Frequent Flyers

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Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

I got a shock today in Tesco's. You can redeem your clubcard vouchers for miles in the BA Executive Club. It works out at 400 miles per £2.50 voucher.

Think about that for a second - you'd have to fly a return domestic flight just to get 250 miles usually. You get more miles with your groceries than by flying semi-frequently! Last time I flew to Australia, the miles I got equated to a year's groceries.

Is anyone else's scheme like that?

Original post

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,253

mongu, you've not quite got the right end of the stick...

To get a £2.50 voucher, you have to redeem 500 Clubcard points, which equates to £500 worth of groceries, which is slightly more expensive than return domestic flights...

Sainsbury's used to have the deal with BA, but when Tesco replaced Sainsbury's just over a year ago, Sainsbury's moved to offering bmi Diamond Club points instead.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 39

I think you are slightly wrong on both counts:
Every £1 you spend at tesco you get 1 point 100 points = £1 back therefore 613 points is £6 in vouchers and 13 points on the next mailing.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

So £250 spend = 400 BA miles. Well, that's about equivalent to the miles you get for a flight I suppose. I also get miles at the rate of 1.5 miles per £1 spent with my Amex card, so hopefully I can afford another freebie flight soon.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,253

yeah, I get confused...

(without wanting to turn this thread into a shopping thread... :rolleyes: )

Tesco Clubcard 1 point per £1
Nectar 2 points per £1
Co-op Dividend 4 points per £1
Boots Advantage 1 point per 25p.

That sounds about right, I redeemed 1000 Sainsbury's Reward Card points for 800 BA Miles last year, right before they stopped doing BA.
So it'd be about the same, 250 Tesco Clubcard points per 400 Miles.

Actually, does anyone know if Nectar still have the Diamond Club redemption option, or did they stop it when they merged the Sainbury's/BP/Debenhams/someone else cards? :confused:

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,956

At Vons in the U.S., you get like 250 miles every $250 dollars you spend. No biggie. I get that with my credit card, regardless.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,333

Yep , that is what we get with United's Visa card 1mile/$

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

I just think that "frequent flyer" is a misnomer. Frequent spender would be more apt.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,253

come to think of it, the Swiss Coop have a similar deal, although it's much more expensive to get miles for them

7500 Points (7500 Swiss Franks worth of groceries... or 4 times what I payed to go to Canada (including accomodation) for ten days, three years ago http://www.splfever.co.uk/phpBB2/images/smiles/eek.gif) can be traded in for 3'750 Swiss Travel Club miles (or 10'000 points for 5'000 Miles).

It only costs 20'000 Travel Club miles to get a free return flight in Europe on Swiss Economy, so it's an absolute snip...

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 4,333

Originally posted by mongu
I just think that "frequent flyer" is a misnomer. Frequent spender would be more apt.

True :)

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 39

its all a con to make more money, what else would we expect!

Having said that, when i flew in to Sun and Fun in florida this year i saw Delta Airlines flying club - i bet they wouldnt extend their airmiles scheme to cover training and private flying

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,956

Originally posted by mongu
I just think that "frequent flyer" is a misnomer. Frequent spender would be more apt.

It's all relative. I do get lots of miles from my Mileage Plus Visa card, but the bulk of my miles cleary comes from actual mileage flown, plus 100% Premier Executive bonus. You can't beat double miles on every flight, and that doesn't even include the online bonus.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

I don't know, I seem to build up a few miles without spending too much extra. I got a freebie flight in January, return IOM-LGW with BA. I say "free" but the tax is quite steep.

My next target is to earn enough miles for an upgrade on my next long hauler.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,956

I'm not sure what the classes of fairs are on other carriers, but on UA international, you have to have at least an "H" class fair in order to use mileage to upgrade. You can't upgrade on the cheapest economy fares. I had to learn this the hard way.

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

The BA one is really simple. Your fare category determines how many miles you get, but once you have them a mile is a mile is a mile. You can upgrade any economy fare to Eco Plus, Biz or First for payment of the appropriate number of miles. The more your ticket costs, the more miles you get. Seems very fair to me.

So my understanding is that even if you have a super duper gold card, your mileage for a particular flight is the same as for a basic blue card holder - what counts is the fare you're flying on, not your card status. So a blue card holder flying in First will get a lot more miles than a Gold card holder in Economy. The only advantage of a higher tier of membership is access to lounges, better luggage allowance and use of First and Biz check in desks. You probably get to the top of wait lists as well.

The only poor part of their scheme, is it is not really a Oneworld card. You automatically get miles credited to your account for codeshare flights, but if it aint codeshare you have to physically fax over your boarding pass coupon to BA. Very poor. I had to do that on a flight I took on Qantas from Melbourne to Hobart.

Member for

20 years 11 months

Posts: 869

I've never understood air miles really, does one air mile = an actual mile!?! For instance LCY to AMS is 321 miles, if I had 321 air miles could I get a free single ticket to AMS?

Member for

24 years 2 months

Posts: 2,491

Not sure about Air Miles, but BA Miles work on the basis that you can book a free flight anywhere. The world is divided into zones, and you pay a set number of miles for any flight anywhere in those zones.

Zone 1 for BA is UK domestic plus Ireland and maybe a few bits of Europe like AMS or BRU. ANY return flight in that region is available for 13,000 miles. It can be LHR-EDI or MAN-GLA or whatever you want.

Zone 6 extends out to Australia. Obviously that will cost you a helluva lot more miles.

13,000 miles is what an Economy ticket costs you. You have to double that to get the Biz price and triple it for the First price. You could quadruple it for Concorde.