Earning Miles – How and Why?

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Earning Miles – How and Why?

To earn miles, you have to register first with one of the many airline frequent flyer program.

You can, of course, register with various programs at the same time. But don’t register with every airline, one for each alliance is enough.

You don’t have to be an expert, but knowing the basics will help already a lot.

 

Earning miles without flying

Many travelers think earning miles is only for frequent flyers, that is definitely not true. With most frequent flyer programs, you won’t collect miles with flying only.

Also credit cards, Payback, hotel bookings, mobile phone contracts and more will give you some extra miles.

Each program has its own rules. For some, the miles you have earned expire after a certain period of time, for others they are forever.

Benefits and rewards
The rewards and the value of the miles earned also differ from company to company. While with some programs the miles can only be exchanged for free flights and upgrades, others offer a variety of products and other services.

The better the status, the more amenities
The goal of most members of frequent flyer programs is to exchange miles for cheap flights. But also a higher frequent flyer status brings preferential treatment when flying and thus more comfort.

 

What does “Earning Miles” mean anyway?

It’s actually very simple: all you have to do is sign up for a frequent flyer program and off you go!  With most airlines, this is very easy via their website or an app, and for FREE.

Personal data is requested, so when booking a flight or at check-in, the corresponding miles can then be credited to the account, and you will earn miles.

 

What is a mile anyway?

A mile is not just a mile. When the first bonus programs started in the early 1980s, one air mile flown was often equivalent to one mile that was credited to the account. In the meantime, this calculation does not work anymore.
How many miles you ultimately get credited to your account depends on several factors:

  • Which route is flown?
  • What is the ticket price (not for all programs)?
  • Which class has the flight been booked in?

 

Award mile or Status mile?

The different categories of airline miles can confuse some collectors. Status miles can only (with some very few exceptions) be obtained through flights and push the much-coveted frequent flyer status upwards. With partners from other industries, like online shopping, credit cards, you will earn award miles.

Briefly summarized:

Status miles:

  • Can only be earned through flights
  • Affect frequent flyer status

Award miles:

  • Can be collected while flying or from partners on the ground
  • Only redeemable for rewards: “free” flights, upgrades or other products

 

Which is the best frequent flyer program if you live in Luxembourg?

As we mentioned already above, we would suggest to register with British Airways Excecutive club, SAS Eurobonus or Miles&More and Air France Flyingblue.

Even though SAS does not fly (anymore) from Luxembourg, you will earn more miles when you fly with Lufthansa with the SAS Eurobonus program than with Lufthansa’s Miles-and-More program. However, with Miles-and-More you have the opportunity to get Brussels Airlines American Express card, and earn 1.5 miles per € spent,on daily purchases.

SAS Eurobonus is better if you earn most of your miles with flying, rather than with shopping.

For British Airways and Air France Flying blue, the American Express Platinum or Gold are the best credit cards (often with a huge welcome bonus).

More details why you should choose these 3 programs can be found on our friend’s website from Premium-Flights, where to credit airline miles?.

 

Opportunities to earn miles

As mentioned earlier, miles cannot only be earned when booking a flight.

These are the best options:

 

For whom is it worth earning miles?

Earning miles is worth for everyone, as it is for free.

The miles you have earned cannot only be redeemed for free flights and upgrades. From jewelry to electronics to kitchen appliances, most programs have everything imaginable. However, in the end, this is the worst option, as the equivalent of a mile is relatively low. But if you don’t want to use them for flights, it is better than nothing.

With many programs, you can even do something good and donate any amount of miles to environmental protection projects.

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