air miles

[stephentaylor 54]

I fly to thailand 3 times a year. somebody mentioned about getting air miles counted to some sort of discount. Any body know how do get them counted to do this.

[alexist 12]

I'm looking into this myself. Think you have to register with an airline that gives airmiles. I'm probably gonna go with Emirates cos they are affiliated to one or two American airlines so you are not just stuck with one area of travel. I know you can find cheaper flights/airlines but Emirates are a decent carrier and their prices are reasonable. Your miles last for three years from issue and can be used for free flights and/or upgrades.

As said it limits your choices but if you find an airline and route you like why not stick with them and get a bonus or two. Hope this helps in some way and good luck.

[mister_handy 124]

Your miles last for three years from issue and can be used for free flights and/or upgrades.

 

Most of the US-based ones, the miles are good 3 years from your most recent flight, rather than the flight where you earned the miles - so as long as you fly that airline or alliance once every three years, you keep the miles.

 

Also, most major US/European and a good number (but not as many) of the Asian airlines are in one of the three big alliances:

Oneworld - American, Cathay, LAN, Qantas, British Airways, Finnair and about to be adding Malev, Royal Jordanian, and JAL

Star Alliance - United, Lufthansa, Singapore, others

SkyTeam - Delta, Air France, not sure who else

 

And in general if you belong to the program for any one of the airlines in an alliance you can get at least some miles for flying any of the other airlines in an alliance. For example, I usually fly Cathay Pacific to Asia and earn most of my miles that way, but have my miles on American.

 

It's about 8000 miles to LOS from the US (I think slightly shorter from western europe) but around that, or 16000 round trip. A free ticket to Asia is 70k-75k miles. So even without status with the airline, you earn one free trip after every five. Flying 3 trips to Asia from the US is about enough to earn most airlines "second tier" frequent flier (50,000 total miles per year usually) which gives you doubled miles as a bonus. So with that, it's one free trip to Asia every two and a half trips.

[gaprau25 0]

I belong to 2 "loyalty programs" (frequent flyer programs). One is Northwest (and KLM). The other is Star Alliance (through ANA airways in Japan, in my case). In both cases, the VAST majority of miles I collect is not from flying, but by using my credit card. And you should be doing this too!

 

With Northwest, I have a credit card from Citibank. Every time I use 100yen (about a dollar US, give or take), I get one mile. Given that everything here is so bloody expensive, I rack up miles pretty fast. And from Japan, I can fly round trip for 20,000miles economy, or 30,000 on business! In fact, I paid for my masters degree on that card, so when I finished, I also had a free trip abroad waiting for me!

 

My Star Alliance points come from a credit card I got directly from All Nippon Airways (ANA). Same deal -- 100 yen = 1 mile. With ANA (or any airline in Star Alliance), the cost to fly within Asia is at least double, between 40,000miles and 45,000 miles, depending on which carrier you use (with Star Alliance, you can fly with any airline you want that belongs to the alliance).

 

So with NW, it takes fewer miles to fly, but you have only 1 flight a day to book on, and the flight times are shite. With Star Alliance, you get reamed with the high cost of miles, but you can choose from over a dozen flights a day. Very convenient, indeed. And since Thai Airlines is a Star Alliance member, I can fly with them and oogle the stewardesses. (Although Singapore Airline is much better in that regard!!).

 

So get thee a frequent flyer associated credit card at once and stop paying for travel!

[player 1]

I'm not aware of any direct discount.

 

On a related issue, is the airline you fly to Thailand still rewarding miles at 100% of the miles flown on their frequent flyer program?

 

The reason I asked is that China Airlines have lowered the miles rewarded to 80% of actual miles traveled since June 2006. So instead of getting credited with 13,200 miles in their frequent flyer program, now only get 11,500 for round trip.

 

Apparantly they do this for the less expensive economy tickets booked via internet and such. They claim that they lowered some other thresholds to offset this.

 

Just wondering if other airlines are also trying to erode their frequent flyer programs like this.

[mister_handy 124]

On a related issue, is the airline you fly to Thailand still rewarding miles at 100% of the miles flown on their frequent flyer program?

<...>

Just wondering if other airlines are also trying to erode their frequent flyer programs like this.

 

Yes.

 

For AA miles earned:

* American gives 100% of the miles on all their own flights or codeshares with AA flight numbers.

* Cathay gives 100% of the AA miles on their own flights but only in H class or higher - cheap classes (most of their cheaper deals are in K) earn 0 AA miles. Most of those classes earn fraction miles on their own Asia Miles program.

* JAL (not in Oneworld yet, but about to be - rumor has the exact date as of 1 April) is 50% of the miles in most of the cheap classes (M is the usual one I hit). Don't know how their own JMB (Jal Mileage Bank?) program works.

* Qantas also only gives fractional AA miles for cheaper fares, but I don't recall the percentages or even what their own program is called.

 

http://flyertalk.com/ is great for this information

[brotherbuzz 3,206]

Most of the US-based ones, the miles are good 3 years from your most recent flight, rather than the flight where you earned the miles - so as long as you fly that airline or alliance once every three years, you keep the miles.

 

It doesn't have to be flown miles. They don't care how you obtain the miles, they just care that you stay active for the timeframe they set for activity before the miles expire. CC activity or any promotion that puts miles in your account keeps it active.

 

Player,

 

EVA lowered it to 80% on the deep discount flights.

[phantomtiger 0]

Air miles also depends on which class of ticket was purchased. "y" class =economy with no restrictions will get 100% miles but discounted fares often get no miles or discounted miles.

[MrMango 672]

It is not only the miles that are important.

 

I used to fly Eva, and after 2 trips, I could get priority check in (Business class or first class check in line) and use their lounge in Taipei for the several hour layover - Free food and booze in a nice comfortable room).

 

My advise is join them all, but try to use one airline when convenient to get your free perks.

[BigDUSA 71]

I fly 50K paid miles a year with United and I'm a Premier Executive in their FF program. I get 50% mileage bonus because of my status with them. I get on the plane first and I have use of the Red Carpet Club when I fly international. If I was an ordinary member of the FF program I'd draw only the actual miles flown and this apllies to the cheapest ticket UA sells. I can use my UA miles on any Star Alliance Airline.

[Guest Belem]

United Airlines Announces Important Change to Its Mileage Plus Frequent Flyer Program

 

 

CHICAGO, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- United Airlines today announced that Mileage Plus frequent flyer miles that are in accounts which are inactive for 18 months will expire. By shortening the amount of time a Mileage Plus account can remain inactive, United's most loyal customers will compete with fewer people for award seats, making it easier for them to redeem their miles.

 

 

United Airlines Announces Important Change to Its Mileage Plus Frequent Flyer Program

[Skate 9]

NWA has a nice Elite program starting at 25,000 miles a year. Not only do you get extra miles,

but if you fly in the states and first class seats have not sold, they upgrade you to 1st for free.

 

Since they filed chapter I started burning miles. Two free trips to LOS so far this year. They

put me on Korean there partner. The only thing I don't like is Korean put me in the back of the

bus. I have tried many times to move up. Oh well its free.