From groceries to garbage bills, Amy Barry reaches for her credit card when it’s time to pay.

For every dollar spent on her card, the Sisters resident earns points that can translate into airline miles. By using the card for everyday spending, the three-member Barry family has for the past three years flown to Orlando, Fla., virtually free.

“I’ve always laughed when people talk about going to cash-only budgets,” Barry said. “If you can keep a good eye on your spending, you’re crazy not to use your credit card.”

For many, earning and managing airline miles confuses more than it rewards. The average traveler, experts say, is one who gets on an airplane three to five times a year, belongs to several different frequent flier programs and even after a long period is no closer to getting a free ticket.

Yet even the average traveler can rack up enough points and miles to access discounts, upgrades and free tickets , they say. You don’t have to be a travel geek; it just takes a little education and effort.

“People just get overwhelmed pretty easily; that’s the main problem,” said Brian Kelly, also known online and on Twitter as airline miles guru The Points Guy.

“It’s personal finance,” he said. “It will take a little time, but it will pay off in the long run.”

Step 1: Assess your needs

The first step in better managing your frequent flier miles is to set a goal.

Maybe you want free tickets for that dream vacation in Alaska. Or perhaps you want a decent bank of miles to visit an ill relative on a moment’s notice. A bum knee might make you yearn for an upgrade to business class.

Knowing the goal will help you take the first step in best managing miles: Focus as much business as possible on one airline and its alliance partners.

By flying mainly with one airline and aiming your mile-earning efforts toward one frequent flier program, you will be able to reap benefits sooner.

The limited number of airlines flying from Redmond makes choosing a program a touch simpler for Central Oregonians. Recent airline mergers play in consumers’ favor, with United customers able to earn and use miles on routes with Continental and US Airways, and Delta customers benefitting from ties with Alaskan/Horizon and Northwest.

At this stage, the key question is often if the airline and its partners fly to your goal destinations. But it’s worth skimming a few websites (see “Useful websites”) to further inform your choice.

“It’s like the stock market,” said Randy Petersen, editor and publisher of Inside Flyer magazine. “Not all stocks are great stocks. Some outperform others. The same is true of frequent flier programs.”

For instance, some programs are known for making it easy to earn miles but then don’t make many free seats available for just 25,000 miles, Kelly said. Programs vary on whether or not miles expire.

The programs all have different “status” tiers, as well. If you focus your flying you might be able to earn an elite status that comes with perks like a free checked bag, free access to roomier seats and early boarding.

“It only takes five trips across the U.S. with some to earn elite status,” said John DiScala, better known as Johnny Jet. His website, JohnnyJet.com, covers all things travel, from ticket bookings to helpful online bookmarks.

After picking the goal and deciding on your main frequent flier program, it’s time to organize your programs and earn miles.

Step 2: Manage miles

The Internet makes organizing frequent flier miles easy. It will take an initial yet modest time investment to set it up.

But there is a big caveat before moving forward. These websites, as well as many mile-earning rewards programs, require a decent amount of personal information.

For miles-managing sites, that means entering your frequent flier numbers and account passwords.

Another example is the rewards program between Alaskan/Horizon and Safeway. Frequent flier members can rack up miles while shopping at Safeway, but it’s dependent on giving the airline your Club Card number.

“The security issue is for some valid,” Kelly said. “I look at it as, in this day and age, your information is all over the place anyway.”

Those willing to continue will appreciate a miles management website. There are a number of them, Petersen said, but he usually recommends AwardWallet.com.

This is where the time comes in. You must find the frequent flier numbers for latent memberships, which might mean searches for old e-mails and a few trips through “Forgot your password?” links.

Enter all of that information in AwardWallet. The site will then automatically track miles for you. You’ll know if you didn’t get credit for a flight, since AwardWallet will e-mail you every time you earn miles on a trip. It will also give you a heads-up if your miles are about to expire so you can make some sort of simple miles-linked purchase to keep them active.

“You can even buy a song on iTunes and keep your miles from expiring,” Kelly said.

