Which frequent flyer programme

[custardtart]

Hi,
I'm going to be flying to and from Oz twice a year and wondering which frequent flyer programme would be best, anyone got any experience of this?

Thanks in advance.

[v8xdm]

Just for info... I am a member and have been for many years with Virgin.. Used to be a good programme as I could xfer my Amex points onto it as well... An upper class return used to cost 100,000 miles - they have now doubled this to 200,000 the same for other classes as well..

Certainly not as good as it used to be for sure......

[Burrow01]

If you join any of the Star Alliance members frequent flyer programs you can accrue / spend points on any of the other members flights

I'm a member of United Airlines Milage Plus program, and have a hudred thousand points or so, but have never flown with them :-)

[shakotan]

Paddy_N_Murphy said:

v8xdm said:

Certainly not as good as it used to be for sure......

IMHO - I think that can be said for ALL flyer programmes these days sadly.

Virgin have been my preferred flyer ever since I got my passport in 2003.

The have been steadily slipping in regards to price, offers and service for some time now.

The polish is wearing thin!

[custardtart]

Burrow01 said:

If you join any of the Star Alliance members frequent flyer programs you can accrue / spend points on any of the other members flights

I'm a member of United Airlines Milage Plus program, and have a hudred thousand points or so, but have never flown with them :-)

Yeah that's the one I've been looking at. As I'll be flying from Oz to the UK and back at least 2 times a year (biz class) it looks like Singapore, Emirates and Thai are all Star Alliance members so I have a decent choice. Sadly just flown to and from Chicago on United but too late to claim points

Any idea how many miles I could acrue with 2 biz class return flights to Oz a year?

[dcw@pr]

v8xdm said:

Just for info... I am a member and have been for many years with Virgin.. Used to be a good programme as I could xfer my Amex points onto it as well... An upper class return used to cost 100,000 miles - they have now doubled this to 200,000 the same for other classes as well..

Certainly not as good as it used to be for sure......

I've found virgin miles almost impossible to spend, even when looking 6 months in advance

[nsclem]

I've been a member of star alliance, BA and Virgin over the past few years.

The best by far (IMHO) is Virgin. For 2 x round trips to Oz each year, your looking at 75000 (ish) airmiles and a load of tier points (which are what get you up the ladder from standard to gold) Virgin has by far the best upper class lounges of anyone (and I've been in most of them...) and also, if you're a gold member, you can always use their upper class lounge when you fly (regardless of who your going with - you just flash your card).

There was a mention of not being able to spend your virgin miles on an earlier post. The best way to use up your hard earned miles is to book an economy/prem economy flight any pay for it (on all FF programs, you will always have to pay charges etc which often add up to the price of a ticket anyway) and then use your miles to upgrade!!
I've done this on a few flights when I've been bought a prem economy flight (buz class) and upgraded to upper class. This costs 20000miles from the states, for example. Great as you get the full ish incl full beds etc.

Also, I use a virgin credit card for work which gives me sh*t loads of additional miles to spend! Winner!
Happy travelling...

[Nobby Diesel]

custardtart said:

Burrow01 said:

If you join any of the Star Alliance members frequent flyer programs you can accrue / spend points on any of the other members flights

I'm a member of United Airlines Milage Plus program, and have a hudred thousand points or so, but have never flown with them :-)

Yeah that's the one I've been looking at. As I'll be flying from Oz to the UK and back at least 2 times a year (biz class) it looks like Singapore, Emirates and Thai are all Star Alliance members so I have a decent choice. Sadly just flown to and from Chicago on United but too late to claim points

Any idea how many miles I could acrue with 2 biz class return flights to Oz a year?

Are you sure that you are too late to claim the points?
I have travelled to Thailand with EVA for the last 5 or 6 years, on family holidays with my wife and kids.
I joined their programme earlier this year and the added all the miles from the last 5 years - enough to upgrade to Business next Easter.

