In this article I would like to talk about the so-called "mile" bank cards, with which you can get a free air ticket. Let's see if it's realistic to save up for a free flight, how long it will take to accumulate enough miles and which card is still worth getting. The information in the article is current as of September 2018.

What are "mile" cards, what are they for and how to fly more often with their help

A “mile” card is a co-branded bank card issued by one or another bank, for purchases on which you are credited with “conventional units” - miles, which you can later spend on a free or shareware flight. Usually, the card is used in addition to flights with certain airlines in order to accumulate miles faster (often flying with an airline for a certain period - one or two years - is a prerequisite when buying a ticket for miles). Each card and each bank has its own conditions for earning miles and purchasing free air tickets. It is also worth mentioning right away that in most cases the flight will not be free, but shareware, that is, fees and taxes will still have to be paid (as a result, some flights become completely unprofitable).

Which airlines have such bonus programs?

Most airlines have similar programs (with the exception of low-cost companies). You can earn miles by flying with this airline and paying with a co-branded bank card.

There are so many good programs, participation in which really allows you to save up for a free flight, even for long enough distances, and it will actually be profitable. Basically, these are European airlines, for example, highly praise the loyalty program of Lufthansa, as well as Swiss Airlines. And if residents of Moscow can connect to these programs (it makes sense for them to do this) and accumulate miles of European airlines, then residents of the regions have to choose from what they have. And there are mainly our Russian carriers - Aeroflot, S7, Ural Airlines(I highly do not recommend the loyalty program of the latter). This is what I will talk about today.

All Airlines bank card - Tinkoff

The first card (and looking ahead, in my opinion the most profitable) that allows you to accumulate miles and spend them on buying tickets for ANY airline is the Tinkoff All Airlines card. The essence of the program is as follows. Paying with your card, you get miles, which you can later use compensate purchase any air ticket.

That is, you buy tickets through any website, paying with an All Airlines card, and then deduct miles in your personal account and the cost of the ticket is compensated (I wrote how to use miles). The main disadvantage of this system is that miles are deducted in multiples of 3000. For example, buying a ticket for 11,500 rubles, you need 12,000 miles to compensate, and buying a ticket for 12,500 rubles, you will need 15,000 miles to compensate. Therefore, you need to carefully select tickets.

All the details of using this card have already been described in. You can find out more information there.

Bank card Tinkoff - All Airlines

It seems to me that the All Airlines Tinkoff card is the most beneficial of the mileage cards. In the review, I counted how many miles you need to accumulate, and it turned out that it is quite possible to accumulate, especially if you use a credit card and pay off the debt on time.

How to order a Tinkoff All Airlines card

If you want to order a Tinkoff All Airlines credit card, you can do it on the official website Tinkoff.ru, and when you order an All Airlines debit card using this link, you will receive 500 miles as a gift.

All Airlines bank card from Alfa-Bank - AlfaTravel.

To begin with, Alfa Bank's Alfa Miles Program for September 2018 has been replaced by another similar program - AlfaTravel, which allows you to accumulate miles and compensate them for the purchase of any tickets purchased through the website https://travel.alfabank.ru

The block of information posted below regarding the accrual of miles in the Alfa miles program is no longer relevant. My attempt at the same detailed analysis new card was not crowned with success, tk. Alfa Bank's website contains a minimum of information that personally would not be enough for me to make a decision on ordering this card. If you figure it out and decide to order this card, you can do it following the link.

The basic principles of this card:

• Increased cashback is accrued when buying air, railway tickets and booking hotels through the website travel.alfabank.ru
• Airfare is higher than searching through aviasales and skyscanner
• The cost of the hotel is higher than when booking on booking.com
• When issuing a VISA Signature card, the privileges - Priority Pass(free or reduced access to airport business lounges), unlimited roaming Internet for 14 days, free packaging luggage 4 times a year, a discount of up to 35% on car booking, a personal travel assistant, who, according to Alfa-Bank's request, will book you a table in a restaurant, will help you with the development of a route and a visa. Whether all Alfa Travel cards are issued as Visa Signature or not is unclear.

The information on mileage accrual and service costs that I could find is on the plate:

Interest rates on credit cards, grace period, fines for non-payment, I have not seen on the site. On what and how to spend the accumulated miles - too. Dear representatives of the bank, if you get to this page, please tell us in detail about the operation of this card!

What is a programAlfaMiles

The essence of the program is that when you make purchases with your Alpha Miles card, you get miles, which you can later spend only on alfamiles.com on:

• Flights
• Train tickets
• Hotel reservations
• Car rental
• Charity

If you buy on alfamiles.com for money, you will be credited with an increased number of miles.

