How and why do you need to earn airline miles? Reminder for. Bonus miles

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

I personally don't earn airline miles. It's a long time, too lazy to understand the rules, you still have to pay extra fees for a ticket.

What are ALL Airlines miles
This is a bonus from the bank that can be spent on air tickets. You can buy a ticket of any company or alliance, on any website, including Travelbelka. Miles have a clear exchange rate: 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 up your car, pay for clothes and household goods. If you pay with a Tinkoff ALL Airlines card, you will earn miles for all these purchases. This is how customers are encouraged to pay with a card: it is beneficial for the bank, because sellers pay him a commission.

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

2%

Regular purchases in stores, cafes and the Internet

3%

Any air tickets purchased through any operator or website

How many miles were credited for the 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 ₽ on the card every month and go on a trip once, you can earn approximately 21,300 miles in a year. This money is enough for a round-trip ticket to Europe for two.

At the same time, you can use the mile 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.

The full amount of the ticket, including taxes and fuel surcharges, will be returned to the account. Therefore, you do not have to pay extra for a ticket.

There are restrictions: you can spend from 6,000 miles, you won’t be able to return part of the money for the ticket, only the entire amount. Miles are written off in increments of 3000: 6000, 9000, 12,000 and so on. That is, you will need 9000 miles to return the amount from 6001 ₽ to 9000 ₽. Just keep this in mind when choosing a ticket.

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

Card Benefits
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 in your account and you will not be able to use it. In such cases, indicate credit card details - and the hotel will freeze the bank's money, not your own. Since the money is not written off, no interest will have to be paid.

Gift insurance. Tinkoff ALL Airlines cardholders receive an insurance policy as a gift, it is valid worldwide 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 attach the card to the payment terminal. If the purchase is less than 1000 rubles, you can not enter the PIN code.

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

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

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

5000 miles as a gift
There is a special bonus for readers of Travelbelka: 5,000 miles as a gift. You can check if you can really fly with this card for free.

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.

Passengers of the Aeroflot carrier can participate in the loyalty program, thanks to which you can receive rewards in the form of miles. It is allowed to spend bonuses on the purchase of an air ticket, as well as the use of other services of the company.

Conditions for obtaining bonus units

A client can receive awards provided that he has the required number of miles on his account. An additional requirement for the member is to have made at least one paid flight for the previous 2 years on a regular flight operated by Aeroflot under one of the tariff plans included in the mileage program.

If awards are issued through the website of Aeroflot or a partner company, the passenger must be identified using the confirmation code received in an SMS message to the number specified by the member. To subscribe to the service, use the menu of your personal account.

Attention! Prizes are allowed to be transferred up to 10 times in 1 calendar year. There is no limit to the number of miles that one Member of the Privilege Program can gift to another.

If a premium service upgrade with transfer of miles at the check-in desk is applied, then the procedure is not included in the established limit (10 times in 12 months). The awards include:

a ticket purchased for mile units for flights of the Aeroflot carrier or its partners;
receiving goods or services from companies cooperating with Aeroflot by exchanging for a specified number of miles;
increase in the service class for points (Economy - Comfort or Comfort - Business), if the booking is confirmed, and the ticket is issued at the rate allowed by the program.

How to fly for miles

An Aeroflot passenger can receive a ticket in exchange for miles. To do this, there must be a sufficient number of bonus units on the bonus account. Gift tickets can be purchased one way or both. Program-allowed fares allow up to 2 transfers. It is impossible to issue an open date and return the ticket.

The validity of a ticket purchased with miles is limited to 12 months. However, if there are no free seats on board, the air carrier has the right to refuse to issue a premium product. It is allowed to exchange tickets with an automatic reduction in the level of service.

What you can spend miles on with partners of the company

Members of the Aeroflot bonus program have the right to use miles to purchase services or goods from 19 partner companies. Among them:

chain of delicatessen shops Globus Gourmet;
hotel Novotel;
Novikov restaurants;
pharmacy chain Samson Pharma;
DIY format markets MosKhozTorg;
Telo's Beauty (dentistry and cosmetology);
restaurant chain Ginza Project;
French Kiss confectionery boutiques;
Gulliver stores (teenage and children's clothing);
pharmacies 36.6.

A complete list and rules for the operation of the bonus system in companies participating in the privilege program are given.

