Founder and CEO of Upgraded Points, Alex is a leader in the industry and has earned and redeemed millions of points and miles. He frequently discusses the award travel industry with CNBC, Fox Business...
Edited by: Keri Stooksbury
With years of experience in corporate marketing and as the Executive Director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Qatar, Keri is now Editor-in-Chief at UP, overseeing daily content operations and r...
& Juan Ruiz
Juan has been involved in credit cards, loyalty, travel, and personal finance for more than 10 years. He has worked for several outlets including The Points Guy and Forbes and was previously Editor-in...
11 comments
Rob
January 07, 2019
Great post to sticky..thanks.
I recently booked that great Air new Zealand $1,500 RT business class fare Chicago to Sydney and decided to credit the miles to Virgin Atlantic which “wheretocredit.com” suggests would earn 200% bonus on flown miles (Z class tickets). I’m pretty new to Flying Club and was trying to decide if I should go for Silver status. If I were to earn sliver status with VA before going on this round trip to Sydney, would I get another 30% bonus for the status bonus even though it is a partner flight? The whole itinerary is 18,762 flown miles and the 200% bonus for business class Z should add 37,524 miles for a total of 56,286 redeemable Flying Club miles. Because if they pay a 30% bonus on the 56,286 then it is definitely worth it for me to charge some more to the Credit card to get up to Silver status before we go. If not, then maybe it’s not worth it to bother. Any thoughts?
Stephen Au
January 09, 2019
Hey Rob,
This strategy will work. The only caveat is that you will need to properly associate your frequent flyer information on your Air New Zealand itinerary. This is a good strategy, but make sure you qualify for Silver fairly well in-advance just to avoid any issues with the elite bonus. Thanks for reading.
Melnicoe
August 18, 2019
I have a little over 2,000 miles that expire tomorrow. Are there any magazines or small items I could get for those miles?
Thank you.
Shirley
Jarrod West
August 19, 2019
Hi Shirley,
If you’re hoping to redeem your miles for magazines you could try to do so at https://www.magsformiles.com/
Thanks for reading!
GERALD S KIRBY
October 01, 2019
I’ve been a member of VA for 20 years. When VA changed their tier levels I dropped to Red. I only use VA by transferring miles from Chase Rewards to fly Upper Class from MIA to LHR. They recently emailed me their latest 80,000 bonus miles offer for a Bank of America card. The line I read that I liked was, get a free partner reward flight in the same class as the member earns using miles for a reward flight. So I straight away thought that was a good deal. Get two Upper Class return reward tickets for 100,000 points.
Not for Red Members! Red only qualifies for Economy and Premium. You have to be a Silver Member for Upper Class Reward free flight, and that requires 400 tier points.
So my wife and I just booked a cruise to Antarctica in January, and have to pay the deposit and balance this month. I originally thought I could just put those charges on my VA Bank of America card. Except this card offers none of the benefits my Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers! If I use my Chase card I get free travel insurance benefits including free trip cancellation/interruption for up to $20,000 per trip, baggage delay, trip delay. Then I read the fine print and the huge amount you have to spend to get the free ticket to get 15,000 of those miles. So I advise that you read the fine print on this Virgin deal.
Plus as VA and BA taxes and fees on reward flights through LHR continue to increase, their miles become less desirable.
Yesterday I called BA to book a business class reward seat from MIA to LHR and the price was 150,000 miles and $1450 taxes and fees.
I can fly BA to Dublin on the same dates for $2450 return and earn up to 11,000 Avios points, and 140 tier points, and it’s available every day I want to fly in August!
SYLVIA GOMEZ
October 15, 2019
I am trying to refer a friend, cant find the link. How do I do this?
Jarrod West
October 16, 2019
Hi Sylvia,
What are you trying to refer your friend to exactly?
Jay
October 19, 2019
Hi curious why you don’t recommend purchasing airmiles? I recently purchased 4000 miles and got 1200 bonus for £75. I don’t know any other way I could of got that many miles for the price. Any ideas
Stephen Au
October 21, 2019
Jay,
Not all miles are the same. Just because you have miles in a random loyalty program or system isn’t equivalent to some of the world’s most coveted airline points, similar to how Monopoly money is meaningless compared to the U.S. Dollar for example. Thanks for reading.
Mac
August 22, 2023
What determines which of the 3 point rewards levels a flight in economy classic attracts? How does one get the max points for an economy classic flight?
Jarrod West
August 25, 2023
Hi Mac,
It depends on the fare code you’ve booked. Economy Classic tickets with the fare codes O, N, X, Q, and E earn 50% points. Economy Classic tickets with the fare codes L, U, and M earn 100% points. Economy Classic tickets with the fare codes Y, B, and R earn 150% points.
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