Airline Loyalty Programmes and Points

How good are they? Have you ever redeemed points for a flight before, and which airline was it with?

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  1. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    They're a bit of a meme imo but I think it depends where you are.
    As a bong our major airline (B.A) have pretty awful service, alot of older aircraft and rude cabin crew but fly direct to most places which is a benefit. The issue is they tend to also be more expensive than other airlines. I accrue points when I fly with them but to make it worth it for higher status for lounges, upgrades and companion vouchers you need to spend alot of money through them which at the time could have been better used elsewhere.
    The only people who really benefit from them is people who fly regularly long haul for business as they're going anyway so theyre getting the points free or companies who claim miles for employee travel and then the CEO gets free trips for him and his bit on the side.

    tl;dr they reward loyalty but loyalty usually ends up being expensive, only worth it if you're getting the trip free

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      BA Avios seem moderately generous value is 5-10% of a flight. For non-business travellers they seem designed to encourage people to get "cheap" upgrades.

      Travelled on them recently and their refitted craft are quite nice, surprised at how much legroom you get which was surprising. The service (including pre and post flight) was terrible and the food was literally the worst I've ever had. Flight was delayed 2 hours before boarding, hour on the tarmac and 2 hours for getting the baggage.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      BA Avios seem moderately generous value is 5-10% of a flight. For non-business travellers they seem designed to encourage people to get "cheap" upgrades.

      Travelled on them recently and their refitted craft are quite nice, surprised at how much legroom you get which was surprising. The service (including pre and post flight) was terrible and the food was literally the worst I've ever had. Flight was delayed 2 hours before boarding, hour on the tarmac and 2 hours for getting the baggage.

      OP here, I was looking into Avios because I'm a bong too and you can convert a lot of other things into Avios as well to slowly increase them.
      Shame to hear about the service though, was that Economy?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I am the first reply anon.
        Avios is ok but you're not going to get much if you're flying economy. You also need to separate tier points and avios. You need to go up the tiers before you feel any feel any real benefits, gold specifically but if you're only flying economy it's nearly impossible to get to gold status, you'd have to fly internationally in Y class a couple of times a month to get there and if you don't keep it up then you lose the status.
        Avios is worth claiming as it's essentially free but I wouldn't always fly BA to build them up, virgin out of the UK for example are a far better airline but don't fly to all the destinations I want to go to so I end up being a reluctant BA flyer more often than not

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      'Cept for that fricking fuel surcharge when you redeem

  2. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Like everything else they used to be great, then mediocre at best and now they're shit.

  3. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I am a Qantas frequent flyer but only bronze at the moment. Hopefully gold this year.

  4. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Iberia's avios are insanely good for transcontinental flights, the only catch is that you have to fly with them at least once or have a branded credit card to get avios, then you can buy them at dirt-cheap prices, i think it was 33-35 dollars per 1,000 avios or summ
    I was on latin america and needed a last minute flight to europe, the only airline working direct flights was iberia and i had some miles, ended up buying some, a round ticket in business class ended up costing me about 1,400 dollars including taxes
    Another good loyalty program is Avianca Lifemiles, they used to have really cheap reward flights (NYC to Miami at 80 bucks roundtrip plus 8,000-12,000 miles) but recently they changed the booking method and is not as good as before

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Just checked Iberia and wow, even booking a BA flight through Iberia is cheaper than on BA directly. The tier points system is much easier too. I'll look at moving them over once the 90 day start period has ended.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I've heard Iberia is a shit airline though with old planes, small seats, frequent delays/cancellations, suspect pilot qualifications, food and drinks aren't free and shitty customer service. Take that for what you will.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          Yeah I don't expect to actually fly on Iberia planes (as they go from Spain as their hub) but just being able to book other oneworld airlines through it for cheaper is a blessing

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        Just a little tip, don't use just avios, use the lowest avios+money option avaible, your miles will be worth about 10-15% more that way

        I've heard Iberia is a shit airline though with old planes, small seats, frequent delays/cancellations, suspect pilot qualifications, food and drinks aren't free and shitty customer service. Take that for what you will.

