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Air Miles



poidy

Well-known member
Aug 3, 2009
1,842
Read a few articles lately about purchasing air miles online and subsequently redeeming them with that particular airline.

The message is extremely cheap long haul flights (often in first class) for a snippet of the price of a directly purchased ticket.

Has anyone else got any experience of doing this?

From past experience, when something seems too good to be true it usually is.


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Bakero

Languidly clinical
Oct 9, 2010
13,679
Almería
[MENTION=15277]kingcole[/MENTION]

There was a thread on air miles yesterday. Kingcole seems to be a bit of an expert.
 












Jul 7, 2003
8,571
From experience, most airlines make it extremely difficult to actually spend miles that you've earned with them.

Some schemes work better than others. Long Haul rewards are generally more difficult to get than short haul.

Avios (formerly Air Miles) is probably the most flexible of all as you can spend on various things not just flights. This is used by British Airways and Flybe amongst others. You can easily switch points between BA Executive Club and Avios as they don't always offer the same options.

Miles And More - the Star Alliance scheme (Lufthansa, Swiss, United and many more) - is also quite good in so much as there are other spending options. I recently exchanged a load of Miles and More points for Heathrow Rewards which gave me a nice down payment on some noise cancelling headphones.
 


1901Phil

Member
Feb 1, 2012
97
Tunbridge Wells
I have a Amex BA premium credit card which gives me avios points for all my purchases.
One difficulty in redeeming these for flights is the small number of seats available for "reward" flights.
I am retired so can be very flexible over dates.
Lat year I managed to get business class out to Seattle and back from San Francisco for under £450 return
 




1234andcounting

Well-known member
Mar 31, 2008
1,609
Damn. I thought this was another thread about an obscure European player who was on our radar. Sorry for bothering everyone.
 


Wrong-Direction

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2013
13,395
Using my American express and tesco club card converts points into air miles, think I've got about 40,000 atm, used um to go first class to Switzerland few years back, don't know if it's really worth it as you still have to pay 30 quid duties on top of your free ticket

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Rugrat

Well-known member
Mar 13, 2011
10,212
Seaford
Having worked in the business .............

If you fly a lot, particularly in Premium cabins and on a silver/gold card then they are great value if you can book well in advance

Collecting by spending only is less attractive (indeed not worth it vs other reward mechanisms imo) but the airline loves it as the vast majority are never redeemed but the retailer/card business still pays for them. If you have a decent expense turnover then double dipping by using an airline credit card in hotels and car hire does accelerate the collection rate and can be a decent approach.

If you don't fly much or spend £'000's on a card I wouldn't bother
 




Mr Putdown

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2004
2,899
Christchurch
From experience, most airlines make it extremely difficult to actually spend miles that you've earned with them.

I saved enough for two return flights to Australia but actually managing to book these when I wanted to travel proved impossible in two years of trying.

Ended up spunking the whole lot on a holiday in France.
 


Rugrat

Well-known member
Mar 13, 2011
10,212
Seaford
I saved enough for two return flights to Australia but actually managing to book these when I wanted to travel proved impossible in two years of trying.

Ended up spunking the whole lot on a holiday in France.

Typically Oz will have blackout dates for all of Dec/Jan ... and then very limited availability at other times. Points junkies are all over these popular destinations often booking multiple routes on the day they are released (nearly a year in advance) and then cancelling those they don't want once they've decided what they want to do. The airlines recognise it but as they are their most frequent travellers (hence having so many points/miles) they don't do anything about it
 


dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Mar 27, 2013
52,006
Burgess Hill
Typically Oz will have blackout dates for all of Dec/Jan ... and then very limited availability at other times. Points junkies are all over these popular destinations often booking multiple routes on the day they are released (nearly a year in advance) and then cancelling those they don't want once they've decided what they want to do. The airlines recognise it but as they are their most frequent travellers (hence having so many points/miles) they don't do anything about it

True enough.....with BA, if you have a gold/silver card I've found it's quite a bit easier as sometimes appears that additional reward seats will be released for you. Flexibility on your travel dates and booking way ahead will give you a much higher chance of getting the flights you want. I've managed to get 4 x premium economy seats to Florida in the school holidays in the recent past using Avios. Also used Avios for a trip in business class to St Lucia last summer - there wasn't great availability, but we were a bit flexible on dates and length of holiday so ended up doing 10 days (think it was Mon-Thurs) which was about what we wanted.

