Frequent Flier Programmes

Rosemarie_2

I would be grateful if someone could explain how to claim air miles. I travel up to 6 times a year and have never claimed air miles. Last year I registered with United Airlines but I don't always travel with them and this is what I'm confused about because I always shop around for the cheapest deal. Do I need to ensure that I use a particular credit card to book my flights? If so, which cards offer air miles? Help, I'm confused about how this works and would really appreciate hearing from someone who fully understands this! Thanks in anticipation.

blindman

Register at Flyertalk and ask there.

It can be a complicated topic!

Cheapest deal usually means zero or very few airmiles.

Even if you get a decent amount you may not be able to use them!!

sassycat

Most airlines belong to a group scheme. eg British Airways are part of OneWorld, Continental belong to Skyteam. When you join an airlines frequent flyer programme you will also earn points when you travel with other airlines who are part of that group. Points can also be earned by other partners such as hotels, car hire etc. Each airline will explain how their system works if you look on their websites. Tesco clubcard points can be converted to either airmiles or BA executive club miles to earn free flights. Obviously to build up a substantial number of miles it pays to be loyal to a particular 'group' or scheme if you have a choice of who you are goig to fly with. Hope all this makes sense!!:rolleyes:

JoseChungsDoomsday

united is part of star alliance which includes BMI. IMO switch to BMI and take out their credit card (united have a uk card to but it's very poor) to get 20000 free miles.

myteeduck

hi i work in airmiles customer services and the concept is very difficult to explain. but ill try for you! airmiles is NOT a frequent flyers scheme, its a loyalty programme. all you need to do is set up an account on the airmiles website (www.airmiles.co.uk) under the join up section. there you will be given a 16 digit membership number. you will then recieve a welcome pack through the post (can take a while sometimes). the new pack will explain in more details). Then when you start to shop with tesco (through the clubcard scheme) you can convert your vouchers to airmiles (£2.50 in vouchers is 60 airmiles). or you can open a lloyds duo card (do it throught the airmiles website and the first time you spend £10 on the american express card AIRMILES not lloyds will credit your account with a bonus 500 airmiles, which is approximately enough for a return trip to PARIS!!!!!! after than you would get 1 mile for every 10 spent on the AMEX (doing everyday shoping) and you also get a mastercard with you get 1 miles for every £50 spent on it.

could go in to it further but the website will probably explain it easier!
any questions just pm me and ill gladly reply!

myteeduck

also Airmiles is a part of British airways so we are there loyalty scheme. Baa worldpoints is there frequent flyer scheme. Airmiles can be collected almost every where now by all people and they can send you around the world, free, (all you did to earn the points was did normal shopping with normal companies!) like i said, if you need it in more deatil just email me!

duchy

It really does help to try and stick to one carrier where you can but also which alliance they belong to.
For example I've earned miles this year with AA but also BA which all went onto my AA card -flying Iberia would also add miles
My second card is with Continental -Virgin are a part of their alliance so again Virgin flights go into my CO pot. I cam also earn miles from Delta.
I get the best fares direct from AA's own website-you do need to be careful with booking through consolidators like expedia etc as not all their fares are miles earning-some are but not all.
I second the suggestion to hop over to flyertalk and read and read some more -there's a wealth of useful info. Thanks to various posts there I actually managed two return tickets to Las Vegas last year after learning about "bumps" and how best to get them and miles plus cash (the cash part was paid for with my bump voucher) for zero outlay of cash.

IvanOpinion

Can I say that I have never found 'airmiles' to be cost efficient. On several occasions I have looked up the airmiles site and found that they offer 'deals' for XXX airmiles plus £YYY whereas with a little bit of searching I can usually match or beat the £YYY price without using my airmiles ... so I have yet to spend any of the airmiles I have collected (very slowly|) over the years.

Ivan

littlemissneve

I've used airmiles and frequent flyer miles lots over the last year or two

I'm currently in the Airmiles programme and use my tesco clubcard points and transfer them as airmiles. That process is really slow to build up any number of points that get you anywhere. Myself and my parents have actually combined all our accounts to a house account to try and do it quicker. In saying that though I was able to book a return flight to Boston USA with airmiles and then just paying ~£64 taxes. I've noticed that you have to book early to get the dates you want and unfortunately you are unable to book a one way flight

Another one I've used is Nectar points, you are able to get them from lots of retailers and build them up quickly. You then book your flights through ebookers and if you don't have enought points you are able to pay a certain amount in points and a certain amount in cash which will make it cheaper. It gives you an option of a number of airlines to use and the best thing is you can book a one way flight so I was able to book a one way flight to Boston with them and pay the money for a return to which is always cheaper.

I'm also with Continental One pass scheme which is part of sky team and I'm able to build up a lot of miles very quickly (eg about 20000 in about 5 months). You get 500 just by booking your flight on their site and then the miles you fly, plus they have a number of other airlines (Delta, Northwest, Virgin, Flybe etc..) hotels (hilton, Mariott, Confort Inn etc...) and car hire places (Budget, Avis, etc..) where you can can a lot more miles by using although you may have to join the hotel's loyaly point scheme and tick the box on the application that you want your points converted to air miles.

With Continental one pass I've been able to get a return flight from Boston to Costa Rica for £16 taxes, you can only book a return flight but they don't seem to have any black out dates or limitations. I've also had a complementary upgrade to first class from Boston to Seattle on Northwestern, spent 20000 miles to get a transatlantic first class upgrade and been upgraded to exec suites in hotels because of the programme.

I've been with BA's & BMI's programme and find that the Sky team one is so much better as I'm able to build up my miles really quickly and they always have deals on where if you hire a car for 4 days you get an extra 1000 miles etc...