Photo by Kevin Woblick Unsplash.
There are travelers and agencies out there who practically make a second job out of understanding frequent flyer programs and earning the maximum miles.
In general, travel agents don’t work with miles, so most of us are not experts. But I have increasingly discovered that most travelers don’t know much at all about how the frequent flyer programs work. And a small mistake or oversight can make a big difference.
This post isn’t intended to explain the programs.
I’ve written it to give you some things to be aware of. And you’ll get ideas on what to look for, especially if part of the reason for booking a trip on a particular airline is to earn miles.
In general, airlines increasingly award miles based on dollars spent rather than distance.
So it doesn’t help much to go a further distance on the same trip. In the past, for someone chasing status and needing, say, 50,000 or 100,000 miles, it might have made sense to go cross-country, for example, via Houston or Dallas, rather than via Chicago, because the distance is further.
Yes, airlines like travelers to book directly on their websites.
It gives them a captive audience that won’t see lower-priced competitors. And in general, tickets purchased from an airline directly include the maximum miles. But there are ways to get the same amount of credit through a travel agency, online or brick and mortar.
Tickets issued by a travel agency can earn a traveler as many miles as a direct booking.
As long as they are “validated” on the airline giving the miles, this is true. It is often referred to as “on the airline’s ticket stock.” What that means is that the ticket money is given to that airline first, even if other airlines are involved. Now, usually this only happens with international tickets, as most domestic fares are not combinable. But it can make a big difference. For example, on a ticket to Europe on Lufthansa and United combined, if a ticket is validated on United, a traveler earns mileage based on a multiple of the dollars spent. (And more miles if purchased with a United credit card.) If validated on Lufthansa, it’s based on distance. The more expensive the ticket, the more a traveler loses based on the distance calculation.
The validation issue is another reason to book through a human at a travel agency.
Even if we agents don’t know all the rules off the top of our heads, we can find out whether a client cares about mileage. Booking through an online travel agency (OTA) will likely result in validation with the first carrier, whether or not it is the most beneficial. OTAs also may not know the pluses and minuses of code-shares.
All partners are not created equal.
Airlines love to trumpet their partner deals. But some partners don’t earn as many miles as others. And fare type matters. Some discount fares on Qantas, for example, get only 25 percent of miles flown for American. The same applies to Air France with Delta. And some discount fares get zero miles. It depends on both the cabin (economy, premium, business) and the letter of the booking class.
Free award tickets don’t earn miles.
Some tickets that are a combination of miles and money do.
You may get “bulk” tickets through a tour operator or consolidator.
These types of tickets get reduced miles. So when you’re booking a package or a “deal,” you have to take this into consideration.
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Janice Hough is a California-based travel agent a travel blogger and a part-time comedy writer. A frequent flier herself, she’s been doing battle with airlines, hotels, and other travel companies for over three decades. Besides writing for Travelers United, Janice has a humor blog at Leftcoastsportsbabe.com (Warning, the political and sports humor therein does not represent the views of anyone but herself.)
