Frequent Flyer? Count your miles!

Flying Frequently?

“For my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Move it….Move it….No this is not a new rendition of the 1994 song by Reel 2 Real. Nope. This was me on the phone last week speaking to British Airways. I had one eye on the TV watching Hurricane Igor line Bermuda up in its sights for Sunday and speaking to the customer service agent to change my flight on Monday.

“What is your confirmation code?”

I gave it to her, “No that can’t be it. Ours start with….??” Can’t remember what it was but I didn’t have the right code. Why?

Well good question. That has everything to do with this Rock Fever column for Monday in The Royal Gazette newspaper. I have frequent flyer miles with a number of airlines, but the main one is American Airlines. My trip last year around the world was with their One World Alliance group (i.e. British Airways, Japan Airlines, Cathay Pacific, etc…) I racked-up the miles. I decided to cash them in for my first trip off the island in a couple of months. Rock Fever.

The only problem? Well that brings me to Tip One and my code conundrum: I could check-in with British Airways 24 hours before my flight to London, BUT I couldn’t change my ticket through them. Nope. To change my FF ticket I had to go back to American (my FF boss). Another phone call before the line went dead thanks to Igor.

Also thanks to Igor and Tip Two of Bermuda’s very own Frequent Flier (FF) instructions: Do NOT book flights during hurricane season with FF miles. By the time I called Friday’s FF seats were fully booked. I might have been able to make Saturday’s as well if my seat wasn’t a FF. Why? Even though the airline would change tickets free of charge thanks to Igor (a theme in this column) my FF ticket couldn’t change unless they had a free designated FF seat. I was moved to Tuesday’s ticket.

But that’s not the only change of plans. I bring your tip three: which is if you have FF with American Airlines and you want to book with their travel buddy, British Airways i.e. the fastest way for a Bermudian or resident to arrive in London from our triangle, it will require a visit to their office on Church Street in Hamilton. I mean you could take your chances online, but they don’t always offer the direct ticket.

Which is tip four from the experts: If you want to book a specific route or book FF flights with a variety of

Bermuda's Surf pre-hurricane Igor

airlines in the same alliance call the airlines. They know what they’re talking about and they can offer variations the online service can’t. Yes it’s true. Computers cannot do everything. For more expert FF advice visit: webflyer.com, frequentflier.com, and firstclassflyer.com.

But that’s the beauty of keeping your miles with one alliance (and it doesn’t have to be One World): Tip Five: by keeping your rewards with one alliance (because almost all the cool airlines are doing it these days) it fills quicker and allows you to take advantage of their friendly carriers. That’s why I could transfer my American Airlines’ miles to British Airways.

There are, however, an abundance of low-cost carriers slowly gracing Bermuda’s shores. These are great for escaping the Rock Fever, but they also lack in the FF perks. Which means tip six is: It might cost me more to fly on American Airlines, but I know that if I grab the miles I will eventually be able to fly to London. If I fly JetBlue I will only be able to use those miles on JetBlue operated flights. The same applies for WestJet. Sure it can’t hurt to sign-up for their programmes, but they don’t have the same reach that my miles on Delta or British Airways will have.

And reach these miles have these days. More than just my flight to London, I could have bought a magazine subscription with them. Which means tip seven: check-out what your airlines miles will give you. These could be upgrades at hotels, free internet or an upgraded car with HERTZ rental cars such as a perk with JetBlue or vacations with WestJet.

But don’t just check-out the partnerships with the airlines. Sure these are great, but besides flying, the next largest contributor to your bank of FF miles are credit cards. Tip Eight: Get yourself a credit card tied to a particular airline. These pretty pieces of plastic from both the Bank of Butterfield and the Bank of Bermuda offer a mile per dollar spent. But that’s not all. Read the fine print and your travel will be insured and you may be able to purchase that dress with the miles you made by buying groceries from Miles.

Tip Nine?: watch out for the yearly fees and the late fees that can be applied to these cards. Ranging from $40 to $175 these yearly fees may not be worth it for you. But worse will be if you forget to pay your bills. Do you really need that debt? No. So make sure these credit cards do not become a way to forget your bills.

And finally Tip Ten is patience: It takes time to build these miles, but every little bit helps. I have yet to understand people who do not bother or those who say they don’t travel enough. Every resident in Bermuda travels enough to build some sort of airline miles even if they go towards an upgrade versus a full ticket. Just make sure you check there is no expiry date. I have 18 months.

Which meant I just HAD to use my miles to welcome my next birthday, visit friends and family in England and anywhere else I can travel to for under $100. The first trip? To London. The next stop? Well as you can see it was to Sweden. Stay tuned for next week and how to travel on budget airlines! It was the only way to travel to Stockholm.