You want it all and that’s valid. You see, most people work extremely hard to earn elite status or tons of miles with an airline, while others skate by with minimal effort and maximum benefit. Assuming you’re looking for maximiu benefit, minimum spending and the most enjoyment, you’ll love these tips to help you secure the status, perks and miles you deserve…
Earning Miles
Flying: Flying is one of the worst ways to earn miles. These days airlines reward miles more closely based on spending than the distance you fly, so even on an around the world trip, a standard economy fare might only earn 6,000 miles, even though you’ve actually flown 25,000 miles. The best way to earn miles while flying with British Airways is to take advantage of their never ending incredible business class sales, which have been as low as £484/$600 round trip to long haul destinations and earn more than 150% of the miles you actually fly. To stay plugged in, follow these tips…
Credit Cards: Credit cards are a no brainer way to earn British Airways miles and if you pay your balance in full every month (which you should), you never pay any interest. Free miles! Aside from the lucrative sign up bonuses and the ability to earn over 1 Avios (mile) per dollar spent, British Aiways cards offer the opportunity to score a 2 for 1 voucher, doubling the value of your miles. If you couple a British Airways card with a Starwood or Amex Gold/Platinum card, which each offer bonuses, you’ll have tons of miles in no time. Oh and one last thing, if you refer a friend or loved one to the card, you can earn as many as 18,000 miles per referral. Not bad!
Shopping Portals: Pay attention. This is an overlooked game changer. Shopping portals are essentially referral credit for clicking to your favorite site from your favorite airline. They get money for sending you, you get miles. Essentially, if you shop online, you should first go to Gate365 or Avios.com, where you’ll have the opportunity to earn at least 1 mile per dollar spent, sometimes more than 20.. It really is that simple. If you bought a laptop at 20 miles per dollar, you’d earn 20,000 Avios, just for buying something you already needed…
Hotel Booking Sites RocketMIles + Kaligo
If you care more about airline miles than hotel points, as many of you do, you can earn very substantial amounts of miles from booking through RocketMiles or Kaligo, up to 15,000 per night. As an added bonus, you get 1,000 bonus miles for getting referred by us when you complete your first booking. That’s a minimum of 2,000 Avios for your first hotel booking, even just a night…
Earning Tier Points
Much like earning Avios (miles), tier points, which determine elite status are staggered to flying up front. Whatever cabin you fly in, you’ll want to occasionally consider a connection, or at least, a partner. Flying on partners like Qatar offer “double dip” opportunities, where a flight like London to Bangkok will require a connection in Doha, rather than a direct if you stick with British Airways. In this example, if you fly business on a super deal, you’d get 140 tier points for flying London to Doha, and another 140 for flying Doha to Bangkok. That’s double what you’d get flying on British Airways direct flight. 560 round trip, versus 280 on British Airways round trip. Whatever cabin you book, if you have flexibility, look for partners with connections.
Status
If you want status, pay attention to our site and others for deals (tips here). I always feel somewhat guilty walking to the front of the plane, knowing that I paid less than most in the rear, but it’s certainly not enough to make me switch seats or give up the benefits!
Bronze: Earn bronze this year off of one business class round trip with a connection.
Silver: Earn silver this year off of two business class round trips with connections.
Gold: Earn gold by finding long haul flights on partner airlines with long haul connections in each direction. At 560 tier points per long haul round trip in the example above you need just three to reach Gold, minus the required couple of flights On British Airways.
Status and miles are something worth collecting. Sure, they may not be what they used to be but when it comes to getting upgrades, solving problems, enjoying free food in lounges and beating crowds with priority security, check in and boarding they are simply a must. Find yourself enjoying travel more this year.
As Always, Get in Touch: GodSaveThePoints@gmail.com
