How to get the most out of your mileage service

If you’re using a paid ticket, you have options on the number and types of airline miles you can earn. Many airlines are members of the alliance, and almost all have some sort of partnership with other airlines. In most cases, you can earn miles from paid flights to in-flight or partner airlines. If you know the right way, this can significantly increase the number of miles you can earn. Here’s how to make sure you’re earning as many miles as you can.

Understanding partnerships with airline alliances

The three major airline alliances are Oneworld, SkyTeam, and Star Alliance. If you fly with an airline that is a member of any of these alliances, you have the option of accruing miles to another airline within the alliance. For example, if you’re on United (a member of the Star Alliance) but know that Turkish Airlines (another member of the Star Alliance) offers a great sweet spot you want to use, go from United to Turkey. Credit your flights and earn Turkish Miles & Smiles instead. ..

Some airlines are also affiliated with other airlines that are not in the same partnership, and in many cases flight credits to these non-partner partners are also available.

Know the fare code for your flight

To know how many miles you can earn on a flight, you need to know the fare code for the flight. Fares codes are not limited to economy, business and first class (these are called fares) class). Rather, the fare code is a one-letter specifier such as “B”, “M”, “K”. The fare code determines the number of miles you can earn on your flight.

Finding the fare code can be difficult. In the best scenario, the fare code will be included in the confirmation email. If not, there are several options.You can visit matrix.itasoftware.com Search for a flight. ITA Matrix is ​​not a flight booking engine, but a flight search engine. Click to go to the final page and you will see the fare code. However, this only works if you searched for the fare code at the time of booking. There is no guarantee that seats in the same “fare bucket” will continue to be available after booking.

If you forget to confirm your fare code at the time of booking and it is not included in the confirmation email, we recommend contacting your airline to ask. You can call them or contact the airline through social media (especially Twitter).

Search for options at wheretocredit.com

Once you know the fare code, find out how many miles you can earn on different airlines. wheretocredit.com A great place to do this. Enter the airline you are flying with and the fare code you found in the previous step.

“Credit Locations” shows a list of airlines that can select credits for that flight and the number of miles they can earn. It is usually expressed as either the percentage of total miles you have flown or the number of miles you have earned per dollar.

Here are some tips: If you don’t know how many miles your flight has, go to the following URL: gcmap.com Enter the route. The Great Circle Mapper provides an estimate of the flight distance (this may be slightly different than the airline calculates the distance). From here, you can compare the number of miles you can earn with different programs.

Other considerations

• Keep accessibility and the value of miles in mind. Not all miles are created the same, and not all miles are easily accessible. Even if an airline offers a 30% higher rate of return, the value of miles can be 50% less or more difficult to earn. This needs to be taken into account before deciding which program to credit.
• Do not spread it too thin. Consider the number of programs that have already earned miles. Miles aren’t worth anything until they’re enough to redeem awards, so it’s important not to extend yourself too much to too many programs.
• Keep in mind that the cheapest flights are not always the cheapest. It’s important to remember that cheaper flights may be available with certain airlines, but not the cheapest. everytime Cheapest after considering the value of the miles earned. This is especially true when considering whether to fly with a low cost carrier (LCC). LCC is usually There is no rewarding frequent flyer program. The net cost of a business class flight after considering the value of the miles earned may be close to the cost of the flight economy. If you find such an example, treat it yourself.