Does adding connections improve mileage earning?
 

I have a question regarding to mileage. If my purpose is to get more mileage from the flights, will it be helpful to take flights with more transfers or that doesn't matter at all as it only calculate the distance between origin and destination?

For example, if I fly from A to B, needlessly to say direct flight will be faster and shortest. Will I get more mileage to my frequent flyer account if I buy the ticket that has more transfer, like A-C-B (one transfer) or A-C-D-B (two transfers)?

Thanks!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

What you are calling a "transfer" is usually known as a "connection". What you are calling a "direct" flight is a "nonstop".

You will receive more miles for flights with connections than for nonstop or direct flights. How much more depends on the route. An example: If you fly BOS-SEA you will receive miles for the distance between Boston and Seattle. If you fly BOS-IAH-SEA (with a change of planes and flight numbers), you will receive miles for the distance between Boston and Houston plus miles for the distance between Houston and Seattle. I do not know the exact figures, but the flight via Houston should be worth several hundred miles more than the nonstop.

Besides, if the journey contains different alliance in each leg, I suppose the mileage will be calculated separately by legs?

Chang Jim Welcome to the forum

Guess by alliance you mean airline
The frequent flyer miles earned will depend on the fare booking class and rules of your ffp.
Fare booking class is not the same as economy/business/first cabin
Many discount economy flights earn less than 1 ff mile per mile flown or even nil ff miles
Its the flight numbers that matter. If you fly AAA-BBB-CCC on the same flight number you earn miles for AAA-CCC

It may not be worth adding the extra stop unless its way out of the way distance wise. Sometimes adding more connections brings the price up and puts you more at risk of not making it to your destination in time should you not leave enough times between flights in case of delays.

For instance according to the great circle map, BOS-LAX is the same number of miles as BOS-MSP-LAX

BOS-MSP-LAX is only 48 miles longer than BOS-LAX so its not worth the extra effort and risk. Also with TSA tax difference its can be a wash or more cost per miles than non-stop.

One I really liked that United killed a while back was BOS-IAH-SFO-PHX, backtracking through SFO added a lot of miles

Many FF programs give you some minimum number of miles, such as 500, per segment. Take that into account in your calculations. If you make one connection, doing it at an airport that's close to either your origin or destination, rather than in the middle, can easily make a difference of several hundred miles per direction.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Different alliance, yes, but that would mean you have to dilute your earnings among more than one airline.

Same airline? Maybe.

Some airlines offer through flight with the same flight number and count as if you were flying nonstop. Even if the same flight number really entails connections with change of aircraft or even aircraft types.:td:

If I recall correctly, for example, AA48 flew SFO-DFW-FRA; even though this invariably required aircraft changes at DFW, one received miles as if one flew SFO-FRA nonstop.

On the other hand, some of our members earn extra miles from things as simple as flying SFO-MIA-LHR instead of SFO-LHR or even SFO-JFK-LHR. And some get much more creative.:)