[custardtart]

Nobby Diesel said:

custardtart said:

Burrow01 said:

If you join any of the Star Alliance members frequent flyer programs you can accrue / spend points on any of the other members flights

I'm a member of United Airlines Milage Plus program, and have a hudred thousand points or so, but have never flown with them :-)

Yeah that's the one I've been looking at. As I'll be flying from Oz to the UK and back at least 2 times a year (biz class) it looks like Singapore, Emirates and Thai are all Star Alliance members so I have a decent choice. Sadly just flown to and from Chicago on United but too late to claim points

Any idea how many miles I could acrue with 2 biz class return flights to Oz a year?

Are you sure that you are too late to claim the points?
I have travelled to Thailand with EVA for the last 5 or 6 years, on family holidays with my wife and kids.
I joined their programme earlier this year and the added all the miles from the last 5 years - enough to upgrade to Business next Easter.

How did you manage that, details would be appreciated as I've looked at the United conditions for retro-gaining points and it's clear that you must've been a member at the time of the flight purchase.

I'm thinking of United's programme as they are offering 30,000miles to newbies whereas Thai are only offering 2500 miles - Seems a huge difference, am I missing something?

I'm assuming that even if I fly Thai I can still gain miles on my United programme? Sorry for the dumb questions!

[custardtart]

Ive also seen the BA Amex card where you get 1 mile for every £1 spent plus a free ticket for a passenger to the same class if you've spent £20k in a year. I could easily spend £20k in a year and so if I booked a biz class flight back to the UK would get a free one for the wife which sounds good.

Having said that, the United on offers a mile for every $1 spend but the small print suggests this is only available to people in the US!

None of it seems really easy, does anyone know if there's a web site that compares them all?

[SunnyD]

I've been with Virgin for years and have totted up a nice little collection of miles now, although when I tried to spend them for my last trip it worked out cheaper to actually pay full price for the seat than spending miles and paying the tax (Virgin must've had some sort of sale on). Think I'll follow that advice and use them to upgrade instead.

I also have the Virgin Atlantic Amex so get a ton of miles through that. Don't forget you get Virgin miles with Singapore Airlines too so if you're flying to Oz a lot you're not restricted to just one company.

[theboyfold]

SunnyD said:

I've been with Virgin for years and have totted up a nice little collection of miles now, although when I tried to spend them for my last trip it worked out cheaper to actually pay full price for the seat than spending miles and paying the tax (Virgin must've had some sort of sale on). Think I'll follow that advice and use them to upgrade instead.

I also have the Virgin Atlantic Amex so get a ton of miles through that. Don't forget you get Virgin miles with Singapore Airlines too so if you're flying to Oz a lot you're not restricted to just one company.

I'm also finding that it rarely makes sense to use my Virgin miles. I've tried to use them to upgrade for my Xmas trip to NYC and I have the wrong ticket type.

Finding reward flights is almost impossible, however they are quite good for miles plus money flights, sometimes you can get some good deals that way.

[Not Ideal]

custardtart said:

Yeah that's the one I've been looking at. As I'll be flying from Oz to the UK and back at least 2 times a year (biz class) it looks like Singapore, Emirates and Thai are all Star Alliance members so I have a decent choice. Sadly just flown to and from Chicago on United but too late to claim points

You can normally claim the miles retro-spectively (Sp?) but more often than not it has a deadline on it. IIRC BA has a 3month window where you can claim back as long as you can prove you took the flight.

[SunnyD]

Not Ideal said:

custardtart said:

Yeah that's the one I've been looking at. As I'll be flying from Oz to the UK and back at least 2 times a year (biz class) it looks like Singapore, Emirates and Thai are all Star Alliance members so I have a decent choice. Sadly just flown to and from Chicago on United but too late to claim points

You can normally claim the miles retro-spectively (Sp?) but more often than not it has a deadline on it. IIRC BA has a 3month window where you can claim back as long as you can prove you took the flight.

Virgin's the same. They just needed to see the ticket stub.