Air Miles...who should I go with?

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

Raymond Lin

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I am expecting to make a few long haul flights this year and wondering how do I go getting air miles. Also, what other ways can you collect air miles?

I have no idea where to start!

Thanks :)
 
MrMoonX said:
most airlines have their own scheme so make sure you pick and airline and fly with it for all your trips
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It'll be almost impossible to fly with the same airline for all your trips as many dont fly to certain destinations and those that do will often be uncompetitive so you'd end up paying over the odds just to earn miles, which is silly.

Besides you don't even need to fly with the same airline to earn miles - usually the same alliance is sufficient enough.

Though to be honest the miles generated from a few long hauls likely wont buy you anything significant anyway so you'd end up better off financially by just shopping around for the best possible deal on each flight and if you get miles, thats a bonus.

Frequent flier miles come into their own when you are somebody like Scuzi who constantly makes the same trip with the same carrier.
 
Unless this is business travel and someone else is picking up the tab, just go with whoever offers the best price or most convenient times. Though I'd add a couple of exceptions. Avoid AA, Iberia and SAS whatever the ticket price. Unless you like poor service, rubbish entertainment systems and rude cabin crew.
 
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I earned this from Ryanair:

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My old man was with KLM. He was the highest band, platinum elite (lots of return flights to Nigeria and Russia). Was awesome travelling with him, the service (even in economy) was terrific.

Like fox says, they probably won't benefit you much so just sign up for whoever you decide to fly with.
 
BA Executive club Avios are not that bad I use them to book car hire / hotels. Before I got no usage from them as you had to pay taxes and charges and needed a lot of miles.

Other then that Virgin Atlantic is OK in the fact that only a few miles gives you access to their sometimes cheaper miles + money fares.

Unless your making a ton of flights its unlikely you will get anything out of it. But register with each airline as you fly, unless they are part of an existing alliance you are already a member of (Such as Cathay & BA)
 
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As others have already said it depends on your airline as they are not many 'code sharers' about.

For example; KLM partner with Air France and Malaysian Airlines, so using KLM you have a better opportunity to maximise your miles collection.

I am Gold / Platinum with a few - KLM, Emirates and Virgin Atlantic as I travel a large amount with work. You need to travel significant mileage and between timescales to be able move between Tiers (blue, bronze, silver, gold, platinum .....)

In addition to the raw airmiles you can maximise by joining a hotel scheme for example JW Marriott Rewards and Accor Hotels by staying at these hotels they can add airmiles to your preferred scheme.

Personally I find the Virgin better than the others given they really do offer free flights called 'Reward Seats' these are available at various times of the year.
 
Virgin aren't too bad, 3 trips with them and we had enough points to get reward flights (had to pay the taxes etc) for our next trip.
 
Ev0 said:
Virgin aren't too bad, 3 trips with them and we had enough points to get reward flights (had to pay the taxes etc) for our next trip.
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Yea, I got £100 off two return tickets last year using about a third of the miles I'd earned flying to LA the year before. Pretty decent.
 
I joined BMI because you got 21k miles free when you took out their credit card and spent £250 within the first 3 months. You earn miles for every pound spent on the credit card and they operate an online shopping thing similar to quidco which also boosts your miles. They are a Star Alliance member too so you can use the miles on a number of airlines.
 
BA used to have an american express credit card that offered a free companion ticket when you redeemed your airmiles (If you spent a certain amount on the credit card within that year, 15-20k). That's pretty achievable if you are working away from home living hotels!

Got me and the wife a nice trip!
This was 5-10years ago so not sure if they still offer it.
 
First of all, why do you want to earn miles? Is it for status or for redemptions? Which is more important to you? Status involves earning x amount of miles within a certain time period to move up a tier. With certain status levels you get priority in most scenarios, free upgrades, extra baggage and if you hit the very high tiers you get your own check in, concierge service, blah blah blah. If you don't care about status and want miles to redeem for flights or other services, your choice of FFP will depend on that. BTW I wouldn't recommend redeeming FF miles for anything other than flights. Everything else is extremely poor value compared to what you get for flights.

What route or routes will you be flying? You have the choice of sticking with one airline or flying different airlines within one alliance which allow mileage earning on partners.

For alliances you have the following options...