        I can confirm almost all of those are true on economy and most of those are also true on business, but if you know enough spanish to speak with customer support, it's better than most american carriers
        Also the most cancellations come from Vueling, the low cost airline that is also owned by Iberia and whose cabin crew is almost always on strike

  5. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    >How good are they?
    In theory, they’re great. But in practice it’s quite difficult for an ordinary traveler to get much benefit from them nowadays; they’ve gotten stingier with time, and it’s very nearly only people who fly lots of long-hauls in business class (for work, almost without exception) who get real benefits. A regular traveler spending sane amounts of his own money needs to fly a LOT to get much out of them. Still worth signing up with any airline or alliance you use at least semi-regularly, but it may take a long time to be worth anything.
    >Have you ever redeemed points for a flight before, and which airline was it with?
    I have, on a number of occasions. I was a semi-regular business traveler for years, and while my cheap employers mostly made me fly coach (I was one narrow level of seniority below those who flew biz by default), I flew just enough to have Gold status and a small pile of miles with Star Alliance for a few years running. I got a lot of free domestic tickets on United, some Lufthansa short-hauls, and just a couple of good free long-hauls, the best of which was a business class trip to Kenya from Zürich (via Istanbul) on Turkish Airlines. But I spent most of my miles on upgrades. Also bought a couple of magazine subscriptions and some headphones, which was a bit weird.

  6. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    It's only worth it if you travel for business a lot (i do). but if you do, its REALLY worth it.

  7. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    I'm stuck at silver (Air France) since 2020 (because of flight restrictions) despite taking one flight a week, domestically.
    It's very, very slow if you do domestic.
    The only good thing when you have a shit rank like silver is that you get priority check in, some seats for free, and most importantly, a luggage that can be checked for free. Saves me about 70 euros per flight.
    And when I fly internationally, it's basically an extra luggage, so it's handy when I go somewhere for a while.
    To get gold, I need at least 4 long hauls, with return AND the weekly flight. I think I will reach it this year because long hauls are finally back on the menu.

    All in all, the very handy thing about it is luggage allowance for free.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Nearly all of those silver benefits are given to any Qantas frequent flyer

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      >I'm stuck at silver (Air France) since 2020 (because of flight restrictions) despite taking one flight a week, domestically.
      What route do you fly weekly? Is it going to be eliminated? I read that France is banning short-haul domestic flights if the rail alternative is less than 2.5 hours, but I have no idea what percentage of flights that represents, having never flown domestically within France at all. I've never flown TO France, for that matter, as I live in Switzerland close to the border and it's easier for me to take the train or drive.

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        A non-issue. Paris has two airports and they banned such flights only for Orly airport.
        Luckily for me, I live not too far from CDG. The dumbass law clearly states that they won’t apply the ban for CDG airport because obviously politicians and the elite refuse taking the train (understandable, I never take the train again since I got robbed while I was napping).

        It was a stupid story to begin with just to make headlines and make the green party happy, as they never ever mention that the ban only applies on Orly airport.

  8. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Current AA Exec Plat. Get upgraded on probably 90% of my flights. Separately I have redeemed a few million points generated through credit card spend. Probably flown more than $200k worth of tickets at this point.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Are you inviting random anons or slits to fancy executive lounges?

      • 1 year ago
        Anonymous

        I don't make a habit of it but I have brought a few people in that I see getting turned away or a military vet.

        This guy again. He always makes these claims and when people point out his math doesn't add up he leaves the thread. Do you know how much money you would need to spend via credit card to get millions of points?

        The last two times I've posted you type the same reply, I respond, and then you never follow up. I churn a ton of points through work expenses but the majority of my points accrual has come from sign up bonuses. Maybe you just don't have a good appreciation for how expensive J/F flights become.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          >military vet

          do you hate poor people in foreign places or whats the reason

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Nah just have a lot of colleagues who served at some point so I do it as a little thank you. Just let them enter with me and then go about my business.

