newbz

Mentioned in the article above

Stuart

Don’t expect much Flying Blue coverage on here as a) focus on HFP is on their London/SE readership profile and b) there is no Flying Blue UK credit card to generate referral income.

I actually agree that there are a hell of a lot of Flying Blue flyers using airports such as Teesside, Leeds, Humberside, Norwich, Southampton, Cardiff, Bristol and Birmingham where BA is not a realistic option (bar the odd weekend flights form London City based planes). Also if you use Aberdeen, Inverness, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester or Belfast, BA is nothing really different to Air France, KLM or Lufthansa when it comes to travelling with a connection via a hub.

Having said all that it appears from the outside that KLM UK could do a lot more to leverage what they have here – Amsterdam is effectively the UK’s second hub airport with about 100 flights a day from the UK on KLM alone and across all carriers, only Dublin saw more flights from the UK in November.

Rob

TBF it still doesn’t work out that great. Let’s look at UK to Oz/NZ in J.

It’s 90k Avios on QR = 90k Amex points.

It’s probably 2 x 7.5k-10k km sectors on a Star Alliance partner = 2600 Airpoints dollars = 520k Marriott points = 347k Amex points.

Air NZ earning rates via actual flights or credit card point conversions ARE terrible.

Jonathan

The bean counters are eager to take the liabilities (miles) of the balance sheets…..

The Paw 🐾

Something that baffles me is why many of these airlines like to keep the policies going, they must have numerous people complaining to them about losing their points, I heard about someone who was planning on booking a ticket for her daughter, but was unforeseeably hospitalised, and when she ready to go home, she found her points had been wiped due to the expiry policy

Rob

Too be fair, it’s not always at all easy to find out how much cash and points you’ll need for redemption, some airline programs are a lot more difficult than others, I once needed to look for reward availability on TK, and before they’ll let you what’s available (if applicable) they ask you to login into your account, even if you don’t have one, and you’re intending on via another Star Alliance program.

AA makes theirs very easy too see what’s available, although going a day or so earlier could see your redemption increase by double the amount of points, if using theirs

Jonathan

+1 on the waiving of the hard expiry. Also hope that the paid card comes with silver status.

Jonathan

More likely a card from QR.

Matt B

I know! Just thought the original comment was a bit bizarre if you hadn’t checked their pricing first 🙂

Rob

I suspect the poster didn’t realise the AirNZ redemption rates…

Andrew (@andrewseftel)

They were wonderful back in the day, with BMI miles plus cash redemption rates.

Hopefully something good and competitive will come along, and by holding the card, it can give immunity to the hard expiry policy of their SkyWards points

Henry

@Henry – BA/Amex have also been trying a Dutch auction with BAPP SUBs unlike the ‘strategy’ on Plat bonuses! It was 70k last January, 60k in August and now 50k. It would appear that 70k was probably pitched too high.

BJ

If we’re going back far enough, many of us had a BMI one.

David

That’s a ridiculous thing to say.

Free flights on ANZ start at 125 points (not a typo). The most expensive redemption possible (First Class, 10000+ km) is 2,500 points (not a typo). You seriously expect a 3:1 conversion rate from Bonvoy?!

Henry

No

Rob

Thanks Rob. As I said, there must be tonnes of us UK based Flying Blue members as KLM serves loads of UK airport (more than BA) – yet we get almost zero news articles, Miles/XP (KLM’s equivalent of TPs) run tips etc.

Rob

Wow. What a joke.

Rob

Rob, do you also know when is next BAPP increased bonus? There is a 50k right now via BAEC but my 2-year wait period ends on 1st March

BJ

But, as you say, much less recently!

PGR

Not a typo.

Stuart

Yes, an Amex MR card is best. Amex Rewards Credit Card is free for life but no benefits, Gold has a fee but more benefits and annual spend bonuses.

memesweeper

Never goes above 40k. No promo due imminently – I know the Feb schedule!

Rob

Is the Amex Preferred Rewards Gold card the best for AF-KL in the UK? KL is well suited for flying from so many non-London airports to AMS for onward connections (and to a lesser extent AF via CDG), there must be a lot of UK Flying Blue members.

TJones

Oh yes, still getting used to that.

Stuart

A Virgin Atlantic one now, which is why we don’t have a similar ST article!