Fangoria

iTrader: (1)

I travel the globe a lot and earn a lot of airmiles (about 750,000 a year or more), not as much as I did several years ago when BA and Virgin competed for your business more and offered many a Triple airmile deal so you'd go with the carrier that gave the Triple airmiles. Of course these days its all different

Getting the airmiles takes longer because they dont offer the bonus miles (triple mile deals) unless you are going to strange destinations where they cant make the routes pay

My issue is not with earning the miles but using them. I am the top tier holder on Singapore, Virgin and BA (some might find being on Singapore and Virgin a bit odd as they are part of the same Partner program.. but if you are not a decent status on Singapore then they treat you like scum unless your flying Business)

British Airways over the last few years have been continually reducing the availability of seats in Business and now in Premium. If anyone knows how miles work then they'll realise that you dont trade in miles for economy seating (and not really premium either) as sometimes it can cost as much using airmiles with the obligatory taxes/fuel sucharges (fuel surcharges on airmiles are also a Scam) as it does buying the ticket itself

If you want to go to Mauritius, Cape Town, Singapore, Australia and many other destinations using Airmiles.. forget it... even looking 12 months in advance they dont have the availability and never have.. They seem to have adopted the policy that you can only use them on routes that they have plenty of availability on and not where 'you' the airmiles holder wants to go

So for instance if you want to go to Barbados, New York, LA I dare say at the moment there is a lot of availability.. if you want to go to nicer destinations then you cannot use miles

Maybe this isnt an issue if like me you get them anyway for doing nothing... I pity the fools that take up the BA Amex card.. and especially those that pay £150 and get a companion ticket after spending £10k on the card and then, shock horror they find that its all quite a scam...

I mentioned earlier that I have miles on Virgin and Singapore and dont have the same issues on using miles with them. For instance I booked 3 upper class returns to Cape Town with 5 weeks notice on Virgin recently. try that with BA and they'd be laughing, even 12 months in advance sometimes no chance

I really dont know what it is with BA and Miles but if anyone is considering taking out a BA Amex just dont.. get the Platinum card and take the cash instead!

what would scooby do

Since when have loyalty schemes been for the benefit of customers ?

mart360

I was signed up to an airmiles card years ago...

Card was regularly maxed out _ business use

The card was cleared 5 years ago...

Ive yet to see any airmiles for the cards!!!!!


Mart

JackClark

I just took advantage of the free upgrade deal with BA. 40,000 miles and nearly £400 in taxes for Premium to LA. Booked a paid economy seat at the same time for £530.

hodgy0_2

i read an article a few years ago which suggested that, in terms of "paper value", airmiles is/are bigger than dollars

tony de wonderful

I've never bothered getting into air miles etc, various airline 'schemes' etc, except for when I lived in Australia and I participated in the Qaantas scheme.

But I never seemed to fly enough with Qantas. Lots of internal flights for me were with chartered aircraft, and I did the UK to Australia trips with emirates.

Now I seem to fly BA one week, KLM the other, Lufthansa the next.

Always in economy, being blue collar scum. SYD to LAX or just MAN to LHR, whatever...always economy.

Air travel is just a nuisance to me TBH, I can't be bothered with another card now, with reclaiming the miles from this or that ticket booked by my company or whatever. Can't be bothered with lounges etc, the whole stupid bourgeois elements of flying, the pretentions of 'luxury' etc blah blah. Flying sucks, it's barely tolerable to me, get on, then get off the plane, what happens in the middle is just filler so long as I can get a drink.

PaulC72

I got some free nuts once on a BA flight...

bluenosewrx

iTrader: (2)

Wish they would hurry up and get Time Machines on the go or even if they could put you to sleep for the flight and re awaken you at the end without having to resort to getting blootered as i hate flying also.

Mac

Leslie

Yet another con job then!

Les

f1_fan

iTrader: (9)

Ain't that the truth

I am an Emirates Gold Club Member and recently travelled Singapore Air out of necessity.... oh dear

Fangoria

iTrader: (1)

BA (Budget Airlines) also tends to have lousy service in Business Class.. I have to fly economy to Europe.. I flew with the BA Partner, Iberia the other week.. you dont even get a free drink or food on these flights - FFS... so a real competitor with Ryanair and easyjet then

I also dont understand given all the costs that the strikers have incurred on BA why they just dont fire them all - its not exactly difficult to be a cabin steward!... whats the maximum cost for what would be constructive dismissal - its about £66k isnt it?.. then again a lot of the cabin stewards on BA are old dragons so I guess their would be an age premium also

Still they would have saved a fortune just by firing all of them and waiting for the Unions to drag it through the Courts for years :-)

Funkii Munkii

The days of getting a meal on a short haul european flight are long gone sadly.

I only have good things to say about SQ, always been a privilege to fly with them, very good on the catering side as well, my wife is allergic to wheat yeast tomatoes and oranges and they sorted her out with some cracking food, unlike the NHS who recently gave her 3 spears of brocolli after giving bith, seriously that was it and for the evening meal she only got a mandarin yoghurt, "oh I thought you were allergic to oranges and mandarins would be fine" she would have been better off giving birth on the 380 !!

scarey

I use KLM/Air France/Delta, Flying Blue I think it's called. Never had problems getting seats with the reward miles. Nice lounges as well

also, with their scheme you can use the miles to cover the taxes and surcharges as well.

TopBanana

I tried to use seem to redeem a business seat to Geneva for a ski trip next month. Only one crappy flight available on the airmiles site, loads on their main site.

DJ_Jon

iTrader: (7)

BA are not the airline they used to be, I avoid them at all costs & have fly on a weekly basis. Hopefully I shall soon be free of the airlines & able to fly myself!