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Thread: Airline Rewards

  1. #1
    Super Moderator florida4sun's Avatar
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    Airline Rewards

    Hi,
    I know some folks on herevery are very knowledgable with airmiles/rewards. I am now flying around quite a bit with multiple UK - USA flights, USA internal flights, the odd longhaul to far The Far East/OZ and various european locations
    Generally I look for the best financial rate and not particulary fussed about the airline. What is my best option for collecting miles/rewards?

    Thanks

    Martin
    Last edited by florida4sun; 04-07-2016 at 22:42.


  2. #2
    Florida Expert Gerry Reed's Avatar
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    For us, we have a Virgin Atlantic Amex card. There is an annual charge for this but that gives us two miles/£ for all our normal shopping - I put all my normal monthly shopping, food, petrol, MC bills etc on this (paying it in full every month so no interest payed) and get K3/K4 Virgin miles a month from that. I also have my Tesco miles automatically changed to Virgin Miles so I get two lots of miles from Tesco shopping and petrol- one from Tesco and one from Amex. I also get Virgin miles from British gas for submitting regular meter readings. When you use it to pay for Virgin flights you get 4 miles per pound. As a bonus they also give me two companion flights and two upgrades a year but these are usually not worth having as the bases price is higher for either a 'free' companion or a 'free' upgrade and there are 3 of us traveling, but it does occasional work.

    You can then use your miles on Virgin flights, miles + money, all miles (you still have to pay taxes around £200 for economy more for PE etc to Florida) or upgrades. We have just booked economy flights to Orlando for three in March for a total of just over £600 - all miles, and we got August flights for 3 to Miami for a total of £1200 using part miles.

    Virgin also give use the usual miles on 'payed for' flights on top of the ones from my card so I find our miles do add up quickly.

    However, Virgin do not fly everywhere but they do have a link with Delta and some smaller airlines. You can only use miles on flights, so this may not be best for you.

    Sue
    Gerry and Sue




  3. #3
    Gold 5 Star Member
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    We fly exclusively with Virgin to gain the most miles and it does add up fairly quickly as Sue said. We fly PE so you get more miles per trip. Our Summer and Christmas flights have both cost us around £700 (£350 each) for taxes, fees and surcharges on top of the miles. There are various ways you can boost your miles if you nearly have enough for a reward. The most effective way is when they have a reward seat sale when oftehn there are big reductions on the amount of miles you need. We don't use a credit card but I know several who do. Our Texaco Star Rewards converts points into miles so the petrol adds on quite a few more miles.
    It is definitely worth signing up for all of them as you don't really need to do anything extra whoever you fly with and then the miles will go on automatically, especially if you are doing lots of flights. We tend to save our miles even if we have enough for a free flight till we are travelling in more peak periods. There are only a certain number of reward seats available on each flight so it's best to book them as soon as you know you will need them. Being cheeky here, Martin, I can send you an link to join the Virgin Flying Club and we both get bonus miles when you take you first trip with them If you want to then just send me the email address you want to sign up with and I'll send you an invitation.
    Last edited by steph_goodrum; 05-07-2016 at 08:09.
    Babblin Boo


  4. #4
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    Forgot to add Martin that you can claim miles for up to 6 months AFTER the flight so if you have taken any this year you will be able to get miles for them as well. If you are doing lots of flights then you also earn Tier Points which move you from FLying Club Red into Silver (15 points and Gold (40) which bring various levels of perks with them. My only gripe with that is that you don't earn Tier points on reward flights , so where we were Silver Members, because 2 of our flights were rewards we didn't get the 15 point in the 13 months to keep that level so BECAUSE we used the rewards we had earnt our status was "demoted", which does kind of go against the grain.
    I'm sure someone will know about the BA ones as well and the American airlines. Virgin have various flying partner airlines with whom you can also earn (and spend) miles, Delta being one of them.
    Babblin Boo


