Flights to the LoS and reward miles

I have noticed recently that airlines must be competing with travel agents (well certainly in the UK), it may have always been the case, I'm not sure.

For example, on the Thai airlines site, a Lon-BKK flight leaving and returning on "specific dates" I'm travelling which I plugged in are the same price and in actual fact a little cheaper than the travel agents, and probably even cheaper because booking direct with airlines may not mean credit card charges.

I'm not sure if this has always been the case or what. The advantage also being you can choose your seat etc there and then.

Secondly, at one time, I thought collecting reward miles were a rubbish idea, it would take forever to save up for a flight. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this is not the case - in some cases 4-5 return flights will suffice for a free trip to Thailand (long journeys such as Lon-BKK I'm on about).

If you're booking a cheap flight on the TG site, you can bet they're offering 'V' or 'W' Class fares which offer only 50% accrual for frequent flier points

I've been booking directly with a couple of European Airlines for a number of years. Always get keen prices especially in biz by booking 3 - 6 months in advance. Trying to use my points for flights has only been possible between my local airport (Canning Town) and their main hub which I stop in for business occasionally. I've asked for lon-haul and short-haul in the US but there is never availability on the dates or legs I want. For short-haul in Europe I had to pay taxes which were about equal to the best fare available. When I asked to use points to upgrade last year I was told that I couldn't as there was no availability. However, when I checked in to return long-haul 3 travellers, including myself were given upgrades without asking and no point deduction. This may be because my outward flight from Canning Town to the Europe hub had been cancelled and I had to haul my bags through Bank in the rush hour at my own expense to pick up a direct flight out of Heathrow on another carrier.

My partner gets very good deals to the Far East out of some China Town agents but never to BKK.

My conclusion - check all offerings. Points suck - unless you maintain a status that gets you something worth having. You won't get much pre-booked.

[catawampuscat]

I recently used the Thai Air non-stop from the USA to BKK and was surprised to see that the mileage points expire the
end of this calendar year. I am just short of the Silver Status but it doesn't seem to make sense to use Thai Air
on an upcoming trip in SE Asia, if the miles expire in just a few months.
I thought one had a year to attain 10,000 miles or 2 years to attain 15,000 miles for the first tier of their elite class (Silver).

I will look over at the frequent flier forum for Thai Air but if someone knows about this and can clarify, if and why Thai Air
only gives a few months before expiring the mileage. Does an additional flight extend the mileage? Maybe Traveler Jim can
come to rescue?

By the way, the non-stop on Thai Air was so much better than the usual 3 leg trip and many hours shorter in total. I thought the food
was OK and more than acceptable and they never stopped coming around with water and beverages. Great entertainment system as well..
:cat:

I recently used the Thai Air non-stop from the USA to BKK and was surprised to see that the mileage points expire the end of this calendar year.Status expires at the end of calendar years; mileage lasts a bit longer. I have miles I earned in 2005/6 that still don't expire (according to my statement) this year

[fedssocr]

are you sure the miles expire or is it just the status that expires? that's how most airlines work. Elite qualifying miles (as United calls them) start over at 0 on January 1, but the miles in your account are good for something like 3 years from the last time you earn miles. I personally use a United MP affiliated credit card for almost all of my expenses which means the miles pile up fairly quickly. As long as you pay your bill in full each month it works well. And they give you at least 20K bonus miles when you get the card. They keep on sending me more solicitations to get even more cards but I have never bothered. And because there is new activity on my frequent flier account every month my miles in effect never expire. I am flying in biz class on a frequent flier ticket to BKK in November. I booked several months ago and I believe I was able to get the dates I wanted. And perhaps best of all I will be flying on ANA from IAD to NRT and connecting also on ANA from there to BKK. On the return I will be on TG from BKK to NRT and then I will spend one night in Tokyo before continuing on to IAD on ANA. I have never had too much trouble redeeming miles. Once in a while I have needed some flexibility with dates and routing but I have always gotten the trip I wanted. I have flown "free" to Australia in business class on United, to Malta in Business class primarily on Lufthansa, to Copenhagen in economy on a combo of Lufthansa, SAS, and United. I like to save my miles up to get premium seats on long flights but I know some people prefer to buy a ticket and use miles for upgrades but I have never done that and don't know exactly what all those rules are.

a thai air ticket in economy to London KL Bkk and got 13000 miles which put me straight on the silver status. Not sure how long they last for.

[manfarang-old]

I recently used the Thai Air non-stop from the USA to BKK and was surprised to see that the mileage points expire the end of this calendar year.
According to the Royal Orchid Plus Members Handbook (http://www.thaiair.com/Royal_Orchid_Plus/Status_Benefits/Handbook2007_eng.pdf), "Miles accrued in one calendar year remain valid until the end of the 3rd calendar year thereafter." You should check with the ROP program to see what's going on. Unlike many programs, the miles will not stay alive after the 3-year period even if you keep adding miles, but they should not be expiring this quickly.

