Accumulating airline mileages?
Oct 13, 2017, 12:31 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2017
Posts: 8
Accumulating airline mileages?
Hi, i travel by flying quite often but i haven't really figured out how to combine and accumulate mileages. Usually i buy cheap tickets from cheapoair.com or studentuniverse.com, so i fly with different airlines all the time. Is there a way to combine these miles from different airlines or should i be using same airlines all the time?
Oct 13, 2017, 12:38 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,024
Summer111 Welcome to FT ^
Generally you cannot move/combine frequent flyer miles from 1 ff programme to another.
FFP's have partner airlines. So you can fly one airline and accumulate ff miles in another airlines ffp, if an eligible flight.
FF miles have low value. Usually not worth spending extra $ just to get a few miles.
Look here Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here!
Hi, I travel by flying quite often but I haven't really figured out how to combine and accumulate mileages. Usually I buy cheap tickets from cheapoair.com or studentuniverse.com, so I fly with different airlines all the time. Is there a way to combine these miles from different airlines or should I be using same airlines all the time?
FFP's have partner airlines. So you can fly one airline and accumulate ff miles in another airlines ffp, if an eligible flight.
FF miles have low value. Usually not worth spending extra $ just to get a few miles.
Look here Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join? Help Is Here!
Oct 13, 2017, 8:34 am
#3
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA Gold. UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt (Lifetime Diamond downgraded to Explorist)
Posts: 6,776
The general rule of thumb is once you've credited a flight to a program the miles or points are staying there. If you have recent flights (anywhere up to 1 year depending on the program) you can retroactively request credit into a program as long as they haven't been credited to a program already.
What you should focus on in the future is crediting into one or just a few programs based on the partnerships & alliances the airlines you're flying are part of. The main 3 alliances are OneWorld, Skyteam & Star Alliance and there are many outside of alliance partnerships. Alaska Airlines is one of the most diverse nonalliance program with partnerships in all 3 major alliances and then some. Each airline program has it's own rules & earning rates for each fare class flow on each airline.
www.wheretocredit.com can help you determine where your flights would benefit you best but it's generally better to focus your earnings into one pot vs many until you get the hang of earning. Cheaper fares tend to earn less but sometimes there are sweet spots .
If you have any banking or credit card relationships that earn you points you should also consider which programs you can transfer into as the transfers can be used as the bulk earner of miles or a way to top off a miles balance to get an award ticket.
What you should focus on in the future is crediting into one or just a few programs based on the partnerships & alliances the airlines you're flying are part of. The main 3 alliances are OneWorld, Skyteam & Star Alliance and there are many outside of alliance partnerships. Alaska Airlines is one of the most diverse nonalliance program with partnerships in all 3 major alliances and then some. Each airline program has it's own rules & earning rates for each fare class flow on each airline.
www.wheretocredit.com can help you determine where your flights would benefit you best but it's generally better to focus your earnings into one pot vs many until you get the hang of earning. Cheaper fares tend to earn less but sometimes there are sweet spots .
If you have any banking or credit card relationships that earn you points you should also consider which programs you can transfer into as the transfers can be used as the bulk earner of miles or a way to top off a miles balance to get an award ticket.