[jimworcs]

For years I have been banging on about how frequent flyer schemes are a fraud on the consumer and a waste of time. You are almost always better off getting the best value/most convenient flight available at the time of booking. This complaint in the Guardian illustrates the point perfectly:

I fly two or three times a year from Birmingham to Rome. Until recently, there were no direct flights, so I went via Switzerland or Germany and in so doing managed to accumulate 12,800 Star Alliance "rewards" points on its Miles & More rewards programme. Needing to book a flight for this summer, even though two other carriers now offer direct flights I decided to use up those miles. I checked how many reward miles I needed and it came up as 15,000. By purchasing an additional 3,000 miles at a cost of €85 I thought it would still be cheaper than the £120 or so for Monarch's direct flight.

I went ahead and booked the flight using the points. I was alarmed when I had to put in credit card details but assumed it would be all right as I was dealing with reputable companies. However, I found that £206 had been applied to my card.

I have complained and been told that I was charged because I did not have enough miles to cover the taxes and surcharges. I then went on to the Swiss Air web page and found that I could have booked a return Birmingham-Rome flight for as little as £68 each way, all in. I feel utterly conned. ET, Coventry

For many years there's been a great deal of scepticism among consumers as to whether airline rewards programmes actually deliver, and letters like yours show why. We contacted Lufthansa, which runs the Miles & More programme in Germany, and can at least confirm one thing – those using the site to "buy" flights, are told how much they will be expected to pay if they don't have enough points to cover the taxes and charges, which in your case would have been another 15,000 points – 30,000 in total.

A Lufthansa spokesman sent us a screen shot showing a booking, and while the figure could be more prominently displayed, it is there. You must have missed it when booking.

Asked whether these programmes were ever worthwhile given your findings, he said they were aimed at serious flyers clocking up thousands of points a month. He conceded that it was often cheaper to book a flight directly rather than by using points.

To get an idea of how much you would have needed to fly to get a free flight to Rome, he said that someone flying from Manchester to New York changing planes in Germany (if you could face such a journey) would receive 6,000 Miles & More points. In other words, you would have had to do this five times to get enough points (30,000) to have booked you free flight to Rome. The moral of the tale, it seems, is always to check whether it is cheaper to book elsewhere rather than use rewards points.

[The_Judge]

And now my experience with my one and only mileage ticket I earned.........

I never flew a mile. All my mileage was gained by bonus points signing up for things and by using my credit card. I had earned enough for a free trip.

I used my mileage for an interport Asia trip, Narita, Japan to Manila, Philippines roundtrip. Since I worked for Northwest Airlines at the time, I could see that the flight was filling up AFTER I had already booked and had my economy space but still had alot of open seats in business. When economy is overbooked and business is open, airlines have to upgrade passengers to accommodate the whole. They would rather upgrade their premium passengers over just choosing people at the last minute. I sent an inter-office memo to our then CEO telling him the situation and if it came down to it and someone needed to be upgraded, would I please be given preference.

I showed up for my flight on said day, economy was full, I asked the gate agent about any possible upgrade as I knew the CEO (or most likely his secretary) had put a note in my reservation allowing the upgrade. I was upgraded to business immediately.

Bottom line, I directly paid zero dollars for my business class mileage ticket. They are not ALL scams. I am probably the minority but my trip went perfectly as do most of them as I plan ahead and prepare.

[peternh]

In any transaction, the party who fails to read the small print only has himself to blame--which is pretty much the position of the reply given to The Guardian's correspondent.

We might wish that reward tickets were easier to obtain (actually still quite easy with some schemes); we might wish that fees and taxes were also covered as they used to be (with some airlines they still are, I'm told); we might rail against the introduction of expiry dates (not all schemes have these) or arbitrary increases in the numbers of points necessary to reach a certain destination (very tiresome); we might get annoyed that the dates we want to fly are 'black-out' dates (some schemes have none); but the fact is that far from being 'a fraud on the consumer' these point-collecting schemes offer an extra benefit to travel, however modest, that no airline is obliged to offer.

Typically every sixth or seventh flight on a particular route can be either free, or cost only surcharges and taxes. I have flown extensively on this basis, recently, for instance, acquiring four seats on the same trans-Atlantic flight using three completely different points schemes (Aeroplan, Air Miles, and RBC Avion).

In some schemes upgraded seats, lounge access, increased luggage allowances, priority boarding, and other benefits which at least some travellers will regard as having value and importance are also offered. Clear target numbers of flight segments and miles flown are provided, and its up to each traveller, when purchasing a ticket, to consider whether any premium involved in taking one particular airline over another cheaper one, if that's the case, is worth the benefit gained.

In general I shop where the best value for money can be found, but I take any points that are available, and use credit cards that earn me points. Where I'm buying tickets for myself I fly with the airline that offers the best value for money on that particular route, but I take any points that are available. As a result points accumulate slowly under a variety of schemes, but eventually the benefit is there. Although all these schemes could be more generous, and have less small print, and certainly shouldn't influence you to spend more money than you usually would, four free trans-Atlantic tickets (in the example given, plus taxes) are not to be sneezed at, and resemble a substantial financial saving which I'd rather have than not have.