In order to use miles as a payment, the client must set a PIN code in advance in the menu of their personal account through the Aeroflot website. You can spend miles by presenting your Aeroflot Bonus card and entering your PIN at the terminal.

How to book a hotel room with miles

Premium hotel reservations are made on the website hotels.aeroflot.ru. The algorithm includes several steps:

Fill in the form fields, indicating the city or hotel name, the date of check-in and check-out, the number of residents.
Then check the box next to "Use Miles".
Click on the Find Hotels button.

The service will return as a result a list of hotels suitable for the specified parameters and the rental price in miles. It remains only to select the desired option, number and click the "Book" button. Next, the page of the personal account of the loyalty program participant will open. There you should log in to write off bonus miles.

Purchase with miles from the catalog

By clicking on the link rewards.aeroflot.ru, you can go to the premium catalog. Here are presented in the form of a table the available offers of partners of the bonus program. Participants can exchange miles for souvenirs, goods or other products of the organizers.

An example is the Aussie brand hair balm. Next to the name of the product is indicated its cost in miles.

To purchase, click on the product image. After going to the page with a description of the tool, click the "Add to Cart" button.

Then open the tab of added products in the upper right corner and click on the "Place an order" button.

Attention! If the client canceled the purchase, it is impossible to return bonus units to the account.

Complaints about products and delivery should be directed to program partners, since, according to the regulations, they bear full responsibility.

Aeroflot launched a project called "Mercy Miles" in 2008, within which members of the bonus program can transfer miles received to accounts owned by charitable foundations. Among them:

Gift a life. The founders of the fund are actresses D. Korzun and Ch. Khamatova. The company was founded in 2006. Fund funds are used to help children with cancer, hospitals where they are treated, and doctors. Thanks to the donated miles, children together with their parents from various settlements of the Russian Federation are sent for rehabilitation and treatment in Moscow and foreign countries.
Life line. The fund was created to sponsor high-tech operations for children under 18 years of age, as well as the purchase of expensive medical equipment and instruments. This makes it possible to achieve an improvement in the living conditions of children and their full recovery. The company has existed since 2004, helping citizens throughout Russia.
Rusfond. The mission of the foundation is financial assistance in the treatment of children, the development of society and the introduction of the latest medical technologies. The company was founded in 1996 as a charitable journalistic project.
Spivakov Foundation. Since 1994, the funds of the fund have been transferred to support talented children in painting, choreography and music. Miles donated by Aeroflot Privilege Program participants allow young talents to take part in festivals, concerts and competitions around the world, as well as make free flights to Moscow from the regions and back to study.

Before transferring miles, you should familiarize yourself with a number of restrictions applied by the organizers:

the number of bonus units on the bonus account from 3 thousand;
the minimum transfer amount is 100 miles;
Participant is over 12 years old.

The charity miles donation algorithm consists of several steps. Go to page aeroflot.ru.
Choose where from the presented funds to send incentives, open the appropriate tab.

Specify the username and password of the participant from the personal account, then click on the "Login" button.

In the bonus program profile menu, enter the number of miles to transfer and follow the further instructions of the service.

If you are a little more careful, you can find a lot of opportunities that will allow you to save significantly. So, for example, with Aeroflot miles, which are included in the price of tickets, but not everyone knows how to use them. Therefore, if you like to travel and do not know how to get Aeroflot miles, then be sure to read this article from beginning to end.

First, let's deal with the mile program of one of the largest airlines in Russia - Aeroflot Bonus. We will understand how to become a member, what advantages it gives and whether it is so profitable.

Step 1. Who can become a member of the Aeroflot Bonus program

Aeroflot Bonus program member can become:

a passenger over 12 years old can become a member of the Aeroflot Bonus program.
for passengers from 2 to 12 years old, there is the Aeroflot Bonus Junior program, and upon reaching the age of 12, the passenger switches to Aeroflot Bonus with the preservation of the account number.

Participation in the Aeroflot Bonus program is absolutely free and you can register in it only once

Step 2. How to become an Aeroflot Bonus member

There are several ways to become an Aeroflot member:

register online at Aeroflot website, receive an Aeroflot Bonus program member number and 500 welcome miles.
find a temporary card with the Aeroflot Bonus member number in the aircraft's logbook and assign it to yourself through the airline's website when the Internet appears.

