siw

Hi,

I am a frequent flyer progam novice (currently AF/KL Flying Blue silver tier level) in the UK. I have tried to find out the best ways to earn and spend Award Miles and gain Level Miles and I am about 5200 Level Miles away from Gold tier level, which I would like to reach before a trip to SE Asia in December. I have read, and tried to understand, the various FAQs on the FB program and other frequent flyer blogs etc. in general but there are a few things perhaps the more sessioned folks can enlighten me on.

My flying is a few long haul business class trips per year rather than lots of shorter flights; i.e. intra-Europe, so I will never reach the number of qualifing flights for progressing/maintaining the level status, instead I get this by the Level Miles threshold. I do not know about other FF programs, most websites I've read only explain the various in the US, but FB Miles cannot be obtained on flights which were paid for using Award Miles, so how do people climb the tier levels whilst using Miles to cover the trip costs, basically everything here http://thepointsguy.com/ and here http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/? It seems to me that Award Miles should be used on non-flight stuff so that the maximum Miles can be obtained during trips.

Where is the best place to find flights to maximize the Miles gained at the lowest cost? The KLM website shows the Miles along with the trip cost, unlike the Air France website, as far as I can see. But are there better independent websites to use? I think a trip over the 4-day Easter weekend to earn these 5200 Miles would be ideal but I am not finding reasonably priced trips and I am stumped on ideas. So more likely requiring a few intra-Europe flights instead, but that may be more expensive due to multiple hotels etc. at various destinations. I have seen the topic http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-f...routes-13.html but do not see how/where people get these trips - rather tough to follows for us novices.

Finally, what is the general thought on the FB Earn Online shopping? Almost every purchase I make either gives the wrong amount of Award Miles compared to the amount due or no Award Miles arrive and FB Customer Support just give stock replies; I am still waiting for Award Miles from last summer.

Thanks

wuzziduzziman

A 4 segment intra EU trip via AMS in business class would grant you 7500 level miles. Every now and then, there are promotional offers in Z-fare by AF/KL, just watch their websites.
For using the miles, the FB shop items are not the best deal, I guess. Personally, I like to use the miles for upgrades while travelling for leisure / on my own expense or for award tickets for family members. Often, I'm buying a Y or W/S/A fare and upgrade for a reasonable amount of miles, in many cases on the day of departure.

And by the way, welcome to FT!!

Ditto

You mention that you fly several LH flights in J, any one of those flights will give you more than the 5200 missing level miles, and since I'm assuming you also need a segment UK-CDG/AMS, you are looking at 10K+ miles for a r/t, PE flights with AF will also cover that, a UK-CDG-CAI-CDG-UK in PE should give you between 5800-6800 level miles.

The earnonline shopping miles do take time to show up, usually around the maximum possible time (I think it is 120 working days) and you only get miles for the price excluding VAT and possibly also excluding delivery, it's not the most reliable website but you have nothing to lose.

Best usage of miles is probably promo award, especially some can be nice at 50% off, DOD upgrades or upgrading tickets that someone else paid for and are relatively in a high booking class.

TLVtraveler

I personally book awards for family and friends as I travel enough from work, in my experience the best use is either promo awards or DL since there's no fuel surcharge. another sweet spot is Hawaii at only 30K r/t in Y from the US or from the EU for 50K.

Mcflyneo

Thanks!

fifty_two

If TLV or IST are in your plans , think about AF in J

You can get 10k/15k miles in J for ~600GBP

irishguy28

My advice to you is this:

If you are travelling in business class, then forget about status. Silver is pretty meaningless, anyway; it doesn't give you lounge access and any free/extra baggage is probably superfluous to your needs, granted that business comes with a generous baggage allowance.

Your mindset is a little out-of-sync; FB is NOT a great programme, and you should NOT be going out of your way to maximise or earn miles. There are better programmes out there - BA Executive Club and Avios is probably the programme you should be looking at, given that you have a welath of non-flying ways to achieve Avios in the UK. I get that BA doesn't fly from many UK airports so this may not be directly an option for you, but doing your shopping and petrol purchases, etc, and using a BA Avios credit card, means you will quickly and easily gain far more airmiles to spend on oneworld than you would ever manage in Flying Blue from the UK.