Those who don't read the small print or who fail to work out the costs and benefits have only themselves to blame.

[disnoke]

Booking "free tickets" is not very wise as taxes are already a nice sum of the ticket and usually you will have to cough this up even if the flights is "free"

But I enjoy the benefits such as more luggage allowance, priority boarding (not so much but why not) and the lounge, usually you can have a snack and some drinks while waiting. If I can I upgrade using miles, especially if i bought an economy ticket at a good rate, I'll do that, the taxes are already included

Only if you fly all the time on company money then it's intresting if you can get the miles on your account and book hotels for free

[jimworcs]

Judge!! wtf... most people havn't got the ability to email the CEO and ask for an upgrade as a staff perk.... !!

Peternh... I quite agree that the guy who didn't read the small print has only himself to blame..that was not my point. My point was that his "free flight" was more expensive than purchasing the same flight directly over the internet. The fees and taxes apply equally to both purchases so cannot explain the difference. It is simply a racket.

For very frequent flyers, there can be some minor advantages... priority boarding, upgrades and club access...but in reality, these are more than paid for in the ridiculously high prices charged.

The truth is, they are designed to distort the market and discourage frequent travellers from making rational purchasing decisions, based on convenience and price, but instead to purchase sometimes higher fares, or less convenient schedules in return for "perks" which are given to the individual and not the corporate who is paying for this nonsense.

[peternh]

Originally Posted by jimworcs

My point was that his "free flight" was more expensive than purchasing the same flight directly over the internet. The fees and taxes apply equally to both purchases so cannot explain the difference. It is simply a racket.

While there is much reasonable criticism to be aimed at frequent flyer programmes, as I mentioned in my earlier post, it is difficult to see your remarks as either fair or entirely logical.

This would be a far better example for your case if the passenger hadn't decided (foolishly) to acquire a reward seat when he only had half the necessary points. Obviously extra points will be priced at a higher rate for distance travelled than is the case with straightforward purchase of a ticket, otherwise everyone would buy points and swap them for flights because this would be cheaper. Since a price has to be set for purchased points, but the actual cost of distance travelled using a ticket varies wildly according to route, season, time of day, demand, oil prices, phase of the moon, chicken entrails, etc. obviously airlines must set the price for points higher that the highest price for equivalent distance travelled on the most popular route at the highest season. It would be madness to do otherwise. Purchasing extra points, unless it's just a handful in order to qualify for a valuable reward, is always going to be bad policy. Surely this is common sense?

So in this case, because of that purchase, and because the purchaser didn't read what was on screen in front of him, he ended up paying more. You cannot logically generalise from this example that frequent flyer schemes are 'just a racket'. Surely it's obvious that in the overwhelming majority of cases people do not purchase extra points, do not end up paying more than they would have done by simply purchasing a ticket, and in fact obtain their tickets entirely free, or solely by paying taxes and fees they would have had to pay anyway.

I fly regardless of the existence of these schemes, and every now and then gain free or discounted tickets for family members on flights I would otherwise have paid for. If the airlines all shut down their schemes I'd still take the same flights I do now. I just wouldn't get a free or discounted flight every now and then. I might wish the schemes were more generous, more transparent, and easier to use, but really I can't see what I've got to complain about. If this is somehow still to be called a scam, then it is one that is simple to avoid: fly as you usually would, and don't bother to join any schemes. As far as I can see the only loser is yourself.

Originally Posted by jimworcs

For very frequent flyers, there can be some minor advantages... priority boarding, upgrades and club access...but in reality, these are more than paid for in the ridiculously high prices charged.

You're putting in your assumptions ideas you want to find in your conclusions. I certainly don't think those benefits are worth flying with a dislikable or expensive airline to earn, but on routes I fly there's often there's little difference in price, and all airlines are offering those benefits, or some third party is paying for the flight (employer, client) and the real cost isn't an issue. Furthermore, while we may put no value on those benefits, there are those who see them as very significant--lounge access and seat upgrades in particular. Isn't that rather up to them? Value is in the eye of the beholder.

Originally Posted by jimworcs

The truth is, they are designed to distort the market and discourage frequent travellers from making rational purchasing decisions, based on convenience and price, but instead to purchase sometimes higher fares, or less convenient schedules in return for "perks" which are given to the individual and not the corporate who is paying for this nonsense.

I think 'distort the market' is going a bit far--almost every single airline now operates them, after all, which greatly reduces their effectiveness and reduces them to a cost of doing business. Schemes to encourage loyalty to an individual brand (especially where there's precious little difference between competitors) are hardly unique to the airline industry, and are not 'scams'. Once again, the airlines don't have to offer these benefits (however flimsy), and you don't have to take them up even if they do. You must intelligently weigh up costs and benefits when making purchase decisions, and if you don't that's your fault, not that of the airlines.