Chasing miles - am I missing something?

We all do it I expect, trying by all available avenues, to accumulate as many miles as possible but I'm starting to wonder whether it makes sense, for us at least, though YMMV.

We channel all spending to miles-earning Amex cards.
We pay for extra miles via Miles Booster
We chase tier points to retain Ag status which offers nothing else but does boost miles from flights
We pay extra to fly in the top fare codes to use our miles to get Gs
We re-arrange our dates to fly when Gs are available (not always easy for us, most of our flights are to visit family in NY so we're juggling our own dates, son's frequent business trips, their family holidays, etc)

But just a minute, how about this scenario:

If we use AMS/DUB trick, we can fly on our own choice of dates, in UC, for several hundred pounds less
We don't need to pay for Miles Booster
We don't need to chase tier points
We can channel our spending on (say) an Amex reward card or cashback card and get something back instead of miles

Looked at that way, it seems a no-brainer so I must be missing something or else we'd all be doing it and no-one would be chasing miles, so what, dear V-Flyers, am I missing?

You're right!

BUT...these tricks/hacks are prone to disappear as the airlines find out and then restructure (i.e. fix) their IATA fare coding. This particular trick is not too bad from the airlines' perspective, although if enough people keep missing the fourth leg, then I think eventually someone (or rather, some algorithm) will notice.

So it's best to treat the AMS/DUB trick as a temporary (if pleasurable) blip, and your miles-chasing as an ongoing endeavour.

That said, there are reasons why people don't like the AMS trick in principle, based on the fact that you need to buy a positioning flight.

I don't mind it, as I have friends in AMS/DUB etc, and I take the positioning flight the day before, and spend the night.

If you decided to take the positioning flight on the day, then if for whatever reason that positioning flight is delayed and forces you to miss your first leg back to LHR, the entire booking is cancelled.

I do see your point whiterose but I have not looked in to the AMS/DUB routing and costs in any real detail yet, having booked/scheduled all my leave to the end of 2015 already!

But I would worry about missing connections and the trip being delayed or cancelled. For that reason I avoid flight connections wherever possible. I would certainly need to get to the connecting destination at least a day day before leaving for the final destination and that adds days on to the holiday. As I am on limited annual leave, just 6 weeks a year , that is another issue.

I do enjoy airmiles collecting...it has become almost a hobby, much to the bemusement of others. I have come to expect upgrades and offers using miles and when I have to pay full whack I resent it!

I also collect Avios (more so that VS FC miles). Availability is an issue but I have so many places I still want to visit it will be unlikely I will not find somewhere I want to go. And I do tend to book many months ahead. Having holidays planned keeps me focussed at work

I think about this, too, and nowadays I almost have to stop myself from the craziness and think, wait a second, is it really worth spending extra money to get the TPs to go up in status (a current debate, as I'm only a few TPs from AU by June next year).

I think the AMS trick is great, and know that it does save a lot of money. But as others have pointed out, it does involve more faffing about - getting yourself over there, getting a plane back, then making sure you have enough time for the VS TATL flight. It will effectively make your journey a lot longer. It may not be a problem for lots of people, if they were going to visit AMS/DUB etc anyway, but sometimes you just want a straightforward A-B flight.

You make a great point, though. Should we let miles and TPs take over our lives? I tell myself that I wouldn't let these loyalty schemes change my spending behaviour, but I wish I could say that I've stuck to that...

The outer legs (i.e. AMS/LHR and LHR/AMS) just need to be with in 24 hours of the main VS/DL legs.

So if you want to use it as an excuse to visit these cities *and* maximize your CH time, and you have the time (and money) - a lot of "ands", I know - you could plan a short break in AMS for a few days.

Say you fancy a weekend in Amsterdam before your trip to NYC: take your positioning flight to AMS on the Friday. Book your first multicity leg back to LHR on Monday evening. Stay the night in an LHR hotel, spend the next morning/afternoon in the CH (obviously!) and fly on your VS/DL flight to NYC Tuesday afternoon or evening

Or you could fly back to LHR from AMS first thing in the morning, and book a late afternoon/evening (but nonetheless connecting) flight ex-LHR.

