ylefin

It is for me great fun to read this forum and your interesting, funny and often very useful commets. I have myself a hate/love interest in flying, having made many stories about flying but also having experienced a really frightening severe turbulence between Bangkok and Singapore (1984) -and some other nasty situations as well. So I would never fly for instance ex-EU to Asia with many stopovers to gather some points, and maybe experience nasty landings in thunderstorms. So my question is: What do you do with all the points you gather, I suppose not only for reaching a status to get a free Ilta-Sanomat newspaper on a flight :-) Is this only a nice game where you can meet friends on a Helsinki-Delhi-Helsinki turnaround flight or do you make money or really important upgrades for example, when you fly for work. I mean, you have to pay for some flights anyway, if your company is not doing it. Or is this just a game for getting free access to the Helsinki premium non-Schengen lounge? I was very surprised when Finnair CEO met you during the meeting in Helsinki - it shows you have a great value for Finnair.
Oh, and must tell my nicest flight, as the ice-hockey World Championships areon again: Finnair Arlanda-Helsinki special flight with the ice-hockey world champions and two Draken planes escorting us and a nice sight-seeing over Helsinki before landing with the DC-9 in 1995. Free drinks yes.....and without a platinium card or any cards.

SPBanker

Heh, I guess those are the million point questions. Answers must vary a lot from one person to another.

I travel a lot for work, and I can only use the points for work-travel upgrades etc. Which is nice, but being OWE makes many a trip much less daunting, sometimes even fun.

WilcoRoger

Hoard them to brag about the balance at DOs

When there's not enough space on your account for more points - reward tix, upgrades. They are really the only reasonable redemptions, the others are usually quite poor value.

But I do not fly for the "fun of it" - I usually want to get from point A to B, even if it just to turn around Actually it might be more correct to say - I do not buy tickets to fly for the fun of it. I just use all segments of existing tickets, even if just for positioning flight reasons.

intuition

You are mistaken! I mainly gather points for status, and I don't even get a free ilta sanomat since such perks are reserved for the valued y flyer!

But when the account is bursting with award points I spend them on CX first flights. Or the Finnair city bus...

FFlash

Mertaranta here ?

Well, as company Y-policy, I use my company-gathered points for upgrades. And I have lots of Y flights, making me qualify by segments anyway.

My own-gathered points from leisure flights I mostly gather up to J redemptions.

niksal

So far only upgrades, but I hope I one day have enough points to really treat me to something special, like a First Class flight. Maybe for my 40th birthday? Two problems: family (we are 4 in total) would never let me do that alone, so I would need A LOT of points and probably such award availability doesn't exist.

Currently I like status due to fast track and lounges. A lot of Y class flights via work, and the occasional leisure flights are nice to upgrade.

WilcoRoger

And some/many find it useful to exchange bonus points to TPs to achieve the next status level which would otherwise be out of reach.

WilcoRoger

Well, well, I'm not to give marital advice, but "Honey, you could go with the kids a bit earlier in C, I have some work related stuff so I'll come a day or two later" might work

cistavoda

Fixed that for you

niksal

If your wife agrees to travel alone with the kids, I'd like to meet her. I think my odds are higher winning in the lottery - then I could just buy the F tickets!

Courmisch

I fly a bit for work, for volunteering/hobby, for leisure, and for my family obligations as an expatriate - all in Y - enough to get some status.

I probably have spent more award points as exchange for tier points (with upgrade vouchers as the top motivator), the rest directly for business upgrades.

WilcoRoger

Not really. The real sales pitch would go like this

"you could take the kids earlier in C, otherwise you'd need to fly in Y"

But I think we can all agree, that only a fool would travel in a higher booking class than the SO.

FFlash

Now we talking

I coughed the other day when my daughter (whom I had taken on a C longhaul earlier) asked me out of the blue if I have ever flown in First class. I responded maybe I had an opup on BA back in the years when I did not care, but no I have never bought an F ticket. She asked me why. I told her I would not want to pay 10000€ (well...less than that) for that when I am happy with a business seat for 2000€ even though I have to buy Y for work.
She said: I see, but it would be a nice experience! have I spoiled her already (hoping she has not started reading FT yet)

Jainzar

I can disagree. SO understands if I need to fly in a higher class to collect more miles for status. And if she can reap later some benefits it is even great since she doesn't see the value in spending her own money on it.

And about the topic: SH J upgrades. Especially when I need to transport many bags or on longer SH flights. But also from August on they become even more valuable as AY+ Silver.

Steve_Hun

One can never start this game too early