Frequent Flyer Miles Or Cheapest Airfare Available

[Taggart]

When traveling by air to or from Thailand, which do you prefer, finding the cheapest airline fare for your travel dates, or using your Frequent Flyer Miles card to rack up more points?

Just saw George Clooney's new movie "Up In The Air" a few days ago, so that's got me thinking.

[rfukata]

frequent flyer miles not always give you the booking you want; i.e. there are limited seats given on a specific flight for the carrier and its alliance partners.

For me, I choose to fly on the specific airline (lowest fare avail) to accrue miles and usually plan a advance trip on flyer miles.

[geriatrickid]

If only I could use my miles. Approx. 200,000K on EVA, 250,000 on Star Alliance, 100,000 on Skymiles. In 2 years, not once could I get a business or first class between BKK and North America without having to travel 40 hours or transit some weird route, or fly most of the route in economy but get stuck paying as if it were a premium seat because one flight was in premium, or worse, being insulted when offered the option of a 1 way ticket at 2X the points for a roundtrip. Once you pay the fees and taxes, you are better off buying an economy excursion fare.

These points are the biggest scam around. I'd rather they kept the points and just cut my ticket price.

[tonywebster]

If only I could use my miles. Approx. 200,000K on EVA, 250,000 on Star Alliance, 100,000 on Skymiles. In 2 years, not once could I get a business or first class between BKK and North America without having to travel 40 hours or transit some weird route, or fly most of the route in economy but get stuck paying as if it were a premium seat because one flight was in premium, or worse, being insulted when offered the option of a 1 way ticket at 2X the points for a roundtrip. Once you pay the fees and taxes, you are better off buying an economy excursion fare.

These points are the biggest scam around. I'd rather they kept the points and just cut my ticket price.

I have a lot of star alliance points, I was looking to go Singapore in July and the tax I would have to pay for the return flight is actually more than the cost of the return flight with Jetstar

[fishhooks]

Same same as the post above:

What has really been the death of FF point useage is the charges for fees and taxes, speaking in terms of economy travel.

Whereby the normal all-up flight cost on the budget carriers, particularly if you are internet registered with them and follow the specials is cheaper than the extra charges applied when you look to using points.

Yes, I know with most schemes you can choose to use points to pay for the extras as well, but take a look at the total points you will use and I don't think you need to be an accountant to realize that your points are worthless used this way.....Bit like buying goods in the various airline FF schemes with points.

I think the only real advantage now for points is really long-haul travel, where you cannot find a special with a known major carrier.

I speak with a little experience here. I have half a mill. Qantas points and they are just not worth using between Australia and Asia, unless maybe I want to splurge and use them for Business or First Class.

[tartempion]

FF rules can easily backfire to the airline.

During 3 years I flew Qatar BKK to Paris CDG, began flying their excellent business class and my goal was to reach gold status within the accounting year which was from month of joining on until they decided to change that to calender year, thus causing me to miss gold.

I emailed them my dissatisfaction and hoped they would consider the old rule and give me gold if I reached the required miles within the 12 month period. Not so, just some bla bla bla email reply, consequently I switched to Etihad because Brussels is closer to my home base than Paris.

Now Etihad's business class rates have been increasing from 55K THB to 65, to 75 last year.

Needing bookings for April and June this year, I recently could only findbusiness class rates at 110K!, So no more business class for me.

I did use miles to upgrade two out of four legs on an economy ticket last year.

I reached gold last November, perks are: check in business counter, access to business lounge for 2 pax (will travel with gf to Paris next June, good to have this perk), 15kg extra luggage (always bring lots of food to LOS: chocolate, cheese, champagne), fast track landing Bangkok, 50% extra miles.

But the problem came when booking my April and June trips: 150 euro more expensive than others, Jet from India flying to Brussels and Qatar again to Paris.

So I will take advantage in 2010 of the gold perks, I will have 90k miles after June trip and try to use 75k miles for a "free ticket". Normal in fact you need to pay for all the taxes. Savings of min 25K on next ticket.

My gold status is valid for 2 years + 3 months, thus to March 2011.

