Consolidators or frequent flyer miles?

[bk_boiler 1]

well......

[Emil 0]

BK,

 

I would recommend signing up with United Airlines and American Airlines at least.  They don't cost anything to join.  United Airlines is part of Star Alliance and American is part of One World Alliance.  As an example when I fly Cathay Pacific or JAL, I earn American Airline miles.  American doesn't fly into Bangkok but they let me redeem AA miles to fly on Cathay Pacific.  Cathay requires 70K miles for a free flight to LOS, but in the past they have had promotions that only required 45K.  United requires 60K for a free flight but BigD told me that they have had promotions that only required 40K.  Once your a member of these mileage programs you'll find out that there are numerous other ways to earn miles, i.e. credit cards, phone service and even breakfast cereal to name a few.  These are good programs to take advantage of as I get 1 free flight to LOS a year.

 

Emil

[Emil 0]

BK,

 

You changed your question as I was answering your 1st question.  Sometimes the consolidator deal without miles is a better deal but it has to be significantly cheaper because 3 flights with miles will get you a free one.  As I mentioned above, there are many ways to earn miles for example last year I got a phone call asking me if I wanted to sign up for a credit card, I told them no, they said they would give me 20K United miles, I said sign me up.  You also earn 1 mile for every $ spent.  A month latter another call asking me if I would change my long distance carrier to Sprint, I said no, they said 6K United miles and I said change me over.  Also 1 mile for every $ spent.  A month latter United was giving double miles on their flights to LOS, I booked online (for 1K bonus) earned the reqular 17K plus the 17K bonus.  Total miles earned 61K+ for 1 flight taken and 1 free flight.

 

Emil

[BigDUSA 71]

With United I fly 50K per year and I get double miles. I pay for 2 and the third one is free. This trip I flew free and cheap charley likes the word free. I'm in Pattaya now for 2 months and I'm having a great time. I got my clock cleaned on soi six last night. ;D

[mister_handy 124]

For me the big benefit of FF miles is getting Elite status -- better seat assignments in coach, shorter lines, better treatment... which requires that I stick with one Airline and it's alliance partners... American in my case, although if I had to start again I might well switch to Screwnited.

[Cumcannon 0]

Wow, sounds like the way to go, and thanks for the reponse by the way.  I'll have to investistigate alot more.  

 

I did some prelim research and it sounds a little tricky.  Cathy's deal for winter and spring doesn't allow the use of miles accumulated from their specials.  China air requires 100,000 ff miles before you get a free ride on their bird.  Korean air sounds attractive with their affiliation with delta and aeromexico (rio!) but don't list their sky pass details online in regards to reward flights to bkk.  I'll have to dig a little deeper into AA, United, Eva, Philippine, and Korean.  I'll apply for all the main airlines, but plan to stick with one since I don't think I'll travel more than 2x (3 max) a year.

 

Not quite correct.  With Cathay Pacific specials you do not AAdvantage miles but you do earn Asia Miles as you do with a ticket purchased by a consolidator.(www.asiamiles.com)

[Emil 0]

pat,

 

I had a friend of mine buy a new Lexus about 4 years ago.  Haggled for the normal hour plus on the price and when they finally agreed to the price and they then asked him how he was going to pay he gave them his credit card.  Needless to say they were not to happy.  ;D

 

Emil

[Zeus 56]

I use NW for my LOS trips and there are plusses and minuses.  The biggest plus is that the miles get me free upgrades for US travel, and bonus miles for elite levels (easy to get once you go to the LOS).

 

Economy rates that earn miles tend to fluctuate between $700 - $900 throughout the year, usually with a spring and fall sale that takes it down to the $600 -$700 range.   Once I did get a $398 RT fare during the SARS affected spring of last year - and earned miles.

 

When counting the elite bonus miles , two paid economy flights will get enough FF miles for a free economy trip(60K miles).  Better yet, three paid economy flights will get enough miles for a free round trip in business class (90K miles).  I recently booked an award for Nov 2004 in Business class, and when I checked what it would cost if I had paid - it came to $3497!  So I ended up paying less than $2000 for 4 round trips to the LOS (3 econonomy, and 1 business), that had a total value of over $5K.  I still had 10K miles left over.

 

As with most FF programs, award seats to BKK are at a premium (especially business class seats), and the ability to plan ahead is needed to secure the seats.  This is why I reserved my seats for November 2004 now.  Flexible travel dates also is helpful, but if planned far enough in advance you can usually get the seats you want.    Taking a trip on short notice with miles is difficult if not impossible.

 

This philosiphy really applies to many other FF programs, the point is to select one program and stick with it.  I would choose one that you can also use for your non-LOS travel.  Just find one that fits your travel patterns best.

