Using RAF 'Air Miles' ??
 

Just a simple question please.......
What are the current rules for using air miles you have been awarded because you cross the pond several times (on service business of course)
Can you legally use them?? or do they 'belong' to Her Majesty, and you hand them in??
The Winco

Applying to join an airline reward scheme is voluntary, however any resultant miles earned on duty flights should be declared so as to enable the MoD to utilise them towards future bookings. That was the letter of the law about 5 years ago.

In reality nobody needs to know what reward schemes you are in, so I think you will find only the most extreme self-flagilists (sp?) declare them as required.

You have GOT to be kidding!

Air Miles are a 'perk' awarded to the individual - and you are under no obligation to join any frequent flyer programme in order to use them. They cannot be transferred to anyone other than the person who travelled, in any case. So no, you cannot 'hand them in' - nor can anyone else use them on your behalf.

Join the relevant frequnet flyer programme personally, then send your boarding card in retrospectively and ask for the Miles to be credited to your account. No need to tell anyone.

Does the pathetic cash-strapped MoD have the slightest clue as to how many flights are needed before these 'Miles' are of any use for travel purposes?

Not kidding BEagle, I think dallas is pretty close to the actual situation. I remember reading something some time ago (years) about those who gain rewards such as air miles should not gain advantage over those who don't. Yes, it's b0ll0cks, but you should be well used to that by now.

S_H

I thought that MOD had instructed BA that air miles awarded on warrants were to be allocated to MOD air travel for future MOD use...

I seem to remember this reared its ugly head a few years ago?

As Dallas says, it changed about 5 years ago, but up until then, any Airmiles you earned on MoD business were supposed to be "donated" to your approriate Transport Command who re-used them for "official" business. All absolute nonsense of course, but some lower grade civvie bods I worked alongside in the secret procurement facility near Bristol used to religiously turn them in. I destroyed the evidence of my wrongdoing by cashing them in for a flight for Mrs TI, worked fine for me. A sense of righteousness must be a terrible burden to bear.

I sat in a briefing recently where we were told that using airmiles garnered from duty flights is fraud. The airmiles should not be collected, but if they are then they should be declared (but to whom I don't know) and their use should be recorded in the 'entertainments' register.

......but surely there's a way of handing them back on JPA??!!
:ugh:

D-IFF_ident, no doubt someone deep and blunt came up with that nonsense. Presumably you would also be required to declare any free drinks, in-flight entertainment and similar which you were given on-board as 'entertainment'?

The process of 'handing-back' air miles would be an administrivial embuggerance of indescribable pointlessness and would be a complete waste of everyone's time.

I suppose if petrol stations still gave away Green Shield stamps or free glasses with 4 gallons, you would have to hand those in to Their Bluntnesses if you had to fill an MT vehicle up from a civvy pump.

Here's another one. Let's say that you choose to pay for a meal taken in the course of duty with, for example, a Lufthansa Miles-and-More Visa card rather than faff about with cash. The card gives you 1 mile per €1 spent - would you have to 'hand in' the miles earned to some blunt fool?

When I did a staff tour many years ago there was a lot of trouble about this as many guys who did a lot of travel were gaining a huge number of airmiles and using them to pay for holiday flights... this was seen as unfair, so they stopped everyone gaining airmiles for service flights.

Tonks

What mean minded idiot came up with that nonsense, Tonks? I don't see any reason why those who have to travel frequently shouldn't be allowed to keep their air miles for themselves - reasonable recompense for hanging around at aiports various, queuing up at gates etc. Also, by allowing air miles to build up, you may move up in the frequent flier pecking order - this has the advantage of business lounges, priority re-booking etc.

This is what Lufthansa has to say:

According to the Miles & More Terms & Conditions it is not possible to transfer miles. You may only use your miles to redeem flight awards for family, friends and acquaintances, priority booking etc.

Which doesn't include anonymous blunties.