Concentrate on finding the best flights [cost, direct vs indirect, timings] rather than sticking with AFKL just to get airmiles




This is generally not the case. If you can't find time to spend your miles on flights, though - given that you "need" all your flights to earn miles - then the programme is using you - you are not gaining benefit from the programme - and that means it is time to quit it.

caliform

Indeed! Confusing for those just joining us! How this works is that in the US, particularly, credit card reward programs are quite plentiful so many cards get you points or 'miles' you can cash on their own online travel portal to book flights. These are different from the miles you get on an FFP -- you can actually often transfer these TO an airline (one way) to turn them into miles, but you can also book 'revenue' tickets with them through your bank which will have them earn miles but still be essentially 'free' to you.

So, nobody is 'churning' with the airline's miles. Rather, they use Chase Ultimate Rewards points and American Express' Membership Rewards, for instance. The UK has AmEx -- worth getting one just to get a few points!

siw

Thanks for all the replies. Alots of new codes and acronyms to remember.

The only reason I signed up with FB was because all my flights were with SkyTeam airlines starting with Air France and then with KLM, Korean Air, Vietnam Airlines etc. So I figured to stick with SkyTeam rather than book future trips on Star Alliance and OneWorld so I have more spending power with the Miles, and I thought the teir level climbing would help with that. Also as BA is LHR focused hubs just across the Channel in CDG and AMS are very useful.

I have an AmEx Membership Rewards card (not AF/KL affiliated as I'm in the UK) for shopping etc. but have not transfered any AmEx Points to FB Award Miles.

irishguy28, is Elite Plus status only worthwhile for economy tickets to get SkyPriority access? So if travelling business class that feature is already in the ticket.

Hopefully will gain alot of useful information at this forum.

Ditto

Gold have several benefits even when flying J - you get more award miles and you can bring a guest into the lounge.

wuzziduzziman

Let's agree this is a subjective statement. It really depends on travel habits, destinations, home location etc.
I used to have status on *A and OW airlines in the past, and for me by far FB works best.

For the OP it seems to make some sense too to stick to FB.

caliform

As far as SP benefits on economy tickets go, I think they're among the best, alliance-wise:

- priority boarding
- priority baggage handling (some carriers and airports do this better than others, ahem EZE)
- priority check-in desks
- lounge access!

irishguy28

I would disagree:

"So I figured to stick with SkyTeam rather than book future trips on Star Alliance and OneWorld so I have more spending power with the Miles, and I thought the teir level climbing would help with that."

This means that the OP admits to NOT simply booking the best/cheapest ticket each time. That the early run of flights was all Skyteam was chance; now, however, the OP is only looking at Skyteam in order to "have more spending power with the Miles". If the OP is not finding obviously good usage for those miles, then this should NOT be a factor that influences their purchasing decisions. Why pick a more expensive/less convenient flight, on the off-chance of maybe being able to book a "free" flight later, or to spend it on some tat from the online store, when you can instead make a savings today based purely on the money being spent right now on the flight that you are contemplating buying?

Here, again, I agree that it is a subjective statement (though really, FB is not a great programme), but I disagree with the latter statement. I am not saying the OP should NEVER fly Skyteam, or should NEVER bother to give their Flying Blue number. It does sounds like the OP is, however, only considering Skyteam solely for the promise of miles - despite not having any obvious or convincing need or use for them.

This, of course, is why the airlines love loyalty programmes, because it sways some customers into blind loyalty. [I was one of those once...grinding out unnecessary indirect routings to maintain Gold for a couple of years on FB]

By all means, collect those miles when you fly, but don't forget to shop around and find the best deals each time you fly. It's better to make a saving on your flight today, than to walk past a better/cheaper/faster ticket on a different airline solely for a few hundred/thousand FB miles that you may or may not find a good use for in the next months/years.

It appears that the OP flies business, so aiming for status to have SP on Economy tickets seems overkill.

And, in case you weren't aware, lounge access is NOT a Skypriority benefit. (That comes only with status or with ticket class - never with Skypriority). If you show a Skypriority boarding pass in Economy Class at any lounge entrance, you will be asked for your status card [guaranteed to happen at AMS at least!].

caliform

Oh, indeed - I meant going for status with FB can be worth it to enjoy SkyPriority and additional benefits if you do fly economy.

irishguy28

Agreed - FB Gold is one of the easier ways to reach status, and I recommend segment runs in order to achieve it, especially if you already travel a lot in Economy on AFKL.

However - I do not recommend award mileage running for FB at all.