Earning frequent flyer points is essential for travelers who want to travel the world at little or no cost. It’s not easy, but it can be done. So, let’s have a look at how to earn and use Frequent Flyer Points.
Earning points is about more than just booking flights with points. Increasing your credit card sign-up bonus percentage, earning points for your purchases, and finding cards with good perks are all ways to get free airline tickets.
What Are Frequent Flyer Points?
Think of frequent flyer points as a loyalty scheme. Initially it was designed by airlines to keep bringing customers back to their brand.
So, if you flew with ABC Airlines, you were allocated some points. If you continued flying with them, eventually you had enough points for a free flight.
But, if you went with other airlines and swapped and changed between companies, then it was much harder to get the free flight. This is how you were rewarded for your loyalty.
What Is The System Now?
It would be fair to say that the system has exploded over the last few years, and more and more companies are looking to get involved.
For example, if a supermarket wants to draw in more customers, they offer points with certain airlines to their customers. The supermarket pays to have this alliance, the customer gets points, the supermarket gets more customers.
Everybody wins. Sort of.
The problem is that some companies rely on getting people through their doors, to overspend. Consumers caught in this scenario are less likely to be winning.
There is an indication that some airlines make more money selling their loyalty program, than they do from selling flights.
So, how do we earn these points.
Pick A Program
The first thing you need to decide is, which program should I join. This will largely depend on where you’re based, and to a lesser extent, where you intend to go.
For example, as an Aussie there would be very little point in me getting into the Delta Airlines program. Whilst they do have alliances that could come in handy, it would be difficult to acquire points locally.
Aussies tend to fall into 2 groups. Qantas and Virgin. They’re our 2 biggest carriers, and they have lots of alliances. With those 2 you can earn points almost anywhere and fly almost anywhere.
So, have a look at your big national carriers. See who they’re paired with. Then pick one to stick with.
Take Flights
It may sound obvious, but just taking flights is still a very good way to earn points. This is of course providing you stick to the same airline each time. This means avoiding jumping for the lowest fare when the competitors advertise it.
If you only fly once or twice a year, then it’s going to take you a long time to accrue points anyway. Here in Australia, many of us are lucky enough to fly every week. Due to the remote nature of our country, there are a lot of big companies willing to fly their employees to and from work.
You fly to work, stay there for a week, then fly home for a week. Although some rosters are not that kind. Anyway, by flying every week, we build up our points pretty quick. Enough so that we can have a major long haul return flight every year for free.
Building points up by flying also increases your status credits. As these add up, they can give you extra perks, such as lounge access, increased luggage allowance and priority boarding.
Earning Points With A Credit Card
Another way to earn frequent flyer points is by using a credit card. As a rule, each time you spend money on your credit card, you earn points. Depending on the card as to how many points per dollar you get.
But, it’s important to find a credit card that will work well with your needs. Some cards have a great conversion rate, like 2 points per dollar, but the annual charge for the card is high.
This is where you need to work out which card is best for your needs. If you are already using a credit card a lot then maybe the higher cost card would be better.
But if you only use the card for emergencies, then you’d be better off staying with the cheaper less frills option.
Another perk with cards is that some offer big sign-up bonuses. This means that if you sign up and spend a certain amount over the first few months. Then you could get up to 100 000 points.
As with all credit cards, there needs to be some caution taken. Only spend on purchases that you were going to make anyway. And make sure you pay the card off IN FULL each month.
If you can’t stick to this, then don’t bother getting a card. You won’t be getting free flights. You’ll just be paying for them in a different way.
Getting A Signature Or Luxury Card
Some of the top end cards come with extra perks as well. Not only do you get more points per spend, but some offer discounts on flights and hotels as well.
As always, check the fee and check the fine print.
Earning Points For Purchases
As I mentioned earlier, lots of other companies are getting involved now as well.
For example, my wife and I know which brand of supermarket gives us points through the Qantas program, so we shop there. If we buy $100 worth of groceries, we get points. Then, because we pay for those groceries on the credit card, we get more points.
We do the same thing when buying fuel. If you’re buying these things each week anyway, you might as well let them work for you.
Just make sure you pay the card off at the end of the month. If you have to pay interest on the card, then you just lost.
Earning Miles From The Community
One way to earn frequent flyer points is through community involvement. This is not available in Australia as far as I know, but it works in the United States. The more you participate in your community, the more you can earn.
For example, joining your local PTA, coaching kids’ sports teams, volunteering at the library, or doing pro-bono work for your local charity can all earn you points that can be redeemed for travel.
Additionally, if you’re a member of the military, you can earn free air travel by volunteering for different missions. If you’re active in the military, there are many different opportunities to make money. You can even volunteer for an overseas deployment to earn up to four times the number of miles you would normally earn.
Tips On Flying With Points
Firstly, using points to fly is the best value. If you use them to but household goods or similar, then you will get a lot less value for money.
Then there are the fights themselves. The actual best value flights are long-haul big value flights. This is because the award system works on the mileage. The further that you fly with your points the better.
If you use them for a series of 2-hour long flights, then you will chew up your points fairly quickly. However, a flight from Miami to London will be much more economical towards your points balance.
Knowing that the system works on the mileage also works out in our advantage. Broadly speaking the number of points needed is broken up into mileage brackets. So we use those where we can.
For example. From Perth to London, most people fly into Heathrow airport. But Heathrow is 9009 miles. Gatwick airport is 8997 miles, so it falls into a lower price bracket. Therefore it costs less points to go to Gatwick.
How To Get Award Tickets?
When you earn enough points, you can redeem them for award tickets. And the trick here is timing.
Airlines may only allocate a small number of seats on each flight for award flights. Obviously, the more popular the route, the quicker they sell out.
For us in Perth looking to fly to Europe, we need to be looking 300 days in advance. Less than that time and you may end up at a regional airport.
Additionally, you can also use your points to upgrade your seat. We have done this in the past. Again, the early bird gets the worm. If you’re not able to get a seat upgrade at the time of booking, then you can go onto the standby list.
This means that you purchase your economy ticket as normal. Then they put you on a waiting list. If they haven’t sold all the business class seats, then you can be offered a spot.
You can also transfer your points to other people. Jacqui and I do this. Although she doesn’t earn nearly as many points as I do, she still gets some from her normal shopping.
There’s been occasions where I almost have enough points to get our flights, and it makes a big difference if I can swing a few from her account to mine. There are limits on how often you can transfer, as well as how many.
How To search For Award Flights?
Generally speaking, you will need to check your own airlines website. However, that’s rarely the end of the line.
Go onto Skyscanner to see what flights are available on the day you want to fly. Make sure you check flights that are partners with your airline. Click here to check Skyscanner.
Then I ring the frequent flyer phone number and speak to an operator. Although they tend to push their own flights first, having a knowledge of what other flights are available is very handy.
Although we have Qantas points, we have used them for Cathay Pacific, Qatar and Emirates.
Final Thoughts
Now that you know how to earn frequent flyer points, you can couple your travel purchases with your everyday purchases to rack up points quickly.
So, that’s it. Make a plan of how you intend to acquire the points, then use them wisely.
Now that you know how to get the flights, check these out to see how you can organize the rest of your holiday.
Budget family travel for beginners
Cheers and happy travels