after some advice please, whilst we travel a lot in Europe we only tend to do one really long haul a year and that tends to be with Thai. Once a year doesn't really get me enough miles to do anything with, is there a better place I could credit them or just carry with ROP?
Hi LottieTiger - welcome to InsideFlyer UK! I'm not much of an expert on Star Alliance airlines personally, so others will probably have better ideas, but here's my tuppence: It depends to a large extent on other factors. Do you normally travel in Economy or Business Class (even better if you could let us know which specific fare codes? - different partner programmes award different amounts of Miles depending on the fare code). Personally, I get a lot of value out of Singapore Krisflyer Miles, so unless the earning rate was much better for that fare code with another programme, I'd probably credit there. You can top off your Krisflyer account to a useful level with American Express Membership Rewards Points (which you earn from the Amex Gold or Platinum cards) too at a good value 1:1 rate. The big negative is that Points get removed after 3 years regardless of activity on the account, so unless you were earning enough to use in that time, or could otherwise top up using Amex MR Points or booking hotels through RocketMiles etc, then that might not be such a good idea. Basically, it depends! - the more detail you can give about how you travel/collect Miles etc at the moment and the sorts of things you would like to use your Miles for, the more specific the advice we can offer. Apologies for not being able to offer anything more concrete!
Thanks for the reply. We mainly fly with BA/Iberia as I collect avios . With them we fly business but without airmiles it would be economy! So flying star alliance is a bit of a rarity just wondered if i would get better value/use out of the miles than royal orchid. My flights last year in economy LHR/BKk/PKT return aren't useful for anything as there aren't enough to redeem for anything. Just booking this years and I wondered if there was a better use. I don't know much about star alliance or how flexible it is.
My pleasure! I've had a closer look and for Economy it really depends on the fare class. You can check out what you earn crediting to Royal orchid here: http://www.thaiairways.com/en_TH/rop/Earning_Miles/EarningMiles_onTHAI01.page L, V, W and G don't seem to earn anything if you credit them to partners (I've only had a quick glance around at the main partners though, so could be wrong about that!), so just leave it with Thai. K, T and S earn 50% of flown miles crediting to Singapore and 75% crediting to Thai. I'd personally rather have the Singapore Miles. I think the other Economy fare classes all get 100% of flown Miles crediting to Thai or Singapore, so I'd definitely credit to Singapore. Hope that helps a bit more!
You can also check wheretocredit, just put in the airline and booking class and it'll give you a nice overview of which airline you can credit the miles and what you'll earn.
Star Alliance is really tough for frequent flyer programmes. How I miss BMI Diamond Club! Krisflyer is good for American Express cardholders. I have been pushing ANA Mileage Club on the blog lately. Avianca Lifemiles is good in the sense that miles don't expire (with activity), they never add surcharges, and you can frequently buy miles for 1.5 U.S. cents (allowing you to top up for a reward) If you're going to Phuket, I believe that Qatar also flies there, Malaysia Airlines as well. So depending on what fares look like, you don't have to fly on Thai and then struggle to figure out what to do with the miles.
We are going to Cambodia and the Thai flight times via Bangkok are way better than any others hence flying Thai. I did look elsewhere but you can't beat night flights with a 4 year old! I may have enough for Lounge access at Bangkok so I could use it for that if I can't find a better use. I'll have a look at where to credit thanks!
I love Cambodia myself. Great country and people. I didn't recognise PKT so thought you meant HKT (Phuket)... Rather than waste miles, I usually advise people to try to top up their account with SPG conversions or similar - giving them enough for a reward that does provide real value. But it is worth considering whether to abandon Royal Orchid for something easier to accumulate and understand. Hopefully some of our ideas have helped...
I didn't know you could use RO Miles for lounge access - sounds like a decent idea given the circumstances! I haven't had the chance to visit, but have heard good thing about the Royal Silk lounges at Bangkok. I wonder if spa treatments are included when using Miles to access?
According to the Thai site its 6500 ROP for lounge access at BKK. Not sure if you can credit an outbound to one programme and inbound to another? if so I could credit outbound and get lounge access then credit the return half to another programme say ANA or Agean. For some reason the return journey is a different code so I get a lot more award miles. Not sure about spa treatments, last time I used the lounge we were stuck in traffic outside BKK and barely got chance to sit down!
Yep that should be fine (though I don't know about Thai specifically). The trick is to to ask at check in of your first flight if they can put the different account info onto the return segment, and if they say no, just ask again at check in when flying back. Alternatively (and arguably simpler) is don't give any frequent flyer number at all at any stage before (in fact make sure to delete anything that might be on there automatically in 'manage my booking' online), then claim for each segment separately when you get home (keep hold of your boarding passes just in case!).