It is better to do this at the beginning of the month, when new issues have just been put in the pockets of the chairs. Of course, you can try your luck on other days, but there are no guarantees to find the coveted card.

For self-registration in the Aeroflot Bonus program through the website, you receive 500 welcome miles

Step 3. Enter personal data

Personal Information
passport data
Contact details
preferences (home airport of departure, meals on board, participation in other loyalty programs)

the data must be entered correctly, because after collecting 2,000 miles, a letter will be sent to the specified address from Aeroflot with a membership card

Step 4. How to receive Aeroflot miles

Perhaps this is the most important step in the history of accumulating miles, which can be earned in several ways:

register in the Aeroflot Bonus program online through the airline's website and receive 500 welcome miles.
new members can enter data on flights taken within 6 months before the date of registration in the Aeroflot Bonus program. Remember that you can enter data no later than 3 months from the date of registration.

For example, if you signed up for the Aeroflot Bonus program on October 02, 2018, and before that you flew with Aeroflot on June 15, 2018, then you can earn miles for this flight.

buy tickets for regular flights of Aeroflot Group.

Miles are not earned on O, X, F, G, V fares, ID, AD, GA and GC service and subsidized fares.

Aeroflot is a member of the SkyTeam international alliance, which gives you the opportunity to earn extra miles on flights with 20 of the world's leading airlines.

Aeroflot, Aerolineas-Argentinas, Aeromexico, AirEuropa, Air France, Alitalia, China Airlines, China Eastern, China Southern, Czech Airlines, Delta Air Lines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM, Korean Air, Middle East Airlines, Saudia, TAROM Airlines Vietnam Airlines,XIAMEN AIR.

issue co-branded cards in banks and receive miles for the money spent.

Sberbank, Alfa Bank, SMP Bank, Citibank

use services partners

M.Video, Delimobil, Crossroads, etc.

Step 5. How to enroll Aeroflot miles

You can earn miles in different ways:

enter the Aeroflot Bonus membership number when purchasing a ticket
ask to enter it at the front desk
credit miles in your personal account after the flight (not earlier than 3 days and not later than 3 months from the date of the flight).

Step 6. Aeroflot elite club or the opportunity to enjoy privileges

Aeroflot Bonus has an elite club:

Silver (silver level)
Gold (gold level)
Platinum (platinum level)

Getting into it is easy if you fly a lot.

Step 7. How to get into an elite club

To get into the Elite Club, you need to accumulate during the year ( from January 01 to December 31) the required number of qualifying miles or flight segments:

Silver - 25,000 qualifying miles or 25 flight segments
Gold - 50,000 qualifying miles or 50 flight segments
Platinum - 125,000 qualifying miles or 50 Business class flight segments

The obvious question is what are qualifying miles and flight segments.

Qualifying miles are miles earned for flights on scheduled flights of Aeroflot Group or program partner airlines throughout the year (from 01 January to 31 December).

Additional miles earned by elite members and special promotions of the program, as well as miles earned by partners of the program, are non-qualifying miles.

A flight segment is a section of the route from the point of departure to the point of arrival.

For example, a flight on the route St. Petersburg - Krasnodar is one flight segment, and St. Petersburg - Krasnodar - St. Petersburg is already two.

We hope it has become clearer how to get Aeroflot miles and that you need to fly a lot to get an elite level. But if you often fly for work, then you can combine business with pleasure and enjoy all the privileges that are provided to the participants elite club .

On January 01, the number of earned qualifying miles and flight segments is reset to zero and in order to confirm the elite status, you need to earn the required number of qualifying miles or flight segments

How to spend Aeroflot miles

Spending miles is easier than earning them, so let's figure out how to spend Aeroflot miles and make yourself even happier:

issue an award ticket

For example, a round-trip ticket from St. Petersburg to Krasnodar will cost you 20,000 miles and 4,458 rubles for a fuel surcharge.

upgrade service class (Economy -> Business)
redeem goods from the Rewards Catalog for miles
spend miles with partners
transfer miles to dad, sister, friend
participate in the Mercy Miles program

The minimum possible number of miles to send is 100.

to book a hotel

All these actions can be performed through your personal account by going to the Spend Miles tab.

Validity of Aeroflot miles

On the one hand, everything is very clear, but not as simple as it seems. Miles earned have an expiration date and may expire. Miles are valid for 2 years.

For example, if within two years after the last flight, you do not make a single flight with the Aeroflot Group or its partners, then after two years the miles will expire. Therefore, check in your personal account until what date you can use the earned miles.

Aeroflot tickets are purchased at skyscanner And Aviasales.

And the most convenient way to look at housing options is on the website. Hotellook.

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Now I will tell you how to fly business class and not pay crazy money for it. As you know, almost every airline has reward programs where passengers are encouraged to earn miles, which can then be exchanged for tickets. So, if you approach the accumulation process wisely, you can fly comfortably and practically free of charge several times a year.

First you need to decide with whom to fly and earn miles.

Airlines have miles and banks have miles. For example, Alfa-Bank and Tinkoff Bank offer their customers bonus programs where miles are also accumulated, which can then be exchanged for tickets. But in fact, this is a kind of cashback with a fixed rate.

Airline miles are much more interesting. There are qualifying miles and non-qualifying miles. The first ones are credited to you directly for flights with this airline, and they affect your status. Each airline has different levels of membership (silver, gold, etc.). The higher your status, the more privileges you get. It all depends on the airline. For example, Aeroflot offers you check-in at business class counters, the opportunity to choose a front-row seat with increased legroom at no extra charge, and access to business lounges. Also, a high status will allow you to sometimes get business class seats at no extra charge. For example, if the flight is full, then some passengers may be transferred from economy to business. As you guessed, such a gift awaits the one whose level is higher. I was transferred several times from economy to business.

Some airlines have even more privileges. American "Delta" transfers passengers of elite levels to business class for free, if there are empty seats. This rule is valid only on domestic flights, but still nice;)

Major airlines form alliances. There are three major ones: SkyTeam, OneWorld and Star Alliance. Accordingly, you will receive bonus miles for flights on all airlines of the alliance, even if you do not have their bonus program. For example, if you have an Aeroflot bonus card open, then you will receive miles and privileges for flights on all airlines of the alliance.

Here you need to choose the airline whose bonus program you open. It makes no sense to have cards from both Aeroflot and Air France, since they are part of the same alliance and essentially have the same bonus program.

If you live in Russia, then first of all open an Aeroflot card, since the national carrier has almost monopolized the air transportation market in the country. If you plan to fly frequently, for example, around the States, then you can consider the Delta bonus program (they are also part of SkyTeam) instead of Aeroflot. The rest of the cards also need to be opened. The OneWorld Alliance in Russia presents S7. There are no Russian airlines in Star Alliance, but it includes, for example, Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and many other popular airlines.

Now you have to earn miles. The most obvious way to earn miles is to fly with the airlines you want. As I wrote above, in addition to receiving bonus miles, you will increase your status and have various nice bonuses. But you don't get that much. If you do not constantly fly, then you will have to save up for a normal bonus ticket for several years.

To earn miles more actively, you can contact partners. For example, many banks have joint projects with airlines. For every dollar spent on your bank card, you will receive a certain number of miles.

In addition, many hotels give miles. For example, if you have an Aeroflot bonus program, you can earn 500 miles for staying at Radisson or Kempinski hotels and up to 2 miles for every dollar spent at Marriott or Intercontinental. Miles give and rental offices. For example, "Eurocar" and "Avis" give 1500 miles for the fact of renting a car. Each airline has dozens of partners, so carefully study who gives bonuses for what.

So, you have accumulated miles, and now it's time to spend them. You need to spend miles on the purchase of bonus tickets! And here the most interesting begins. Miles should not only be able to save, but also to spend correctly.

The task for all participants of the competition is this: we try to fly in economy class to Omsk and New York at the end of May for one day (departure on May 28, return on May 29)*. If someone is not able to offer an economy class, we take the cheapest ticket. Then we try to figure out how many miles to spend on the same trip.
*Prices were measured in April, when there was a slightly different exchange rate and tickets were available.

Let's start with Aeroflot! Miles under the "Bonus" program accumulate quite cheerfully, especially if you buy expensive tickets. But you need to understand whether they are easy to use.

For example, you can fly 20,000 miles in economy class to Omsk and back to Moscow at the time of the proposed purchase.

I hope the designer of Aeroflot, who came up with the idea of writing in blue on a blue background, has already been handed over to crocodiles.

