Beginners Guide to Frequent Flyer Programs & Airline Miles
Every business wants to create loyal, returning customers. This is no different with airlines. In order to have clients book more flights under the same carrier, airlines introduced frequent flyer programs. This is a program each traveler can use on their travel adventures. This blog post explains what a FFP is, how to choose the right one, how to earn miles as well as how to redeem them.
What is a Frequent Flyer Program?
These programs are a way for customers to save travel credit, also known as “miles”. These miles are then accumulated in your account and allow you to save credit which can be used to book flights, upgrade to business / first class or get discounted seats and luggage.
Choosing a Frequent Flyer Program
When you are looking at which frequent flyer program you want to use, you need to take a few things into consideration.
What is your most common used airport?
Which airlines fly from your main airport?
Who do you enjoy flying with?
Who is the airline partnered with? (Hotels, other airlines, banks, …)
What rates does the frequent flyer program offer?
The answers to these questions vary, and everyone is looking for a different experience when flying. There is no one program that is better than the other. It is all dependent on your personal needs. Which is why you need to make the decision for yourself.
I am currently a member of the Flying Blue, Frequent Flyer Program, because for my personal preference, they were the best competitor. This is the program that KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines) uses, and is compatible with all SkyTeam airlines.
Furthermore I have a second account with Miles and More, the Brussels Airlines & Lufthansa airline. Whenever there isn’t a flight available with KLM or it is a lot cheaper with one of the other airlines of the Star Alliance group, I will use this program.
The Best Ways to Earn Miles
Start Booking Flights
The easiest way for you to start earning miles is booking a flight. Every airline who has a frequent flyer program will allow you to earn miles for every flight you book with that airline, or another airline in their alliance.
You will earn miles for every euro spent on a flight, or alternative, how far (in miles) you are flying. The higher your frequent flyer status, the more miles you will earn for a euro spent. So say you are booking a 500EUR flight, you will then earn:
Beginner 500 x 1 = 500 miles
Intermediate 500 x 1.25 = 625 miles
Advanced 500 x 1.5 = 750 miles
*The status name and miles earned differ for every program
Below you can see some examples of how many miles I got for my flights from Amsterdam - Comox and Comox - Amsterdam.
Book Flights within the Airline Alliance
There are 3 main airline alliances (SkyTeam, Star Alliance and OneWorld). At times, when booking a flight to a specific destination, your preferred airline might not offer any flights. If this is the case, then you can best go and book with a partner airline. This is because, with the partner airline, you will also be able to use your frequent flyer number and still earn the credit.
Check out this page to see which airlines are members of which alliance.
Important note: Although it is nice if you can keep using the same airline and miles program, at times you can’t. This is why you should sign up for multiple airline credits and save miles wherever you can.
Book Hotels with Partners
Other than airline alliances, airlines also partner with certain hotel chains. When a customer is then booking a trip, they can use these hotel partners to book their accommodation with and ultimately help them earn more miles.
On these sites, you will earn a number of miles for every euro spent. Or alternatively, depending on the number of nights spend in that hotel.
Sign up for a Travel Credit Card
Most airlines are partnered with a credit card company. This allows travelers to earn more miles when making not only travel expenses, but all types of expenses. Most of these credit cards also have great benefits. Here are some popular ones:
Chase
American Express
Beobank (Flying Blue Card)
…
However, every credit card brings its own costs. If you sign up, be aware of (hidden) fees and the danger of accumulating credit.
How to Redeem Airline Miles?
Once you have saved enough miles you can start looking into the different ways that you can redeem your airline miles. Depending on how many miles you have saved up from your previous flights, you will be able to buy different travel perks.
Cheaper Seats / Luggage: Often this comes as a standard discount with your frequent flyer program. If you want to upgrade your seat (extra comfort, specific aisle seat, …) or if you want to add more luggage you can redeem some points for this.
Flight Deals: By being a frequent flyer, you will get access to the airline’s flight deals. These deals are great if you are not picky on where you want to travel to and just want to explore new countries. These deals can be anywhere between a 10% to 50% discount on specific flights.
Upgrade to Business (or First) Class: If you want to have a business class experience on your next flight, you can redeem points and easily do so. (COST: +- 7,500 - 35,000 miles depending on the destination)
Free flights: once you have saved significant miles, you will be able to get flights for free. Just go to your airline’s website and switch flight prices from your currency to miles to see whether or not you have enough credit. These however do cost quite some money / miles depending on the class you are traveling in.
Estimated Cost (in Miles) for a flight from Amsterdam - New York
with Flying Blue Program.
I truly hope you have learned something from reading this blog post and that you will start saving miles now!