Ask your MP
 

Ask your MP what he/she does regarding air miles etc!!!:confused: :ooh: :D

Beags

It was a directive issued in the latter half of the 90s. We were supposed to hand over the air miles to admin. I cut up my card rather than comply with that bolleaux.

regards

retard

Just checked on this recently

Rules are that you CANNOT use air miles earned on duty flights.

However you CAN collect tier points to enable you to get a gold card and make use of lounges etc.

However Virgin told me that when they book MOD flights that they are supposed to put in a code that prevents air miles being claimed. They also said that if air miles were awarded for such fligth by mistake it was their fault and the miles are yours.. Not sure how this will stand up to beurocratic scrutiny though.

Rules is rules and what has been stated is quite correct.

BA was indeed asked to declare and transfer air miles to SBC. They gave a very firm 2-fingered salute. Remember not all air miles on your account came from Bessie. Imagine trying to sort out Mrs PNs air miles from mine.

The rules we have are actually identical to the USA as well.

They go on to say that you can accept an upgrade. Also you get to keep all denied boarding compensation or delayed meals allowances. If you do keep them or use them then you are not permitted to claim as well.

Clearly if the denied boarding compensation was less than the allowances (unlikely) then you hand over the DBC and claim the allowance.

The reason for BAs stance is simply commercial. If you know you get air miles then you are likely to manouevre your booking in their direction. Oddly only BA went to the places I had to go at the times I wanted to go.

When I had to fly Air France Club - brilliant. Lufthanza - le pits.

I believe that the same stands for the use of Loyalty cards at petrol stations. If you use an agency card then your are not supposed to top up your Nectar card...

To pick up on a few points (with 450,000 airmiles in the bag...)

To get to Silver tier with BA requires 600 tier points. This gives you lounge access, and more chance of an upgrade. However, a transatlantic return only gives you 120 points, therefore you would need 5 return trips in a membership year to hit this. At the end of the membership year, your balance is zeroed, and you have to requalify. Flying Worl Traveller Plus, Club, or First gives an override on the tier points, 240 points in Club for an "across the pond".

Once you have hit Silver, your membership year is restarted, and tier points balance is zeroed. You then have that year to gain a further 1500 points to make Gold. Obviously that is rather a lot of crossing the pond activity. If you make it, BA treat you very well indeed, because they will have taken a huge amount of income. Personal experience is that once Gold, I was ALWAYS upgraded to Club, and this year, despite only having 585 points (i.e. not even enough to requalify at Silver), I was renewed at Gold. Cabin Service Director, and sometimes the Captain, would come and introduce themselves on every flight, a minor point, but a form of recognition.

As for airmiles, basically one mile flown=1 BA mile. So across the pond and back in Economy gains approx 8-9000 miles. Higher cabins and tier levels gain multipliers, so a Club return as a Gold member would gain approx 36,000 miles. To spend the miles, a transatlantic return is 50,000 miles.

I now live in the US, so I don't fly BA any more, it's Delta. Their scheme is pale shadow of the BA one, BUT, the miles are transferrable, and indeed saleable or donatable.

I've sat next to many a Civil Serpent across the pond on BA, and they all had their Silver cards....

If you think that's mean BEagle, try this. In the mid 90's, I suggested that the points we could accumulate on out AMEX cards and which the MOD had disabled could be collected and given to a charity - my choice was the one which flew terminally ill children to Florida so they could go to Disneyland. I had contacted AMEX, they were agreeable to the suggestion - but the RAF said no. They gave extra admin as the reason. Even when I suggested that it could be done as a secondary duty to save the admin costs and volunteered myself , the answer was still no!

Just a note from civvie street.

In my previous airline all points gained on company travel and by using the company credit card had to be "handed in" twas a disciplinery offence not to. the owner used them to go on holiday every year.

Our current owner does the same. They're called the government and all the money they save underfunding the forces pays for their holiday air travel every year and their mortgages. In fact, we even operate some of the flights for them!