The art of mastering airline loyalty programs -- Going for Elite | Hacker News Reader

The art of mastering airline loyalty programs -- Going for Elite

blog.flightcaster.com

26 pointsjaf12duke11 comments

A few years ago I had a job that had me flying 5000 miles a week. I signed up for AA's status challenge and qualified for platinum status in nearly a month.

I think they charge for taking the challenge now (it was free then) but it's well worth it. Not only do you get better seats, free bag checking, priority security access, and earn upgrades, but that was 30,000+ additional bonus miles I wouldn't have earned had I just skipped the challenge and qualified for the status the normal way.

Also, if you're on the fringe between status tiers, often times it's very much worth it to spend a couple hundred bucks on a "mileage run" if it means the extra EQM will put you into top-tier status.

I'm wondering if you know whether there's any program that allows earning miles to spend on any airline?

I'm going to be doing a trip in two months that will take me from the Mid-West to SE Asia and then I'll hop a few places in SE Asia before coming back to the states - I currently don't have any frequent flyer program as I hardly ever fly (a few times a year) - but I'd hate for this trip to go wasted - plus I may be traveling quite a bit next year.

Last time I undertook a major trip (37 flights through 20ish countries), there were two main alliances - Star and OneWorld, from memory. If you stuck to airlines from one of those, your points would be combined.

I don't fly all that regularly (maybe just above average) so things might've changed since then.

Now there is a third - SkyTeam. Plus there is Virgin Atlantic who aren't a member of any alliance but have one-off deals with individual airlines.

I don't think there are any airline points that work across _all_ airlines - if for no other reason than this removes the loyalty incentive that makes FF programs attractive to the host airlines. Generally, the programs that let you use your points anywhere will be run by a third-party, often your credit-card provider.

As the article says, get every account you might fly on, but keep your focus on one airline/alliance. If you need to move your points around between airlines, there are services like points.com that let you do that for a fee.

As prawn suggested, and I know for a fact, Star Alliance has a program. So, if you stick with airlines within SA and get into their program you'll be fine.

Wow, those airline loyalty programmes seem pretty sick to me, if they encourage such behaviour.

I did the challenge when I was living in London, UK but working in Boston, USA. Spent a lot of time with my just-tall-enough-to-be-uncomfortable in economy seats. Getting status and being able to pre-book exit rows for free was a massive benefit for me.

And just two weeks ago I came back from a Toronto->Honolulu vacation where I paid for the flight by cashing in some of my accumulated miles. Had to pay for tax though: $35. Paying cash for the same flight would have been ~$800. (Well, paying on a card. I get points I can used towards travel from my credit card.)

Finally: mileage runs make perfect sense once you start playing the game. I once paid ~$200 to do a day trip from London->Madrid so that i'd maintain platinum status. Current job doesn't have me travelling though, so i've let everything lapse.

I NEVER understood, and still don't understand, why are people so attracted to airline loyalty programs? Are the benefits this important? It seems to me the average frequent flyer can reduce his costs by ~10-20%. This is not much.

If you travel extremely frequently, like every week or every other week, the benefits save you quite a bit of time and make the general air travel experience suck a little bit less. For example, the priority security screening line for passengers with status meant I could sleep an extra half hour on Monday mornings.

On the other hand if you don't travel that often at all, you probably won't see much benefit. By reducing capacity and increasing the number of required miles to claim reward tickets, the airlines keep moving the goalposts.

I'd imagine there are plenty of people out there who choose a given airline because of the prospect of getting something for nothing through the loyalty program, but travel so rarely that they'll never accrue enough miles to get any reward tickets.

Somehow this reminds me of a scene from Up in the Air in which George Clooney reveals that his dream is to gather ten million miles in order to get "lifetime executive status, meeting the chief pilot Maynard Finch, and getting his name painted on the side of a plane."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com