 

Zeus

[sparkey1 0]

You Americans are plain lucky , I can't find any airmile deals as good as these in England. Eva want 100,000

miles.thats approximately 8 round trips.Klm is the same

last time I knew. BA only pay a quarter of the airmiles if you book at a reduced fare .The fare I paid was only 40 quid cheaper than the fare on their website.All I got was a lousy 2998 miles .Their amex credit card pay a mile a pound so i would have to pay  80000 gbp on it to qualify.

 

Any Brits out there Know the best Direct carrier for

airmiles .The only one I haven't tried now is thai.

 

Or maybe I should just get a transfer to the us.

[Emil 0]

great information.  Do I understand this correctly, if you are to cash in your FF miles to get a free economy class ticket, you have to book months in advance in order to secure it?  Also, is becoming a elite member the goal because it allow you to accrue FF mile more easily somehow?  Ed mentioned that you get better seat assignments in coach, shorter lines, better treatment, but this isn't as important to me as is earning a free flight and saving money.  I'm a thin man with patience, I can wait the lines and sit in coach.

 

I'm not an expert on this, but I think it depends on their load factor.  The two times that I've had free flights (United and Cathay) I booked a little less than 2 months in advance, but I didn't try for anything shorter.  Regarding your question about status, with United once you pay and fly a certain amount of miles then the following miles are earned at 125%, if you pay and fly even more then the following miles are earned at 200%.  I don;t know what those mileage levels are, maybe 25k and 50k.  Received an email from United yesterday thanking me for my patronage last year (2 R/T's to LOS) and said they were crediting my acount with an additional 2500 miles.

 

Emil

[Imacze 0]

You Americans are plain lucky , I can't find any airmile deals as good as these in England. Eva want 100,000

miles.thats approximately 8 round trips.Klm is the same

last time I knew. BA only pay a quarter of the airmiles if you book at a reduced fare .The fare I paid was only 40 quid cheaper than the fare on their website.All I got was a lousy 2998 miles .Their amex credit card pay a mile a pound so i would have to pay  80000 gbp on it to qualify.

 

Any Brits out there Know the best Direct carrier for

airmiles .The only one I haven't tried now is thai.

 

Or maybe I should just get a transfer to the us.

 

Sparkey,

 

Do check out www.staralliance.com Star alliance is a group of airlines that will let you use FF miles on any of the member airlines. The benefits are great. You can choose one of the member airlines as your regular one and accumulate miles when you fly any airline in the group. Thai Air is a member and so is Lufthansa. Emirates is a mileage partner as well.

 

I have been a member since a year and have about 70K miles in my account now. Saving for a free trip in March. Like the others have done, you can apply for a visa card through them and get 15K miles free and a mile for every dollar you spend.

 

Cheers

Ian

[Zeus 56]

Regarding advance booking for FF award tickets - Advance planning gives you more choices, especially when you want to travel around high traffic times.  The Nov 04 trip I reserved in business class, already has one of the flights that is booked (for FF award).  No coincidence that it is the one right after Thanksgiving weekend.  If you are traveling during the low season and mid week, less advance would be needed.

 

Zeus

[jte 1]

BK:

Last year I flew 50,000 miles with united so I am at what they call the "premier Exec" level. I fly from Orlando Florida.

Flight Miles:   20,912

Bonus miles: 20,912

Book on-line: 1,000

                   ----------

                  42,824

I also get 8 500 mile upgrades that convert to miles if not used in 1 year.

Unused upgrades: 2,000

My total mile for this trip that I paid $860

44, 824

 

Saver awards to Bkk are 60,000 miles (limited availability)

Standard award 100,000 (when they have any seat available)

On the saver award I can fly 3 and get 2 free! Not to bad if you’re going to be flying anyway. I can also reserve economy plus seats (extra legroom and just enough recline that your head does not flop around for 10 hours when you try to sleep after partying for 2 weeks). I can also pre-book the Exit row seats, shorter check-in lines, seating priority (which is nice because you get to the overhead bins before the other guys), and priority tags on luggage (you can check 3 instead of 2 also) My bag was the 3rd off of the plane in BKK (not bad for a 747).

Pretty good perks for taking flights I was going to take anyway.

Jim

[snips_whispers 0]

reads like you americans have it easy with the f/flyer program.

