Question re. Accumulating FF Miles
 

Hi all.

First, let me apologize if I've posted this question in the incorrect forum, but as far as I could tell, this forum was the closest thing to a "general" FF discussion. Anyway, in the near future, I'm going to be booking 7 (domestic) round-trip tickets for air travel in July. One ticket will be for me, but the other six will be for friends and family. I know that the rules of some frequent flyer programs (Southwest's Rapid Rewards, for example) would allow me to claim frequent flyer miles only for the one round-trip ticket in my name, but I'm curious if there are some airlines with which their FF program would allow me to claim the miles for all seven tickets.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Welcome to FT.

Edited to reflect the fact that I misread the original question -- the answer in post #3 is correct, which is that it's not possible.

Mike

The OP is looking to earn miles for seven tickets, rather than claiming seven award tickets.

The answer to the OP's question is here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ight=household

The person who flies, earns the miles. However, if you are paying for the ticket you are able to earn points/miles by using a reward-earning credit card.

NH allows you to pool your immediate family's miles into one account, but you have to give up some miles up front (8,000?) to exercise this option.

1000 miles, I think. There is some promo going on now with regards to that.

I believe Asiana airlines offers that as well. Unfortunately, *G with that is a bit higher than usual.

British Airways (BA) allows household accounts. BA is a possibility for a domestic trip because you can fly on American Airlines or Alaska Airlines and credit the flights to BA. The complication is that British Airways' Executive Club is not as easy to join as most. To join the Executive Club and start collecting BA Miles you must: Have booked or flown a qualifying flight in the past three months -OR- Take out and use a British Airways credit card .

The official BA credit card in USA is issued by Chase and carries a $75 annual fee, but includes 20,000 miles.

http://www.firstusa.com/cgi-bin/webc...cont&mkid=6G0Z

The problem, I think, is that each adult would need to establish a separate credit card account to join under this rule. Ordering additional cards on the same account would not create a new Executive Club number. (My understanding is that children cannot join Executive Club, except as part of a Household Account.)

There are other US credit cards that can transfer miles to BA, and in the past holding one of those (e.g. Diners Club Mastercard, Merrill+ VISA) also entitled you to join Executive Club, but I do not know if this can be done as soon as the credit card is issued.

Welcome to FT!

As nako stated, most FFPs only award the miles to the passenger whose flies (BIS - Butt In Seat). If you purchase the ticket(s) with a milage earning credit card, you would get the "miles" for the cost of the ticket(s) - but not for flying.

Yes, you would earn miles for flying yourself also, but not also for the other six. They will (if they join the FFP) earn their own miles. If they do not join the FFP, the miles are lost and nobody earns them!

Each person flying should (but it's up to them) join the FFP for themselves, and then maybe when they earn enough miles, maybe they will give you a free ticket! :D (When my sisters have flown, I signed them up for the FFP. Who knows, I may be given a free ticket someday as a present! :D)

sign-up for Citi PPE Mastercard and you earn Flightpoints for any tickets regardless of who travels so long you use that card. GL.

(edited because I was glancing at the Red Sox game on TV instead of reading the above post)

Yes, I think the above poster's mention of citi's new thank you rewards card let you earn points when you buy a ticket and someone else flies.

that way, if they fly 3,000 miles, you earn something from that as well as the purchase price.

I cannot recall the rules on that one.

:)MM

Japan Airlines Family Club lets family members pool mileage. To actually accumulate mileage, you'd need to fly on Oneworld member airlines and the only domestic US airline in Oneworld is AA.

http://www.ar.jal.com/ar/en/jmb/index05.html


There is also a credit card that lets you accumulate mileage:

http://www.premio.com/e/jalpremio/index.html

Good luck!

The OP should also be aware that there are basically TWO types of miles you earn for flying: redeemable miles (RDMs) and elite qualifying miles (EQMs, aka "status miles," MQMs, etc.). Generally, for flying, you earn both at the same time, though not necessarily in equal quantities.

The frequent flyer game is much more complex than just earning miles (RDMs) that you can redeem for awards (including, but not limited to, flight awards). The game as played by FlyerTalkers often involves looking for ways (such as via "mileage runs," special EQM promos, etc.) to gain elite status of some form, which then enables you to earn extra bonus RDMs on flights, upgrades, and a host of other perks. The ability to upgrade to a nicer class of service while having paid for a cheap economy class ticket is something that is highly prized in these parts. ;)

she's right cept if you are like me (and many in here) who (A) don't fly for business like some friends I have who need to travel for work like every week or so, or (B) havent used money to pay for a flight in like 5 years! (well, maybe one or two here and there but certainly never enough to really gain any significant status)

99% of my flying is via credit card miles and promos.


I think getting status would also be a good idea because there are many things the economy traveler just cannot do. You should be able to get or do those things, but it's sub par. With status, for example, you don't get charged the $15 fee if you have to book tickets on the phone. Now that's a small example but such things go across the board, so you may get my point.

Strive for it if you can. Obtain and maintain it. Get addicted to this forum and learn of mileage runs. Go forth and prosper!

In the meantime, if you are fiddling and diddling with just a few flights a year and this is the big score (family flying) note that BA also lets people have a family account. You may not be using them now but what we once did was this:

Had mom, brothers and self all on one household BA account which had a total of 50k in it. Needed 60k to fly AA from states to Europe. Had a friend with 10+k do an address change form with them to say he lived with us (on paper). We then redeemed the added miles in the pool and one flight was had! Gave friend a free hotel stay one time to make it up at a decent SPG property. Call it what you will. The gain of status and EQMs is the best, most legitimate way to get uber miles. The few and far between little "scores" and the heavy use of credit cards and promos is the other way to get by when you just don't fly enough but wanna go for free/less when you do.

Just some info to take with ya for next time! :D
MM

While it's true that Citi awards Flight Points based on distance flown, this is in addition to the miles available from the airline. Earning Citi Flight Points has no affect on the value or distribution of the real airline miles. Also, to redeem the Flight Points they must be matched by Purchase Points. In simplest case, if the OP buys six airline tickets and earns, say, 12,000 Flight Points he will need to charge $12,000 to use them.

AS (Alaska Airlines) lets you credit mileage from people with the same last name to your account. You can get full EQMs with AA, NW and DL, and mileage-only on CO and some others.