Round the world trip - is it worth signing up for frequent flyer miles

E

endao

Registered User
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Hi
Im planning to do a round the world trip starting in december:
new york, costa rica, peru, argentina, new zealand, japan, thailand
is it worth signing up to frequent flyer programs:
i was thinking of these so far
Star Alliance
skyteam
oneworld

Im going to choose the cheapest option for all the flights but is it worth collecting points for each of the flights. Just wondering if there is value to be had or is it worth the effort.

Thanks
E
 
Are you booking them all as a single ticket? Many airlines don't give points on RTW tickets.

Points are no hassle to collect, but in order for them to be of any use you need to collect all your points on one alliance as scattering points will make them hard to redeem.

I'm a Skyteam Elite (about to become Elite Plus) flyer and it really is no hassle. We limit our flights to Skyteam and only once would we have got a better deal elsewhere on prices. We've also redeemed miles for a few business class long haul flights (you only have to pay the taxes).

As to which alliance..that's the toughie. And then when you choose the alliance, even knowing which airlines to get the card from needs research as the benefits and status qualifications vary across the airlines.

I would choose an alliance that gives you options to fly from Ireland so that you can earn and spend miles even after this trip. That gives you:

Skyteam - Air France, Delta and KLM (Continental was part but leaves the end of October)
One World - British Airways, Iberia and American Airlines
Star Alliance - Lufthansa, BMI, SAS, Swiss, Air Canada, United and U.S. Airways + Continental after October.

Don't forget to check out the alliance fora on www.flyertalk.com for more specific guidance on which airline within the alliance.
 
I think you better start looking at the price first.
Your proposed route has some destinations not often seen on the better value RTW tickets -costa rica and peru.
Also, the better RTW deals tend to avoid "zig-zags" between north and south hemispheres.
I fear that your itinerary may be somewhat pricey and frequent flyer miles must be of secondary importance to a good deal. Anyway, "Sheshells" was spot-on with her advice - points from more than one alliance won't of not that much use.
I haven't checked but i can't think of one alliance that does all those points.

I'd love to know if you've got a quote for that route -especially leaving December.
 
You should be able to get that itinerary with Oneworld, if you go onto their website oneworld.com, there is a round the world planner which is pretty cool cos it lets you know if flights are valid etc, you can actually book and pay for your RTW online now if you really want.
I got a RTW with stops in Tokyo, Beijing, Ho Chi Minh City, fly Bangkok to Sydney, Auckland, Chile (Santiago), Argentina (Buenos Aires), Brazil (Sao Paulo), Peru (Lima), LA, Las Vegas & New York. With the sterling/euro rate pretty good, I was advised to book my RTW from London, essentially buying a sterling ticket (USIT did it for me no prob), so the RTW worked out at 2,800 Euro and then just got a cheapo flight over to London. I thought it was a pretty good deal considering all the continents and stops I'm covering. Some of the cheaper options don't go exactly where you want them to, so you'd end up having to buy other flights yourself outside of the RTW ticket which can end up being just as, if not more, expensive. Have a ball!!!
 
It's worth signing up for frequent flyers points and not much effort at all.
I'm with a few different ones (Delta, Quantas, Iberia & Malev) and while I don't get many free flights I have been given a few complimentary upgrades which are nice on long haul. You sometimes get to use the faster check-in also.
I wouldn't restrict myself to go specifically where the air miles are but if you pick up some along the way it may come in handy.
Most South American flights are LAN which is affiliated to Oneworld.
Good luck with your trip. Sounds great!
Check out Trailfinders. They got me cheaper deals on 2 different trips than I could find online. (No affiliation whatsoever)
 
Agreed .. no harm in signing up and you never know what you might get

Pick one frequent flyer program per alliance grouping and stick with that

Your itinerary should be do-able on one of the OneWorld tickets (though at a price as Oldnick says) .. with a bit of transferring though

Costa Rica - Peru / Peru-Argentina and Argentina-New Zealand would probably all have to be via Chile ... and NZ - Japan would likely have to route via Australia

There's a good journey planning tool on http://www.oneworld.com/
 
Your choice of airline should be based on quality of the product and price. Don't fall into the trap of frequent flyer miles clouding your judgement on value for money.
 
I am a member of Air France/KLM Flying Blue and BMI Diamond Club.

I have been with Flying Blue for 5 years and have been clocking up the miles; because they are part of Skyteam, you are not just confined to Air France & KLM, it can be used on several other airlines, for example I flew with Delta a few times and got the mileage.

I joined BMI earlier this year as my company had me flying over and back to London for a number of weeks and I was clocking up double the normal mileage due to the ticket class being High Economy; picked up almost 15000 miles in 5 weeks. Have been booked on a trip with Singapore Airlines and getting the mileage on BMI as they are both with Star Alliance.

The interesting thing is if you are flying with the airline with whom your frequent flier account is with and you go for cheapest tickets you may only get as little as 25% of the normal miles. However, in most instances if you fly with another airline in the alliance, you get 100% miles no matter how cheap the flight is. I know that I have flown with KLM to Cairo (about 4hrs from AMS: €520) and gotten 25% miles while I have gone with Delta and got 100% miles the whole way to Vegas (12 hours in total: €500); so I got something in the region of 1000 miles for my KLM flight and 13000 miles for the Delta flight which was less expensive.

I don't take a huge amount of flights normally and am only slowly building up the miles but they are vaild indefinitely as long as you take a flight every so often e.g. you have to use the Flying Blue Card at least once every 20 months to keep the miles vaild.
 
redchariot said:
The interesting thing is if you are flying with the airline with whom your frequent flier account is with and you go for cheapest tickets you may only get as little as 25% of the normal miles. However, in most instances if you fly with another airline in the alliance, you get 100% miles no matter how cheap the flight is. I know that I have flown with KLM to Cairo (about 4hrs from AMS: €520) and gotten 25% miles while I have gone with Delta and got 100% miles the whole way to Vegas (12 hours in total: €500); so I got something in the region of 1000 miles for my KLM flight and 13000 miles for the Delta flight which was less expensive.
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Click to expand...

Not anymore!! Flying Blue changed the rules in April this year. Cheapest economy on Delta is now 25% miles too...some fares on partner airlines are 0 miles.

Just made Gold on FB for the first time yesterday...lounge access here I come!
 
Anna Livia isn't exactly spacious but there are a lot worse ST lounges out there. Alitalia in Milan is brutal! Some of the Delta ones in the US are poky but others great - even within the same terminal in Atlanta they vary hugely. OH has been Gold/Platinum for years so I've been testing the lounges for a while :D Not sure he's come round to me not needing him for lounge access any more yet!
 
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