 

seems like they throwing miles at you. :-[

[highlander 0]

i agree looks like the americans are lucky, as a gold card member with klm getting 50%extra flyer miles per trip  i still need 5 flights to get one free flight to los.. cheers bj

[flibble 0]

Qatar Airways ff miles from the UK isn't too bad a deal, and even though it might take you 3 or 4 trips for a freebie, just being a member lets you check in at the business class desk, increases your luggage weight allowance and increases your chance of getting bumped up to business class if they're full. Speaking of which I just got a good deal last week. They were full coming back from from BKK, so I volunteered to miss the flight - got two nights in a 5 star in BKK and a free return flight anytime within the next year as compensation  ;D

[Shilo 371]

I might as well jump in here with what I have been doing around ff miles 8)

 

I only fly with Northwest and after 4 trips last year they now have me listed as Platinum Elite [smiley=angel.gif]

 

This means that I get to board the plane first, get First Class upgrades on the domestic legs of the trips, have a "special" phone number to service reps, and other perks that I haven't gotten around to using yet. But the biggy is 2 1/4 bonus miles for every mile I fly. Which means that I earn 3/4 of a free trip for every trip I pay for [smiley=grins-jump.gif] I also have a credit card that earns miles and everything goes on that card... EVERYTHING: food, gas, phone bill, electric bill, cable...everything. Somehow it doesn't hurt as much when I fill the auto tank and know that I just got 15 miles closer to LOS when I pay the tab  

 

But I don't use the miles and don't plan to for a very very long time. So far I have 180K miles in the bank, good enough for 3 free trips. By the end of this year it'll be up to about 300K (or 5 trips) and in the years to come... who knows.

 

I know that I take a risk, the number of miles needed for a trip might go up, the airline might go under, or who knows what. But I don't spend a lot of time trying to plan for the unknown.

 

What I do know is that I plan to retire in LOS in 59 months, one week, and about 3days. On a healthy but never-the less fixed income. And I am pretty sure that airfares are going to rise again at some point. Either because of more flyers or fews airlines... something has to give.

 

Just like the good old 401K (which I'm pround to say was up a whopping 40.1% last year with a 75/25 stock/bond mix) I'm banking away those miles for the future [smiley=1luvu.gif]

 

Shilo

[Emil 0]

Shilo,

 

Are you saying that with Northwest you will be in Platinum Elite status from now on.  With United you have to earn this status each calendar year and it is good until the end of February of the following year.

 

Emil

[kjvegas 2]

 I only fly Eva, they have the best looking flight attendants. ;D  I use my miles for the free upgrades on the long haul flights.  15,000 miles I can fly in Evergreen Deluxe on one long haul flight.  Once a year I pay a little extra and book Evergreen Deluxe and get 125% miles.  I usually have enough to always fly in Evergreen Deluxe on the long haul flights.

 I have 60,000 miles on NWA but will still fly Eva to LOS.  I got NWA 60,000 miles flying to New York 2 or 3 times a year to see family.  I just returned from New York and froze my nuts off, still had a ball and ate good pizza. :)

cheers

kj

[Shilo 371]

The Northwest FF Miles Game:

 

They have 3 levels:

 

Silver at 25,000 miles (reward 1.5 miles)

Gold at 50,000 miles (reward 2.0 miles)

Plat  at 75,000 miles (reward 2.25 miles)

 

Only the flown miles count towards the Elite Status but a round trip to LOS from my home is just under 19,000 miles so it adds up quick. I make about 3-4 trips per year. I book through Angel Travel and it cost about $760 in the offseason and $1025 during peak. The miles you rack up this year determine your E-status for all of the next year...

 

So here is the math for this year (2004)

 

2 trips at $760 and 2 trips at $1025 = $3570

19000 miles x 4 trips x 2.25 per mile = 171,000 miles

add another 12-16K per yr on with credit card use and I'm above 180K for the year. And 60K will get you a free trip.

 

Shilo  

[Emil 0]

Shilo,

 

If you weren't saving your miles for retirement, the best strategy a person  should use would be to use the free trips in one year instead of using them as you reach the 60K level.  This would enable you to reach the higher status and earn more miles as long as one doesn't have a cash flow problem.

 

Emil

[Soi_6_Slider 0]

Shilo-

Dumb question here guessing you don't earn FF miles on any reward flights?

 

So I see your game. Basically keeping yourself in super duper eilte and racking up the FF miles at 2.25 per mile. I can understand your wanting to continue to see the pile grow...

 

Yea just hope NW doesn't go under.  :'(

[Zeus 56]

I'm another NW Platinum  Elite - Gained from all those LOS trips + a little domestic.

 

This year a couple of my LOS flights will be using up my award miles.  If you can get it, an extra 30K miles is well worth a RT business class seat (90K vs 60K miles).  As I won't be getting miles for the award travel, I'll be lucky to make gold elite this year.  But there's always next year, and I don't plan on stopping trips to Thailand!

 

Zeus