airline skymiles and memberships

[worthingmale]

dont suppose anybody knows who has the best membership scheme ?

emirates seems to be pretty good, but if you fly with a partner airline you have to keep the hard copy of the ticket stubb to post into to claim points

[KeithD]

Star Alliance is the best, but you need to sign up via SIA which gives you the bonus option of being able to use Virgin ... I've had free flights to Florida and Las Vegas in the last few years

[Englishman2010]

I've got most of them:

KLM/Air France
Emirates
Saudi
Cathay Pacific
Lufthansa
Philippine Airlines

Unfortunately I haven't got enough with any single airline to get that far, about 20K each with KLM, Emirates and Cathay. If I could club them all together I met get a decent round trip somewhere.
Don't forget, with reward miles, you don't get it completely free, you still have to pay tax and charges which are often more than the flight An example of this is a flight I've recently booked to Singapore with Lufthansa, The Flight was £150, but tax and charges were £280 on top, so are you really saving that much with reward miles?
I've actually got enough KLM miles for a couple of freebies to Amsterdam. I tried booking them only to find out that they wanted an extra £109 each (for two of us) in tax and charges. I managed to book 2 return flights to Amsterdam with Easyjet for £110 including tax, credit card and baggage charges.

[KeithD]

Of course you're saving money with the rewards .... you can't expect the airlines to include the taxes/fees. Plus every time you book a flight you are paying for them so you are just throwing money away if you don't use them.

[Englishman2010]

Of course you're saving money with the rewards .... you can't expect the airlines to include the taxes/fees. Plus every time you book a flight you are paying for them so you are just throwing money away if you don't use them.

I agree, but why do KLM want £110 in tax and fees for Uk to Amsterdam and Easyjet only want half of that for the flight, tax and fees?
I don't think reward schemes are worthwhile on shorthaul trips, but can stack up on langhaul trips if you book wisely and make use of promo's where possible. KLM do have some good promo's where you can book flights for half the usual reward miles, but you're still looking at over £300 in tax and other fees. Many people make the mistake of thinking you get it all for free, ie, no tax either

[KeithD]

Easyjet use cheaper airports and do not use gates, and you're not paying towards air miles in the ticket price which keeps taxes lower.

When I used my last lot of air miles to Vegas I was quite happy paying £300 instead of £600, and if two of you are using miles then that's enough saving to cover the hotel

[Englishman2010]

Easyjet use cheaper airports and do not use gates, and you're not paying towards air miles in the ticket price which keeps taxes lower.

When I used my last lot of air miles to Vegas I was quite happy paying £300 instead of £600, and if two of you are using miles then that's enough saving to cover the hotel

That may be the case with easyjet, but it still represents a big saving. On shorthaul flights I'm not bothered if I slum it, if I get get to my destination in a Jeepney with wings and save money I'd do it
What I have noticed is that the EU based airlines charge much higher taxes and fees than the Asian/Middle Eastern Airlines. On a £600 flight from the UK to Manila, KLM charge £300 for the flight and £300 for tax, whereas Emirates charge £500 for the flight and £100 in other costs. Therefore if you want lower fees on a reward flight, a non EU airline will probably cost you less

[KeithD]

This is why stopping off in the Middle East is cheaper than doing it in the EU, lower landing fees/taxes.

[RickyR]

Having just taken my 65th flight for this year, and a few more left to go, I'm a bit of a FF veteran.
You essentially have three main schemes which are:

One World (BA, Cathay, Finnair, Qantas etc)
Star Alliance (BMI, Asiana, Singapore, Thai etc)
Skyteam (KLM, Air France, Korean, Delta etc).

When you are registered with one airline within the scheme, you can claim 'miles' on any airline within the alliance.

Then you have many middle eastern airlines who have their own seperate frequent flyer schemes, which occasionally team up with other airline partners.

When it comes to the miles, most airlines offer you types 'status' miles and 'reward' miles for each sector.

Status Miles
These tend to be time limited, and cannot be redeemed. They accumulate to give you access to a tier of status, which may give you benefits such as lounge access when flying economy, increased chance of upgrades, extra baggage allowance, priority check-in.

Reward Miles
These tend to be non-expiring, and once you accumulate these you can use them to book flights, normally paying just taxes and fees. Or you can use them to upgrade from economy to business.

One of the best schemes for UK citizens is the British Airways Avios Miles (formerly Executive Club), where you can accumulate miles from alternative sources including Tesco Clubcard miles. For members of this forum, you could use these miles towards Cathay Pacific flights.


If you fly once or twice a year in economy, it probably isn't worth having any loyalty to an airline, and you should book a flight based on a balance of your budget vs convenient flight times vs quality.

For those that travel more, or travel in business class (which accumulates more miles), then it is well worth factoring loyalty into your decision process for choosing an airline.

At the moment I hold Gold with KLM, Silver with Etihad and Silver with BA. KLM probably offers me the most benefits.

Sometimes the taxes and fees can be quite expensive, but can be useful if you need to book at the last minute when flight prices are higher.