Bristol Airport Frequent Flyer Programme
I fly a lot out of Bristol airport and I have spent a lot of time trying to work out the best frequent flyer programme to use.
There are a few different options:
One World Alliance (BA, Qantas, Aer Lingus, …) www.oneworldalliance.net
Skyteam (KLM, Air France, Alitalia, Korean Air, …) www.skyteam.com
Star Alliance (BMI, Scandinavian, Lufthansa, …) www.staralliance.com
BA and KLM are the main airlines flying out of Bristol. If you always fly economy I find the Skyteam programme, for KLM and Air France, to be much better. The BA programme only seems to give status if you fly business a lot.
You usually have to sign up on the airline’s own website. If you sign up online, you’ll get a temporary number or a ‘card’ that you can print out and give to the check in person (or type in on the self-check-in machines). Signing up using one of the forms in the in-flight magazines is pointless- if they ever reply, it’ll take years.
Basically, the rule is that whichever airline you are travelling on, you can collect points for any FFP of any other airline in the alliance. There are restrictions, of course. Airlines may decline to offer points for certain fare classes and so on.
The other rule is that you should be able to spend points to get flights on any other airline in the alliance. There are more restrictions on this. For example it may cost more points to travel on another airline in the alliance than in the FFP’s own airline.
Despite all the restrictions I find FFPs to be worthwhile and I have had a number of free holidays thanks to them. So which one to join? I suggest the following guidelines:
Join one that offers something other than flights as rewards
I travel a lot and sometimes the last thing I want to do in my spare time is go on more flights. And yet, with some FFPs that’s all you can do. I suggest signing up for one which allows you to get stuff like gift vouchers or something in exchange for points. Virgin’s scheme is particularly good for this- just before Christmas last year I exchanged all my Virgin points and went on a spree in Virgin Megastore! And, Lufthansa’s scheme has a whole catalogue of stuff you can choose from and ‘pay’ with FFP points!
Join the FFP of an airline from your home country
If you’re not from Korea and you don’t fancy going to Korea on holiday, don’t join the Korean Air FFP! So join a local scheme or one that goes to a place that you like. I suggest BA in the One World Alliance, BMI in the Star Alliance and Air France/KLM in Skyteam.
Join one that offers business lounge access
For me this is the number one benefit of any FFP. If you get enough points you can go in the business lounges even if you are travelling in economy class on that airline. Airline lounges vary but even if they don’t have much in the way of goodies on offer, it’s nice just to get away from the riff raff in the main waiting area. And if your flight is delayed, you can just sit back and enjoy another free Jack Daniels while the baying angry mob storm the departure gate outside. Aaah lovely. BA’s lounges are particularly nice.
Bear in mind:
- in some FFPs the points expire if you don’t travel on that airline for a certain amount of time (usually three years)
- there are often ‘blackout dates’ etc etc for spending points
- if you stay at certain hotel chains regularly you can also sign up for their ‘frequent stay programme’ and exchange those points for more airline FFP points…
- if you want to spend your points to get an upgrade you can usually only do it with the same airline that runs the FFP even if they are in the same alliance. So for example you can’t upgrade on Alitalia with KLM points. I believe that this year Star Alliance are introducing an across-the-board upgrade scheme.
- some airlines don’t belong to an alliance so sometimes you’ll be stuck with points that you can only use in that scheme. On the other hand they sometimes have ‘partner airlines’ on which you can collect/exchange points although these partnerships change quite frequently.
- some airlines also offer credit cards that allow you to collect FFP points. On some, just signing up for the card and using it once gives you a bunch of points.