microcosm

Am I just delusional or how are Non Americans "generating" miles as apparently bunch of posts from non americans claiming how they can get F tickets because of how easy it is to get miles and generate them...

I'm in canada and probably 2nd most 'liberal' country that issues out relatively good sign up bonuses (maybe tied with UK) and let me tell you, it is still very very difficult to build up for return on business let alone F and manufacturing spending is non existent (nothing like bluebird etc)

lcpteck

I guess maybe they fly on company's $$$ so no cost to them.

As a leisure traveler, it's extremely difficult from SIN. Credit Card churning is terrible, our best signup bonus on our home airline (SQ) is only 5k miles, which you can't even redeem for a one way economy flight (lowest redemption starts at 7.5k). Discounted Y tickets generate only 10% of the mileage flown, which also isn't really cheap sometimes.

bhomburg

There's a few gems out there (the BAEC/Tesco relationship in the UK, the HG co-branded cc available in Austria that lets you earn AB miles on ATM/cash transactions), but in general non-Americans just aren't doing this. 95% of my FF miles are generated the old-fashioned way - by flying.

chuichi

I think alot of the miles can be collected on credit cards such as the ones from BA or Virgin Atlantic... there're also non-flying partners where you can earn miles from purchasing from them

FTR 787

what a lot of em do is just buy the miles outright, esp when there are juicy promos (50% bonus, 100% on shared.) they dont need to mess around with churning CCs or MS when they can buy F flights (perhaps something they intended to do anyways) for pennies on the dollar. obv a costly and risky strategy but if you have your heart set on an F award - thats how they go about it.

lotta FF programs have huge yearly buying limits esp in the US and non-americans can buy in, so say they stock up on all of the members of any given alliance and they're good to go - redeem on partners etc. this obv goes both ways. americans buy miles in korean skypass program for ex since no good CCs for that tho one can transfer in from Chase UR, but if you're tapped out, thats what some folks do.

sdsearch

You don't need Bluebird to do manufactered spending in the US, it's the just the least expensive route for most people (who are reasonably clost to a Wal-Mart).

At Wal-Marts in the US, an alternative is to take you generic Visa/MC gift card and buy a money order with it (then use that money order to pay your credti card bill). There's a fee for the money order, as well as the fee you had for buying the generic Visa/MC gift card. But for prohibitlvely-expensive-with-cash airline tickets like business or first class international longhaul, it still might make sense.

So what's missing in Canada? Can you not buy generic Visa/MC gift cards at retail stores with a crediit card? (In the US most major grocery chains sell them.) Or can you not buy money orders with those gift cards anywhere?

Also, do you have multiple credit cards that earn the same thing in Canada like we do here in the US? For example, one of the tricks in the US with Chase is that there are so many cards that earn Ultimate Rewards points, and each of them you can repeat every few years, so if you rotate among them, you can be applying for one or two a year without repeating for over two years.

Also, do you have ailrlines merging (or Canadian credit cards for US airlines that are merging)? Right now US Air and American have separate credit cards from different banks, and you can apply for both of them, but their miles will combine probably sometime next year. (I pulled the same trick when Continental and United were merging, and when Northwest and Delta were merging. In each case, the credit cards for both airlines that were about to merge were available for a while after the merger was announced, and each airline used a different bank, so there was no problem applying for both and waiting for the mileage programs to merge.)

lin821

This other thread may shed some light on the challenges non-Americans run into:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/exter...h-america.html

Another example thread that deals are not as easy to get for non-Americans:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...-resident.html

crimsona

Higher charges for Visa gift cards ($5+%?), money orders cost $7 each, of which they only accept Cash or debit. Visa gift cards I believe are always treated as credit here as the debit network is handled by Interac network, not Visa or MC.

Amex is the main transferable currency here, with fewer cards (Canada has no everyday card, no Premier Gold), signups around half of the US ones, annual fees higher in all cases (Regular Gold 125 USD vs 150 CAD, Plat 450 USD vs 699 CAD, SPG 65 USD vs 120 CAD) and fewer partners (no SQ, Delta)

RBC has a somewhat transferable points card which can transfer to BA or AA, but also with 15k signup bonuses and $120 annual fee. Earn rate is 1 point per dollar, 1.25 on travel.

