flight lounges and frequent flyer points

[peterseaford]

G'day - Happy New Year we are just newkids.

the wife and i are now retired and about to start our overseas holidays we promised ourselves foryears.

have heard about frequent flyer points but have not the slightest idea how they work.

have heard about flight loungs but am not sure how to gain axcess to them



we will be economy passangersand our first trip is a month in China starting March 08 ex Melbourne


would appreciate a very simple explanation for we are very simple people.

we toured New Zealand in April - saw and heard all these wonderful things but had no understanding at all if we could participate although the entie trip was a delight.

regards peter

 

[simongr]

Hi Peter welcome to AFF and the wonderful world of Frequent Flying

Just so that we can help you could you advise who you will be flying with? I assume these are paid tickets?

Some very high level summaries below:

Frequent Flyer Programs

Most of the airlines have programs where depending on the class of travel and how much you fly you can earn a combination of points that can be used for "free" flights and status within the airline that gives you access to lounges and other benefits.

Qantas is part of the oneworld alliance - meaning that if you fly with other member airlines (like BA or Cathay Pacific for example) you can earn points for your qantas program when flying on those other airlines.

Qantas has a poor program in terms of how many points you need to get a free flight and there other programs you can join.

I would guess that you wont earn that much from this one trip to help you in the long run - unless you are plannig more paid trips.

It is also possible to link a credit card to the frequent flyer program - let us know if you need to be pointed in that direction.

Lounges

Lounges are generally restricted access for:

Business and First class passengers
Passengers with status (i.e. people who fly a lot - say minimum 20,000 miles per year)
paid members

It is possible to buy your way in but you need to really think if it is worthwhile if you dont do that much travel.

There is a lot more to it than that but I hope that will give you a flavour

Cheers

S

 

[peterseaford]

Dear S
thanks very much - understand - exactly what we needed to know.

the New Zealand trip was with Air New Zealand and they were fantastic - we thought so

our trip to China is with Singapore Airlines and i hope they are even half as good as the New Zealand airline.

we are economy passangers and the flight to Bei'jing is via Singapore as is the return flight from Shanghai.

we appreciae your time and consideration

have a great day

kind regards peter

 

[trooper]

So it would appear you didn't sign up for the Air New Zealand ("NZ") Frequent Flyer program ("FFP").. "Airpoints"..?

Never mind.. had you travelled on the "best price" Trans tasman fares they may not have scored any "Airpoint $" anyway....

You still have a clean slate as it were.

Singapore airlines ("SQ") are, like "NZ" a member of the Star Alliance ("*A").. this is one of the major world airline alliances.. the other being "Oneworld" ("OW") which QANTAS ("QF") belongs to... (There is a third called Skyteam but they are seemingly less use to folks living in this part of the world)

If you google those alliance names you will see which airlines belong to which.. generally speaking flights on any member of one alliance will credit miles/points to the "FFP" of any other member of that alliance.... I say generally because with some cheap fares that is NOT the case...

It seems horribly complex at first but with a bit of research it'll all become a bit clearer!!

Given your first trip is already set... and with a "*A" airline.. it might be worth your while looking at the FFP's offered by airlines of that alliance..

 

[mabunji]

Hi Peter, and welcome to AFF.

Yes, it is definitely worth your while investigating the various Star Alliance Frequent Flyer programs.

Your upcoming trip in March is a total of 12,657 miles. Your trip to New Zealand (Auckland?) would have been 3,276 miles if credited to a Star Alliance FF Scheme.

This is assuming that your flights are eligible to accrue frequent flyer miles. As already noted by Trooper the cheapest fares offered by Air NZ do not earn miles (but hey you get a good fare on a fantastic airline!). Similarly Singapore Airlines do not award miles on their lowest cost fares (typically those sold as part of a holiday package). Eligibility is determined by ‘Booking Class’. This is a bit of a murky world – you are traveling in economy, also referred to as “Y”, but your airline ticket will bear another letter (the ‘booking class’) which indicates whether you are paying the full economy fare or any one of a range of discounted fares. Booking classes of ‘V’, ‘Q’,’G’, ‘N’ and ‘T’ are ineligible on Singapore. If you cannot find this information on the ticket your travel agent should be able to supply it.

Let’s assume the best, and you are traveling on a non-discounted ticket. You are off to a flying start (pun intended) and can credit these miles to any Star Alliance Frequent Flyer scheme of your choice.

As an example Singapore Airlines Krisflyer scheme will redeem you an award ticket to New Zealand (flying Air NZ ) for 25,000 miles – you are halfway to this award already. Melbourne to anywhere in SE Asia (flying on Singapore) is available for 46,750 miles if you make the booking online. Miles lodged in the Krisflyer scheme expire after 2 years (use ‘em or loose ‘em) – by the sound of things you will have acquired enough miles in that 2 year period to earn an award?.

Once you fly 25,000 miles in a year you achieve Silver status (and earn a 25% bonus on miles flown) Fly 50,000 miles a year and you are Gold Star Alliance status (at this point you gain lounge access).

You are free to choose from any Star Alliance scheme. AirPoints (Air NZ), Krisflyer (Singapore), Royal Orchid (Thai) and United Airlines Mileage Plus seem to be the most popular in Australia. Broadly speaking they are the same albeit with subtle differences in terms of booking class eligibility and miles required for award redemption. It is probably worthwhile thinking about your future travel plans and aligning them with whichever scheme is the best for your plans.

