63
Yes, there is: since transfers are free, unlimited and can be any number over 5,000 miles, you can transfer some miles to them, and transfer the combined sum back! Here's how it works:
Family member has (say) 4,000 orphaned miles
You transfer 5,000 miles (the minimum) to your family member
Family member now has over 5,000 miles, so they can transfer the ...
46
To directly answer the title question, yes, non-business travelers can absolutely benefit from airline loyalty programs (i.e. earning points/miles as well as status.) Whether it's worth it for you in particular, though, will be extremely dependent on your particular situation and what options are available to you on the routes you normally fly, as well as ...
30
Yes. There is the possibility you'll be questioned as to your motives, but in the end they're all domestic flights, so it's down to you and the airline for the transaction, and they've sold you the tickets.
Of course, the Earth might not thank you ;)
I know of a role here in Sydney which requires employees (non-airline) to fly 6 flights in a day, with ...
29
There are three things that set (some) frequent flier programs apart from other rewards programs. How important these are to you may determine whether they are worth doing.
The first is "Status" which you refer to by mentioning business travellers. Never lining up, spending an hour or more less in the airport than others, waiting in the lounge eating and ...
28
The #1 rule of upgrades is to not believe most of what is said and written about them. There may have been a time (decades ago) when upgrades were at the discretion of the gate or flight crew, and being pleasant and well-dressed might work. These days, some airlines don't even have a premium cabin, and those that do have strict rules about upgrades.
There ...
26
If the airline is a part of an alliance (as in your first question), there might be some recompense in that other alliance partners might still recognise the points. But that's up to them and their individual terms with you in the ticket.
As far as the points themselves - you'll likely lose them. A prime local example in Australia was Ansett, which went ...
26
Generally, yes.
On almost all airlines you can select/change frequent flier accounts as often as you want until check in. Final selection typically happens during check in and most check in processes have an explicit or optional step explicitly for this.
22
Yes. The airline is a business, they are happy to receive your repeat custom.
Your concern should be whether this is feasible: if the same aircraft is used to operate all flights, then one flight delayed will not impact the rest of your itinerary, because the subsequent flights will also be delayed. (This is called a "back-to-back" in mileage running terms.)...
22
The main source of income for Frequent Flyer programs is not selling your information, but instead selling points.
Any time you earn points/miles from using a credit card that is affiliated with a frequent flyer program, the bank that issued the card has to purchase those miles/points from the frequent flyer program.
The same is true for any other programs ...
19
There aren't any major disadvantages. In particular, there's no requirement to apply for the credit card.
There are some possible subtle disadvantages.
Having a MileagePlus account might in the future sway you toward flying with United even when some other airline would otherwise be better (in terms of price, schedule, service, etc). That's the main ...
18
The phrasing "government funded flight" suggests that the flight was chartered by the Australian government. Charter flights are not usually eligible for miles. For example, Rule 9.3.1 of Qantas's Frequent Flyer rules says:
Subject to the exclusions in clauses 9.3.2 and 9.4, Points for air travel may be earned only for paid travel or Any Seat Awards [...]...
17
No
This is specified in the Terms and conditions of Miles and More.
Specifically (emphasis mine), section 2.3.2:
For each actually flown segment of a fully paid scheduled flight operated by Lufthansa, a joint operator or a Miles & More partner company, the member’s account will be credited with miles – subject to Sections 2.3.6 and 2.3.7.
and ...
17
From United's website:
The sale or barter or attempted sale or barter of any such mileage,
certificates, awards or benefits other than as authorized and/or
sponsored by United is expressly prohibited. Any mileage,
certificates, awards or benefits transferred, assigned or sold in
violation of the Program Rules, in addition to exposing the member to
...
16
Flying Blue is the airline loyalty programme of Air France, KLM, Air Europa, Kenya Airways, Aircalin, and TAROM. The intention of the programme is to encourage you to spend more money with these airlines [instead of with their competitors], in exchange for certain benefits.
SkyTeam is an airline alliance that includes all of the airlines above, plus several ...
