Flying Blue (Air France, KLM, and Other Partners) - Is this a good (non-flying) way to acquire FB miles?

Just looking at how I can top up my wife's FB account.

I see that Travelex give miles for the purchase of travellers cheques.

Does this work for the purchase of Sterling TC's in the UK?

If so, can I buy £500 worth of TC's (earns 1,000 FB miles as it's between EUR 700 and EUR 1750) and pay the 1.5% commission (£7.50)?

I then pay the TC's back into my bank account and repeat?

I figure this gives a cost per mile of 0.75p, which seems pretty good in my book.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

Swiss Tony, I have no idea about travelex. You could try to see with American Express Gold that gives you around 10/14 miles for each 10 euros you buy.
But this is still not really interesting.

Listen about Hertz partnership with FB.

Each 1 or 2 days rental gives you 200 miles. I read somewhere it has been increased very recently to 300 or 400 miles. I can't confirm since I always try to rent at least 3 days.

For a 3 days or more rental, you get 600 miles.

PLUS, if you are Gold member and or FB member elite (and you are) you get 100 miles bonus

PLUS, if you book online the rental, you get 100 miles bonus.

Total : 800 miles for 3 days rental, 400/600 miles for 1 or 2 days rental

In spanish market, if you avoid airport or hertz office based in business/facility-complex such as big commercial mall (you avoid a 24 € + VAT service fee), you can get for 3 days week end on low period a 42 euros rate all taxes included (not the super cover). If not 42, then a 46 or 49 or 52 or 56 euros ... depending on the demand. And this even the day before picking up the car. I did it more than 10 times in 2006 in BCN, main train station (Sants). Or in Brussels (Anspach bld.), where you will have a fare a bit higher (85/90 euros) but with the possibility to return the car to the airport. A very nice option for those who came by plane and picked up the car from the city center. You save then something like 24€ + VAT.

All this to mean that you get 800 miles for 3 days, booking your rental car on a whim the day before departure for between 42 and 60 euros for BCN and from 85/90 for ZYR (Brussels city center)

I talking about a Cat A or B ... I book always a A or B and get always a minimum cat C as an upgrade since I am gold five star.

You would get normally upgrade since you are FB Gold elite.

Knowing that it is admitted that 1 miles = 1 euro cent, the rate 800 miles for 42 / 60 euros is the greatest I know. It is true that France and Belgium markets are not that cheap. VAT is higher, plate taxes, fare higher etc --- but you can find better fare for 3 days at 75/80 euros.
I have no idea about UK market.

If somebody knows a better rate or partnership playable within West European market... I urge him to tell us now!!! :)


Jer

Didn't know that Travelex were KLM/AF partners.

I've just ordered £1,000 to collect at MAN tomorrow morning and I'll get 1,000 BA miles at a cost of £15.

If you can get 1000 miles in the way you say that would mean that you could earn 100,000 miles for £750 (enough for F to the USA).

The full table for Travelex
€150-€350 150 Miles
€350,01-€700 400 Miles
€700,01-€1.750 1.000 Miles
>€1.750,01 2.000 Miles

Quite a tempting idea. But just like most things, if people exploit it too much the benefit will disappear.

Anyway, one thing to be careful about with Travelex is when they input your FB number, presumably due to the way the FB card is encoded the number that appears on their computer is much longer than your FB number, the actual number itself is a subset of the longer number.

The problem with this is your miles will then not credit automatically, best thing to do in my experience is hand them your boarding pass, show them your FB number on it and ask them to do it manually. When the number has been entered manually I've had 100% success rate in mileage credit (takes a few weeks though).

Some staff already seem to know the FB number needs to be entered manually, others will just swipe the card given the chance. In my experience LHR staff mostly know to enter manually and LCY staff swipe it. I guess not many FB members use Travelex in LCY.

Quick question on travellers cheques - for GBP travellers cheques I assume most UK banks let you pay them in over the counter at no charge? I've never bothered with travellers cheques before, perhaps it's time to begin, more miles when I travel can't be a bad thing.

Could be a false economy.What you SHOULD be looking at when changing money are the spreads between what they buy a currency at and what rates they sell at .Some bid/offer spreads at bureaux de change can be gobsmackingly large....25% + and Travelex is as guilty as others for this extortion.Caveat Emptor:cool:

Could be a false economy.What you SHOULD be looking at when changing money are the spreads between what they buy a currency at and what rates they sell at .Some bid/offer spreads at bureaux de change can be gobsmackingly large....25% + and Travelex is as guilty as others for this extortion.Caveat Emptor:cool:

I would be deeply shocked if they were quoting anything other than parity (plus 1.5% commission) for buying Sterling travellers cheques with Sterling.

jerybis - that's not great as Hertz give 1,500 bmi miles per rental, regardless of duration. You get another 200 miles if you book off the bmi website and also as of Sunday I'm a FB nobody. Haven't set foot on Skyteam for some time now and the membership finally gave up at the end of March...

I would be deeply shocked if they were quoting anything other than parity (plus 1.5% commission) for buying Sterling travellers cheques with Sterling.

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Hmm so would i.The spread problem will be over there then i suppose when you convert the cheques into currency .:rolleyes:

Hmm so would i.The spread problem will be over there then i suppose when you convert the cheques into currency .:rolleyes:

No, that's the beauty of it. You just wander down to your own bank and present the TC's as cash, still in Sterling.

The downside has to be that you'll end up accused of money laundering, but just think of the miles....