Over the past few years, many airlines have been switching their frequent flyer programs to award you miles based on your ticket price instead of distance flown – obviously this method kills earning a ton of miles on a cheap ticket (like mileage runs). However, thankfully, there are still plenty of ways through which you can book a ticket and still earn miles based on distance flown and not fare paid.
Book Through a Partner Airline for Distance Flown
In some cases if you book your ticket through a partner airline, you could still earn miles based on distance flown and not ticket price paid. For example, if you book your ticket through the airline’s partner but fly on “your” airline, it is very possible that the cost you paid for your ticket is not shared between the two airlines and therefore you will earn miles based on distance flown.
The route and cabin class you fly is always shared between airlines, however the ticket price may not be. For example, if you book your ticket through United Airlines and your flight is operated by Lufthansa and you want to credit miles to Lufthansa’s program, you would earn miles based on distance flown. However, if you booked directly with Lufthansa, you would earn miles based on fare paid.
This doesn’t work in all cases with partner airlines as some airlines that are closer partners, do share more details about tickets and may award you based on fare paid rather than distance flown. You can research more details about your frequent flyer program online and how miles would credit.
Credit Miles to a “Distance Flown” Earning Program
Many frequent flyer programs out there still award miles based on distance flown on all airline partners and not fare paid. Usually the programs that still do award you miles based on distance flown, have great award charts and benefits available (as they haven’t devalued that much).
There are also hybrid programs that credit you miles for your flights differently depending on the airline you fly – some flights could credit based on distance and others could credit based on revenue. The programs that have devalued a lot include many North American and European programs, while a lot of other programs still maintain a traditional model and could be worth switching to if they offer great benefits, redemptions, and do not have a huge history of devaluation.
Book Group Fares or Through Some OTAs/Holiday Portals
Frequent flyer programs that credit you miles based on revenue and not distance flown always look for the price of your ticket when crediting you the miles. However sometimes if you book through a third-party, your ticket price may not be easily available to the airline. For example, some random OTAs do not share all ticket details with operating airlines and therefore your flight could still credit based on distance flown even if your program normally credits based on fare paid.
Many group bookings or bookings that include a flight, hotel, car, etc. together may still credit traditionally based on distance flown because they are considered part of a package. Again, every program is different, so you will need to research in regards to how your program handles different types of tickets and the methods they were booked through.
A Flight Change or Upgrade Might Be In Your Favor
Airline systems are largely outdated and can’t handle a lot of changes, and therefore in some cases when you change a flight or if there is a schedule change and your ticket is reissued, the system may not be as intelligent as you’d think to go back and review your ticket history and find out how much you originally paid for your ticket. And if the system can’t find the price you paid or gets confused by all of the changes your ticket has had, the default is to fall back and credit you miles based on distance flown.
The same is true when you upgrade a paid ticket with miles or vouchers, in some cases, since your booking will have changed and now you are flying in a different cabin than previously booked – which, again, could cause the system to just credit you miles based on distance flown. Every program is different and some airlines haven’t invested as much into their loyalty concept so not all systems are as advanced as they can be – and this works in your favor. Many of the popular programs have been extensively studied by the community and a lot of information based on how flights credit can be found with simple searches.