Anybody know about air miles?
Discussion
Sure but if you fly quite a bit the numbers still add up. I concentrate on Air France/KLM, second plan is Lufthansa but I also have Etihad and Emirate cards. Most plans allow you to keep the miles as long as you fly once a year with them so they can add up over time. You're also more likely to get free/random upgrades if you use them more often.
best thing is to buy the cheapest flights possible and pocket the saved cash, It's worth much, much more that a few airmiles and a bit of gold plastic. If it's a company buying the tickets, do a deal with them and split the saving with them I did this and had anough to by a nice 911 after 5 years. Regarding lounge access, I could never see the point. I always arrived maximum 1 hour before any flight and by the time I get thru security etc, it's pretty much straight to the gate. To enjoy a lounge you have to get there much earlier - waste of time. It's all a great marketing gimmick that many fall for.
Silver993tt said:
best thing is to buy the cheapest flights possible and pocket the saved cash, It's worth much, much more that a few airmiles and a bit of gold plastic. If it's a company buying the tickets, do a deal with them and split the saving with them I did this and had anough to by a nice 911 after 5 years. Regarding lounge access, I could never see the point. I always arrived maximum 1 hour before any flight and by the time I get thru security etc, it's pretty much straight to the gate. To enjoy a lounge you have to get there much earlier - waste of time. It's all a great marketing gimmick that many fall for.
Many times I would finish work on a customer site early and then because I didn't have flexible tickets would have to spend hours at the airport. Or when making connections, flights delayed.
Lounge access makes air travel far more palatable when you're stuck in economy!
Puggit said:
Many times I would finish work on a customer site early and then because I didn't have flexible tickets would have to spend hours at the airport. Or when making connections, flights delayed.
Lounge access makes air travel far more palatable when you're stuck in economy!
Silver993tt said:
Puggit said:
Many times I would finish work on a customer site early and then because I didn't have flexible tickets would have to spend hours at the airport. Or when making connections, flights delayed.
Lounge access makes air travel far more palatable when you're stuck in economy!
OP. You need to check if the airlines you are flying with are part of an affiliated program, the big ones are Star Alliance and One World. If so you can pool miles from all the airlines in the group.
Unless you are going to fly regularly with a single independant airline then it will take you an age to build up enough miles to give any advantage, as you have already realised you'll end up with a wallet full of cards with just a few miles on each.
Unless you are going to fly regularly with a single independant airline then it will take you an age to build up enough miles to give any advantage, as you have already realised you'll end up with a wallet full of cards with just a few miles on each.
zbc said:
and you never have a connecting flight with more than a one hour wait at the airport. You're very lucky. If I have to spend time waiting for a flight the last place I want to spend it is sitting by the gate.
I rarely have flights with connections, normally direct. The other issue with lounges is that they get extremely busy and oftenn it's less busy in other public parts of the airport. A good example is the BA 1st class lounge at T5, I used that when it first opened when I had no choice in buying tickets myself but after 2-3 visits gave up, it was like a zoo with grown adults queuing up for a bacon sandwich like they've never seen food before. I never went back in there again and in fact stopped using BA because of T5 - huge queues at security, often bussed to/from aircraft, often arrive/depart from the stupid satellite terminal and forced to get a train rather than walk etc. T3 is miles better, you're not forced to walk round in circles via the shopping mall of T5, you can go straight to the gate and they're much nearer.Silver993tt said:
rarely have flights with connections, normally direct. The other issue with lounges is that they get extremely busy and oftenn it's less busy in other public parts of the airport. A good example is the BA 1st class lounge at T5, I used that when it first opened when I had no choice in buying tickets myself but after 2-3 visits gave up, it was like a zoo with grown adults queuing up for a bacon sandwich like they've never seen food before. I never went back in there again and in fact stopped using BA because of T5 - huge queues at security, often bussed to/from aircraft, often arrive/depart from the stupid satellite terminal and forced to get a train rather than walk etc. T3 is miles better, you're not forced to walk round in circles via the shopping mall of T5, you can go straight to the gate and they're much nearer.
Fair enough. I live outside the UK so I've never used the ones in Heathrow. Amsterdam is pretty good, Frankfurt too but like you said it can get quite busy. Paris CDG is also good, mostly because I find the rest of the airport so horrific but as you say it varies between terminals and time of day as well.Back OT I often find it's cheaper to use connecting flights to get places using a preferred airline (from a miles point of view) than the direct flight might be and taking 2 flights often means more miles. It might add a couple of hours to the trip but often I'm away for a week or more so overall it makes little difference.
zbc said:
[Back OT I often find it's cheaper to use connecting flights to get places using a preferred airline (from a miles point of view) than the direct flight might be and taking 2 flights often means more miles. It might add a couple of hours to the trip but often I'm away for a week or more so overall it makes little difference.
Yep, more miles and a happier boss 
I always try to get to the airport 2 hours before the flight.
Sometimes security q's can be terrible.
As said, if you can focus on one of your membershipd, you will get a higher status quicker with the various benefits provided.
Quite often Lounges are quite empty, depends on travel times etc.
I normally fly Business Class but the company has advised that its Economy until September.
Last week I was asked if I wanted to use miles to upgrade to Business for my flight Philly to Frankfurt. I declined but when I got to the gate was given a free upgrade.
Another benefit of status is shorter check in q's.
Happy flying.
Sometimes security q's can be terrible.
As said, if you can focus on one of your membershipd, you will get a higher status quicker with the various benefits provided.
Quite often Lounges are quite empty, depends on travel times etc.
I normally fly Business Class but the company has advised that its Economy until September.
Last week I was asked if I wanted to use miles to upgrade to Business for my flight Philly to Frankfurt. I declined but when I got to the gate was given a free upgrade.
Another benefit of status is shorter check in q's.
Happy flying.
Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff