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Miles or money?

When the doors of the plane close you invariably hear the purser plugging the airline’s frequent flyer program: “Members earn miles and enjoy many benefits including free tickets.”

Why try airlines to lure you into their frequent flyer programs? They hope you will fly them again at relatively high fares by making you think you will enjoy benefits.

However, frequent flyer programs are designed to make money for the airlines, not for passengers.

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For leisure travelers it does not pay off to be loyal to an airline. They  are better off if they simply seek the lowest fare at whatever airline. Their benefits are elusive as their miles will expire before they have collected enough to spend them.

The table below shows in column 1 the number of miles you would earn on a roundtrip from Europe to New York on 3 airlines belonging to 3 different alliances. Column 2 displays how many miles you need for a free ticket, column 3 how many roundtrips you have to make to earn these miles, and column 4 shows the lowest fare with travel in early April 2010.
                                                                                   (1)           (2)              (3)                     (4)
                                                                                  Earn     Spend     Roundtrips         Fare
British Airways (Oneworld) from Heathrow    865      50,000          29             €532 ($723)
Delta Airlines (Skyteam) from Heathrow         910    107,500*        16              €470 ($645)
Lufthansa (Star Alliance) from Frankfurt      1,953      60,000            8              €637 ($866)

* For the “free” ticket on Delta you have to pay €273 ($371) in taxes and fees.

The differences are huge, but the data are difficult to find. Many airlines are opaque about their lowest fares.

For example, your screen shows a list of flight possibilities, but without the fares. In this case you need to open each possibility to find the fare, which is time-consuming.

Moreover, how many miles you will earn and how many miles you need for a free ticket is often unclear.

Thus, double check the miles you need before you book an award ticket.		New York

Also, compare fares before you buy a ticket on an airline’s web site. You may do so at compare.com, a local travel office or a travel booking site (like Expedia, Orbitz, Travelocity, etc.).

Related articles: "Airline loyalty costs you money", "What is better for me: KLM or Lufthansa?", "What happens to your frequent flyer status if you switch to another airline?" and "Flying Blue no longer a serious option" 

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Last Updated ( Saturday, 27 February 2010 08:13 )
 

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