16
No, you will not get frequent flier credit if you do not fly. Irrespective of whether you check-in or not. Even if you go on board and then decide not to fly, you will be unloaded from the manifest and will not get credit*. Airlines are required to know exactly who is on board for a multitude of reasons, some of which are regulatory, and some of which are ...
15
It depends, but a really rough rule of thumb is that a mile is worth one cent. This means that you really shouldn't be paying more than $10 more to get 1000 miles.
That said, there's massive variance between programs, how you value them and how you use them. If you use your points to pay for economy class travel and could have used heavily discounted ...
14
When you book your flight, it'll tell you what your Premier qualifying miles (PQM), Premier qualifying segments (PQS) and Premier qualifying dollars (PQD) are. Attached is a screenshot of a sample flight on United, with the details highlighted.
When in doubt, you could just call/email the airline to get confirmation. Perhaps emailing would be better so ...
14
You need to read the privacy policy and terms and conditions of your specific airline's program as they should detail if they share any information and with whom.
Keep in mind some information sharing is mandated by the regulator or the country (such as API); this is simply a cost of traveling.
The main source of revenue is selling points to other ...
13
No,
in the specific case of AAdvantage Terms and Conditions as jpatokal has already noted, but also, no in general. Accrual of points in multiple programs is expressly prohibited by most programs in the T&C, not just airlines but for frequent dining programs (you can have multiple credit cards for one program, but a max of one program per credit card) ...
13
tldr: If you travel once or twice a year, on full-price airlines with frequent flyer progammes, sign up for them. But don't obsess over them, and focus on price and other benefits first.
Longer answer:
As always, it depends.
Many (most?) budget airlines don't have a frequent flyer programme (or at least one comparable to those on full-service airlines), ...
13
Everything in the other answer is correct. There are really not much issues with being a member of the program itself.
However if you are a member of another program in the Star Alliance, you will start fragmenting your points and it will take longer to accumulate a certain amount which also makes it more likely for your miles to expire.
Early on, I had ...
12
Airlines have a certain time limit till which you can claim missing miles. I am a Qatar Airways frequent traveler and they have the following conditions
Time limit when becoming a new member = 30 days prior to the start of membership
Time limit for claiming miles for existing members = 6 months after the flight date
for your case please refer to the ...
11
Getting hotel upgrades is indeed like getting flight upgrades -- the odds are low, and stay low even if you try to game the system, but occasionally you win. I'm also assuming that you have no elite status with the hotel/chain, since that's a whole different ballgame, although it is also by far the best way to get upgrades.
First of all, it's important to ...
11
When it comes to putting miles into your account with Frequent Flyer Program X, it is always Frequent Flyer X's rules that count. The fact that ANZ would give your their miles for the flight if you were an ANZ member is irrelevant. Generally, it doesn't matter which *A program you join, but there are oddities when a particular fare class earns miles in one ...
11
Typically, you can claim Original Routing Credit (ORC) for the flights you were originally booked on. If you are rebooked on an airline on a different alliance, you can claim duplicate credit for membership in that alliance too.
Useful thread for AA:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage/1586992-faq-involuntary-reroute-original-...
11
In case you don't do it before the flight...
As alluded in other answers, pretty much all airlines allow you to "claim missing miles" even after the flight. If the frequent flyer programme is for the same airline, then you usually do it online and it's pretty straight forward (I've done it quite a few times). If it's a partner programme (e.g. you're ...
10
Frequent flyer miles are generally only earned when there's a "butt in seat", to quote the charming term of art from frequent flyer forums. If you don't show up at the gate and get your boarding pass scanned for the flight from B-C, you're going to be recorded as a no-show, and you're not going to get any miles for it either.
Also, while hidden-city ...
9
Generally if you flew with an airline, and you have points with them or their alliance, whoever you hold the points with, you can credit.
So I had an itinerary last year that involved some major US Airline (Delta?) and then Alaska Airlines. It's possible to credit Alaska Airlines to One World alliance airlines, and I'm with Qantas.
So when I'd done the ...
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