  5. #5
    Florida Expert floridageoff's Avatar
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    Martin, if you decide to collect Virgin miles an easy way to boost them is to apply for an American Express Gold Card. It's very easy to apply online and if you spend £2000 in the first 3 months you will receive 20,000 points which you can convert into 20,000 Virgin miles. You can also convert them into Avios points. There is no fee for the first year so you will need to cancel it before 12 months is up. It is a charge card not a credit card so the balance must be paid off each month.
    You will also receive two free airport lounge passes each year for any airport lounge in the ‘Lounge Club’ network.
    If you would like me to refer you (or if anyone else on the forum would like an introduction) you will receive an extra 2,000 points (2,000 Virgin miles). If you do, please PM me with your email address and I will send you the link.
    It is amazing how quickly the miles mount up, we also convert all our Tesco points to Virgin miles. In less than 9 months we both had enough miles for flights to Florida in Premium Economy paying only the taxes.
    Last edited by floridageoff; 05-07-2016 at 09:01.
    Glenda and Geoff


  6. #6
    Florida Savvy
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    Martin, This might be useful for you
    http://www.flyertalk.com/
    Pete
    http://www.onlinefloridavillas.com/Villas/1593.aspx


  7. #7
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    You're asking quite a question there Martin although I think it can be said for certain that if you're flying that much and not crediting the trips to a Frequent Flyer programme you're seriously missing out on benefits and future rewards. Hard to say which would work best for you without more detail such as class of ticket but I would try to keep all my flying within 1 of the airline alliances because you can still credit the miles to a single programme provided you fly an airline in its particular membership group.

    From what you say I would imagine that One World might suit you so you could join, say, BA Executive Club and then fly BA or AA transatlantic, AA domestically in the US, BA short haul within Europe and then a choice of BA, Cathay, Qatar or Qantas going East or to Oz/NZ and still credit to your BAEC account. For specific destinations in the Far East, Malaysian and Japan Airlines complete the line-up.

    I suggest spending a bit of time reading up on it all before deciding but IME over a long period the returns for doing that can be very substantial.
    Last edited by Katys Grandad; 06-07-2016 at 04:08.


  8. #8
    Florida Chatterbox
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    The problem with BA frequent flyer miles is that BA charge you all kind of surcharges and fees when you use them, to the point where a "free" ticket can cost you almost as much as a paid ticket. United do not do that - they only charge you the taxes. We are no great fans of United as an airline, but their FF plan (Mileage Plus) is pretty good, and works with a lot of other airlines including Lufthansa and Air Canada. We have been to Hawaii four times with free United tickets over the years (sometimes with a free Florida stopover). Like all the airlines, United has cut down the miles you get with cheaper tickets, but their FF plan still seems better than most.


  9. #9
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    Quote Originally Posted by shockey View Post
    The problem with BA frequent flyer miles is that BA charge you all kind of surcharges and fees when you use them, to the point where a "free" ticket can cost you almost as much as a paid ticket.
    That's absolutely true and a fair point with economy flight redemptions but not with First, Club or short haul European Reward Flight Savers which are still excellent value and BA don't charge those high surcharges on economy flights when you redeem on some of their partners. I think many regular flyers (myself included) don't see the 'free flights' option as the best way to use miles nor the main reason to belong to a Frequent Flyer programme. Elite status, upgrades and lounge access across the world are the main attractions.

    As I said in my first post, which programme to choose will depend on Martin's individual travel profile and requires doing a bit of homework first.


  10. #10
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    Martin - To add to what Katys Grandad said; if you go the route of BA/OneWorld/Avios also check out the BA Amex cards. The higher tier ones convey an extra benefit that if you spend enough on them each year they will give you a friend-flies-free voucher.

    You can only use this voucher on a miles redemption flight. The big bonus is that it will match the class of your miles flight. If you redeem a Club World flight, you get a second Club World flight for nothing.

    And if you go for the top tier BA Amex you can, depending on timings, hold two of these vouchers.

    So, for example, for about 300,000 miles you could fly a family of four to and from the US in BA First; which ordinarily would be something like a £30k ticket. It's not easy. The timing to get it set up is difficult. And you are a bit at the mercy of reward seat availability. But it can be done!

    Personally I think that's the trick with getting the most out of reward programmes. Drive everything into one programme. Have it mount up over time. And then use it on something big and extravagant. IMHO!
    Steve



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