One roundtrip between the US and BKK will get you immediate Silver status, not that Silver gets you much. Although ROP is my main frequent flier mileage program, it is not one of the more generous ones, requiring more miles for upgrades and award tickets than many other FF programs. Many people find ROP miles more useful for free nights at hotels (e.g., 3 nights at Dusit Thani for 32,000 miles). I highly recommend the Thai Air forum at www.flyertalk.com/forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum) - it's a great resource for information on and experience with the ROP program.

I got free flights once with Singapore Airlines KRISFLYER.
50 000 miles to get a free flight.


wx40afp,

Yeah but only in the baggage hold!

I have been flying back and forth from London to BKK for several years and have experienced most options with regard to Frequent Flyer programs.
If you cannot afford to go business everytime then I can give the following advice.
1. The advantage of a silver card with any airline is that it allows you to check in at the business class desk at airports, thus avoiding the biggest hassle of flying which is a huge queue at checkin. Two journeys LHR to BKK will get you silver status.
2. The second biggest luxury is to be able to use the executive lounges once airside. Gold status lets you do this, However, it is easy to purchase a lounge (eg Sevissair) for 3 hours. At Heathrow, this costs ┬г17. At BKK, 1000 baht. A bargain once you have had a couple of drinks and some nibbles and there is no problem leaving hand luggage safely inside why you wander the shops free of baggage.
3. Silver status on Emirates lets you use a lounge at Dubai.
4. You can save money by flying into Europe and then out to BKK starting from London (eg on Lufthanza or KLM). Yes, this adds to the total journey time but again you can purchase a lounge use over the internet if your stopover is more than a couple of hours.
5. Another money saver is that some airlines offer cheaper deals from London if you are willing to take off from LHR and come back into Gatwick or vv.
6. The Middle East airlines Emirates, Qatar, and Gulf all offer competitive prices on modern fleets with state of the art seat back entertainment systems. far better than the dated affairs on Thai. Currently, I would rate their business class as streets ahead of Thai.
7. Use your accrued miles to upgrade rather than buy a ticket. The latter is not always easy.
8. For high season travel, book many months in advance as it will be very much cheaper.
9. The frequency with which you are upgraded by the airline doesnt, as far as I am concerned, bear much relationship with whether you have a frequent flyer card or not. I was a gold card holder with Thai for 4 years and wasnt upgraded once but before, when just an ordinary customer, it happened twice.
10. And NO, I still dont know which duty free is cheapest.
11. If buying over the internet, it is difficult to find out what class of ticket you are getting. It could be V or W which affects miles earned.

Hope some of this is useful.

I got free flights once with Singapore Airlines KRISFLYER.
50 000 miles to get a free flight.

Now tell us how by flying Singapore Airlines you can get to BKK in 6 hours, really it is closer to 12

Tell us again how many hours it takes to get back to Sydney

Probably 15 hours including stopover in Singapore and dont forget daylight saving.

[Daniel-old]

I fly Norwich - Amsterdam - Bangkok, usually with KLM. Last year I took an award flight and was really pissed off that I had to fly Amstrerdam - Paris - Bangkok, as there were so few Amsterdam - Bangkok business class award seats allocated. I have already reserved another business class award flight for February, and was lucky enough to get Amsterdam - Bangkok, without having to go through Paris. All I had to pay each time was 311.75 Euro taxes.

I have noticed recently that airlines must be competing with travel agents (well certainly in the UK), it may have always been the case, I'm not sure.



There are plenty of options pricewise to choose from but of course these depend on the routings and timings that you want. Unlike a few years ago there is very little difference between prices from travel agents and those direct from airlines once you have calculated all of the various taxes. Also up to a couple of years ago airlines were not permitted to offer tickets at below their own published price, nowadays almost all airlines will offer discounted tickets.

I always travel to the UK / Bangkok return with EVA Air as the timings suit me and I do not like non-direct flights. Whilst I am in the position to always use Business Class (Premier Laurel) the award points gained are at present of little use to me on that route as EVA do not have a first class section on the 777's, so whilst I have umpteen thousand award points they simply sit there unused and gradually expire.

Come December EVA are replacing the 777's on the Bk/Lon route with their upgraded 747's which will offer a first class section as before, so hopefully the accumulated points will start to be used for the purpose they were intended.

Personally I prefer the 747's in as much as the upper deck gives much more privacy and is IMO more comfortable than the new 777's and overall I think the 747 is a far superior aircraft.

Two sites to check out: http://frequentflyer.com(no www on this one) which has everything you'd ever want to know about frequent flyer programs
and also http://www.points.comwhich lets you trade points between programs - for a fee of course.

The problem I've always had with flyer miles is that I'm never able to cash them in for a free ticket. The free seats are always booked up long in advance. I have been able to use them for a Business Class upgrade, which is probably about as close to Heaven as I'm going to get in this lifetime!