Alfa Miles cards are standard debit and credit cards. Debit is issued in any of the three currencies, credit - only in rubles.

Debit card Alfa Bank - All airlines (VISA)

Credit card Alfa Bank - All airlines (VISA)

To open a Signature card, you need the Maximum service package, for Signature Light, the Comfort package is enough! For descriptions of all packages, see the link https://alfabank.ru/everyday/package/

How many milesAlfaMiles can be accumulated in one year

Again, let's count. Take a family as an example (2-3 people who fly on vacation once a year, use a card at the Classic tariff, and spend 40,000 rubles a month.

Purchase of air tickets not onalfamiles for 50,000 rubles will bring 1,666 miles. Payment for the hotel (60,000 rubles) - 2000 miles, car rental on vacation (15,000 rubles) - 500 miles. Also, when spending 40,000 rubles a month, we get 1,333 miles, that is, 16,000 miles a year.

In total, you can earn 20,200 miles in one year.

Is it profitable to buy tickets, book hotels and cars on alfamiles.com

Let's see how much it costs air ticket on the alfamiles website and on the aviasales website. For example, let's take a flight Moscow - Barcelona from 05.09 to 10.09. When buying on alfamiles, a ticket costs 17,633 rubles (+ 1,032 miles will be credited for the purchase). Exactly the same ticket for air sales costs 16,486 rubles, that is, 1000 rubles cheaper. I will not attach screenshots, I hope you believe me anyway :)

Hotels... A hotel in Barcelona for two from 5 to 10 September (the first Mellow Barcelona hotel that comes across) costs 16,410 rubles when ordering on alfamiles (1235 miles in the piggy bank), on the booking it costs exactly the same.

Rent a Car from 05 to 08 September in Barcelona when booking through alfamiles costs from 1892 r (199 miles will be credited). The same car (Fiat 500) in the same rental office (Firefly Espagne) will cost more when booking on rental cars - 2,360 rubles.

That is, in fact, if you need to accumulate miles faster, then you can book on alfamiles, and sometimes it is even a little cheaper.

How many miles are required to receive a free flight

In order to buy a ticket on the Moscow-Barcelona route in September, you will need 27,915 miles and 10,229 rubles (taxes and fees), and the same ticket costs 16,500-17,500 rubles for the money. I would not say that it is very beneficial. Let's see more options. Buy a ticket foralfamiles possible without additional payment in rubles! But for the same ticket you need to pay an additional 38,567 miles! That is, the total cost of the ticket will be 66,482 miles. It will be difficult for the average family to accumulate such an amount.

For a flight on the Ekaterinburg - Barcelona route, in September, you will need only 18,780 miles, but you need to pay 16,506 rubles in taxes. The flight is carried out by the company Turkish Airlines, and the same ticket when purchased through aviasales will cost only 3,000 rubles more, namely 19,800 rubles. Questionable savings.

Here's another option. On the alfamiles website, you can book not only tickets, but also car rental. Completely for miles, you can book a car in Barcelona for 3 days from 7,133 miles. The minus that I managed to find, for some reason, is not looking for rent for all dates.

Perhaps, if you look for options, you can find a suitable and economical one. The main thing is to know what you are looking for. It will also be beneficial if you order not the simplest card, but at least Signature Light - and miles will accumulate faster, and even different "goodies" as a gift. Especially important for those who fly - access to airport business classes and travel insurance. The Signature Light card is issued as part of the Comfort package, and it is quite affordable - when spending on the card from 40,000 rubles per month (or a minimum balance of 300,000 rubles), its service is free, then you only need to pay for the card service. Otherwise, the package service costs 499 rubles per month.

How to order an Alfa Miles card

If this card suits you, then you can order it on the bank's website. You can also consider a card with a cashback from Alfa-Bank (), on which you can get cashback in rubles - 10% for refueling at a gas station, 5% from a bill in a cafe or restaurant and 1% for all purchases.

Bank card Travel Bank "Otkritie"

Another card, thanks to which you can buy and receive a free air ticket - map Travel from Otkritie Bank. At its core, this is an ordinary cashback card, cashback is accumulated in the form of bonus rubles that can be spent on hotels, air and train tickets only on the website travel.open.ru(Let me remind you that you can compensate with miles from Tinkov for an air ticket purchased on any website) . In this way, the card is similar to the Alfa Bank card. The main advantage of the Travel card is that with bonus rubles a ticket (or hotel) can be pay in part or in full, no minimum amount and without a “step” of 3000 rubles, as, for example, in Tinkov's.

