Follow this checklist to make the most of your mileage program

— -- One of the best pieces of advice I ever received was from a senior airline executive. As my former boss and mentor was fond of saying: Plan the work; and work the plan. I have been planning the work and working the plan ever since. And I've found the approach to be as relevant to personal endeavors, like accruing frequent flier miles, as it is for business pursuits.

Think of the following checklist as an annual plan for frequent fliers. If you work it, adjusting as necessary for your individual circumstances, you will be rewarded with more miles and more awards, more value and more comfort.

From January through December, and from tax time to dinnertime, here's how to plan your year to keep your mileage house in order.

Elite

As the current year comes to a close, the issue uppermost on the minds of the most frequent travelers is elite status.

Since program members qualify for elite status based on miles earned during the calendar year, December 31 is the cut-off point for attaining elite status, or for upgrading to a higher elite tier, for the following year.

So if you're within a few thousand miles of earning 25,000 elite-qualifying miles during the current calendar year, it's time to pull out the stops and make those remaining weeks count.

First, and easiest, be sure any flights already scheduled for the remainder of the year qualify for elite status. Re-book any non-qualifying flights, even if it means a less efficient itinerary. Also, reschedule any discretionary trips from early next year to late this year.

Still short? Consider a mileage run—a trip made expressly for the purpose of earning miles. Look for a heavily discounted ticket to get the lowest cost-per-mile.

Shopping for miles

Also part and parcel of the year's close is the Christmas shopping season, with miles playing an increasingly large part.

All major programs have cobbled together extensive networks of online retailers into miles-for-merchandise malls, where frequent fliers can earn one or more miles for every dollar spent. These malls are a good auxiliary source of miles at any time of year. But they can be especially lucrative around Christmastime, when merchants routinely offer bonus miles to entice customers to push the "Buy" key.