Years ago, when I found out I'd be flying to Austin at least a couple times a year, my Mum gave me a piece of advice. She told me to sign up for frequent flier miles. Eh, I thought. Okay. It can't HURT anything to sign up. I didn't fly that often, I'd probably never accumulate enough miles for any sort of perk, but what the heck.

That was over 4 years ago. Since then, I've flown to Austin at least twice a year, and I flew to New York once, all on the same airline. That's not a tons of miles, and I don't think it technically allows me to refer to myself as a "frequent flyer". But it turns out, it happened to be enough for something.

A good friend of mine in Austin is getting married, and I've been worrying about the plane ticket since the invitation arrived. The employment situation isn't exactly where I thought it would be right now, and I honestly didn't think I'd be able to afford it. The past few days I had been checking ticket prices religiously, hoping they'd start to go down.

Yesterday after making the 'rounds' on all the travel sites, it finally occurred to me to log in to my American Airlines account. Once I did, there was a little box in the top right corner listing my accumulated miles. There was also a little check box to use my miles towards a ticket. Oooh! What fun. I'll check this box and see what happens, maybe I'll get a free snack on my flight!

It turns out, I had enough miles to cover some of the cost of a round trip ticket. In fact, I had enough miles that this ticket to Austin is only setting me back…five dollars. YES! I'm totally serious! I may not have had a ton of flight choices, but it worked for the dates I needed, and HELLO! FIVE DOLLARS! I am SO going to the wedding!

Now I just need to find something to wear.