        • 1 year ago
          Anonymous

          How many points have you earned through credit cards, over how many years?

          • 1 year ago
            Anonymous

            Can't say for certain but I'd say north of 12 million between grAAvy train, no lifetime bonuses, and organic spend.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              So you have spent 12-25million USD on credit cards?

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                The most hardcode flyers will take some years to reach a million. 10 million is George Clooney level and very, very few will ever reach that during their lifetime.

                You're lying.

                Do you guys not understand how earning points works? The vast majority of that is earned through large sign up bonuses and a smaller amount through bonused work spend (5x on flights and 4x on food). Very little of that has been earned through actual flying. Earned probably 5 or 6 million off Citi alone before they shut down the old AA mailers. I've also been doing this since about 2012.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Even with all the bonuses you would still have to spend millions by credit card to get to that amount. You're claiming you earned more than 1 million a year every year for over 10 years now.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                No you don't. Average bonus is probably 75k mixed across all the major cards with a spend requirement of $3k

                I spend $100K a month on my credit cards, but not AA since those c**ts banned me and I haven’t made a move to get back in with them since COVID. If you’re locked into an AA hub, your company makes you fly everywhere for work, and you were on the grAAvy train, 12 million AA miles is reasonable. I had a little over a million AA miles before they killed me, and I wasn’t trying very hard

                I'm based in DC so been forced onto AA for years. To be clear I'm saying 12 million points across airlines, Chase, Citi, Barclays, AMEX etc. Not include hotels though because they're so inflated (RIP Starwood)

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Ah ok, that’s even more reasonable then since I’m also probably close to that 12 million number (I’m lazy and don’t keep track). Sorry to hear that your are hub locked, at least you have Dulles and Baltimore as an option to use even though DC traffic sucks and they can be hard to get to

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Rarely make it to BWI but have to use IAD on occasion. Most of my travel is domestic these days so I mostly fly out of DCA. Easy to just show up 10 minutes before boarding.

            • 1 year ago
              Anonymous

              The most hardcode flyers will take some years to reach a million. 10 million is George Clooney level and very, very few will ever reach that during their lifetime.

              You're lying.

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                I spend $100K a month on my credit cards, but not AA since those c**ts banned me and I haven’t made a move to get back in with them since COVID. If you’re locked into an AA hub, your company makes you fly everywhere for work, and you were on the grAAvy train, 12 million AA miles is reasonable. I had a little over a million AA miles before they killed me, and I wasn’t trying very hard

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                Did they ban you because you attempted to cheat them with multiple fraudulent credit card signups?

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                They should sue Citi for sending me a dozen mailers asking me to signup for AA credit cards. I had a few I kept and was going to sue AA over it, but I never bothered since small claims is only $5K in my state. I would want $10K or more if I’m going to court to fight it

              • 1 year ago
                Anonymous

                >I spend $100K a month on my credit cards
                Lol.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      This guy again. He always makes these claims and when people point out his math doesn't add up he leaves the thread. Do you know how much money you would need to spend via credit card to get millions of points?

  9. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Senator (StarAlliance Gold) with Lufthansa here. It's pretty good actually, though it used to be better. I love being able to use priority checkin and security and the lounge even if I'm flying on the cheapest economy ticket. I've redeemed some long haul first class flights with points, it really is worth it. Also upgrading from business to first is a good use of points.

  10. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    its a meme unless you travel for work and dont pay for the flights. spend tens of thousands to save a few hundred bucks.

  11. 1 year ago
    Anonymous

    Pretty much all the One programs a re the same just some are easier to climb the tires. On of the easiest is Finnair. Gold is 4 business long haul flights in Business and they often offer stuff like Frankfurt - Helsinki - Thailand/Japan for 1800-2000 for a rt trip.

    • 1 year ago
      Anonymous

      Hello, Finnair Lumo here. It's pretty nice actually. It's far easier to get than the VIP status of other airlines.

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