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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To not understand airmiles. At All.

14 replies

Catslikehats · 15/11/2011 08:28

So I am booking some flights for me and youngest just before Christmas.

Price is reasonable but not the cheapest I have flown that route. Then I remember that I have about 50,000 airmiles so light bulb moment: I'll use them.

Only the price for using the airmiles (exact same flights) is more plus they'll be taking my airmiles as well.

Why on earth have I been scrabbling around to find my membership number everytime I fly?

OP posts:

MenopausalHaze · 15/11/2011 08:34

Ah yes. Airmiles. Big old con IMO and worth remembering that there really is no such thing as a free lunch!

kelly14 · 15/11/2011 13:40

which airline???

Have to say i only fly emirates, and parents lived in dubai last 8 years and i lived in sydney last 3 years so me and dd (6 but been flying since a few months) have hundreds of thousands of airmiles each

i dont use them to buy flights but to upgrade to business class, if u only have 50,000 that sounds like and upgrade to me, which would be ontop of the flight cost.

Its 25,000 airmiles to upgrade to business from dubai to uk (each, as well as flight costs) and 45,000 each from dubai to sydney!

i would re check u are imputting correctly.x

Original poster

Catslikehats · 15/11/2011 13:49

It is BA. They say that a flight on my route should be 40,000. Only for the time I want it is 40,000 + almost £600 which is more than a flight without the airmiles

And on AUH-LON route apparently you can't use airmiles to upgrade. Bloody waste of time. Ho hum.

OP posts:

nordiccamper · 15/11/2011 14:37

There will be a limit to seats that are allocated to the airmiles program. So, on each flight x number are allowed for airmiles sale, and those go very early. If there are empty bus/ first seats when you check in they will let you use miles to upgrade then.

Taxes out of the UK are also astronomical now, they make up about 250pp (unsubstantiated but it's high) per take off from LHR now i believe, which you'd still have to pay even if you were using airmiles. It's best to use miles to upgrade out of the UK.

eurochick · 15/11/2011 15:47

It's only really worth using them if you are booking v early. Or upgrading.

Bartimaeus · 15/11/2011 15:50

Agree you need to book early. Air france uses 30000 miles for a single european flight. By booking 7 months in advance we got premium tickets to LA for 25000!!!!

Original poster

Catslikehats · 15/11/2011 16:04

nordic the flight doesn't actually depart from the UK but I imagine the tax is similar because that is the destination? The flights were approx £600 with nearly £500 of that made up of the tax

As I said no upgrade using airmiles allowed on this route. Will probably have to use them to buy a pen or baseball cap from their very overpriced store

OP posts:

nordiccamper · 15/11/2011 16:22

Can you use BA miles on Qantas, if they are on your holiday route? They are part of One World i believe and must be pretty desperate at the moment. I'm surprised there's a blanket upgrade ban on a leg of travel, perhaps the upgrade allocation has already been pre booked by other earlier birds?

Booking now for flights for the xmas hols would be much more expensive all over, i would have thought.

Graciescotland · 15/11/2011 16:26

Air France are 10 000 per one way flight in Europe methinks plus tax.We did get a flight to toronto one way for 12 500 plus ?140 tax once but it was very last minute.

I think British airways do this weird thing if ll cost of return flight to you have to change flights of charging full cost of return flight to London with a bit of padding in case of a delay plus the tax of long haul which can be £300ish.

squeakytoy · 15/11/2011 16:29

The points are good for using as an upgrade though.

I am booking tickets to go to LA next year, and even if you use points off a flight, you still have to pay the tax in full anyway, and that is more than the flight itself. But if you use the points to upgrade from economy to premium economy, you can save quite a lot of money, and travel in comfort too.

Original poster

Catslikehats · 15/11/2011 17:19

I queried the upgrade issue and got an email back confirming no upgrades from world traveller using airmiles. Of course should I care to book a business ticket I could use my airmiles to upgrade to first (although of course I couldn't as not enough)

squeaky I think that is the issue here. the flight i have booked direct is being sold at a loss - i.e. it is cheaper than the tax. If I use airmiles sure I can have the flight for "free" but then once I factor in the full amount of tax I am paying more than if I didn't use the airmiles.

It odesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things just an irritating anomoly and I am glad I checked before I blithely booked with airmiles assuming a "valued" customer would get the better deal.

OP posts:

squeakytoy · 15/11/2011 17:56

Ah, mine are Virgin, not BA. I honestly find you get a much better service with Virgin, well we certainly have compared to BA flights.

witherhills · 15/11/2011 18:05

Just to say that upgrades can become available at any time.
I tried for weeks to upgrade on US flight, they said not available, eventually did it on the day of travel.

squeakytoy · 15/11/2011 18:36

thats also true wither.. I always book basic economy flights then check regularly on the website and upgrade to premium when the prices drop. The cost of flights has rocketed though... it is now £200 each more expensive than it was this time last year, just for the economy tickets... grrrr...

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