Whiterose,
I am also a miles chaser.
I do all things you do and this morning I signed up to Virgin Amex Black. I'm hoping I won't have to use miles booster. Although I have just done that for an EDI trip next week to get the bonus 25%.
I'm currently Ag and will be one tier point short of keeping it and I'm tempted to chuck in one more flight, but may let that lapse as after next week I will only be doing one flight a year for our main holiday.
Well I see it this way: An upper fare to MCO is currently £2500 each and an upgradeable Economy about £800
So whatever I do to get my 50000 miles to upgrade is worth it.
Mrs D would never entertain the AMS/DUB trick. It may be several hundred less than buying a straight Upper but is it less than using miles?
Yes I had to change my return date to get Upper on the way home next year, but hey, it means an extra days holiday and a visit to St. Augustine.

So its a big Yes for from me for mile chasing and getting up at 6 am to see if reward seats are available.
Dick D

It has certainly changed my spending and I have certainly bought goods and services I would never have bought if it were not for the points, but only if the points offer was worth the spend to "buy" points that save me hundreds to thousands of pounds on flight upgrades. e.g. Spiderman 2 from Blinkbox! But I will watch it as the the OH loves superhero movies. But no, I would not have bought it if it had not had 500 Tesco Clubcard points attached. That is 1600 Avios for me and also makes me look jolly generous with a gift purchase to boot

I also "chase miles" by charging everything to my Amex. The miles add up really quickly and I could transfer them to my FC account when I made my last booking.
Obviously now I will be looking to transfer them to BA as and when we book our next flight as VS now dont serve the route I use.
Might try going to US one day but not high on my list tbh. If we ever go it will just be to burn off the remaining miles on OHs FC account.

The savings to be had from the AMS/DUB trick are not just a few hundred as mentioned above. If you're travelling as a couple it's a case of several £K worth of savings. The hassle factor, if you're lucky enough to live close to LGW or LHR is negligible. For example next May I'm off to Vegas and the hop from LGW to AMS is costing less than £60 and will simply be a hop over to AMS at tea time on a Friday with no luggage and returning a couple of hours later. Then I go home and relax and take the same VS flight from LGW to LAS the next day that would have cost £3360 had I not done the AMS thing.

Bottom line, I paid £1600 for the identical flight - for us as a couple that's a staggering saving of £3,500. I get to fly on the exact day I like (I can't if after a G reward) & I earn TP's & miles. Using miles on routes like LAS is virtually impossible anyway so, for me, all the more reason to use the ex-AMS trick.

Same for me, I have managed to go from spending about £1200 on a PE to £1400 on a UC just for the "cost" of having a day trip to Dublin the previous day and has put a UC fare into my reach, I probably wouldn't have pulled out the £3k for the UC fare from LHR!

The same trick prompted me to spend a few days as a 'city break' in BCN!

My assumption is, however, that the trick will disappear at some point, especially if the fourth leg is repeatedly not taken, but until then...

My assumption is, however, that the trick will disappear at some point, especially if the fourth leg is repeatedly not taken, but until then...

Well Ive seen reports on flyer talk that e.g. BA is starting to crack down on people skipping the last leg such as not allowing short checking of bags and auditing BAEC accounts of people who make a habit of it.


I've also saved money on flights not by doing ex-Eu but just by looking at who flies from A to B even if it is via C. I've flown to both BOS and ORD (both VS destinations) on LX via Zurich.

I saved a good couple of hundred quid each time just by doing that and got a good business class service as well. Got no VS miles of course but I'm not that much of a miles whore that a few miles would trump having ££ in my pocket.

It pays to shop around and remember that airline loyalty depends on passengers being loyal to the airline.

The airline does not have to reciprocate !

I doubt the fare breaks will go-away - as without them the local airlines such as AF or Lufthansa would take all the London airlines business. The whole point of such fares is to compete locally after all with the more direct option.