The website travel.open.ru appears to be powered by the onetwotrip.ru service. The service is, in principle, reliable, through it I am, but the price is not always the most favorable. For example, I compared the price for the same ticket through aviasales and travel.open.ru. A ticket worth about 20,000 rubles on the Otkrytie website is about 500 rubles more expensive. The same hotel on travel.open and on the booking (which I compared at random) costs exactly the same. The disadvantage of the website travel.open.ru is the incomprehensible work of algorithms, in order to find a suitable ticket you have to "dig".

I will move on to the tariffs so that you can calculate the benefits of using this card for you. There are two tariffs - Optimal and Premium. As far as I understand, the cards of both tariffs are - debit.

I will write the "pros" and "cons" of the cards in my opinion.

• It is possible to pay for a ticket or hotel with bonuses in part
• No minimum threshold for payment
• The ability to use bonuses 1: 1
• A fairly high percentage of bonus accrual (3-4%)
• The price of air tickets is not much higher than that of air sales, the price of hotels is commensurate with the price of booking.
• Free insurance
• Business lounge access for the Premium rate
• Normal (mid-range) requirements for free lounge access
• Unlimited free admission to the lounge for two (subject to, as I said, normal average requirements)

• Expensive service
• High minimum requirements for the "Optimal" tariff
• Optimal rate insurance does not cover many popular tourist countries, for those who travel not only within the Schengen area, it becomes almost useless.
• Most of the bonuses for the Premium fare seem far-fetched to me (transfer, baggage packing)

Cobrand card Aeroflot - Sberbank

I would call this card the most patriotic))) I think you can guess why. Nevertheless, jokes are jokes, and it was such a card that I had before I started using it. I must say that it was with the help of this card (+ Alfa Bank's Aeroflot card) that I managed to save about 40,000 rubles on flights over several years.

When choosing a card, be guided by your conditions, calculate which card will be more profitable, because even just using the “correct” bank card, you can save a lot of money.

(1 estimates, average: 5,00 out of 5)

I fly a couple of times a year. Do I need miles?

I personally do not save up airline miles. It takes a long time, too lazy to understand the rules, you still have to pay extra fees for the ticket.

What are ALL Airlines miles
This is a bonus from the bank that can be spent on airline tickets. You can buy a ticket from any company or alliance, on any website, including Travelbelka. Miles have a clear course: 1 mile = 1 ruble, and you can spend them within 5 years.

See for yourself. You regularly shop for groceries, go to the movies, take taxis, fill your car, pay for clothes and household goods. If you use your Tinkoff ALL Airlines card, you will receive miles for all these purchases. This is how customers are encouraged to pay by card: it is profitable for the bank, because sellers pay a commission to it.

How to earn miles
For each purchase from 100 ₽ 2% are returned to the card with miles. It is even more profitable to buy air tickets and book a hotel - from 3% to 10% will return with miles.

2%

General purchases in shops, cafes and the Internet

3%

Any airline tickets purchased through any operator or website

How many miles were credited for a purchase is indicated in the personal account on the Tinkoff.ru website and in the Tinkoff mobile application. The number of miles will appear after the bank processes the transaction - usually 1-3 days after the purchase.

If you spend 70,000 rubles on the card every month and go on a trip once, you will be able to accumulate approximately 21,300 miles per year. This money is enough for a round-trip ticket to Europe for two.

In parallel, you can use the mileage programs of the airlines themselves - ALL Airlines miles do not cancel them, but supplement them.

How to spend miles

To spend miles, you must first pay for the ticket with a Tinkoff ALL Airlines card, and then return the money for it. This can be done in your personal account on the Tinkoff.ru website and in the Tinkoff mobile application, you will spend no more than 2 minutes.

Your account will be refunded in full, including taxes and fuel surcharges. Therefore, you will not have to pay extra for the ticket.

There are restrictions: you can spend over 6,000 miles, you won't be able to return part of the money for the ticket, only the entire amount. Miles are debited in 3,000 increments: 6,000, 9,000, 12,000 and so on. That is, you will need 9,000 miles to return the amount from RUB 6,001 to RUB 9,000. Just keep this in mind when choosing an air ticket.

You can return money for a ticket within three months after purchase.

Benefits of the card
Can be used for a deposit. When you book a hotel or car, you will be asked to pay a security deposit. The money will be frozen on the account, and you will not be able to use it. In such cases, indicate your credit card details - and the hotel will freeze the bank's money, not your own. Since money is not debited, you will not have to pay interest.

