Round the world with frequent flyer miles

Although it can be a huge pain in the neck to use frequent flyer miles, when they pay off, they sometimes pay off big.

My mother just told me she's cashing in 200,000 United miles on a round-the-world trip. She's spending $119 in fees and surcharges.

Her trip will be about 2 months long. It includes a 3-week stop in Asia, a 2-week stop in Europe, and 4 separate stops in the continental US, each ranging from 3 days to a week in length.

My mother's experience will be hard to replicate, however. She's been accumulating miles for years, both through a rewards credit card and through her frequent trans-continental trips (we have family on each side of the Atlantic, as well as on two different Pacific Islands).

United used to have a policy that as long as you either earned miles or spent them in a 3-year period, your miles wouldn't expire. However, they've recently changed that policy. At the end of this year, you'll need to have some account activity every 18 months in order to prevent your miles from expiring.

The last few times I've tried to use frequent flyer miles, it has been a headache. I often fly with one of United's partner airlines, and have frequently not gotten credit for my flights. But lately it hasn't seemed worth it to pursue getting the mileage credit, since I've found it so hard to redeem my miles.

But now that I'm hearing about my mom's upcoming trip, I'm going to try harder to get credit for all the flight miles I can. Maybe some day I'll have a chance to get a free round-the-world ticket.