As you start frequent or international travel, it becomes beneficial to enroll in loyalty programs. While the savings might not be huge, it does cut ~10% of your bills on average and about 50%+ if you utilize accumulated points over years at once. It takes effort, time to enroll, keep track of and optimize loyalty programs, so indulge only if it is worth the effort for you
Some of the prominent programs are listed here for easy reference
Airline Loyalty Programs
- Star Alliance– Has 25 airlines as members including Air India, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Swiss Air, Thai Airways. You enroll with each member separately; there is no common id. The earnings and redemption policies will vary by member. You will have to consider if it is better to enroll into a new partner or use one of the partner membership numbers every time you fly. Typically earning rates are bad with partner airlines. However if you open a new account with each airline, redemption will make sense only on that airline. I have enrolled separately for Air India, Lufthansa, Singapore airlines since they have redemption options on hotels that I can use during frequent travel to Europe or Singapore. If you don’t intend to travel 2nd time in that carrier, it makes sense to quote Air India membership number instead and still earn peanuts
- OneWorld- 15 partners including American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific, Finnair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, Qantas, Qatar Airways, and Royal Jordanian
- Emirates- has partnerships with many airlines like JAL. Redemption on Emirates is relatively expensive due to high charges and taxes. It makes most sense to upgrade or use it on partner airlines
- Other airlines like Etihad have separate programs
- Air India Express is not a part of Maharaja program but offer Neucoins instead. Enter your phone number during check in to link your account if not done during booking
- Indigo Bluechip- Has recently changed redemption value delinking points to rupees. You can get good rates if booked well in advance. While the website mentions part cash + points redemption is allowed, their tech is not ready to handle it. Only select routes have good value on redemption
Few tips to ensure seamless booking, credit and redemption of airline points
- Book directly with airline to avoid loss in transition vs. aggregators. You can manage booking, add meals, cancel seamlessly with direct online account access
- Booking.com has also started flight bookings. It is helpful for airlines that don’t accept foreign credit cards. While it provides completely refundable fare options, please note that it is not the case. I had to fight for months and file complaints with ministry and consumer grievance forums to get back 100% of my money when I cancelled fares. The bad part is that it does not mention how much the cancellation fare is anywhere during booking process or on the ticket
- Always ensure you quote the loyalty number when booking flights. It is a hassle to add it later during check-in or post travel, although many airlines offer retro claim options
- Ensure your name on boarding pass matches what is on your account
- Some airlines/programs like Avios, Emirates allow pooling miles with family members. Some others offer only pred-defined nominations for redemption purposes. Take advantage of these options to ensure seamless earning and redemption across family
- Keep an eye on conversion campaigns that run with Bonvoy, American Express where you can get bonus miles during campaign period
- Some programs allow status match e.g., Singapore Airlines. Check before you book to avail additional benefits if you have good status with one program
- Bonvoy allows linking of accounts with Emirates, Singapore airlines to earn hotel points when you fly, in addition to flight points/ miles
- Some airlines offer better value on redemption vs revenue tickets, and better cancellation terms e.g., Vietnam airlines. It might make sense to buy or transfer Lotus miles instead of booking with cash
- Booking flights/ hotels directly can save costs in many ways. There is 5% GST + commission savings. You can get loyalty points only for retail bookings and better cancellation terms. So avoid group bookings or going through agents if they are not significantly cheaper by more than 15-20%
Hotel loyalty programs
- Bonvoy – This is for premium segment in India, but quite common for 3 to 5 star hotels outside India. I used to have a lot of business travel, and it made sense to enroll then. One of the best loyalty programs I have ever seen.
Redemption is completely free, except for large resorts where resort charges are included.
Charges are not fully standardized across brands or hotels with same brand. Check out “Hotel Messages” for additional terms like extra person charges when you book for triple rooms (even if you declare 3 people in advance)
Breakfast is free for Platinum and above in most brands. Here are detailed guides that break it down for you
You can get 5 free upgrades on hitting 50 nights, one free night worth 40k points on hitting 75 nights in the year. There are other options that don’t make too much sense like discount on Westin beds/ donation on achieving 50-75 nights
10 years of Platinum can get lifetime status which is really good
- World of Hyatt– Another premium option that is good for US and Europe. Bonvoy has better coverage in India vs Hyatt
- Taj– Has moved to Neucoins for earning and redemption. Works across all brands under Taj Group
- Booking.com – This is best for all types of travel. Genius program gives benefits like discounts, free breakfast, early/late check ins. Although not all hotels comply, something is better than nothing!
- You can use many of your airline points for redemptions on hotels e.g., Lufthansa, Etihad, Emirates Skywards. Although the value would be lower, sometimes you are left with points not sufficient for flight redemptions where it makes best sense to spend money on vouchers, car rentals and hotels
Credit Card Loyalty/Points Programs
Every card offers some kind of loyalty points, including most debit cards. Depending on your travel type, here are some cards that have worked best for us
- Diners Black- Worth getting it if you have enough spends in the year or get a lifetime free card. You can get 3.33% cash back on most spends
Redemption is of the highest value if you book flights or hotels on the portal. However, the Smartbuy portal does not offer refundable bookings. Most bookings have convenience fee, cancellation charge and cancellation terms as per airlines
You can also convert point into loyalty program miles or points across many airline and hotel programs. This is specially helpful in cases where you fall short of few hundred points from your main airline/ hotel program
You can spend monthly spend based vouchers for Bookmyshow, Uber/Ola, Cultfit, TalaCliq on spending 80k per month. Annual benefits get activated on spend of 8 lac per year including Amazon Prime, MMT Black, Swiggy One, Times Prime
- Amazon Pay ICICI- For pure cashback into Amazon Pay account ranging from 1-5%
- IDFC WOW Forex card: Earning rate is not attractive, but points can be used to buy shopping vouchers/ book flights and hotels. Some hotels are priced low, not sure for what reason, so worth checking rates for select bookings. There is 240 Rs redemption fee, so avoid small redemptions
- Scapia travel card- Helpful for getting lounge benefits on spending Rs 10k in the month of travel. The coins can be used to redeem flights and hotels only on their app
- Some cards like Amex platinum offer Priority Pass memberships that can help in getting free lounge access across airports in the world. They also offer complimentary travel insurance with conditions like booking flights through their card/ on their portal
Loyalty programs are useful only if you travel frequently, at least more than 4 times a year. Maintaining track of status, points and benefits across so many programs can also become overwhelming. Hence choose to optimize selectively with thought through tradeoffs on time and money
Other travel tips
How to research and come up with a good travel itinerary