Free insurance. Holders of Tinkoff ALL Airlines cards receive an insurance policy as a gift, it is valid all over the world and can be renewed every year. The maximum duration of the trip is 45 days, the sum insured is $ 50,000. The bank also included an additional option "Active rest" in the insurance.

Contactless payment. The card supports Paypass technology, which allows you to instantly pay for purchases - just touch the card to the payment terminal. If the purchase is for less than 1000 rubles, you do not have to enter the PIN code.

Convenient mobile app and a personal account at Tinkoff.ru. Here you can track spending and accrued bonuses, change the pin code and limits, block and reissue cards. Tinkoff clients no longer need to take time off from work, go to the bank office and stand in lines.

24/7 support. It is convenient to communicate with the bank's support in the application - for this there is a tab with a chat. Employees answer questions instantly.

I have been using Tinkoff for 7 years now. The bank's online chat once helped me a lot on a trip to China. My SIM cards refused to work in roaming and I could not buy myself a plane ticket, because any operation required confirmation by SMS. I wrote in support of Tinkoff Bank - and after a day I was able to temporarily link notifications to a Chinese SIM card.

5000 miles for free
There is a special bonus for Travelbelka readers: 5000 miles as a gift. You can check if you can fly for free with this card.

Fill out an application on the website - and in a couple of days a bank representative will bring the card to your home or office.

Parts.

Well, finally, we got directly to the answers to the questions that were originally stated by us:

• which program to join?
• how can I earn miles?
• what to spend on?

You probably already guessed, you will not see here a list of programs that you need to join and a list of flights for which you will save up. Simply for one reason - every traveler (and even tourist) is unique - each has its own frequency of flights, reasons for flights (business trips, vacations), their favorite airlines, which are chosen, all other things being equal. Therefore, in each case, the set of programs will be special.

But this does not mean that we will not be able to simplify your life by structuring information.

Before choosing a program, we invite you to answer a few questions for yourself. First, we just answer, and what to do with this knowledge - we'll figure it out later :)

1) How many flights per year do I fly on average? Approximately how many miles are my flights per year?
Crazy precision is not needed here. A simple estimate is enough.

For example, "I fly 2-3 round-trip business trips across Russia (Rostov, Yekaterinburg)" - respectively, these are 5 segments, each about 870 miles. 5 * 870 = 4350 miles. “When I plan a vacation, I try to buy the cheapest tickets, even with a connection. Once a year in winter I go to rest in warm country(let's say Thailand this year). " Round trip is about 9000 miles, 4 segments (we consider the option with a transfer). "Plus I go to Europe for a few days (weekends) a couple of times a year." Let's consider 6 segments (once with a transfer, one without), approximately 5000-7000 miles.

We display the annual potential. 5 + 4 + 6 = 15 segments (flights) per year. 4350 + 9000 + 6000 = 19350 miles. Where the numbers were set with surebets (2-3, 5000-7000), we choose the average values ​​for the assessment (2.5 and 6000, respectively).

2) What airports do I fly from most often? Which airports CAN I FLY from?

This question may seem primitively simple to some. Muscovites will say so for sure - and what, besides Sheremetyevo, Domodedovo and Vnukovo, are there other airports? But in fact, for many cities, it has additional meaning. From St. Petersburg, for example, it is easy and cheap to get to Lapperanta or Helsinki. From Perm - to Yekaterinburg, etc.

3) Than often Am I guided when buying air tickets?

Here you need to think and answer yourself honestly and in as much detail as possible. The more detailed you describe your buying approach, the easier it will be for you later.

For example“I always buy the cheapest tickets, no matter how many connections and which ones. I have a flexible schedule, it is easy for me to take vacations at the right time, I am not tied to departures on weekends. " Or “I love flying to Europe for the weekend. At the same time, I would usually better pay 10-15% of the cost, but I will fly by Aeroflot, not Transaero or S7. " Or “I constantly fly on business trips, but my company buys tickets for me and I cannot influence it”. Or “I like to go on vacation every time to new places and try to visit several cities / places in one trip”, etc. etc.

4) What do I want as a reward?

This is the most main question... Economy award tickets to Europe? Business class to Australia? Upgrade? Quickly accumulate miles and get gold / silver status so that you don't have to queue up for check-in and have access to the lounge when flying?

5) Can I use payment cards to accumulate miles? How much can I spend on them on average each month for my everyday purchases?

Suppose that you already have cards (almost everyone now has them - from social cards to salary projects). And it is not your solvency or the availability of a credit limit that matters. In the end, we just want to earn more bonus miles, not make you spend a lot of money :) Therefore, it is important to evaluate the following: how much on average per month can you spend with your bank card making your daily purchases? Do not forget that you can also pay for the same tickets with a card ...

DO NOT CONTINUE READING UNLESS YOU HAVE DONE THIS EXERCISE :)

Have you answered?

1) First, we deal with potential... If your mileage potential is less than 20,000 miles a year, then programs where miles do not expire or where few miles are required for awards! After all, you will almost certainly fly with different airlines (and alliances), which means that these 15-20 thousand miles will be in different programs.

An example of a program where miles do not expire is Delta Skymiles from Skyteam (you need to fly Aeroflot to Aeroflot Bonus at least once every two years, and a qualified flight, that is, for money, plus, to receive an award, this flight must be within the last 12 months, during Flying Blue - every 20 months). StarAlliance's Miles and More (Lufthansa) and Miles and Smiles (Turkish Airlines) miles live 36 months, in Aegean and Lifemiles (Avianca) 24 months.

An example of a program with a low premium threshold is the British Airways Executive Club from OneWorld, where one-way award flights start at 4,500 miles (comparable to most other airlines, where the minimum for an award ticket is 15-20 thousand miles).

It also directly affects whether it is worth trying to save up for status - if your potential is less than 30 thousand, you should not bother trying to get a status - you simply do not fly so much so that its benefits are so tangible to you, and even if you succeed in accumulate it, there is a high probability of losing it as quickly as getting it.

2) Take a list airports- and see which airlines fly from there. It is important to pay attention to:

a) companies for which this is a hub - that is, the main airport
b) companies that fly to the MOST interesting destinations for YOU personally

This question will answer which alliances to look for programs.

Let's take a simple example first. For a regional city and even for St. Petersburg it will be quite simple. For example, Irkutsk is the base airport for S7, you can't get to other airports. It is immediately clear what to look for among the programs of the OneWorld alliance. SkyTeam (Aeroflot, Korean Air) also fly - if you are going to fly through Moscow and Seoul, you need to pick up a program in SkyTeam.

With Moscow it is more difficult and simpler at the same time. Since all airports and alliances are nearby, it most likely makes sense to choose 1 main program for each alliance. Or, if, for example, you have favorite destinations, then choose based on them. France is SkyTeam (Airfrance and Aeroflot), Germany-Austria and Turkey (StarAlliance - Lufthansa, Austrian, Turkish), Germany-Austria and Great Britain / Spain - OneWorld (AirBerlin, S7, Niki, British Airways / Iberia, Vueling).

3) Question about principle of choosing tickets speaks for itself.

If you have a favorite airline (or often go on business trips to the same place), we look at which alliance it belongs to and select a program, where it is more profitable to add these flights. If we buy the cheapest tickets, no matter how, where and with whom to fly, we choose one program from each alliance, while making sure that they give miles for discounted classes as well as possible and it is desirable that miles do not burn out (with this approach, accumulate for any bonus will be a holiday).

If you travel to different (distant) places and like a lot of flights with stopovers - you need to pay attention to OneWorld, they most often have offers with a stopover option at no additional cost (especially American Airlines in the USA often allow this). And in many programs, when booking award tickets, they allow you to make stopovers, unlike SkyTeam, which most often gives awards only with round-trip tickets.

4) the question about encouragement

In fact, he is almost the most important. If you want premium economy tickets to Europe - look for a program with minimum cost exactly tickets where you want! It would be strange if you wanted to fly to France and were surprised that with StarAlliance and OneWorld, you can only get there with transfers, which will always require more miles than SkyTeam with direct flights. If you dream of saving up for a business class flight to Australia - see in which business class programs business class flights are cheaper (for example, Aeroflot Bonus, S7 Priority and DeltaSkymiles business class to Australia are only one and a half times more expensive than economy class, i.e. 150,000 miles versus 100,000 in economy, although in many programs business is considered as economy multiplied by 2, as in British Airways, for example, or even more - for comparison, FlyingBlue has 2.5 times more miles - 250,000 miles). If you want to earn a status, look for exceptions, such as Aegean Airlines, where “gold status” is given for only 20,000 miles (for comparison, in Miles and More of the same StarAlliance, this will require 100,000 miles).

Learn more about statuses. The premium status of each company gives a correspondingly specific status throughout the alliance. For example, Aeroflot Bonus “silver” means Elite in SkyTeam, Aegean gold status means Gold status in StarAliiance. Naturally, you can use the privileges that you are entitled to if you have a status only when you fly with the airlines of this alliance. If you have the Aeroflot Bonus "gold", but fly economy to Lufthansa, then no priority check-ins will be allowed for you and, of course, no one will let you into the lounge for free either.

StarAlliance. In addition to the basic level, there is a silver and gold level. Silver only allows priority on the waiting list and transfers to the next flight if you missed yours. Gold in addition will give extra baggage, priority unloading baggage, priority check-in (business class counter), boarding and lounge access before departure. More details.

SkyTeam ... There are also two premium statuses: SkyTeam Elite and SkyTeam Elite Plus. In contrast to the greedy StarAliance, there is already from the first level - extra baggage, priority check-in, priority in choosing seats, priority boarding, priority on the waiting list, transfer to the next flight. Elite Plus gives access to the lounge (on international flights), baggage priority, the ability to get seats on sold-out flights. More details.

Oneworld ... Three premium statuses: Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald. Ruby - gives priority check-in, priority when choosing a seat, priority on the waiting list and when missing a flight. Sapphire and Emerald - plus access to the lounges (+1 person) on all alliance flights. Emerald - access to the first class counter, extra luggage, fast special control corridor, access to not only business, but also first class lounges. More details

Summing up the results of today:

Promised answers to questions.

1) what to spend miles on?

Choose what you want and what you can reach. If you fly a little, aim to get any free ticket. At least Moscow-Kiev one way :) There is an opportunity to choose - choose where you want to go. Fly a lot - aim at your dream.

2) which program to join?

Decide on the alliance (s) that you most often fly or plan to fly. Within each selected alliance, select one main program where you will earn miles “all other things being equal” (for example, Aeroflot Bonus in SkyTeam, Aegean Airlines in StarAlliance, British Airways in OneWorld), i.e. when for your flight in different programs will give the same number of miles. It may happen that later you buy a flight for which miles will not be credited in this program or there will be few miles. It doesn't matter, then you will have a "backup program". We always try to choose a backup program from those where miles do not expire.

If you start to get confused about the programs, use the website Awardwallet.com or its analogues Usingmiles.com, tripit.com

3) How can I earn miles?

Well, we figured out the system for calculating miles and choosing a program where to add them up in the second part. But it is really possible and true never to save anything, the most economical will say.

This material was created by the team of the Pirates.travel community (piratesru.com & holidaypirates.ru), when copying a link to the source is required.

No matter how attractive the bonus program may look, it can bring tangible benefits only to those who fly frequently - at least four times a year, and, moreover, constantly “keeps abreast” of the company's bonus policy. That is, it monitors various bonus promotions, the duration of its miles, constantly increases and maintains its status. And for this, you need to clearly understand what is the meaning and benefits of loyalty programs for various airlines, which, in fact, is what this article is about.

What it is?

The airline estimates your loyalty in miles, and in this their programs differ little from similar systems operating in supermarkets. You buy tickets, you are credited with bonus points (miles), which you can then use to buy and pay for other services - new tickets, hotel accommodation, car rental, etc.

Miles are usually offered as award (non-qualifying) or status (qualifying) miles. Award miles are those that can be redeemed as described above - on tickets or on a higher class service. The shelf life of such miles is usually from 20 to 36 months; if not used during this period, miles will expire.

For status miles, exchanging them for award miles, you can purchase all the same discounts and benefits, but this is not their point. They increase your status as a user of the services: you can be checked-in for a flight without a queue, if there are seats, you can be transferred to business class, and you can relax in the lounge areas designated for VIPs for free. Unlike award miles, status miles are reset only at the end of the year, December 31st.

How to choose a bonus program?

The International Aviation Transport Association (IATA) lists more than 200 airlines with their own loyalty programs. You can become a member of such a program via the Internet, in the office of the company or its representative office, and simply in the cabin of the plane. You will receive an individual number and a membership card and, although usually after registration, only the number and details of the participant's passport are enough.

Miles will be credited for each flight, depending on distance, fare and cabin class. The airline uses a different algorithm for calculating. Aeroflot Bonus, Flying Blue, Air France programs count miles depending on the fare for a business class flight - 125-200 percent of the distance. Miles & More credits two miles for each physical mile of distance when flying in business class, while in the S7 Priority program, according to the same principle, three miles are credited.

Often, airlines create bonus alliances, that is, they agree on the possibility for members of their bonus programs to collect miles in one company and spend in another. The three largest bonus alliances in the world are known:

• Oneworld - unites 15 airlines, including American Airlines, Iberia, S7 Airlines, British Airways, American Airlines, airberlin, Finnair.

• SkyTeam - unites 20 airlines, including Aeroflot, Air France, KLM, Alitalia, China Airlines, using the Flying Blue bonus program;
• Star Alliance - unites 27 airlines, including Lufthansa, SWISS, United South African Airways, Turkish Airlines, THAI, using the Miles & More bonus program.