Chase does not run the UR program in Canada, and the Marriott Visa here also has a higher annual fee ($89 USD vs $120 CAD). This means the highest multiplier is the Amex regular gold rewards at 2x for Gas/Groceries/Travel on spend.

Air Canada has a defacto monopoly. Westjet is a far second with a revenue based program similar to Southwest. Airlines merging? Nope. Signup bonuses for Aeroplan are limited to Amex (similar to Amex Delta cards, 25k for Aeroplan Gold with $120 annual fee or 50k Aeroplan Platinum with $499 annual fee) and TD/CIBC which cap out at either 15k with first year free or 25k with first year paid at $120

Capital One does offer a Delta card, but never with annual fee waived and a small signup bonus, MBNA does have the Alaska card which is quite competitive with the BoA one

BenSenise

i find that the RBC cards are okay. the avion infinite earns 1point/$ and RBC has had 50% bonus on transfers to Avion twice a year for years. so $10k spend is 15k avios.

combine that with an RBC BA Visa and spend $30k to get a 2for1 voucher.

i put every single penny of spend that i can on a credit card, throw in the occasional churn, and my wife and I have flown to Asia on CX in F, Europe in F, and are going to europe again on BA in F next year. I've got enough aeropesos to give Lufthansa a try in F, or at least J out and F back.

for me it's a hobby and the reward is flying in luxury. it can be done here but it takes a conscientious effort to gather points. the promotions with a few thousand miles here and there add up. so my point is that even though we don't have the amazing opportunities that our neighbors to the south have, it can still be done.

sedubby

OMG. Proud to be an American. Land of cheap, aggressive consumer credit.

catarina

Airlines in Canada merging ... just how many do you think we have ?!?

keitherson

RIP Canadian Airlines. Air Canada is the worst.

lcpteck

^

FTR 787

might look competitive to you only cause the BofA offers are usually crap, esp compared to the mega offers over at other banks. although in their defense, they are churnable

nothing to be proud of... there's a reason plentiful credit is available, its at the expense and cost of your real income being stagnant. where exactly do you think all that capital comes from to lend when we owe the Chinese trillions? it comes from corps playing their profits on Wall St and banksters taking that money and lending it out to ordinary Americans who previously would've had that extra money come in as part of their regular wages, interest free. but Americans still gotta keep up and maintain their (falling) standard of living -- and so its all being done on credit which some smart folks figured out they could do and reap even more profits just for themselves, because American consumerist habits die hard. and why pay employees better wages even with ever increasing productivity for the employer, when you can just loan em that money instead and double dip? watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZU3wfjtIJY
or read: http://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Hit.../dp/156656784X


Canada apparently doesn't have the similar socio-economic problems the US faces and perhaps that's why they dont (yet) have something like what we have to balance out the rest: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...aken-over.html ... I mean the gutting of America continues, BK just bought out Tim Hortons (all stock deal, with Timmies now comprising 20% of the new company) just so they could claim to be a Canadian corp and avoid paying American taxes or repatriation of funds taxes from their subsidiary profits from across the world: http://online.wsj.com/articles/burge...ons-1408924294 ... who does that tax burden fall on now? you and me -- its a recipe for disaster, stagnant/declining wages and opportunities, mixed with ever increasing tax burden lest we cut essential services for those who need it the most or worse, kick the can down the road and let future generations deal with the debt (remember the debt ceiling fiascos, I mean discussions in congress?) ... so what are the chances the rest of America starts to look a lot more like Detroit as this spiraling trend continues?


but then again what starts in America, ala American habits/dreams eventually does spread out to the rest of the world. so for better or worse, lucrative offers might be headed to those who are looking enviously at the US. but a poignant Q is do you really want that for what it actually signifies? do you really want a 1% class created in your own countries too where there's a more balanced distribution of wealth currently?

HMPS

This not accurate. Generic mc or visa do not work like this at wm. There are pages and threads on this .