Comments on: Why your air miles might be worth less than you think

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 09:23:19 +0000

It is hard not to agree with Jonas. Most people don;t know how to use miles efficiently, but those who do enjoy substantial savings. Perhaps the cleverest bunch are those who do not collect but purchase their ticket using a miles broker.

Don;t get mad, get even.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 12:03:31 +0000

Interesting – it does seem to make a good deal (if you’re buying a full-fare economy ticket in the first place).

Good to get lots of useful tips on how to best utilise BA Miles- thanks again to everyone.

By: Guy

Guy — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 11:47:14 +0000

I just upgraded LHR to TLV from WT+ to CW for 5000miles, an upgrade which would otherwise have cost around $750, which makes for around $150 value per thousand mile. For such cases, buying a thousand miles for $30 or so is a BARGAIN.

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 10:44:13 +0000

Thanks for the input Jonas – I haven’t looked at the upper end of the scale but yes, when upgrading you can get a higher value on those miles. I appreciate this, but bear in mind the high initial outlay for those tickets. When many people cash in miles they are aiming for a ‘free flight’ ahead of anything else. Those free rewards are no longer available.
Perhaps people will need to refocus how they view their airmiles and use them as upgrade tools – in this way, as you’ve shown, they can have a better value.

By: Jonas

Jonas — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 15:29:04 +0000

No offense Andy but just because you don’t know how to use BA Miles effectively does not make them poor value. In short, they should be used for upgrades, not economy tickets. For instance, if you’d upgraded from WT+ to CW the value of your points would have typically been in the region of £1500 (and usually more than double that if you upgrade from CW to First).

As for purchasing miles for cash, it’s usually not a good idea but if you’re just a couple thousand pounds short of an upgrade, it’s something to consider.

By: diggadave

diggadave — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 20:39:35 +0000

@ Andy: It’s not just BA who charge those fees, although they are by far the stingiest Frquent Flier club.

I stumbled across your article while I was Googling ways to swap out miles I have with the BMI Diamond Club, as they also charge ridiculous fees for so-called “free flights”. Some years ago I made the mistake of taking out a BMI credit card due to the 20,000 bonus miles on offer at the time.

Eventually, I ended up with just over 70,000 miles and looked into using them to book a transatlantic flight. However, when I spoke with BMI’s Diamond Club they advised me that the fees & surcharges would be close to $600 for a flight that would have cost $850 (it was around Christmas). In contrast, if I had had enough American Airlines miles at the time, I could have used them instead and only paid the government taxes.

Lesson learned: I only fly American and only look to earn miles with them these days. They also recently dropped the restriction on earning AA Advantage miles on BA flights between the UK and USA. On the whole, the only major difference between the BA & AA is paying for booze in Economy Class. Given the cost difference in fees I’d rather fly American. I’m not that thirsty!

By: ANDY

ANDY — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 19:28:33 +0000

British Airways miles are a rip off. 50,000 milrs for a return form London to New York has a £298 surcharge! So my “free” flights for a family of 3 actually costs £900! What a crock of shit. I used to fly BA out of preference to collect their miles, but no longer.

By: Richard

Richard — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 22:56:52 +0000

Great article, Andy, thank you. BA Miles are a bit like Nectar – they make it appear like you have more miles than you really do by rewarding you with such large quantities of them – thousands upon thousands – which sounds like a lot but in reality they are not as valuable as many people assume. I concur with David (who left the first comment) that the regular Airmiles loyalty program is a lot more rewarding than the BA Miles program. Although even under the Airmiles scheme the number of flights are limited because the airlines restrict the quantity of available seats on a plane to Airmiles customers (in fact, you can often find a flight unavailable on the Airmiles website but available to buy as normal which can be frustrating). I write a blog about boosting airmiles at http://www.loyalty-program.co.uk which contains information about boosting your Airmiles collection and how to spend them wisely if anyone is interested.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 09:56:11 +0000

Great article Andy. It’s always a disappointment when seeing what your miles will actually get you.

I used to travel for work and I primarily flew with BA or One World alliance airlines. I accrued just over 96,000 miles and even got to BA Silver at one point. Oh those heady days! I still have the miles, but I’m a Blue again. I have looked occasionally at “free” flights across the Atlantic in the last few years, but have never cashed in. I have considered upgrading World Traveller tickets to WTP or even Club World, but the cost (in miles) is astronimical (19,000 per class upgade last time I looked). So I sit on my miles and occasionally flirt with how I may spend them.

Tax plays a big part in the decision making, but in a World that must get greener, perhaps it does discourage flyers on the unnecessary flights? London to Paris anyone?

It’d be interesting to hear what other do with large chunks of miles and if tax holds mileage card holders from grabbing a mileage ticket…

By: Andy Jarosz

Andy Jarosz — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:11:47 +0000

You’re right Ancji, and I was like you – many of my miles were accrued while flying for my last job. I do remember in the past however when I was redeeming KLM air miles points I didn’t have to pay these charges – mind you, that was before the days of heavy fuel surcharges.

I understand that airlines use hedging and forward buying to protect themselves from sudden fluctuations, but I wonder why it is that some impose consistently higher fuel surcharges than others, and we’re talking over several years. Are they just very bad at managing their fuel purchasing? Or is this another way to increase revenue without affecting the headline price?