Loyalty Miles

feefee3651

My Hubby and I went to Australia this year to visit our son and earned 10,000 & 11,500 mile respectively with Emirates

Want to return next year so went on the site Glasgow to Mackay £1094 Remebered about the loyalty miles so logged in, Glasgow to Mackay no Glasgow to Brisbane Do not have enough points need another 25,000 but can purchase them for $40 per 1,000 About £750 and with taxes and charges a further £530 total of £1280
Can someone please explain what's loyal about that:(

budgetflyer

Loyalty isn't "buy one get one free"
if you bought the same flights again, then you would earn another 21500 miles and only need to top up about 3000 miles - $120.
Buy 4 or5 get one free sounds about right. Always + taxes.

redpete

Did you really expect to earn enough point on a flight to get the same flight for free?

fifeken

It's worse than you think.

For Emirates to take you from Glasgow to Brisbane would be a minimum of 78,750 miles (one way only) or a minimum of 90,000 miles for a return, assuming there was availability.

If you're not going to earn enough in the three and a bit years until your miles expire, Emirates have a partnership with Easyjet where you can spend miles on Easyjet flights. This could be better than losing them altogether.

I can only imagine the 25,000 miles figure has come from the maximum that can be purchased in any one year which wouldn't help you out in your situation.

Even of you were thinking of combining the two accounts to get you closer to one "free" ticket, there is also a charge for this.

feefee3651

No I didn't expect to get one free but I didn't think it would cost me £300 more per flight than not using points
Online price Glasgow to Mackay £1094
Using Loyalty points Glasgow to Brisbane £1280

Will have a look at using them with EasyJet thanks for the info

marsman802

You are not comparing the same ticket, however.

With BA all air miles tickets are actually refundable (with a small fee) so they are not actually normal tickets.

If we assume the same is with Emirates then you are not comparing apples with apples.

Search that same flight but looking for at least a semi-flexible ticket and that will be the true comparison.

I found this on the Emirates website:-

What are the differences between a Skywards Saver flight reward and a Skywards Flex flight reward?
Saver rewards offer you exceptional value when travelling in lower-demand periods or when you are willing to choose alternative flights to reach your destination.
offered on a return basis only, in all classes of travel
allow a maximum stay of 3 months
permit one stopover on your journey
changes to travel dates after the ticket has been issued incur a fee of USD 25
cancelling an unused ticket incurs a fee of USD 75
Flex rewards provide you full flexibility when making your travel plans. They cost more Skywards Miles than Saver rewards but they offer you more seat availability during high demand periods and on high demand flights.
offered on a return and one-way basis, in all classes of travel
allow stays of up to one year
permit up to two stopovers
changes to travel dates can be made at any time without charge
cancelling an unused Flex reward ticket incurs a fee of USD 50

ferf1223

it's also not really fair to compare using price which includes the cost of buying that many miles, I don't think...as far as I know, buying miles isn't normally a cost-effective option unless you're pretty close with what you have earned and just need to top up...otherwise people would just buy and use miles all the time.

marsman802

Correct - they are best bought when on sale or special bonus periods.

e.g. Avios @ BA are currently paying up to 30% free when you buy up to 24,000.

claire16c

Yes loyalty miles are for loyalty not go on one flight and then pay tuppence. Buying miles is usually a useful option if you're missing a few especially if there's an offer on them when you buy.

I went to Hawaii in business class last year, all I paid was around £300 in taxes, probably would have been around £3k normally! But I had to take more than one flight to get that!

You also need to maximise your miles, I earn more on a credit card I have and earn points for staying in certain hotels.

Obviously_the_best

You need something like this

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/skywards/about/partners/banks/mbna.aspx

Unless you already have one.

fifeken

Obviously_the_best wrote: »

You need something like this

http://www.emirates.com/uk/english/skywards/about/partners/banks/mbna.aspx

It might be handy to top miles up, but unless you are putting company spends or something really significant on it, it's unlikely to make the miles for a trip as described.