Jazz604

Hi all,

A friend of mine is traveling to Taipei with his family of 8 ( 5 adults, 3 children) with China Airlines this summer from Vancouver, BC. They seldom travel, perhaps once every 2 or 3 years to Asia or the US. I am still new at collecting the points and miles. I was wondering where they could bank their miles or should they even bother at all. Can they earn miles with China Airlines partners for hotel deals?

Thanks for your help.

Adam1222

it depends on the fare class. But most Skyteam partners are options. Delta miles are hard to use, but do not expire.

Jazz604

They are flying in economy class.

They are Canadians and thus it is almost impossible to redeem for hotels on Delta website without utilizing a Delta Skymile Amex Card.

Mwenenzi

Jazz604 Welcome to FT
Have a look & ask here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

Certainly worth collecting some miles.
China Airlines is a Skyteam airline, as above. They may also be a partner of Hawaiian, so flying CA it may be possible to get HA miles (I have not checked)
http://www.china-airlines.com/en/club/club_mi_3.htm
http://www.china-airlines.com/en/club/club_mi_3a.htm
http://www.china-airlines.com/en/club/club_ha_en.pdf
Beware of low on nil miles earning on low cost fares

I would put to Delta, if the flight earns miles

Edit
Have looked at HA. You will need to find the fare booking class
http://www.hawaiianairlines.com/Hawa...-airlines.aspx

Adam1222

Economy is not the fare class, just the class of seating. There are several classes (for example, W, Y, O) that would be in economy and yield different mileage.

Redeeming miles for hotels is typically a poor value proposition, regardless of the airline used and the country of residence. If you compare with KLM/Air France and Korean, you wont likely see a huge difference. Those are likely the only three Skyteam partners worth crediting to.

In the end, you may not find a super option, as frequent flyer programs are not very rewarding for infrequent travelers.

dvs7310

If they only travel once every 2-3 years then options are limited. If you bank the miles individually on any plan that expires regardless of activity then they'll go away long before anyone has enough to redeem. Delta (and if I recall AeroMexico) doesn't exipire (with occasional activity in AM's case). Your other option is to bank them together in some program that allows families to bank into one account. I don't know which Skyteam programs allow this (or other non-Skyteam partner of CI).

Frankly speaking, banking in a Skyteam vs other non-Skyteam partner is irrelevant because they don't fly enough to earn any sort of elite status anyway. Choose whichever gives the best earning and redemption opportunities.

As mentioned already by other posters, actual fare class is very important and if they are in the cheapest fare classes on offer then this may all be a moot point anyway. On many Asian carriers, the cheapest 2-4 fare buckets generally earn absolutely nothing on any program or maybe on their own program at a drastically reduced rate (10%, 25%, etc.).

hco

KoreanAir. Join their family program.