I now only fly Cathay Pacific so I can accumulate enough miles in a year to stay in their "Silver Tier", the big advantage of which is being able to use the Business Class Lounges at the airports. Its nice to be able to kick back in Hong Kong and TAKE A SHOWER after a 14 hr flight from the US.

In April of this year I tried to use my 75,000 miles for a flight Birmingham UK to Bangkok for the Christmas/New year 07/08 period. Even with 8 months to go the 'free' flights were fully booked. However I could have had a freebee from Birm to Dubai & return and pay for the leg from Dubai to Bangkok return for (if i recall correctly) ┬г410.

I eventually booked with another airline and saved my miles with Emirates.

Today I was able to book my flight with Emirates for June/July 08 and pay with my air miles. It cost me GBP 61.20 presumably for charges!

I would think that there are a lot of airmiles that expire!
It's a frustrating business trying to 'pay' with airmiles.
:cheers:

... that Thai Airlines is part of Star Alliance, not sure if there are rules that have to be followed, but accumulating of miles with various airlines is the aim of Star Alliance. i.e. which include Singapore Airlines, Swiss Air, Austrian amongst others.

[alipatt-old]

Air New Zealand is also on the list.

Air New Zealand is also on the list.Someone has to win the booby prize, I guess

[fedssocr]

there are two or three big airline alliances. I think Star Alliance is probably the biggest and it also includes United, USAirways, Air Canada, Lufthansa, ANA and many others in addition to Thai and those mentioned. The other biggie is OneWorld which includes American, BA, and many others. The ability to earn miles on the partners and use your miles for flights on any of the airlines is the key. You just have to make sure you use one account on one line to accumulate miles no matter which partner you fly so you don't end up with little balances on several lines.

Award tickets are usually made available about 330 days beforehand and there are of course few business and first class award seats available. It helps if you can plan that far in advance, but I have managed to get free tickets on shorter notice...like 3 months or so.

[painai2]

Sometimes it is easier to use your miles at the very last minute than way in advance. Airlines can better gauge what they have left to offer as reward seats that way. Way in advance--and the airline will try to sell the seats. Also, around peak periods like holidays, reward seats at the lower level may never become available. Why give away the seat when you can sell it and make money? After all the airlines are in the business to make money. As someone pointed out, it's better to try to go at a less popular time or less desirable destination if you are trying to use your miles. Unfortunately, Bangkok is always difficult at the lower levels, due to it's popularity with frequent travelers trying to make best use of their miles.

[danny99]

I have noticed recently that airlines must be competing with travel agents (well certainly in the UK), it may have always been the case, I'm not sure.

For example, on the Thai airlines site, a Lon-BKK flight leaving and returning on "specific dates" I'm travelling which I plugged in are the same price and in actual fact a little cheaper than the travel agents, and probably even cheaper because booking direct with airlines may not mean credit card charges.

I'm not sure if this has always been the case or what. The advantage also being you can choose your seat etc there and then.

Secondly, at one time, I thought collecting reward miles were a rubbish idea, it would take forever to save up for a flight. However, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that this is not the case - in some cases 4-5 return flights will suffice for a free trip to Thailand (long journeys such as Lon-BKK I'm on about).

There are many secrets to accumulating frequent flyer points, and unless you are an international executive flying all around the world at someone else's expense and preferably in business class, flying is not the optimum way to collect them. The quickest way is to have a credit card that earns you points for usage, and then use it for virtually all of your daily expenses. Double or even treble dipping can also be possible in some countries, For example Qantas offer bonus points for using the QANTAS ANZ card to purchase tickets [and duty free expense on board] so you earn them plus the mileage points. Some bonus partners also offer double/triple points, which is great if you are going to use them anyway [and then use the card as well, and get more points], Unfortunately QANTAS has just about the worse FF program of any airline, almost impossible to get an awards flight [unless you want to fly to Siberia in winter], and then you pay $$$ for surcharges on what was supposed to be a FREE flight. Thai is one of the best programs, if there is a spare seat on the plane, then you can have it. If you are wait listed for a flight, even an award one, you get prioirity. You do not have to be a member of your own national airline program as points are transferable between Star Alliance airlines programs and the same with the QANTAS British Airways group. So check out the best program amongst the airlines in your group and join that one. ou can still book an award flight on any airline within that group.The better ones are also FREE, like Thai, not $100 like QANTAS!

[krobbie]

Air New Zealand is also on the list.Someone has to win the booby prize, I guess

Homintern ... play nice. We kiwi's are proud of our airline, even if we do bitch about it constently then fly Thai.

It's the only DIRECT flight from here. We could go with Emirates but that would mean having to go through Australia ... God-forbid. All sorts of undesirables get on the pane there.

Cheers :blackeye:
Keith

It's the only DIRECT flight from here. We could go with EmiratesYou could also fly with Singapore Airlines, as I shall be doing on my next trip to the Land of the Long White Shroud. Comrade Helen needs my advice after APEC