Air line loyalty cards

guygamps

Hi,

In 2006 I started a new job which involved travelling lots to Asia - i.e long haul. 9n 2008 for example I travelled long haul to/from Asia probably 15 times at least.

Clearly I am doing something wrong because despite collecting my "miles" on a variety of loyalty cards I have never once got an upgrade, and never once got a platinum card out of any of the schemes.

Today I called BA and spoked to somneone about this... I learnt as follows:

1. I have more than 35,000miles on my BA Executive Club card.
2. I cannot use these miles to claim an upgrrade to business class when checking in.
3. I can use the miles to claim an upgrade when buying my ticket on line or when buying on the phone.

Problem is, this is business travel, I don't buy my own tickets, our company has contracted a travelagent to do all bookings so they book the tickets. the ticket is un my name, the club card is in my name, but the truth is, it doesn' matter how much I fly with BA, I will never be able to claim an upgrade because this pre-claiming of the upgrade cannot be done by a third party.

"tier points" which are needed to get a platinum card are wiped out every march, and I narrowly missed getting one for 2008-2009 usage. but even then upgrades at check in desk would never be available apparently.

Last night I flew back from Delhi with BA. I had been up since 0700, on my feet working flat out at a trade fair from 0900 to 1800, then packing up our booth, crossing the city then in business meetings from 17.30 - midnight, before going to the airport for a 03.30 flight. by which time I had been up for 20 hours, and was very tired. Hoping to sleep on the plane, my colleague and I both asked for upgrades. He presented a Air Lingus loyalty card he has (platinum) and I presented by BA card - he got an upgrade - I didn't. HIS CARD ISN:T EVEN WITH BA!

My loyalty to BA counts for nothing. I have now instructed our travel agent never to book me on BA again.

Anyone any tips? which is the best loyalty scheme for long haul to/from Asia

ali1972

But you could still use the points to buy yourself some nice business class flights for a holiday presumably? So not totally wasted? Your loyalty (or rather your employer's) does count for something? To be honest this is the reason I use the BA executive club membership for...

simongregson

See https://www.flyertalk.com for advice on the best way to maximise the benefits of your BA card.

moonrakerz

Most of these so-called loyalty cards are the same.

Your colleague has a Platinum card with AL, you probably have a Blue card with BA. That means that he travels a huge amount of miles each year - far more than you.
The reason he got an upgrade is that passengers on BA can claim Aer Lingus miles and vice versa.

Sorry, but 15 economy class flights per annum don't come very high up the scale. The airlines are looking for people like Posh & Becks, not "oicks" like you (and me !)

I think refusing to fly BA is cutting your nose off to spite your face - I nearly always used BA - the ground staff are rubbish, but you can't fault the aircrew.
Collect your airmiles and use them as best you can, there are some reasonable value flights buried in the BA site.

neilbond007

also, if you get a BA credit card and spend over £10k a year (on the black amex) you get a free companion flight. you can use miles to "pay" for the other one. meaning 2 "free" flights.
that's what i'm doing this year!

omelette451

The answer is to travel with a proper airline and get one of their cards. The best by far (and especially for Asia) is StarAlliance - you get a card for any member airline (bmi is the British one) and are treated equally by all airlines in the group. For Asia this means ANA, Thai, Singapore, Air China (and more, including European connecting carriers such as Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines). More importantly still, unlike BA they don't discriminate against non-business class passengers (i.e. you can be upgraded to silver/gold even if you only ever fly economy). It's not a way to guarantee an upgrade for individual flights but it's much more likely than with BA.

LB1985

omelette451 wrote: »

More importantly still, unlike BA they don't discriminate against non-business class passengers (i.e. you can be upgraded to silver/gold even if you only ever fly economy). It's not a way to guarantee an upgrade for individual flights but it's much more likely than with BA.

No airline loyalty programme will take you to a higher membership tier if you only ever fly on discounted economy tickets. Most programmes operate on the basis that you receive miles (such as the original poster is accumulating) as well as some form of 'status' miles, which help you move to higher tiers within the programme (e.g. Silver/Gold). If you were to travel in full fare economy with BA, you would accumulate the miles required to move to a higher tier.

guygamps

omelette451 wrote: »

The answer is to travel with a proper airline and get one of their cards. The best by far (and especially for Asia) is StarAlliance - you get a card for any member airline (bmi is the British one) and are treated equally by all airlines in the group. For Asia this means ANA, Thai, Singapore, Air China (and more, including European connecting carriers such as Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines). More importantly still, unlike BA they don't discriminate against non-business class passengers (i.e. you can be upgraded to silver/gold even if you only ever fly economy). It's not a way to guarantee an upgrade for individual flights but it's much more likely than with BA.

Yes I have a Star Alliance card. I think part of the issue is that someone like my colleague with the AL card, is basically flying the same route repeatedly (Boston to Dublin), where as for example last year I visited..

Mumbai (x2)
Chennai (x1)
Delhi (x2)
Singapore (x1)
Beijing (x3)
Taipei (x1)
Sydney (x1)
Melbourne (x1)
Kuala Lumpur (x3)
Shangai (x1)

.... sometimes linking this together with smaller "local" airlines..

It is hard to be loyal to any one airline, and it is not that easy to be loyal even to one alliance, since the wide range of routes is not serviced by a single alliance. e.g. BA do not fly to Kuala Lumpur,.

Also, there are "sub members" of these alliances, which are hard to find out about, i.e. BMI, Virgin, and Malaysian Airlines will accept various Alliance cards even though they are not listed in that Alliance. this means that sometimes opportunities are lost to maximise the miles on whichver alliance I am using most, simply because it isn't clear that the airline I am using will actually take a star alliance or skyteam member card.

duchy

Most airlines belong to one of three alliances -I never credit my ba flights to a ba card but onto my american airlines card. You need to look and see which cards you have -and stop using more than one for each alliance to pool your points. For example although I fly using american's card-because ba are part of one world-they treat me as having the same status as their own ff-ers even though I have earned it with a different airline-I also have miles from both in one "pot".
BA are one of the worst for not giving you full milleage -other oneworld irlines will give you more-you just need to research it. Make friends with your corporate travel department-if they know you have preferences-when they can justify it (ie when it makes no price difference) they'll give you your airline of choice.
www.flyertalk.com is the best place to start finding out which alliances are best for you.

omelette451

LB1985 wrote: »

No airline loyalty programme will take you to a higher membership tier if you only ever fly on discounted economy tickets.

That's not true. With StarAlliance you can earn 'membership status miles' flying on any fare (only on SA carriers though, not partners such as Virgin), though of course the rate of accrual will vary according to the type of fare purchased. You'd have to fly a lot but it is technically possible to be upgraded to the next tier by only ever flying economy. I've never met anyone who's made gold but plenty have got silver, and bmi frequently uses this in its advertising to show how it's better, more generous, etc. than BA.

omelette451

guygamps wrote: »

Mumbai (x2)
Chennai (x1)
Delhi (x2)
Singapore (x1)
Beijing (x3)
Taipei (x1)
Sydney (x1)
Melbourne (x1)
Kuala Lumpur (x3)
Shangai (x1)

With the possible exception of Taipei, all of those are easy with StarAlliance carriers. Granted KL and Chennai are served direct from Heathrow on other carriers, but if you really wanted to build up your SA miles they're easy enough to do with connections in other cities.