I will defintely consider budget versus (hypothetical) miles next year, certainly if obtaining that free ticket for October gives hassle. Still could use my miles for upgrade to business on that October trip.

All in all flying 3 years Etihad got only one leg upgrade from eco to business, but to first when boarding, that was truly a treat I will not forget lightly. But I understand you only get upgraded when economy full, although I had a friend flying China Airlines last month and he was moved to business after takeoff, guess it depends on airline specific rules.

Just my personal take on this subject

[bkkbarnstormer]

I have a Star Alliance gold card with Thai and find that frequent flyer miles are generally poor value for short haul flights. When I travel long haul, I usually buy an economy ticket and then upgrade myself using miles to business. This seems to be the best value for money from my perspective and I can usually book at short notice (a few days).

I have a lot of BA miles from prior travel based in the UK and these really are worthless from Bangkok since the BKK-London BA award tickets seem to be boked at least 6 months in advance

[erikr_]

I have a Star Alliance gold card with Thai and find that frequent flyer miles are generally poor value for short haul flights. When I travel long haul, I usually buy an economy ticket and then upgrade myself using miles to business. This seems to be the best value for money from my perspective and I can usually book at short notice (a few days).

I have a lot of BA miles from prior travel based in the UK and these really are worthless from Bangkok since the BKK-London BA award tickets seem to be boked at least 6 months in advance

just booked me direct paris-bangkok using 4 months worth of flying blue miles. private i go for best price, company i will fly blue

[RAZZELL]

I usually get a Thai "Q" class ticket which accrues miles. You need about 5 trips worth of miles for a "free" return ticket.

So the "free" ticket probably costs the price difference over and above the cheapest ticket!

However, "Q" class are more flexible as I've had to change my return dates on several trips.

I think it's extremely difficult to get a Business Class return with miles. The one time I tried they were booked for the dates I wanted. Had to go economy

RAZZ

[Taggart]

Found this 13 minute documentary video 30,000 Feet: Frequent Flyer released in late 2009. There's a surprise segment on Thailand towards the end of the film.

[8899rby]

One-Two go airlines is offering a Super Deal for frequent flyers inside the country.

You need TWO partners ( each one totally indipendent from eachother), for sharing the 39000 baht (19500 p.p.) of the so-called Siam Pass.

This card allows these two persons to fly unlimited! inside Thailand for the period of three months!!

It just work great!. I just completed a period from Dec 2009 to Feb 2010, sharing the card with a Thay businesswoman, and we both had the impression to own a private Jet .

Now this woman is gone abroad for a while and I am looking for a partner who might be interested to share this promotion with me.

[Taggart]

Asia Miles

Cathay Pacific Airways

Register for up to 5,888 bonus miles when flying from Bangkok to Mainland China

For members residing in Thailand only

Registration Period:

02 Mar 2010 - 31 May 2010

Travel Period

15 Mar 2010 - 31 Dec 2010

[Ricardo]

I try to get the best of both worlds ! Don't we all ?

I've been loyal to Qatar Airways for the past 3 years, they're competitive on price and give me 10-15 kgs of extra baggage-allowance, and I'm now about to get a "free" return-ticket (B10k vs B28k) Bkk-London. Their quality (in economy) is reasonable, although it's irritating (and wrong IMO) to be told that they're one of the top-5 in the world, and Doha is a dump of an airport !

However during that time, they've cut the airmiles I can earn (on cheaper tickets), and some other airlines have introduced 30kg-hold-luggage in economy as-standard, so once I've used-up my 'freebie', I intend for the following trip to look at who wins my loyalty for the next 3 years.

I look for a cheap ticket, but won't turn down frequent-flyer benefits, especially the extra luggage which helps me bring back lots more farang-food & books & luxury-items !

[gotlost]

Being a frequent flyer I use my miles for seat upgrades. The difference between the classes is unreal. The cheap airfare I'll buy but not with my miles.

[wileycoyote]

Cheaper Air Fares ,there is always some catch with redeeming air miles ,(peak periods ,not available,only some a few seats-so no use for a family of 5,and then you always get hammered by the taxes !)