Now uncheck the "Pay by miles" box. We see that the cheapest ticket to Omsk costs 10,000 rubles, and from Omsk to Moscow - 9,000 rubles. That is, the rate is about 1 to 1, but the miles decided to round up to tens of thousands.

Let's see how things are in New York:

In economy, the total cost of tickets is 37,042 rubles, fees are taken into account. Business class is much more expensive, 135,637 rubles.

If you try to buy a ticket to New York for economy bonuses, then the mile rate drops sharply.

We spend 70,000 miles on round-trip tickets at once! Yes, and separately you will have to pay fees in the amount of 16,477 rubles. For the purity of the experiment, let's calculate the exact course. The fare to New York and back without fees is 18,055 rubles. It turns out that when paying with miles for each ruble, you will have to pay 3.88 miles!

One of the secrets of flying miles: the higher the class of service, the more profitable it is to spend them. As we have already found out, a business class ticket to New York and back costs 135,637 rubles. The reward ticket will cost 110,000 miles. We subtract fees from the ruble price and find out that the Aeroflot mile rate in this case is 0.92 miles per ruble, this is an excellent indicator. The problem is that such a ticket is very difficult to buy with miles.

You see, the mile business class is sold out both ways.

I was just trying to find business class tickets for the summer and found that there was nothing...

Just in case, I checked the Aeroflot mileage for flights to other cities in Russia and neighboring countries.

It costs 7,500 rubles to fly to St. Petersburg on the same days (this is economy). Bonuses - 20,000 miles. And do not forget about the fees, which in the case of miles are always paid separately. But for the business you need to give only 30,000 miles. The course could be around 1.5 miles per ruble, but tickets, again, have already been sold out.

In general, the same rule works in almost all cases: an extremely unfavorable mile rate when buying tickets in economy, and quite profitable when paying with business class miles. Okay, everything is clear with Aeroflot. Let's see what others have to offer.

In addition to Aeroflot, of the Russian carriers, only S7 Airlines (a member of oneworld) is included in one of the three largest international alliances. S7 has a Priority bonus program.

Well, let's try to fly to Omsk. Economy round-trip for 16,200 rubles, very good.

S7 has a table that shows you how many miles an airline's direct flights cost. Omsk, for example, is included in the Russia 2 premium zone, and a one-way ticket to it will cost 15,000 miles in economy and 25,000 miles in business class.

Choose to pay with miles. 30,000 miles + another 3.5 thousand rubles in fees. It turns out that the course is 2.3 miles per ruble.

A ticket to Omsk and back in business class for the same dates will cost 49,200 rubles.

For the same tickets, you can give 45,000 miles and pay an additional 3,560 rubles. Let's calculate the course. We remove fees and find out that when flying in business class, the rate can be 0.98 miles per ruble. This is a very good course! The cheap business class rule applies here as well.

The catch is that we are talking about the Business Optimum mileage fare, which implies that the number of seats available on the flight is limited. Airlines will allocate only a few seats on the flight, which can be bought for miles. But still, this is a good option if you are used to planning trips in advance. After all, if you pay in rubles, a business (using the same tickets to Omsk as an example) costs 3 times more than an economy one, and if in miles, then less than 1.5 times.

Now New York. A ticket to New York is expensive, and the return transfer is inconvenient.

What about miles? It is necessary to give 75,000 miles at once, and pay 23,495 rubles as fees. The course in this case is 2.05 miles per ruble. There were no business class tickets at all, so I don’t even know what prices are there now.

Well, we understood something about Russian carriers. Let's find out what Aeroflot's SkyTeam friends are offering.

The American airline Delta has a SkyMiles bonus program, which is combined with the Pay with Miles program. The latter has a clear course in the rules: it allows you to reduce the cost of a ticket by $50 for every 5,000 miles.

That is, 100 miles cost 1 dollar, or 1 mile is equal to 1 cent. The dollar exchange rate is now fluctuating around the mark of 70 rubles/$1 (we will round for convenience). It turns out that one cent, aka 1 mile, will cost 70 kopecks, and the ruble = 1.43 miles. A very good indicator, the only pity is that Americans also have restrictions on dates and destinations when paying with miles.

In reality, the situation is this. A ticket to New York and back in economy will cost 33,350 rubles, in business class - 142,973 rubles.

