Making use of loyalty programs

In my previous post I was talking about how us airlines cost in almost everything as extra

I was today quite pleasantly surprised when in us airways they did not charge me for check in baggage since I was a silver member in star alliance - saving a nice 25$ for my company

Neat eh

Everyone really needs to ensure that have these plans handy when they travel outside of the country ( people in the us- they do this very often)