MilesBuzz! - UK newbie dazed and confused

Hi all

I started travelling a reasonable amount a couple of years back.

Initially I did nothing as far as collecting points.:eek:
Then it occured to me I might be missing out on somthing and joined evreything going.@:-)
Now I have started to consolidate and could do with some help fine-tunning:cool:

I have a million questions, but will try to start gently. I guess it may be useful to give a little background to my travel habits.

I fly transatlantic maybe 10 round trips per year. Many of these are with BA with whom I get no points as allways get cheapest possible tickets. The rest tend to be with NW (I am currently silver elite with Flying Blue) and I do get miles for their cheap tickets. I try to use any skyteam carrier for my US internal travel.

All up, I expect about 100k miles per year but am not realising all of the points.

I have a Citi card with which I get AA award miles (50 - 100k per year).

So;

1. Is there any way of getting BA miles on their cheap fares?
2. Is there a UK credit card that will give me Flying Blue miles? or would I be better to transfer to AA for my prefered carrier?

I book direct with BA and book through expedia for NW. I am not sure if this is relevant with regards to getting miles for cheap tickets?

Any advice would be welcome, and the virtual beers are on me.

;)

First of all, welcome to Flyertalk!

If you're flying on cheap (or even mid-priced) economy tickets, don't fly BA. The best you can do with them is get 50% of the miles flown if you get yourself in the Finnair programme. Not easy to get status on that...

Which routes do you fly transatlantic? If you often go to/via New York, look into Czech Airlines, who, as far as I know, are the only carrier in the world offering complimentary (space-available) upgrades to their elites on every route.
Unfortunately, JFK and EWR are their only destinations in the Americas, but they are a full Skyteam member, so you still get your normal elite benefits when flying AFKL or other Skyteam partners.

I am not an expert on credit cards, so I'll pass on that one. However, I will say that I would never choose my preferred airline on the basis of the credit card.

Welcome

As far as NW fares and Flying Blue goes, you want to watch for the V fares that only earn 25% miles. That's the cheapest fare offered by NW (and KL) trans-atlantic. It'd be almost better to fly CO and DL if their fares are the same as NW/KL V fares. Assuming you are resident in Europe, getting to 40k miles (Gold status) on FB will get you Elite Plus level which will give you access to NW lounge when travelling NW in the U.S., and AF and KL lounges anytime(?), as well as ST partner

BA doesn't value low-yield travellers so the fares that do earn miles only earn 25% and don't contribute any "tier points" towards status.

Since you already have an AA-affiliated credit card (though I understand there may be issues about continuance, or is that the Hilton U.K. credit card?), you may consider flying with AA trans-Atlantic instead. Almost all (if not all) AA fares sold through AA.com earn 100% miles and you should earn at least 65,000 miles a year which will get you oneWorld Sapphire (AA Platinum) status which gets you lounge access among other things. You could even do a challenge on AA which will give you Platinum status if you earn 10,000 points (cheapest fares earn 0.5 points per mile, middle fares 1.0 points/mile and premium/full fares 1.5 points/mile) with a certain period (2-3 months?) If you can earn either 100k elite qualifying miles or points in a calendar year, you will earn AA Executive Platinum status which not only gives you the benefits of Platinum but 8 systemwide upgrades (not fare restricted) as well. There are domestic upgrade benefits as well.

Flying AA and hitting 100k miles flown would bring the many benefits of EXP, sucj as 8 one-way upgrades (so 40% of your TATL flights should wind up in business).

You earn 100% qualifying miles on any AA code flight. AA TATL fares from the UK are competitive and as mentioned that'll add to your miles from your credit card to give you 250,000+ miles per year - giving you many more options for award travel.

Thank you all.

Sounds like I need to avoid BA and invetigate AAs routes.

AA had sent me an offer last year to fast track to Gold with just 5000 miles, does anyone know of any similar offers they currently have going.

They also offer Fastrack to Platinum, something you should look at. See American Airlines forum sticky.

Without doubt AAdvantage is the most Generous [AKA-Stupid] Frequent Flyer program/programme in the world.

I give them less than $12,000 a year and in return, get more than $150,000 of High End Travel. Much of this on 5 Star airlines like, JL,CX,QF and BA. I have only flown coach [Where there is a higher Cabin] Once in 6 years.

Whilst I accept I have an unusal flying pattern with Homes, Businesses and Family in UK, Florida ,Asia, Brazil and an unamed Caribbean Island their AAdvantage FF program/programme is unbeatable.

Also 100% of what I buy I pay for myself..thats if its not an AAward:D

Have a look on the AA board for the gold and platinum challenges - ways to kick start your elite status on AA by flying a reduced number of miles/flights/EQMs within a defined period. Plenty of information (I think it could even be stickied!) about them, so do make sure you read up on it before asking questions (the AA forum can be a bit grumpy if you don't do your homework ;)).

Do remember that there are issues with BA and AA transatlantically and being able to miles earn.

Also, since you do have a BA account, make sure you shop at Tesco. Clubcard points can be converted into BA miles (it's not well publicised), and so Tesco can be a good source of BA miles. I'm still using up Johnson baby products from the last offer :(

Do remember that there are issues with BA and AA transatlantically and being able to miles earn.

(

There's no Problem if you never fly BA USA-UK..and who would want to when you get 200% Points as AA Plat or EXP plus easy access to 8 FREE upgrades from Lowest fares.

In the past I have been critical of AA's slow roll out of NCBC in J and Guaranteed First Suites, much of this now in the past. Yes there are weaknesses in Cabin Service, but this can be forgiven for their outstandingly generous upgrade policy.

[QUOTE=Jenbel;9479657]................ so do make sure you read up on it before asking questions (the AA forum can be a bit grumpy if you don't do your homework ;))....................

QUOTE]

A grumpy forum? Who ever heard such a thing!;)

If you're not hellbent on staying with Oneworld, you might want to consider switching to *alliance and crediting to BMI. Just a thought. Welcome to FT.