Here is the price in miles, below is the surcharge for fees. The real rate for the economy will be 4.73 miles per ruble, for business - one to one. That is, the story is about the same as with Russian airlines.

Air France's flight to New York and back on the same dates costs 37,542 rubles.

The Flying Blue bonus system mile calculator (used by Air France and KLM) assures that the standard economy will cost 50,000 miles.

As with other airlines, the Flying Blue rules state that the program member pays all additional fees himself. This means that 19,487 rubles must be added to these miles. The fare without fees is 18,055 rubles, exactly like that of Aeroflot. That is, the real rate of a mile will be 2.77 miles per ruble.

Business class will cost 143,168 rubles.

The calculator requires 125,000 miles. Since the tariff without fees is 109,115 rubles, the mile rate will be 1.15 miles per ruble.

Let's let down results:

The maximum mile course in this study was found in "Aeroflot". It will work if you take business class to New York and back. It is likely that you can also get into the business class of other international flights at a favorable rate. But Aeroflot has a too blurred low rate boundary. It is practically non-existent, and the worst situation is with the economy on domestic flights: maybe 4 or 5 miles per ruble - try to look for yourself. In this case, you can stumble upon 1 to 1, as in the case of Omsk. In general, be careful.

At Air France and the "brotherly" KLM course will vary from 1 to 3 miles per ruble, in business it is expected to be more profitable to fly. In general, nothing surprising when it comes to international flights.

In the case of SkyMiles from Delta you need to be on the alert, because you can get both on a very profitable course, and on a completely unprofitable one. Roughly the same story as with Aeroflot. In general, if you are flying to the USA, it is better to get a delta card, and maybe more than one - more on that below)

At S7 there are very advantageous offers for business class, and the threshold for an unfavorable exchange rate is lower than that of Aeroflot. But, again, I don’t know how the situation is with other cities. Gotta dig. In general, the offer is similar to what Air France has, although it would probably be more appropriate to compare with oneworld partners.

Use on health! But do not forget about a bunch of restrictions when buying air tickets with miles. Sometimes it is more expedient to spend them not on tickets, but on service class upgrades and other goodies, as well as simply on airport transfers.

In general, in the West, and in particular in the USA, it is much easier to accumulate miles than in Russia. My friend levik from New York told me that the best way to do this is with co-branded credit cards.

There, banks, along with airlines, do not skimp on bonuses if you spend a certain amount on the card. For example, if you get a Delta Gold SkyMiles credit card from American Express and spend more than S1,000 on it in the first three months of use, you can earn 30,000 bonus miles. At the same time, in the first year of using the card, the service will be free (hereinafter - $ 95), and you can safely use it.

The secret is that when you close such a credit card, all the miles you have received do not burn out, but remain on your bonus account with the airline. If you carefully follow various promotions and offers, then you can get 100,000 miles quite easily. The Americans even have a special website for monitoring all sorts of card bonuses.

During the year, you can open several cards, after six months close each of them, and the miles continue to live and accumulate.

Every major airline has a partner bank. Delta is friends with American Express, American Airlines with Citibank, and United Airlines with Chase. Leva is subscribed to all possible loyalty programs, and when he needs to fly somewhere, he simply searches through the partners of these airlines, what would be more profitable to spend miles on. For example, he flew to China with Cathay Pacific, which is a partner of American Airlines.

Leva most willingly spends his miles on first-class flights (he says he comes across them on average three times a year). It turns out that it is more profitable this way: if in money business class is twice cheaper than first class, then in miles the difference is only 20-30%.

No, Lyova was not flying in this air compartment. This is a photo from .

In addition to purely "aviation" credit cards, there is a reason to start regular ones in partner banks of airlines. For example, using American Express or Chase cards, you can accumulate "multi-purpose" bonus points, and when you see that Delta or United sell tickets for miles, these points are immediately converted into miles and buy what you need.

Leva advises to start with the cheapest credit card (often it is "free"). Here is his procedure for earning miles:

1. Get a cheaper card with a free first year.
2. Spend the required amount on it on time, get a bonus.
3. Keep idle until almost the end of the year.
4. Just before an anniversary, call and cancel it
5. After a year (or 18 months) you can try again.

In general, if there is an opportunity to get American mile cards, feel free to start it, just don't forget to close it. Have a nice flight!