I've just moved from the UK to San Francisco. I have a wife and 3 year old. I hope to fly back 3 times per year. Possibly the odd flight somewhere else too.

I flew over on virgin atlantic so I opened a membership. As did my wife. That single flight netted us 5k miles each.

The first thing I wondered is with my estimated trips, am I going to get anywhere with collecting miles? I see people with 100k miles not able to do much - how many miles do you need for a return to SFO-LHR?

Do experienced travellers actually buy miles directly? There's currently a +20% offer I was looking at.

And if anyone has advice on the basics of accumulating miles in other ways, would be great to hear!

Thanks!