Boost Your Airmiles Discussion Area

Barnabysue

Just FYI, Eurotunnel are slowly going back to being Le Shuttle as they were in the early days. Just in case there's any confusion between the names.

flathead

I am new to airmiles and was looking at ways to earn more miles. This thread has been really useful and many of you are really knowledgable. Having read many of the posts, it has made me a little wary. Can it really be difficult to get flights? My reason for starting to earn airmiles is to fly to Seattle to visit my nephew, but am I wasting my time?

Ecky-thump

Hello flathead, and welcome. It really is horses for courses! Some find it works and some find it hard to book flights. In my case it is because we don't live near to the airports they use. We don't want to travel that far away to get a flight, but maybe we are being fussy. Anyway, you had better keep trying, and keep in contact with this thread and see what others say back on this. I do know that you always have to phone them to book - no use trying to book on their website.

Any

flathead wrote: »

I am new to airmiles and was looking at ways to earn more miles. This thread has been really useful and many of you are really knowledgable. Having read many of the posts, it has made me a little wary. Can it really be difficult to get flights? My reason for starting to earn airmiles is to fly to Seattle to visit my nephew, but am I wasting my time?

It very much depends how flexible you are... If you have 2 set dates a year then chances are low, but if you are flexible and you can look at advance they increase drasticaly..

lutonmatt

flathead wrote: »

I am new to airmiles and was looking at ways to earn more miles. This thread has been really useful and many of you are really knowledgable. Having read many of the posts, it has made me a little wary. Can it really be difficult to get flights? My reason for starting to earn airmiles is to fly to Seattle to visit my nephew, but am I wasting my time?

I'm a relative newcomer to the Airmiles system but so far I've had two flights from London to Canada which were part-funded by Airmiles. I had to look a long way in advance (like 6 months) but there was plenty of availability, I booked online, and all went smoothly. With the second one we were even upgraded to World Traveller Plus, which was nice.

If you're thinking of visiting the US to see family I think collecting Airmiles is a good way to do it - I'd suggest the Airmiles Duo credit card (obviously), take advantage of bonus Clubcard points which you can exchange for Airmiles, use the current Avis offer if you need (see my post above) - you'll get there in the end! All the best.

Ecky-thump

lutonmatt wrote: »

I'm a relative newcomer to the Airmiles system but so far I've had two flights from London to Canada which were part-funded by Airmiles. I had to look a long way in advance (like 6 months) but there was plenty of availability, I booked online, and all went smoothly. With the second one we were even upgraded to World Traveller Plus, which was nice.

If you're thinking of visiting the US to see family I think collecting Airmiles is a good way to do it - I'd suggest the Airmiles Duo credit card (obviously), take advantage of bonus Clubcard points which you can exchange for Airmiles, use the current Avis offer if you need (see my post above) - you'll get there in the end! All the best.

Well, that is news to me! Booking online! I've never understood it as I always found when I got so far into it the number of airmiles needed is astronomical! Maybe they don't let me book online because they know I don't own a credit card with them!!! That's my theory, anyway...

Thanks for that info though, as it's good to learn that it is possible.
:T

lutonmatt

Ecky-thump wrote: »

Well, that is news to me! Booking online! I've never understood it as I always found when I got so far into it the number of airmiles needed is astronomical! Maybe they don't let me book online because they know I don't own a credit card with them!!! That's my theory, anyway...

Thanks for that info though, as it's good to learn that it is possible.
:T

Yeah, it was a while back so I can't remember exactly, but I think I put in the flight details and then it took me to a page showing the availability and cost for each leg of the flight. I manage the account online and it all worked out fine. Did a Eurostar booking too, but I had to call about that one.

Everynamestaken

Hi, I am new to collecting air miles, so apologies if I don't sound too knowledgeable on the subject (probably because I am not), but I have recently done a fair bit of travelling. Uk to Sydney, Sydney to Uk, Uk back Sydney and vice versa, so it seems sense to collect air miles.
I am going to sign upto airmiles.com and also currently have an Etihad guest card. A lot of my flying has been done in the past 3 months on Etihad and virgin domestic flights throughout aus, so I can claim my missing miles with all my Etihad flights and Virgin flights as they are partners?

I have read most of the terms and conditions, but obviously with such knowledgeable people at hand on here, I thought I would ask if there's any advice you can give me.

blindman

Everynamestaken wrote: »

Hi, I am new to collecting air miles, so apologies if I don't sound too knowledgeable on the subject (probably because I am not), but I have recently done a fair bit of travelling. Uk to Sydney, Sydney to Uk, Uk back Sydney and vice versa, so it seems sense to collect air miles.
I am going to sign upto airmiles.com and also currently have an Etihad guest card. A lot of my flying has been done in the past 3 months on Etihad and virgin domestic flights throughout aus, so I can claim my missing miles with all my Etihad flights and Virgin flights as they are partners?

I have read most of the terms and conditions, but obviously with such knowledgeable people at hand on here, I thought I would ask if there's any advice you can give me.

Methinks you are confusing airmiles with Frequent Flyer miles?

Look at Flyertalk for the latter

NonGeographicalMan

lutonmatt wrote: »

Noticed this on the Airmiles website yesterday:

750 bonus Airmiles

Get enough miles for a free flight from London when you hire a car with Avis for three days or more – and book and pick up your car by 31 March 2011.

Has to be a group C and above - a quick search revealed that you can get a group C car (e.g. Nissan Note) for £51 for three days, at least for the dates and venue I looked at, and if you pay in advance. That's a really decent deal - about £75 worth of Airmiles for a £51 outlay.

I also rang them about it to ask if this was limited to one rental per person and the bloke said that he didn't see any restrictions, so presumably you could do it several times if you felt so inclined...

Link is here: https://www.airmiles.co.uk/collect/avis/avis-car-rental

Hope that helps someone!

Gatwick to Aberdeen on FlyBe is only 750 Air Miles and availability is there on various dates in the next couple of weeks. I suppose its almost tempting to have a three day trip but I suppose the hotels, car hire and fuel are going to cost me at least another £200.

Its a pity the offer isn't valid until say May or June.

I see Dublin is also in the 750 Air Miles list. Perhaps more appealing as I have never been to Eire (went to Belfast for a 2 day business trip once). Or may be Londonderry for the Giants causeway.....

Scottish islands are nice but it really needs to be May or later to get the most out of them.

EDIT:- Just checking this further its a classic example of those routes that do and do not have decent Air Miles availability. Basically if you want to go from Heathrow to Aberdeen any time in March then this is a route with fabulous Air Miles availability with about 6 flights a day all of which are available to Air Miles customers. By contrast on Gatwick to Inverness BA and FlyBe both have a couple of flights per day but there seems to be no availability and I can't get the all month route planner to appear with any date selection for love or money - instead I just get offered cash fares on two single dates despite selecting that my dates were flexible. Same thing with Heathrow to Dublin. As surely the flight capacity must be roughly equal to demand I find this vast incompatibility in availability on different routes really very hard to explain.