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MMMondayMemo: Credit your flight to a partner

MMMondayMemo

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MMMondayMemo: Credit your flight to a partner

Each Monday, Miles has decided to drop a tip, hint, tutorial, trick that maybe you’ve missed or haven’t heard before. If you’re an expert in this field, some of these may be things you already know, but there are a lot of beginners out there who are just getting their feet wet which is why we created the Monkey Miles Monday Memos. This week we will take a look at why you may want to credit your flight to a partner.

I recently flew on BA, but didn’t credit to BA. Who did I credit my flight to, and why? Let’s take a look.

an airplane parked at an airport

Crediting your flight to a partner can earn you more points, streamline your travel, and earn you Elite Status, but the crazy thing is….SO MANY PEOPLE DON’T DO IT?!

I can’t tell you how many times I get into conversations with people that have a few miles sprinkled over many airlines. I’ll ask them why they don’t credit their flights to one partner to build up a balance and the answer consistently is “I had no idea you could do that.” Yep, it’s true. It’s a super simple, effective, and a TOTAL SENSE MAKER to credit your flight to a partner.

a seat on an airplane
It may not make sense to credit your BA business class flight to BA.

Airlines can have stand alone partners or be a part of an alliance, or both.

American Airlines is a part of the One World alliance. So if you fly on Cathay Pacific you can earn AA miles and vice versa. But, you can also earn miles on Etihad which isn’t a part of One World. It’s a stand alone partner. Unsure what an alliance is? Check out our MMMondayMemo that explains it. You may not fly all of your flights on AA, but that doesn’t mean you can’t align your travel.

Here are their One World partners:

a white background with blue text

And then their “other” partners

a close-up of a plane

What this means is if you fly some flights on Cathay Pacific, Etihad, and Air Berlin it makes more sense to credit those to one airline than to each airline individually. The other little sweet spot about partners is they earn a % of the miles flown as EQD. Now that airlines are requiring a certain amount of $ spend to hit status, you can make those valuable EQD without actually spending that much money.

Here’s BA’s EQD chart for AA.

a screenshot of a graph

If you caught a cheap business class fare from Europe to LA for $1000 you’d only earn $1000 EQD if you booked it through AA. Book it through BA and fly 12000 miles roundtrip – you’ll rack up 3000 EQD. Pretty solid, right?

I’m seeking Alaska MVP 75 this year. They aren’t part of any alliances and I’d argue maintain the best program out there. Let’s take a look at their partners.

Alaska Air isn’t a part of an alliance like One World or SkyTeam, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still credit flights taken on other airlines to Alaska. Here’s a look at all of their partners.

a screenshot of a group of images

Each of those partners have their own earn rates. I recently flew on BA and credited to Alaska. Why did I do that? Look at how many miles I earned.

Even though I was flying on British Airways I didn’t credit my flight to them because Alaska Airlines MileagePlan miles are FAR MORE valuable. For instance, with no elite status, a discount business class ticket earns 250% of the miles flown. If you’re Alaska MVP 75…you earn 375% of the miles flown. THAT IS INSANE!

a screenshot of a screen

If I’m flying on United I credit my miles to Singapore Airlines. Why? I love their chart, they award miles on distance, and have great partners.

The big one here is that they award miles based off distance flown. If you find a $200 roundtrip fare from LA to NYC, United will give you 1000 miles. What will Singapore award you? Just shy of 5000

These are just some basic concepts to understand and utilize in your travel to help you get the most return on your investment.

Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.

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