Earning and Using Frequent Flyer Miles - Part 4

This week's short post will discuss the basics of how to find available frequent flyer flights for the various Airline Alliances.  In part 3, I discussed the significance of the alliances so look there if you are a newbie or if you want a refresher.  You can also look at the introduction in part 1 and how to get more information in part 2.


It isn't always easy to find available flights that can be booked for miles.  Obviously, it is in the airlines best interests if you use money instead of miles so the options are there, but most don't go out of their way to make it simple.



Here is a breakdown based on Alliance:

• Star Alliance - 
• Star Alliance makes it the easiest.  Go to United.com and on the home page, click on "search by award travel" and a new menu will show up.

Put in the dates you want to fly and click search.  Here is what comes up for traveling from NYC to Tel Aviv (TLV) from July 24th to July 35th.  You will get a list of every flight on any airline in the Star Alliance that fits your criteria along with how many miles it costs in Economy, Business and First.

Notice that there are two categories for economy, business and first.  One is Saver and one is Standard. They get you the same seat, but savers are a lot cheaper and are therefore not as common.  If you are flexible in when you want to travel, here is how to do it.  

Right on top of the flights, there is a color coded calendar with that looks like this:

If you want a saver award in Economy, you need to click on a date that has a yellow or green color.  I will click on July 7th and here are the new sets of flights that come up.  When you scroll down you can find flights that are saver awards that cost only 40,000 miles each way, instead of 75,000 each way for the same flight.

This flight is not a direct flight.  It is much more difficult to find a direct flight that is in the saver category, but you would do it the same way, except you would click on "non-stop flights only" on the homepage.


If you have united miles you can book these flights directly through the united website, if you miles from another star alliance partner you can use the united site to find the flight you want and then call up your airline and have them book it for you.

• Sky Team Alliance 
•  More difficult than for star alliance.  There is no way that I am aware of that you can see every available flight.  Here is how to spread the greatest possible net.  Sign up for a free KLM Flying Blue frequent flyer miles account or sign in
• Click on the "Flying Blue" tab and put in your destination as before and here is what it comes up with:
  

You can see on the chart that it is frequently only 25,000 each way, but there is a $270 surcharge each way which adds a significant cost.  Once again, if you have flying blue miles (mostly like from Starpoints) you can book from here and if you have another airline's miles (Delta, for example), you can use this as a guide before you call up Delta.

• One World Alliance 


• The best way to find flights on one world is through qantas.com.  Join here for free (unless you are from Australia or New Zealand, in which case there is a fee - sorry) Don't bother with American Airline's website, even if you have miles with them.  Go to quantas first and then call up American Airlines and tell them which flight you want.  
• On the dropdown menu at the top click on "Award Flights"

Click on "Book Now" under "Partner Classic Awards" and you will be able to find flights on many different airlines and use that information when you call up the airline you have miles with.

You can do the same thing with British Airways and once again, you need to join the British Airways Frequent Flyer program for free.

In part 5, we will get to the easiest way to earn Frequent Flyer miles.

Earning and Using Frequent Flyer Miles - Part 3

This is part 3 of a series on Frequent flyer miles, part 1 was an introduction and part 2 explained how to find more information from other sources.

Airline Alliances

Almost all major airlines in the united states that have international flights are part of an alliance of airlines that include other airlines from all over the world.  There 3 main airline alliances are: Star Alliance, OneWorld Alliance and Sky Team Alliance

• Star Alliance - This is the largest alliance with 27 members.  The most important members for most readers are United Airlines, Turkish Airlines and US Airlines (at least until it merges with American Airlines) because they all fly to Israel somewhat regularly.
• Sky Team Alliance - The second largest with 19 member airlines.  The most important are probably Delta, KLM and Air France.
• One World Alliance - The smallest with only 13 member airlines.  The most important are probably American and British Airlines

What is an Alliance?

An alliance allows individual airlines to expand their reach without having to expand their fleets. Airlines partner together and share some aspects of their business. 

• The major advantage for passengers is that frequent flyer miles from one airline can usually be used to fly on partner airlines of the same alliance.  Let's take an example:

• United Airlines and Turkish Airlines are both part of the Star Alliance.  This means that I can use United Mileage Plus miles to fly on United Airlines flights or Turkish Airlines flights or any other member of the Star Alliance.

• The second great benefit is that one can miles earned from one partner can be credited to your account from the other partner.  Once again, here is an example.  If I fly on Turkish Air and I provide my United Airlines Mileage Plus number, I will earn United miles for my Turkish Air flight even though I didn't take a United flight. 

Here is a picture from my United Airlines account: You can see that I earned United Mileage plus miles for my Turkish Air flight

The most important point to take away is that you only need to have a frequent flyer account with one member of an alliance and combine all of your miles into one account.  In fact, using multiple accounts can be detrimental as I will explain.

For instance, in our scenario let's say I had a United account and a Turkish Airlines Miles and Smiles account.  If go on a United flight direct to Israel and a Turkish Airlines flight to Israel with a stop in Istambul, I would get 11,320 miles in my United account and 11,410 miles in my Turkish Airlines account.  If, however, I gave my United number for the same Turkish Airlines flight, I would earn all 22,730 miles in my United account and I am now much closer to earning my next flight through miles.  I can then use my United miles to fly on any Star Alliance partner with those miles (Booking will be explained in a later post).

Does it matter which Airline I choose within an Alliance?

We have now established that it is important to have at least one airline in each alliance that is your miles currency for that alliance.  Does it matter which airline I choose?  Big-time, and here's why.

Even though each airline is partners with the others in the alliance, they do not treat their miles equally.  Each airline has a different calculation of how many miles it "costs" to go to the destination of your choice.  

I will take flying to Israel as an example again.  (All of the following information can be found from milez.biz). Flying Economy with United miles usually costs 80,000 miles for a roundtrip ticket, while using Turkish Air miles usually costs 105,000 miles for the exact same flight.  If you goal is a free flight to Israel, you will get there 20% faster by collecting United miles than by collecting Turkish air miles.

In addition, many programs charge fuel surcharges for redeeming frequent flyer miles that can cost a few hundred extra dollars.  For example, within the One World Alliance, British Airways charges a major fuel surcharge for flying international on their Frequent flyer program, but doesn't charge a fuel surcharge for using their miles to fly within the US on American Airlines flights.  Their miles are not too valuable flying internationally, but can be quite valuable flying domestically.  American Airlines does not have a fuel surcharge for flying internationally, unless it is on a British Airlines flight.  Therefore, if you are collecting One World Alliance points and are interested in international flights, you are better off with American Airlines miles and if you are interested in domestic flights, you are better off with British Airways points.

For an example of how confusing surcharges can be and for much more detailed information, look at this dansdeals forums post.

Next week in part 4, I hope to talk about booking frequent flyer miles and to find available flights.