I would also say ex-EU fare and TP chasing on the rival airlines is somewhat "interesting" and not achievable to same level on VS as it is on say BA due to BA's rivals offering great local connecting flight deals.

At moment effectively £1500-1800 on the rival airline on the right routing buys you :
1/ Flights for a holiday in hawaii with stopoff in Miami and possibly vegas possible - maybe certain Carribbean locations too. You would have to fly a certain circular route via Hawaii in both directions. Stopoffs add a minor amount in cost.
2/ BA gold status - can be over 1500 TP's on BA
3/ approx 30k avios
4/ Around 55 hours of flights all in business/domestic first

I would point in direction of other forums on structuring such a trip via the ITA matrix tool - we're hoping the deals don't go by time we plan our Hawaiian holiday in 2018

I'd also mention mile chasing for me is well worth it. We've directed all spending to mileage earning opportunities for years, and it's now paying off, as we have hundreds of thousands with various programs. 2xUC G returns for tax/fees only at ~ £550pp - it can't be argued with when same flight was charging £2.5k pp when we checked at same time.

Very interesting about BA, starquake.

I hope the fare breaks won't go away too, but if a noticeable percentage of pax are striking out the 4th leg and hopping off in London on the way back, then I think something will change.

BA are cracking down on the final leg problem allegedly now for sure - but if I was ever to take one of those cracking ex-eu fare, I'd fund the connection on miles+£35pp and just have a couple of extra days. Avios's one big use is connecting to these! I'd never personally be tempted to cut short trips - admittedly I'm all for increasing holidays now myself - a mini-jaunt in say DUB on way out and AMS on way back would just add to fun

I'm still hoping work will approve me 1 month unpaid leave next year to add another big jaunt.

I will probably do the same thing, a day trip in Dublin at the end too, might help with the post holiday come down!!

Quick question: with a BA/VS ex-EU connecting fare.

If BA mess up and you miss the onward VS flight, what happens? I presume it's BA's obligation to get you to your destination, but what is likely to happen in reality?

I assume you just get put on the next VS flight in UC, without too much bother (I would hope)? But if that flight is full, would you get put on a BA flight in CW? What about miles/points etc?

I read on Flyertalk, I think, of someone being downgraded when a connection was missed from Business with one airline to Y with another but I am fairly certain Virgin weren't involved in the case I read.

I sort of enjoy the thrill of the chase, so to speak, when it comes to airmiles. I am a collector by nature so finding ways to maximise miles is something I find strangely satisfying (sad, I know!)

Although I really like the idea of ex-DUB/AMS fares and we'll try to make use of them at some point, I am a little worried about the logistics, especially as we'd need to take checked luggage with us (I'm afraid I'm far too high maintenance to survive two weeks away with only a carry on!) So, for now, miles represent remarkably good value for us. Our Gs to Tokyo were funded largely by miles and I didn't buy anything I wouldn't have otherwise, I just used the Virgin AMEX and Shops Away judiciously, plus a few flights on Virgin and partners meant we fairly easily met the amounts for an upgrade. We were planning on flying PE anyway, and the upgrade to UC only cost us a few hundred pounds extra, which is definitely worth it for the experience, especially at this stage we couldn't justify paying UC prices outright.

Chasing Tier Points is a different matter, and one I'm not fully decided on. I really wish we could get TP with card bonuses like they can in the US. We fly internationally about 8-10 times per year, which I'm aware isn't a huge amount by some standards, but for us it's meant we've definitely come to appreciate comfortable flights and convenient travel. We easily make Ag with Virgin, but Au would require a concerted effort on our parts (I think with our travel planned from now to August 2015 we'll each have somewhere between 28-34 TPs), but at that point we'll have to ask if TP/mile runs are worthwhile or if it's diminishing returns just for priority check-in, a boost in miles earned and CH access.

Spacedog, you don't need to take your luggage with you on the hop over to AMS, just leave it at home or in LGW/LHR hotel room. The flight from LGW to AMS is so short, just 45 mins flying time. We'll then have a drink or two when we get there and simply head back to LGW. Of course the flight back to LGW is the first sector of the VS through ticket, so lounge at AMS & champagne / dinner in BA Club Europe!

