Muswell Hill

I have just completed a questionaire from USAirways asking me what I would like to see from an ideal frequent flyer program. Obviously much more reward seats, miles that don't expire, a real human to talk to in the call centre that isn't in Malaysia, the Phillipines or Tumboktu..

I suggested they offer a program like AA has for reward seats, where they will guarantee a reward seat on any flight for say 10% more miles. I asked them to stop bombarding me with credit card applications from their visa, mc, amex, discover cards too....

What would you like in a frequent flyer program???

Englishmum

You really ought to be posing this on the forums on this website dedicated to frequent travellers:

http://www.flyertalk.com

The most irritating thing as a resident on the East coast is that it takes the same no. of airmiles if you want a free ticket from New York to London as it is from Los Angeles to London, yet you can't accrue the same amount of miles when you buy a ticket, just the miles for the actual distance of the flight...

simongb

I hate the way some airlines (BA for example) don't let you accrue miles for each mile you travel. They used to, but then they changed it. So now, if you travel Economy, you only earn a percentage of the miles traveled. WHY? Also, the miles expire after a few years! I am also a member of US Airways miles program. It is pretty easy to redeem miles with them.

anotherlimey

One that is more like AA's and less like Delta's!

Dan725

Anyone got that Capital One "No Hassle" card? Fly on any airline, no blackout dates they say - I've been considering it, but sounds too good to be true. If it works as advertised, it would be close to ideal.

BritGuyTN

I use united mileage plus a lot

a little know trick is that if they have the space on the transatlantic flights when you turn up at the gate, you can often get a business class upgrade for 300 quid or 500 dollars. not really worth it during the day but defo worth it on the night flight

gsnichol

I was with Air France Frequence Plus - now Flying Blue since they merged with KLM. It is/was a very good deal and I've clocked up quite a lot of miles, which I'm saving for that business class flight to Australia. The BA scheme is pathetic.

Domestically the Southwest Airlines scheme is pretty good, especially if you have a Chase/Southwest credit card too.

Muswell Hill

Is that if you fly on a reward ticket or a normally purchased ticket?

So you turn up at the gate and offer 500 bucks for a biz class seat??? Is that how it works?

Englishmum

BA (like most airlines) is often overbooked with more passengers than seats. Rather than upgrade economy pax, some bright spark in BA North America decided to put little notices at the check-in desks where you can pay $250 on the spot to upgrade to World Traveller Plus (one way only).

It's the only place in the world where BA does this (everywhere else they will upgrade for free, but of course you may or may not be the lucky one/s).

Apparently the take-up is very high. Personally I don't think I'd bother doing it from the East coast on a 7 hour flight but if you can do that for $250 from the West coast, especially on a red-eye then it's definitely worth considering.

BritGuyTN

Yes

any ticket you may have

Just ask the people at the gate if they have the paid upgrade available and if they do they/ll take your credit card and voila - champagne and fillet steak...

I slap it down as a business expense for the IRs so I can write off the tax..., making it even cheaper

Elvira

With United, you can actually apply for an upgrade on selected legs of the journey when you book, or again when you check in. It usually costs around $300 per leg.

I also get periodic free electronic upgrade coupons, which are nice. Though I'm not sure on what basis those are dished out - they just appear on my mileage summary every now and aain. I imagine it is related to the frequency I fly, but I'm not sure at what point it actually triggers a reward.

The downside is that using miles to fly to Europe has become much more expensive. A year ago I flew to LHR for just 35k - now the cheapest (and very restricted) seems to be 50k, and some flights are as much as 100k - previously the most expensive was 80k.

gruffbrown

Virgin are good, they do it on miles flown, or used to. I got up to a silver card and managed to get my one and only upgrade because of it.

BigDavyG

The AA credit card jobbie is a good job - 25k miles when you get it (which is almost enough for a free internal flight) and 1 mile per $ there after.

Elvira

I've got one of those through United/Chase. Also get miles via Safeway shopping and staying at hotels.

It all adds up...

BigDavyG

Yep - and interestingly to any newbies around if you apply for one and have a healthy balance of airmiles already it will help your chances of getting a card (basing this on 2 newbies I know who both got multiple cc rejections until they tried this card - both had large airmiles balances with AA).