Star Alliance:
  • Adria
  • Air Canada
  • Air China
  • Air New Zealand
  • ANA
  • Asiana Airlines
  • Austrian
  • Blue1
  • Bmi
  • Brussels Airlines
  • Continental Airlines
  • Croatia Airlines
  • Egyptair
  • LOT
  • Polish Airlines
  • Lufthansa
  • Scandinavian Airlines
  • Shanghai Airlines
  • Singapore Airlines
  • South African Airways
  • Spanair
  • Swiss
  • TAP Portugal
  • Thai
  • Turkish Airlines
  • United
  • US Airways


Oneworld:
  • American Airlines
  • British Airways
  • Cathay Pacific
  • Finnair
  • Iberia
  • Japan Airlines (JAL)
  • LAN
  • Malév
  • Mexicana
  • Qantas
  • Royal Jordanian
  • S7 Airlines

Skyteam:
  • Aeroflot
  • Aeromexico
  • Air Europa
  • Air France
  • Alitalia
  • China Airlines
  • China Eastern
  • China Southern
  • Czech Airlines
  • Delta Air Lines
  • Kenya Airways
  • KLM
  • Korean Air
  • TAROM
  • Vietnam Airlines

Try to stick within the one alliance and credit all your flown miles to one of the partner programmes. Which programme you pick depends on who's metal you fly and the generosity of their offering. For the particulars of each airlines and to get an idea of what their members are thinking, head over to www.flyertalk.com to get an idea of what they entail.

How many miles are you thinking of flying? If you are planning on around 50k, I'd suggest sticking with Star Alliance as you can get Star Alliance Gold status which has excellent benefits like lounge access worldwide (they have more and better lounges than anyone else), excellent baggage allowances and priority on waitlists in the event of irrgeular operations.
 
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Morgoth said:
I joined BMI because you got 21k miles free when you took out their credit card and spent £250 within the first 3 months. You earn miles for every pound spent on the credit card and they operate an online shopping thing similar to quidco which also boosts your miles. They are a Star Alliance member too so you can use the miles on a number of airlines.
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BMI won't be in the star alliance for much longer. I stopped dealing with them altogether about a year ago. I had Diamond Club Gold for a couple of years (still have it!) and when I began to fly with them they were excellent. The customer service was second to none. Over the past while they have been subject to cuts and the customer service has declined rapidly. Their miles have devalued significantly and the whole point of being a frequent flyer to me was to get priority treatment when travelling normally and when things went **** up. Their excellent service turned into disdain for the customer.

I'd recommend avoiding them.
 
I use Avios as it has a lot of other retailers you can collect points with so any car hire, hotels, shopping, fuel etc it credits your account with air miles.

As I have a company car and fuel card I like the fact I can convert my shell points into Avios.

Also does stuff like Tesco clubcard points etc so you can convert a lot of everyday things into airmiles. They do good offers too for example they will normally give you 600 Avios points per £2.50 Tesco clubcard voucher. If you redeem this in February you get 400 bonus points so you'll collect 1000 Avious for a £2.50 clubcard voucher.
 
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Windle said:
I use Avios as it has a lot of other retailers you can collect points with so any car hire, hotels, shopping, fuel etc it credits your account with air miles.

As I have a company car and fuel card I like the fact I can convert my shell points into Avios.

Also does stuff like Tesco clubcard points etc so you can convert a lot of everyday things into airmiles. They do good offers too for example they will normally give you 600 Avios points per £2.50 Tesco clubcard voucher. If you redeem this in February you get 400 bonus points so you'll collect 1000 Avious for a £2.50 clubcard voucher.
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Avios is rubbish airmiles were better as it covered taxes & surcharges
 
Windle said:
I use Avios as it has a lot of other retailers you can collect points with so any car hire, hotels, shopping, fuel etc it credits your account with air miles.

As I have a company car and fuel card I like the fact I can convert my shell points into Avios.

Also does stuff like Tesco clubcard points etc so you can convert a lot of everyday things into airmiles. They do good offers too for example they will normally give you 600 Avios points per £2.50 Tesco clubcard voucher. If you redeem this in February you get 400 bonus points so you'll collect 1000 Avious for a £2.50 clubcard voucher.
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Avios is not the same as airlines in the sense that Raymond is asking about. He will be earning by flying and wants to know about airline programmes. I think :p


EDIT: Just seen that the BA credit card earns Avios. This changes everything! I stand corrected.
 
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