrip ticket for signing up and transferring a balance. I’ve had a Midwest Miles card for several years and have effortlessly racked up quite a few airline award tickets just for paying my bills with it. In fact, my Midwest Miles are taking my husband and me to Hawaii this year.

Sign up for and read your mileage program’s e-newsletters. Not only is that the first place you’ll hear about fare sales, but it’s also the place you’ll find bonus mileage offers. Partners may include insurance companies, flower services, car rental, hotels, online shopping malls and more. Check your program’s website regularly for deals to make sure you’re taking advantage of every opportunity to earn miles without actually flying.

Learn about mileage programs. This is a tremendous opportunity for you to both earn and redeem miles. Our hometown airline program, for example, partnered with Northwest and KLM’s mileage programs a couple of years ago. opening up worldwide free travel for Midwest Miles members. Now with Delta merging with Northwest, Midwest Miles members will have even more travel options. For example, our Hawaiian trip was booked completely through Midwest Airlines – their agents handled our trip all the way from Milwaukee to Honolulu, which included booking the trans-Pacific flight on Northwest for us. We did the same thing earlier this year for our trip from Milwaukee to Acapulco. It’s a great advantage and easy for the traveler. When do you pay for your airline travel, you can designate which mileage program you prefer, so make sure you always choose the same one.

How many miles are needed for a roundtrip ticket? That varies by airline. Review the award charts for each airline. Midwest still offers a roundtrip ticket for 25,000 miles and even a one-way ticket for 15,000. Northwest’s chart indicates 30,000, but some flights might be less. Air Tran has a credit rather than miles system making it difficult to compare. Delta seems to run from 25,000-60,000 for roundtrip coach.

Managing your mileage account online is easy and worth your time to earn those bonus travel miles.

Tish Robinson is a local writer/blogger. Visit her girlfriends’ getaway blog at

travelswithtish.com