Minimum elite status requirements: 30 flight segments and 12, points, or 15, points, within a year. Standout elite benefit: Earn a Companion Pass with , qualifying points or by flying segments. Standout elite benefit: Top-tier elite members get six Global Premier upgrades each year. These eight non-U. See below for more about their codeshare partners, how to earn elite status, and tips on scoring award travel. Members can earn between 20 to percent of actual miles flown, depending on the fare class and airline.
Delta tickets earn 25 to percent of miles flown based on fare class. Minimum elite status requirements: Earn 25, Level Miles or 15 qualifying flights within a calendar year. Standout elite benefit: Top-tier Diamond members get enhanced upgrade availability and deferral of mileage expiration. You can transfer Avios between BA and Iberia accounts for some cheaper awards with lower surcharges. Minimum elite status requirements: Earn Tier Points based on flight activity within a membership year.
Standout elite benefit: Gold elites who earn 2, Tier Points get an upgrade voucher for themselves and a companion. Minimum elite status requirements: Earn 25, Tier Miles or take 25 flights within a rolling month period. Standout elite benefit: Top-tier Platinum members can confer Gold status on another member. All of these airlines have a tiered earning rate based on the fare class and status level thus benefiting passengers who spend more. Don't have time to compare which airline loyalty programs are worth joining?
Its annual rankings identify 28 hotel and airline loyalty programs with the most rewarding perks. The top five programs are:. Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan rewards points based on the number of miles flown rather than dollars spent, making it easier for budget-conscious travelers to earn free flights on its vast partner network. The credit card comparison website CardHub's Frequent Flyer Study examined the rewards programs offered by the 10 largest domestic airlines based on 23 key metrics, such as the average value of a mile, mile expiration policies, and blackout dates.
Want to fast forward to find the best loyalty program for your own family? The report also features a custom calculator that allows you to personalize the results based on your own air travel budget. Delta Air Lines and JetBlue Airways are the only two major airlines whose miles do not expire because of inactivity.
When you only consider the average redemption value of miles earned through each program, without taking into account any other important characteristics such as blackout dates and miles-expiration policies, Frontier , Hawaiian and Alaska are the best airlines for light, average and frequent flyers, respectively.
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines miles expire after just three and six months of account inactivity, respectively. United Airlines , Alaska Airlines and Frontier Airlines are the only carriers that impose blackout dates for tickets purchased with miles.
Consequently, the cost of tickets eventually steep so high on the last day that, we either cancel our travel plans or book flight at exorbitant price. Our seventh secret will save you in such situations. We follow this golden rule to always book an award ticket at such time. The other good thing is that, the award ticket is refundable. Yes, you read us right! Air India deducts miles flat from the Flying Returns account as penalty charges for cancellation of an award ticket.
In our opinion, miles is cheap in comparison to cost of refundable flight tickets booked at last minute. Also, there is a provision of changing the date of travel for award ticket within one year.
The charges are not mentioned in the terms and conditions listed on Air India website. We expect them to be either free or maximum miles.
Air India Frequent Flyer miles earned in one calendar year remain valid till next three calendar years. That means if you have earned Flying Returns miles anytime between 01 Jan to 21 Dec , they will remain valid till 31 Dec Though the validity is long enough, but what if we need more validity. For example, you need to book return flight to Paris from Delhi for you and your spouse.
You would need to accrue thousand miles. In such a case, you may need validity for more than three years. Also, Flying Returns members end up taking an award ticket just because their miles are expiring. Our next secret provides you a workaround for this situation. Air India Flying Returns allows you to extend the expiring miles for a period of one year with payment of 0. For our requirement of thousand miles of Delhi-Paris-Delhi for two, we need to pay INR for extension of miles by one year.
Are not you glad to know this secret? Just go ahead and extend your expiring Flying Return miles. Are you OK with the payment part? If the answer is still yes, then skip to the next secret. So, you are not OK with the payment part.
Then, let us do this extension free of cost for you. Yes, you read us right again! If your miles are expiring by 31 Dec and you wish to travel from 01 Jan to 31 Dec , then you can extend your Flying Returns miles absolutely free. You just need to know the destination and details of passengers. On the last day of validity of your miles i. If you know your date of travel, its good otherwise, book for the most likely date.
The award ticket is valid for one year and you can always change the reservation within that year by paying nominal fees. This secret is known to most of the Flying Returns members that Air India Frequent Flyer Program allows its members 10 kgs additional baggage allowance on AI designated flights, both on domestic and international sector.
However, the privilege is not extended in few sectors for example, US and Canada. Readers are requested to clarify from Air India customer care before availing this facility. The procedure to avail the facility is very simple.
You just need to inform your Flying Returns Membership number to the Air India official while collecting the boarding pass. As Flying Returns member, you are permitted to request for an Award either for your own travel or for the travel of any person nominated by you. However, you are required to communicate the same while booking the ticket on Air India website or Air India call center.
Further, it is advised that you provide a written letter granting permission to the nominated person.
Now that you know the secrets, spread the word around. We hope this information was helpful to you. So, your actual offer terms from an advertiser may be different than the offer terms on this site. And the advertised offers may be subject to additional terms and conditions of the advertiser. All information is presented without any warranty or guarantee to you.
Each advertiser is responsible for the accuracy and availability of its ad offer details, but we attempt to verify those offer details. We also include editorial content to educate consumers about financial products and services.
For more information, please see How we make money. Signing up for credit cards through partner links earns us a commission. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Air India recently joined the Star Alliance.
This is great news for folks who want to use airline miles to travel to or around India! The bolded cities above, Chicago and Newark , are United Airlines hubs which makes it easy to connect to other cities in the US. For nonstop flights from the US, the Chicago to Delhi flight usually has 1 First Class award seat and 1 coach award seat available per flight.
If you search for flights far out in the future like , you can usually find 2 coach seats on the New York JFK to Delhi and Newark to Mumbai flights. You can also connect to Air India via Europe or Asia.
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