Most of the airlines offer incentives to travelers to make them their permanent customers by offering rewards known as sky miles. You earn 1 or sometime more miles for every mile of the distance you cover on each flight. For example, if the flight covers 4,500 miles, you will earn 4,500 reward miles. Air lines partner with banks which can offer you a credit card that will link to an airline, and you can earn one reward miles for each dollar you spend. You can accumulate miles, and when you have accumulated thousands of miles, you can use the miles to book a flight. The miles can be used to cover the cost of the ticket without taxes and airport fees, which must be paid by you. Earning enough miles by getting the miles from travelling or by using the credit card is not easy and may take months or years. To book a domestic flight within the USA will vary from 50,000 – 70,000 miles and international flight may cost you from 125,000 to 150,000 miles.
Sometime companies like American Express, Bank of America, US Bank or other banks offer bonus miles, that may vary from 30,000 – 70,000 miles and may require you to charge 3,000- 5,000 dollars with three months and may also have a yearly fee. When I became a member of Delta sky miles program and got an offer from American Express for 50,000 bonus miles, I immediately applied for the card and completed the requirement of charging 3,000 dollars within the three months. Getting these bonus miles and a few domestic travels increased the total of my reward miles to reach 70,000 miles. I needed another 50,000 miles for an international ticket. I kept on using that card for all monthly purchases, and soon I had more than 150,000 miles.
Some airlines have blackout dates for redeeming rewards for booking a ticket for international flights, and some also allow part payment using the rewards and balance payment by credit card. Delta Airlines did not had any blackout dates, so I booked a flight Atlanta-Dubai in the first week of December, and I had enough miles to cover the full cost of the ticket (around $1,200), but I had to pay around $200 for the Airport Taxes.
Most of the airlines have partner airlines for some routes and allow passengers to use the rewards with some or all the partner’s routes. Delta Airlines has partnership with Air France, hence my flight from Atanta was on Delta Air Lines, while the flight to Dubai was by Air France, which was delayed by more than three hours, I missed my connecting flight and I had to spend the night at Dubai Airport. (I will save this story for another time.)
British Air Lines has lots of blackout dates for redeeming rewards for booking a flight and this has made extremely difficult for me use my rewards, as my plans for travel is either during the winter holidays or summer holidays, and blackout dates are always during December or June/July. British Airways are partner with Qatar Airways and uses the term Avios.
Most of the airlines also allow members to purchase rewards in multiples of 1000’s using credit cards. It is usually $65 for 2,000 Avios. This price may vary from time to time, and sometime the airline might add some bonus miles. You should calculate the net effect of buying miles versus pay cash for the portion of the ticket. For example, if you paid $200 to buy 5,000 miles and it only reduced the cost of the ticket by $100 or $150, then it is not worth buying the miles. You can also transfer miles to your family or friend who has an account with that airline or the partner airline.
Some airlines also partner with companies who may offer you magazine subscription or small items used in the kitchen. I have used both the options in the past.
Rambler's Corner 