However, bonuses can be accrued not only for flights in the companies of the same alliance. A company often has an additional list of its partners: using their services, you can receive award (not status!) Miles to your card.

About bonus programs of Russian airlines

Of the Russian air carriers, only S7 Airlines and Aeroflot are members of global bonus alliances. S7's loyalty program is called "S7 Priority". Aeroflot Bonus is also used subsidiary"Russia". UTair uses its own programs STATUS, STATUS-business and STATUS-family, long-suffering Transaero offers the Transaero Privilege program.

Low-cost bonus programs

Low-cost airlines (low cost airlines) usually do not participate in airline alliances, and they charge a fee for the right to participate in loyalty programs. However, there is still a certain benefit for passengers. For example, WIZZ has a program Discount Club miles are not credited at all, and joining costs € 29.99. However, for every ticket purchased for more than € 19.99, the program member will receive a guaranteed € 10 discount. In addition, club members can save another € 5 on each major item hand luggage and checked baggage when ordering online. The first three-way round-trip flight becomes profitable.

£ 149 a year easyJet Plus members get faster check-in and more comfortable seats. And Vueling has two loyalty programs: the Punto system allows you to earn money on flights, car rental, hotel stays and using your own Vueling Pass. You can also save up your bonuses on your Iberia Plus card and spend them in the oneworld alliance.

The first question to ask yourself when choosing a bonus program is: where do I fly most often? If mainly in Russia, the best option is Aeroflot Bonus, the program extends to more than 50 routes in Russia and the CIS countries, plus hundreds of destinations from SkyTeam, the alliance partners. If you are most likely to fly to Asia, use Emirates Skywards or Qatar Airways(in the oneworld alliance). Emirates Skywards' partners include the Russian company S7 and the British low-cost airline easyJet.

The main source of earning miles is considered to be flights by the aircraft of the same company or by aircraft of its partners. Flying on business trips, to relatives, to favorite vacation spots regularly in the same direction, it is quite easy to choose both an alliance and a bonus program, which allow you to significantly save money without changing your preferences and plans.

You can accumulate miles by constantly buying goods and services from program partners - staying in their hotels, using car rental, restaurants. Usually a list of these partners is available on the sites of bonus programs or alliances. For example, a member of the Aeroflot Bonus program will receive 24,972 miles for a flight from Moscow to Denpasar and back (in economy class). By renting a car from partner Europcar, you can earn an additional 500 miles, which is equivalent to the cost of flying to and from Corfu on an Aeroflot flight.

Some major banks offer credit and debit cards with mileage accounts to their customers. Some banks credit a certain percentage of the value of purchases to the mile account, others add one mile for each dollar or euro paid from the card. All miles accrued in this way are bonus miles, they can be spent, but they do not increase the status. It should be remembered: servicing "mile" bank cards is more expensive than ordinary ones - saving on the flight, you will overpay to the bank. The “Mile” card is beneficial only for expensive purchases or significant fixed costs. Most banks give double points for card transactions abroad or on the Internet using foreign currency. This is beneficial, however, in each specific case, you should make sure that you will not incur losses due to exchange rate fluctuations when converting rubles into another currency at the rate of this bank.

For example, with a Visa Classic debit card of Sberbank, you pay for the purchase of a refrigerator for 85 thousand rubles. This will allow you to accumulate 2,833 miles - not enough to buy a ticket from Moscow to Paris, but it is quite possible to carry an extra suitcase on an Air France flight for free. And in order for you to have enough for a free flight to Paris, you need 40,000 miles - for this you need to buy something very large, say, a car worth at least 1.2 million rubles.

Additional sources of miles can also be:

• introductory or "welcome" miles;

• holiday miles, airlines often give miles to loyal customers on birthdays;

• miles for subscriptions to airlines' mailings or to their pages in social networks;

• miles for reviews, for participating in polls, polls, games, airline quizzes;

• miles purchased or exchanged on the airline's website, as well as from other holders of bonus cards.

The most profitable redemption of miles is to upgrade the service class during the flight. Long-term flights, even in economy class, are often very expensive if paid for with money. And the comfortable conditions earned for miles can cost a little less than your neighbors in the chair. It is profitable to spend miles not on a one-way flight, but on a round trip, and over long distances, that is, in the same way as when buying air tickets for money.