Such sites can also track miles or points earned from other sources, like credit cards or retail customer loyalty programs.

Step 3: Earn miles

Most folks regularly banking miles are not George Clooney in “Up in the Air.” They’re more like Barry, who makes spending choices with earning in mind.

Miles-earning credit cards are one prime way to do this. For starters, most offer a bonus just for signing up. Sometimes it’s big: Chase Visa dangled an offer that expired last week for 100,000 miles on British Airways (an Alaskan/Horizon partner) to those who jumped through the right hoops.

When assessing credit cards and other rewards programs, understand the difference between miles and points. Numerous credit cards and rewards programs offer points, which depending on the program can be converted into miles. Know this when you sign up for a program to assess whether it really offers the best benefits.

Again, turn to the websites of airlines and others to pick a credit card. Barry in the past used an American Express Delta Skymiles card that provided 25,000 miles a year and a free checked bag for every journey.

Kelly likes American Express Membership Rewards Points because you can transfer them to 16 different airlines for miles.

He also said consumers should calculate for credit cards how much in dollars spent it would take to earn a free flight. Some will provide stronger returns than others.

The next best way to earn miles is through everyday spending. Learn which businesses partner with your program through the airline’s websites. AwardWallet will also track your points accumulated through businesses like Ace Hardware or Marriott hotels.

And for online commerce, Kelly said, go through airline websites to link to your virtual shopping destination. Buy with your miles credit card, he added, and you’ve just managed to double dip.

“You should never just type in Gap.com,” he said. “You should always go through your airline’s mileage mall.”

Once it’s all set up, Petersen said, earning miles and points will not distract from daily life. Now you can just dream about a vacation.

Step 4: Redeem miles

You can use miles to obtain everything from food to hotel rooms to magazine subscriptions.

But the best value is almost always airline tickets, DiScala said, especially in a market like Central Oregon where dirt-cheap fares are rare.

“The goal should be to get a free flight or an upgrade,” he said.

Those who can travel on short notice can often find seats opened up at the last minute for frequent fliers, although the flights might be at odd times.

Kelly said it’s worth having a miles stash in case an emergency arises. An award ticket could save you thousands of dollars.

If you’re planning a vacation months in advance, it’s time to come off autopilot once again and do a little online research.

“This is really the point at which you should read a few frequent flier blogs,” Kelly said.

In shopping for tickets, keep in mind a miles-money ratio. Consumer Reports magazine said in a 2009 article that 25,000 frequent flier miles are worth roughly $300. The magazine said the value of a mile is about 1.2 cents based on what a frequent flier would have paid for a free ticket in dollars. Use this as a measure for deciding whether to buy a ticket or try to use miles.

After picking a destination, identify again your program’s partner airlines and do a bit of research on websites like Orbitz and Travelocity to find out what segments and flight times are out there.

If you don’t find the award ticket you want on your airline’s website, pick up the phone. Your research will help you if you call an airline agent.

“There is not one U.S. airline that will tell you true availability,” Kelly said.

Instead what happens is an airline agent will try to put you exclusively on that airline’s flights. But if you approach the agent with dates and routes on partner airlines, Kelly said, you get more movement.

“Be very nice,” he said. “Your chance of success will shoot up drastically.”

If you hit snags, go back to the blogs. FlyerTalk, for instance, has been online for more than a decade. Search for your issue or post a question.

“You’ll have the foremost experts answering your questions for free,” Kelly said.

All this planning, Kelly admitted, sounds like a lot of effort. But you’ll be happy when you get the free trip, he said.

“What other hobby is like collecting money?” he said.

Useful websites

http://thepointsguy.com and on Twitter @thepointsguy — Tips and deals on collecting frequent flier miles and finding cheap airfares.

http://AwardWallet.com — Miles management website.

www.johnnyjet.com — Website offering bookings to cheap airfare finds to travel tips.

www.flyertalk.com — Tips on frequent flier miles and forums for those seeking help.

www.webflyer.com — A plethora of tips for earning and using frequent flier miles as well as planing your next trip.