Hi, I signed my mother up for a plan - Air Canada, she's from NZ, so won't get status - not that she flies freq enough and she definitely won't do the few flights per year required anyway on Air Canada's metal. I chose it b/c with the long expiry and if she has no activity, she could just donate some points to keep it active.

So she may travel 12,000 miles per year. Being outside of Canada - too expensive to use a Canadian CC. Doubt she would be eligible anyway being a non-resident.

Even with the AirNZ Airpoints programme. Not tooo much point with the CC - she only spends maybe $10k in local currency - that's about $8k USD per year.

So in this forum - non frequent fliers. How much point do you see of FFPs?? We just thought that over the years if she flew maybe 4x trips not too cheap - she might get one reward flight.

PS. She just visit friends/family overseas so CC doesn't get used much if any, she prefers to carry cash oveseas for that few weeks. Staying with family - so no hotels etc ... She flies Economy of course.

Power and gas bills etc ... she pays with cash or bank card rather than CC b/c we get a discount here (and if we pay it earlier than the due date). For food etc .. she used a lot of the local markets etc.

My general rule of thumb is that unless you're flying at least 25,000 miles per year, the cost of remaining loyal to a single carrier probably outweighs that of the eventual reward.

Say the cheapest flight on your mom's usual route is $800 via Air Anybody, but she spends an extra $200 to fly AC because she gets miles for it. You said she flies about 12,000 miles per year... I don't know how many return trips that is, but let's say two. So to stay loyal, she's spending $400 more than she needs to each year. She is racking up 12,000 miles per year plus 10,000 miles from credit card use, or 22,000 total. Perhaps the credit card annual fee is $75. That's $475 / year in unnecessary spending.

If an award ticket costs 50,000 miles and it takes Mom 2.5 years to compile 50,000 miles, she is theoretically spending $1200 in pursuit of a prize worth $800. Smart money says she should have just flown as cheaply as possible with Air Anybody in the first place, and forgotten about the miles.

Your figures will vary, of course, but think along those lines. The math is pretty gloomy for sub-25k flyers trying to make these programs work to their advantage.

And of course, as you probably know, the FF programs are getting more and more dilute... redemption is harder, and costs more miles -- making them of genuine value to fewer and fewer people, especially occasional flyers like Mom.

12,000 miles is one return trip - say NZL - Asia pretty much like HKG, or Singapore or Tokyo Narita. She goes HKG only or to YVR, she has family there too that I think might be 18,000. On avg she flies once a year 12000-18000. The occasional year she might fly twice so 2x air mileage or she may not fly so it evens out.

Yeah of course over here, one trip to Asia is about $1500US at a guess equiv. If you spent maybe $70-150USD less you may not get points. $70USD for one leg without points or $150 for both legs (return) without points. So we sort of went with the $150 more so she got points. Well, actually, we paid $1500US and got points both ways due to a semi urgent event, a few days after the ticket dropped $75USD, which is you get points for only one way (ie., 6.000 of the 12,000 miles) but too late, not sure what option she would have taken if provided.

Over here, we don't really have LCC that suits her. There is Air Asia or Jetstar but .. she doesn't like it b/c you need to swap aircrafts in SE Asia. Jetstar makes you sleep overnight in Singapore and fly out next morning. Air Asia may need a few hours and you might need to take luggage out and recheck in for the other flight (and go thru security/passports again). Plus the comfort isn't as good on LCC. But true, if AirNZ who do direct flights for say half price - which very occasionally happens, hands down.

Yeah award is 50-60k miles. So .. 4x trips needed. At the moment she doesn't have a airline CC. Just a CC that has a 1% cashback thingy. I guess the bonus is travel insurance.

Why don't you look at A3 for her?
If she manages to fly 19k miles in a year, she will get *G status for a couple years validity - not a bad deal compared to no status at all...

I had a look at A3. For the AirnZ fares that she does - W fares. Aegean only gives 0.70 points per mile flown. So also to get rewards was made harder.

http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonu...0NEW%20ZEALAND

The 2nd option would have been OZ but OZ is just too hard for her to get status. Yeah she could have got Silver A3 but she doesn't go anywhere where A3 has lounges so she cannot use her 2? coupons.

I was pretty much left with AC b/c they have a 7yr expiry. ANA/SIA were good too for rewards but the points had a much shorter expiry.

True, but it is possible to still accumulate mileage over the years to gain an award ticket, by carefully choosing airline programs to maximize coverage of airlines through alliance or mileage partnerships, even if you choose airlines on every flight without regard to mileage accumulation.

Also, even if you expect the mileage to be completely useless (the airline is an isolate as far as mileage partnerships go, and you do not fly it frequently enough to ever collect an award due to mileage expiration), being a member of the airline program may confer a slight status elevation over a not being a member. Once, as a General Member (i.e. "no" status) with United, I got a free Economy Plus upgrade at check-in. Apparently, the flight had so few United Mileage Plan members of any status on that flight that they gave away Economy Plus seats down to General Members in order to open Economy (not Plus) seats for other passengers who did not yet have seat assignments or something like that.

I just had a thought. She's with AC now. She's told me before she wasn't interested in status or lounge b/c she felt it was a league above her ....


But I just thought:
OZ does not operate in my country.
AC neeeds 60k for her reward that she likes. OZ needs 68k.
OZ silver gets 5k discount, so needs 65k for a reward.

B/c OZ does not operate in my country. If she is OZ Silver but she is flying a different Star Alliance carrier. Can she still use the Asiana Business Lounge with her Silver card Like when she is overseas in the larger countries where OZ operate. When she come back home, she could go in the lounge.