Frequent Flyer Schemes discussion

Tozer

You can claim miles for the United account on any Star Alliance airline. However, BmiBaby are not Star Alliance.

I've got a similar problem with my Aeroplan. I have to have a credit each year. I'm proposing to change my Hilton Honors account to Aeroplan miles to see if this works.

HeimRoller

CazC wrote: »

Ref the BMI scheme -Yes, it is generous with the milage awarded but in my experience just about impossible to actually use the miles to buy a flight. I have tried searching muiltiple dates, to multiple locations on their website and couldn't find a single flight with air miles seats available. I gave up in the end, and the miles will just expire.
In contrast, I collect BA miles on flights and via Amex and have just used my miles plus the companion voucher to book two Business Class seats on their website to Mexico City on my first choice dates - two tickets for just over £400 (I just had to pay the tax). The Amex scheme is fantastic - spend £10K a year to get the voucher - the only difficulty there is finding companies who take Amex, but that's another discussion!!

Don't forget you can use them on Star Alliance flights.
My wife was a frequent flyer (Gold card at bmi) plus we both got the credit card. Last year my wife, myself and infant daughter flew SAA business class to Cape Town, and came back business CPT to Jo'berg and then First Class Jo'berg to LHR. Also, the good thing about doing it through bmi is the ability to use miles plus cash, i.e. you can choose to pay 50% of the required mileage plus a sum of cash that is far far far cheaper than buying a luxury seat. Using the flights we took to Cpt last year I seem to remember that the cash part (incl tax) came to about £500. We already have more than enough miles to do this twice more.

duchy

Protecting expiring miles on any FF programme is easy-Any activity will keep them alive-things like magazine subscriptions, charity donations, shopping through thir shopping portal, miles credited from hotel or carhire etc etc
Check out the "other partners" section on the airline's webpage.

jazz_vendor

LesD wrote: »

Hi guys (and gals?).

There's a lot of knowledge here.

My wife and I have previously used United and accrued 30k and 60k miles. But they are likely to expire next year as we probably won't fly United before they do. We also use bmibaby and pick up a couple of Diamond Club miles every couple of months.

As they are both Star Alliance members, is there any way we can use these to keep the United account active?

Otherwise, what's the best way to protect the United miles?

It can depend a little on the type of miles you have, when you have collected them etc. but one way to protect your United Non-lifetime miles is to purchase more miles by logging into United.com.

By purchasing the minimum amount (US$67.25 for 1,000 miles) you should be able to keep your other miles active. This has worked for me but do check before you do it as it might depend on status in Mileage Plus. Obviously because you have to buy them, it depends on how many you have but if you have 30k and 60k it is well worth considering (again depending on the proportion of your United miles that are Lifetime miles). The status of your miles can be found in your Mileage Summary on http://www.ualmiles.com/.

Hope this helps.

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nezbrun wrote: »

It is possible to upgrade a travel agent's booking, but only if there is availability in the booking class..

I don't know about other airlines, but I think the OP mfrgolfgti was talking about BA. To upgrade with miles - if that is what s/he was driving at - with BA is only possible with directly purchased tickets. The only exception I am aware of is for tickets purchased with a select few specially designated TAs, and as far as I know the only ones that can do this are based in the US. These TAs are designated as something like "Premier" agents if I recall correctly and have a special agreement with BA allowing their tickets to be MFU'd.

nico26

I upgraded flying with KLM/Air France no problem.But it all depended on what grade the economy ticket had been purchased by my husband employers and availability.

amoeba-babe

Hi, I joined the BA Executive club after buying a return ticket to SYD from LHR... does anyone know if I can add these two flights to my airmiles and how... bit of a newbie to all of this and it's terribly confusing I've added Tescos clubcard miles but I don't understand how the flight miles get added. Thanks all... you are all so clued up!!

old_motters

amoeba-babe wrote: »

Hi, I joined the BA Executive club after buying a return ticket to SYD from LHR... does anyone know if I can add these two flights to my airmiles and how... bit of a newbie to all of this and it's terribly confusing I've added Tescos clubcard miles but I don't understand how the flight miles get added. Thanks all... you are all so clued up!!

If you've bought the tickets and not yet flown you should be able to see the flight reservations in your Manage My Booking on the BA website. There ought to be a link where you can add your BAEC number if the system hasn't done so already.

It is possible to add the miles retrospectively but only within a certain window and I don't recall how.

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If you go into your BAEC account, you may be able to add them in via "Manage my Booking" (MMB). Alternatively, call the helpline or give your BAEC membership card to the agent at check-in.

Once you have you have your BAEC number associated with the tickets, the miles should post automatically afterwards, together with an associated bonus for cabin and/or status (but the latter won't apply yet if you've just joined).

Now you have joined BAEC you can simply enter your number for future tickets and the trip will appear in MMB and miles post automatically afterwards.

If miles don't post in a reasonable time after your trip there is a missing miles form you can fill out online.

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Beaten to it! old_motters is correct. I can't remember the last time I did a retrospective claim, but I believe the process is the same as "missing miles" although you would probably need to fax/mail your boarding pass(es).