At Gatwick the Premier Inn regularly does £29 room deals so we may even just get one of those and dump our suitcases there, do the hop and back to AMS and then chill at Gatwick overnight before our VS43 the next day. For the sake of next to no money and 4 hours of our time on a Friday evening it's worth the £3500 saving

I gave to say that I have managed to amass 10k of miles in the last week without setting foot in an airport!!

The largest bulk were due to transferring in Clubcard vouchers, funny story here I didn't even know I had a clubcard!! You get one automatically when you shop online with Tesco, which I had been doing since I minced out from my parents 6 years ago!! Anyway I recently decided to switch to Asda!! Tesco then sent me a physical clubcard this week as a retention method and it worked as I finally logged on and as you can imagine from 6 years worth of shopping had a fair whack in my account! Straight over to miles!!

Then I gave done a conversion with 10k of IHG points to miles for 2k miles (a rip off but I have lost faith in IHG).

And Hilton now owe me about 2000 miles as they didn't add my FC number to my HHonors account in December and as a result none of my DoubleDip miles posted, but they have sorted that and they are now on their way!!!

An interesting oddity I noticed today on honors points for Hilton. Vs earn 2 miles per $ compared to avios 1. For points collectors a huge difference!

Oh yes, an Exec room in a Hilton in Manchester netted me a cool 520 points

Off to Dublin in a fortnight for my birthday....a few more miles there with a couple of nights in a DoubleTree

[honey lamb]

OK, folks, I'm the expert on the ex-EU flights having been one of the first of the current members on the board to have experienced them. I should pay tribute to former members (and mods) who have morphed over to the dark side and who have posted various options of flying in premium cabins from various European destinations, including Scandinavia for significantly less than from the UK.

For those not in the know, I live in Ireland, in County Cork to be specific (and in a shameless plug, an incredibly beautiful award winning town) At one stage, the Irish government included APD in its budget at a whopping €10 per flight and soon realised it had shot itself in the foot as passenger numbers dropped, and so dropped it to €3 and then removed it altogether if the airlines increased their routes, which in the fulness of time, they did. As a flight to the UK and onwards is regarded, under UK regulations, as a connecting flight, you dear readers, are benefitting from it - as am I under certain circumstances!

To date I have flown AMS-LHR-SFO-LHR-AMS (omitting the last leg); ORK-LHR-TLV-LHR-ORK in BA (obviously not omitting the last leg); AMS-LHR-EZE-LHR-AMS in BA (not omitting the last leg because of anecdotal reports that BA were closing accounts of people who hadn't taken the last leg). I've also flown DUB-DXB-DUR-DXB-DUB in Emirates (although the last legs changed to DXB-LHR-ORK thanks to a missed connection) and more recently ORK-LHR-LAS-LHR-ORK in BA. In each of these options it was price rather than miles which was the decider.

In the ex-AMS flights, it was a no-brainer to choose them and then to fly to Amsterdam the night before. In fact the time in that fair city was rather pleasant the day of the flight to Buenos Aires as the flight to LHR didn't leave till 6pm for a 10pm or thereabouts connection. The Dublin and Cork flights are self-explanatory (although getting to Dublin on the train and thence to the airport is a bit of a pain alleviated by free travel to Dublin because of my advanced years and Aer John's residency in the city of that name and his proximity to the airport. )

Down through the years, on VS in particular, to fly out of ORK on the same PNR has meant an increase of about €400 on the LHR-wherever option as Aer Lingus have billed the most flexible fares for that leg and have made it unviable and so it has always been the case that I have booked separate tickets. Even with a single ORK-AMS/LHR-ORK to add to the equation, the savings are significant -even with an overnight hotel. And so Expedia has been my friend. However, what is interesting to note is that, if I seek the ex-DUB flights you are all snatching right, left and centre on Expedia.ie the fares are through the roof but when I go to Expedia.co.uk the savings are abundant In the past the reverse was true so, shop around dear folks, shop around!