I've never booked and cancelled (other than having to due to other issues) but can understand why people might do that to secure what they might want - although you pay the tax up front, this and the Avios are refunded pretty much in full if you cancel - although an admin charge has been introduced in the last couple of years it isn't enough to deter people doing that I guess.
 




Bozza

You can change this
Helpful Moderator
Jul 4, 2003
55,575
Back in Sussex
From experience, most airlines make it extremely difficult to actually spend miles that you've earned with them.

Not at all. I've posted quite a lot on my use of Virgin miles on the thread linked to elsewhere here.

....and as I type this I'm on the phone to book 4 * Premium Ecnomy returns to Orlando with Virgin flying out next week, all using miles. About £9000 worth of flights for a hell of a lot less than that!
 


Cowfold Seagull

Fan of the 17 bus
Apr 22, 2009
21,578
Cowfold
Using my American express and tesco club card converts points into air miles, think I've got about 40,000 atm, used um to go first class to Switzerland few years back, don't know if it's really worth it as you still have to pay 30 quid duties on top of your free ticket

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That can't have been easy, when there are no flights offering a first class cabin between the UK and Switzerland!
 


Wrong-Direction

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2013
13,395
That can't have been easy, when there are no flights offering a first class cabin between the UK and Switzerland!
It was basically the first few rows of the plane, I spent about 2 minutes in the lounge at Gatwick and couldn't stand looking at all the posh *******s also it must've been business class

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SULLY COULDNT SHOOT

Loyal2Family+Albion!
Sep 28, 2004
11,283
Izmir, Southern Turkey
Some schemes work better than others. Long Haul rewards are generally more difficult to get than short haul.

Avios (formerly Air Miles) is probably the most flexible of all as you can spend on various things not just flights. This is used by British Airways and Flybe amongst others. You can easily switch points between BA Executive Club and Avios as they don't always offer the same options.

Miles And More - the Star Alliance scheme (Lufthansa, Swiss, United and many more) - is also quite good in so much as there are other spending options. I recently exchanged a load of Miles and More points for Heathrow Rewards which gave me a nice down payment on some noise cancelling headphones.

I ve got Mile and more (Miles and Smiles with Turkish Airlines . . am an Elit holder) and it is fantastic internationally, so -so domestically but can redeem for tickets which is good when you want to take your kids somewhere nice.
 




dazzer6666

Well-known member
NSC Patreon
Mar 27, 2013
52,006
Burgess Hill
It was basically the first few rows of the plane, I spent about 2 minutes in the lounge at Gatwick and couldn't stand looking at all the posh *******s

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That'll have been business class.....not much different from economy on short haul to be honest, just slightly bigger seats and a better meal (or now, any meal !). Not worth the extra money/miles really. As regards the lounge, not really all 'posh *******' to be honest, it's usually a right mix of people - with the vast majority travelling on company business so from all walks of life.
 


Wrong-Direction

Well-known member
Mar 10, 2013
13,395
That'll have been business class.....not much different from economy on short haul to be honest, just slightly bigger seats and a better meal (or now, any meal !). Not worth the extra money/miles really. As regards the lounge, not really all 'posh *******' to be honest, it's usually a right mix of people - with the vast majority travelling on company business so from all walks of life.
Well having not done it before and spending 2.5 hours beforehand drinking and eating burgers in weatherspoons bit, I didn't really get any benifits from the experience apart from 2 empty seats either side of me

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