Another profitable option to accumulate and spend bonuses offered on the basis of “every N-th flight on route X - as a gift ”, but this option is more suitable for those who often fly on business. For example: by miles for eight flights from Moscow to Vladivostok and back in Aeroflot economy class, you can pay for a business class flight for the ninth time at the economy class price. And for 12 such flights, a round-trip business class ticket will cost you almost nothing - you have to pay only the fees.

Most bonus programs place calculators on their sites, and not only accumulate, but also spend miles. Most often, the class of service can be upgraded for miles not only for yourself, but also for all passengers made in the reservation. Some programs contain special family offers.

It is profitable to spend miles on flights with aircraft of the same alliance. If for work you fly from S7 flights from Moscow to Krasnoyarsk, then on vacation in Goa is better fly by plane of Qatar Airlines, it is part of the same alliance with S7. A ticket to Dabolim from Moscow and back to Qatar will cost 55,000 miles, however, they will cover only the fare, not the taxes.

You can use your miles to purchase goods and services from airline partners. Airlines have entire catalogs of items that they sell for miles, such as the Lufthansa WorldShop. And with Miles & More, you can pay with miles for a car rental or hotel stay. For example, at the Happy Village Hotel, which is 20 km from Rome. One night for a program participant here will cost only 7,500 miles, if you pay with money - 1,505 rubles (June 2015). However, do not rush to pay in full with miles on popular or seasonal destinations. For example, during the Beer Festival (Oktoberfirst) in Munich. Prices for air tickets and hotel accommodation during the holiday increase, but disproportionately, hotels become much more expensive, and paying with miles becomes unprofitable.

It should be remembered that the number of miles earned in one flight will never be enough to fully pay for all related services. But it is possible to pay the cost of services in installments. This will allow you to regularly reduce travel costs without falling into unnecessary savings.

And finally, the accumulated miles can be donated to relatives, friends, or used for charity. Most loyalty programs provide for the transfer of miles to the accounts of charitable foundations or other program members. You can take advantage of this opportunity when your miles are about to expire.

Earning and redeeming bonus miles - questions and answers

How many miles can a ticket cost?

Minimum cost award ticket in most loyalty programs - 20,000 miles. However, there are pleasant exceptions, for example, British Airways can sometimes upgrade the service class for 4,500 miles, and purchase a free round-trip ticket for as little as 9,000 miles.

Will I really get a ticket for free?

As a rule, no. The price of an air ticket is made up of the airline's fare and various taxes. You can credit the fare in miles, but fees usually have to be paid in cash. Some companies make exceptions to this rule, for example Lufthansa. The Lufthansa Rewards Program allows you to pay with miles for both fare and taxes, and fees can be up to 50-75% of the ticket price. Even so, before redeeming miles for a ticket, you should find out the share of fees in the total cost of the flight: the exchange will not be in your favor if this share is too high.

What if the miles I have accumulated are not credited?

If you forgot to indicate the program member number when buying a ticket, all is not lost: you can accrue miles within six months after the flight. It happens that you indicated the number, but in your personal account you saw that the miles were not credited to your account. In such cases, you should contact the airline employees at the check-in counter, you can use the call center or through the website. The main thing is to keep the originals of your boarding passes.

When do accumulated miles “expire”?

The miles you have accumulated have an average lifespan of 20 to 36 months. But this is on average, and, for example, in the Aeroflot Bonus program, your miles will expire if you never fly by Aeroflot or its SkyTeam partners in two years. The same conditions apply to Miles & More: if you have joined the program, you must fly on Star Alliance flights at least once every two years. There are many options, all this variety of offers will become accessible and understandable when you familiarize yourself with specific bonus programs on their sites.

In the loyalty program from Aeroflot, the main unit of account is a mile. It is a non-monetary conventional unit that can be exchanged for a certain number of services.

How are miles accrued?

When calculating them, the distance between the point of departure and arrival is taken into account and only for the flights performed. If the program member flew less than 500 miles, then he will be credited to the account of 500 bonus points.

Accrual is made when flying regular flights, there are certain restrictions on codeshare flights. Miles can also be credited for flights made with Aeroflot flights six months before registration in the program, but you need to enter data about them in your personal account no later than 3 months after registration. But flights with partner airlines participate in the program directly from the moment of registration. Bonus units are credited within 10 days. Members of the program who have reached the Elite tier earn additional miles for each flight with the airline and its partners:

• Silver level - + 25% to the standard charge;
• Gold level gives + 50% to the standard accrual;
• Platinum level gives + 75% to the standard accrual.

For self-registration in the program on the company's website, 500 non-qualifying units are immediately credited to the account.

Bonus units are not credited for flights on award, free, special tickets, as well as on tickets for charter flights or included in special tour packages.

Aeroflot bonus calculator