Finally, It is worthwhile keeping an eye on Cheap International fares posted by members on this website. From time to time Air NZ run a ‘Grabaseat’ promotion – the flights do not earn miles but are terrific value (I got Sydney to Christchurch for $10 each way + taxes earlier this year). This promotion is not currently running but will be repeated.

 

[JohnK]

Only problem I see with joining a frequent flyer program like SQ Kris Flyer or Thai Royal Orchid Plus is the expiration of miles 3 years after earning them. This is particular an issue if you don't fly often enough.

The better *Alliance FF program would appear to be the BD program. Only 16,000 miles to reach *Silver and 38,000 miles to reach *Gold and lounge access. Sure it costs $50 to join but no miles expiry.

As always it would be better to investigate the various options available as much as possible.

 

[mabunji]

Only problem I see with joining a frequent flyer program like SQ Kris Flyer or Thai Royal Orchid Plus is the expiration of miles 3 years after earning them. This is particular an issue if you don't fly often enough.

The better *Alliance FF program would appear to be the BD program. Only 16,000 miles to reach *Silver and 38,000 miles to reach *Gold and lounge access. Sure it costs $50 to join but no miles expiry.

As always it would be better to investigate the various options available as much as possible.

Absolutely

I’m not advocating any particular Star Alliance Frequent Flyer program over another. As always “it depends”.

If this passengers flights on Singapore Airlines are eligible for Star Alliance FF miles it makes sense that they are logged ‘somewhere’ in the Star Alliance system – 12,657 miles is to good to be overlooked .

I’ve never considered logging miles to British Midland. As posted elsewhere they are currently offering 9,000 miles as an inducement to open an account – this is obviously a pretty good deal. With this in mind I had a quick squiz at the terms and conditions, particularly with regard to obtaining status:

When you first join diamond club, you receive various benefits that blue membership gives you. It takes just 3,000 membership status miles to reach blue plus then from blue plus 16,000 membership status miles to reach silver level, then from silver, 38,000 membership status miles to reach gold

If you have blue card membership you will be automatically awarded blue plus status upon earning 3000 Membership Status Miles in any membership year. On such award of blue plus status your Membership Status Miles will be returned to zero.

If you have a blue plus card membership you will be automatically awarded silver membership upon earning 16000 Membership Status Miles in any Membership Year. On such award of silver status your Membership Status Miles will be returned to zero.

If you have a silver card membership you will automatically be awarded gold membership upon earning 38000 Membership Status Miles in any Membership Year. On such award of gold status your Membership Status Miles will be returned to zero.

Membership is awarded based upon the above criteria only, and members may not voluntarily choose to by-pass any particular status level.

My reading of the above is that when I join Diamond Club I need to accumulate 3,000 miles to attain blue plus, then a further 16,000 miles to reach silver, and then a further 38,000 miles to attain gold status - A total of 57,000 miles. If 9,000 bonus miles are currently on offer this certainly helps to achieve a target of obtaining Gold, but my reading of the rules differs from your understanding that silver is attained at 16,000 miles and gold at 38,000.

Notwithstanding this BMI should certainly be included in the mix along with all other options. Non-expiry of miles well may be significant in selecting a FF scheme.

 

[Evan]

the New Zealand trip was with Air New Zealand and they were fantastic - we thought so

our trip to China is with Singapore Airlines and i hope they are even half as good as the New Zealand airline.

Peter,

I am sure you will not be disapointed with Singapore Airlines (SQ) they are generally regarded as good airline with attentive staff. Singapore airport is also a great airport to transit in.

Also if your a drinker or smoker on the way back it is one of the cheapest airports to buy duty free.

E

 

[JohnK]

My reading of the above is that when I join Diamond Club I need to accumulate 3,000 miles to attain blue plus, then a further 16,000 miles to reach silver, and then a further 38,000 miles to attain gold status - A total of 57,000 miles. If 9,000 bonus miles are currently on offer this certainly helps to achieve a target of obtaining Gold, but my reading of the rules differs from your understanding that silver is attained at 16,000 miles and gold at 38,000.

My apologies. Someone on Flyertalk who is a member of Diamond Club mentioned to me that it was only 16,000 miles for *Silver and 38,000 miles for *Gold. Did not mention that it required 3,000 miles for Blue Plus and that account was reset at each step. When I briefly read the conditions for Diamond Club Silver membership and Gold membership it confirmed what he told me but I did not read the fine print.


So yes it would appear that it would require 57,000 miles and up to 3 years to reach *Gold. Obviously you can get there quicker if you have a lot of flying in a short space of time. But to retain *Silver requires 16,000 miles and to retain *Gold requires 38,000 miles. That appears to be on par if not better than other *Alliance FF programs.

Notwithstanding this BMI should certainly be included in the mix along with all other options. Non-expiry of miles well may be significant in selecting a FF scheme.

Not sure that I would do enough travel to retain QF Platinum and *Gold. I would still join Diamond Club for their non expiry of miles and especially now the 9,000 miles incentive is on the table. I had a very small quantity of Kris Flyer miles that have been expiring in the last few months. Not enough to redeem an award but a nuisance to lose them. Even if someone does not travel enough for status Diamond Club redemption rates on awards look good and they also have in place awards where you use half the miles required and a co-payment which looks like good value.