How can I travel 1320 miles practically?

What are "travel miles"? I dont get it.

• I have flown from Heathrow Airport in England to an airport in Cameroon, Africa. Then I flew back to England. Next, we flew to Cameroon again, then came back to England. Then we flew to New Jersey, then came back to England. We flew back to New Jersey again. That was all the traveling I did when I was little. Now, I just came back from a trip to Japan, from New Jersey. We flew West. I want to know is.. what are travel miles and since I've flown so much in the 14 years I've been living.. like what does that mean? Can I use these miles now like to get me a trip to where ever I want for free, or is it not enough? How do I check my travel miles? I'm confused.

• Answer:

  Travel miles is actually paid travel miles, which represents the distance of your flights (point to point). 1 travel mile = 1 mile flown on a paid ticket. Travel miles are typically offered as part of airline customer loyalty programs, wherein frequent fliers can get free flights in return for flying a minimum number of paid miles per year (or total). For ex. a free trip from the US to Europe may require 30000 accumulated travel miles. If you have more than this amount, you can cash those miles in for a free ticket, usually under some restrictions (they're pretty stingy with free tickets these days, so watch out). One thing to note- If you were not signed up for the loyalty program before you flew, chances are you won't accumulate those miles. They only accrue after signing up. So, you might be out of luck unless your parents have an account set up already.