Air miles

[Atishoo]

How does one acumulate air miles?

It's something ive never bothered about until now (AND :rolleyes: my best friend has just got herself and family club seats to Florida at xmas ) !! on airmiles.

We are off to Aus later in the year and im sure we could accumulate some from that flight, any suggestions pls?

[SXB]

Atishoo

Airmiles are earned each time you fly. Each airline is affiliated to particular schemes, for example Lufthansa, Austrian, Swiss et al have an airmiles club called Miles and More. BA et al have 'Executive Club' There is nothing to stop you registering with multiple clubs (though BA ask that you either have a valid booking or have taken one of their flights fairly recently)

There are two types of points;
(i) Normal points
(ii) Tier or Prime points

Both types of points are earned as you fly but tier points are normally calculated on an annual basis and returned to zero at the end of the calender year. The point of tier points is to accrue as many as possible in a year to move to the next level of membership which may include things like lounge access. Normal points accrue over a number of years and can be exchanged for flights or other goodies.

Points are allocated on a basis of how far you are travelling and with which type of ticket, if you are travelling to Australia it is worth registering as you will accrue a large number of miles. Also you get more miles with more expensive tickets, C, J and full price Y tickets accrue more miles than some of the cheaper T, V and W class tickets.

For miles and more you can register here...
http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/de/generalinfo/apps/enrol?l=en
For BA exec club here
http://www.britishairways.com/travel/execenrol/public/en_gb

Hope this helps

[J32/41]

https://www.airmiles.co.uk/

:) :)

[Globaliser]

We are off to Aus later in the year and im sure we could accumulate some from that flight, any suggestions pls?It would help to know which airline you're flying, and what your likely future flying patterns will be.

You may want to note that Air Miles (the scheme that's reached via J32/41's link) cannot be collected by flying. That's essentially a shopping reward scheme.

What you're thinking about are frequent flyer miles/points. Your friends may or may not have been collecting them - they may have been collecting Air Miles. You will want to check with them.

The different schemes have different rules. It's a complex world out there, and the more you can tell us, the better.

[PAXboy]

The following is based on someone NOT travelling for business and gaining points through that.

Deciding upon a Frequent Flyer Miles (FFM) scheme does depend on where you travel the most often and with which carrier. Deciding upon a Loyalty Points scheme depends upon your shopping habits.

The golden rule is NEVER to change your spending intentions to gain points - they are never worth while. If, however, you can gain Miles or Points for spending that you were going to spend anyway - then it is worth considering.

The way to gain Miles and Points the quickest is to choose schemes that can be linked. For example: I belong to the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, as I do not travel long haul on business any more, I am in the basic category (Red) but I still gain FFMs when I do travel. The Tier points never add up - but that is not my objective as I use Priority Pass for my lounge access and accrue points to use for upgrading.

I increase the rate at which I collect VS FFMs by adding the Loyalty points I get from American Express. I have used a charge card from them for over 20 years and when they introduced Membership Rewards (a loyalty scheme) I joined as it enabled me to export points to VS. I could use the points towards their own flight rewards scheme but that would take longer. I also have a VS AmEx credit card that I use a bit but mainly for paying for flights on VS as they give a higher rate for such 'in house' purchases.

Lastly, when BAA started their Worldpoints scheme, I joined. Now the BAA scheme is the most useless loyalty scheme in the world with a lousy delivery rate and 'offers' that require too great a spend to redeem them but the few points I gain (car parking, Travelex, some shopping) all get exported to the VS scheme as well.

In this way, I gain points in VS Flying club by:
Buying tickets and travelling
AmEx charge card
Virgin Atlantic AmEx card
BAA

So ... this April I am going to South Africa. I buy a Y ticket for money (on the VS AmEx card) and then upgrade to Premium Economy with existing points. I will score points for the two sectors as if I had travelled in Y. The Tier points are irrelevant.

In the past, I have had enough to upgrade to Upper and have bought the full return ticket with accrued FFMs and only had to pay the taxes.

I use a similar combination for BA Exec club. The main contributor being Tesco. Their clubcard scheme allows me to export points to BA. So ... when I shop/buy petrol I gain Tesco Clubcard points that will land up in my BA account and I pay with a plastic card (one or t'other) that will also pay me points and this is called Double-Dipping.

As I say, NEVER buy things to get the points and keep a steady eye on the various schemes - I have them all in a spreadsheet. I might favour one plastic card or another for a while to build one scheme - but the spending is all routine food/petrol/train/cinema tickets/etc.

Lastly, the most cost effective way to upgrade a cabin for travel is to buy a Y ticket and then use points to get to the next level or buy C and upgrade to F. To save all the miles/points that you need for a pair of round trip long haul tickets in C takes a VERY long time.

[V800]

The Air Miles scheme in the UK started in the 1980s as a shopping rewards scheme that was associated with British Airways. By collecting points from participating shops, credit cards etc members had the opportunity to travel in seats that were allocated to the scheme as they were predicted to remain unsold. Often on the unpopular flight timings or on the return leg of busy business flights.
Air Miles made their money as along with collecting the obligatory taxes fees and charges they sold insurance hotels and car hire along with cash fares for partners as there was often only one miles seat available. One advantage in the early days was that a ticket from Air Miles did not have a Saturday night stay requirement. I have done several short haul trips in the days before the low cost airlines appeared on the scene.

Today the scheme is still running but the extras charged on short haul flights are often higher than paying a cash fare and the Saturday night stay is no more. (In my opinion the greatest achievement of the locos.) However they have now adopted a dynamic pricing system and some out of season long haul deals can be had if you are prepared to search the web site. I do not go out of my way to collect miles but just let them build up and in the last few years have been to Vancouver and Toronto in winter paying about £90 in extras each time. I also travel alone or meet up with friends who come out on a different flight, have annual travel insurance and book cheaper hotels myself.

More airlines are now available to travel with and my next trip is to Dubai with Qatar Airways as their extras were far less than with BA or Virgin.