I remember sitting in my grandmother's living room and licking S&H Green Stamps and pasting them in prize booklets in hopes of getting something for free.

Funny thing is, I can't recall a single thing we actually got for those stamps — and for all the gluey taste on my tongue.

The Green Stamps of today are frequent-flier programs or hotel reward points or some loyalty program promising you free airline tickets, hotel stays or car rentals in exchange for your repeat business.

But I often wonder if our loyalty is really worth the aggravation it takes to redeem those miles and points.

I once spent a considerable amount of time trying to redeem miles for two tickets to Hawai'i for my 10th wedding anniversary. I'm about to celebrate my 16th wedding anniversary and the ticketing ordeal is still fresh in my mind.

I found a decent flight outbound but no return-flight seats for customers like me — folks redeeming miles. There were too many blackout dates (restricted travel dates). Finally, to get a flight home, I had to relinquish extra miles. Otherwise I would have had to stay an extra week to get a flight that wasn't blacked out.

It's that kind of passenger frustration that led Randy Petersen and Tim Winship to write "Mileage Pro: The Insider's Guide to Frequent Flyer Programs" (published by OAG Worldwide, $19.95).

These two men have made careers out of helping frequent fliers. Petersen publishes InsideFlyer magazine and several travel-related Web sites, including www.WebFlyer.com and www.FlyerTalk.com. Winship is the publisher of www.FrequentFlier.com and a contributing editor for Frequent Flyer magazine and www.SmarterTravel.com.

Petersen says that as a former manager for a large menswear retailer, he spent a lot of time flying and keeping track of his mileage awards. He became the go-to guy when friends wanted advice about their reward programs.

Winship is the insider. He spent 20 years working in loyalty marketing for Singapore Airlines, All Nippon Airways and Hilton Hotels. He developed frequent-flier programs.

"Mileage Pro" is a book many of us need. You have to know how to work the system to "squeeze every ounce of value" out of these membership-has-its privileges programs.

"Many rewards go unredeemed because travelers either do not have the time to use them or have not learned how to manage them," the authors write. "Other travelers do not concentrate their loyalty, finding themselves with miles and points scattered everywhere except in the program from which they are seeking free travel."

The authors believe that if you manage travel-loyalty programs well, you can enjoy some nice perks and minimize the headaches in redeeming your rewards. For example, they point out that more than 50 percent of all miles and points are earned without leaving the ground. Use the right partnerships and boost your freebies.

Petersen and Winship say it is particularly important to keep track of your points and miles. An estimated 7 percent to 8 percent of travel is improperly recorded, they point out. That's not a high figure but you don't want to be cheated out of a single mile or point.

This primer covers quite a lot of ground. In one chapter, the authors compile the 52 best pieces of frequent-flier advice.

On Nov. 29, both Petersen and Winship will be my guests online to take your questions at www.washingtonpost.com at noon Eastern time (7 a.m. Hawai'i time)

In addition, every month I randomly select readers to receive copies of books focused on in this column, donated by the publisher. For a chance to win a copy of "Mileage Pro," send an e-mail to colorofmoney@washpost.com. Include your name and address so we can send you a book if you win.