— Introduction & meet Tim Lewis

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Most people get wrong, and I got this wrong for years, is they confuse points with these ski loyalty schemes with status. And they ha or virtually all the schemes have two separate categories of points. They have the points you earn that you can redeem for flights and hotels and the and they usually don't expire or they like they go on for years and years. And then most schemes have status levels which you earn within a particular year, which can be like a calendar, calendar year, or British Airways for some reason do April to April. And you generally earn them by flying on one. Some schemes you can earn them by credit cards, but you literally earn a certain amount in a year, and if you don't earn enough to earn status, they're gone. Those points disappear.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and this is season two. On season one, I talk to expats about their favorite holiday destination. On season two, I'll be doing things very differently. I'll be chatting to expats about where they currently live. Why they chose that destination, all those secret hidden gems that only locals know, you know, like favorite restaurants, best neighborhoods, things that tourists don't. Welcome to the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. I'm your host, Paula, and today we are not talking about a destination. Today we are going to be talking about something really important. I've got a really special guest here today, Tim Lewis. Welcome, Tim. Let's get started. What are we talking about? Let's talk about you, what you do, and the topic. So yeah, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

Well, I'm Tim Lewis. I'm I run the uh Tim Lewis TCF, YouTube, and Substack. And I don't post as much as I do, uh as I should do, like a lot of people, but I've kind of specialized in one mildly niche area of airline status schemes and an earning airline status as opposed to the general points thing. So there were all sorts of follow-up questions

— Welcome and what Tim does

SPEAKER_00 2:08

you can start with about that. So I I guess I'll let you fire away.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Yeah, let's get started. So I met Tim at a conference not long ago. And we've hit it off because we are very similar in the respect that status points are so important in this kind of world that we live in today. So for someone who's never thought about loyalty programs with airlines and status points, can you just give us a little bit of a rundown what it means, what it is, why it's so important?

SPEAKER_00 2:37

Well, the thing to that is most people get wrong, and I got this wrong for years, is they confuse points with these ski loyalty schemes with status. And they or virtually all the schemes have two separate categories of points. They have the points you earn that you can redeem for flights and hotels, and they usually don't expire or they like they go on for years and years. And then most schemes have status levels which you earn within

— Frequent flyer points vs status points explained

SPEAKER_00 3:06

a particular year, which can be like a calendar, calendar year, or British Airways for some reason do April to April. And you generally earn them by flying on on some schemes, you can earn them by credit cards, but you literally earn a certain amount in a year, and if you don't earn enough to earn status, they're gone. Those points disappear. But then you if you do get enough points, status points on the status side of the schemes to earn a level of status, then you earn that status generally for the rest of that year and the next year. So I took me years to approve with the point where I suddenly realised status was important, and I think I might be stealing one of your later questions here. But I remember actually I was in JFK Airport in the I hate more I hate overnight flights, so I also do morning flights. And I was waiting, I had my ticket and I was like group nine on BA for the morning flight in economy. And like I was seeing like group one come up, group two, group three, and like four and five were economy groups, and then five and six, and I was like, I was like, because it's annoying to be if you're in the last group on boarding a plane, it's not so bad with international long haul flights, but if you fly any kind of domestic or short haul flight, you can't get any you all the bins are already taken up and you end up having to check your bag. You're always the last person on the flight. And that was the point where I thought, well, maybe I should do some like research to work out how all the groups and things work and how the status works. So that's that was the point I started to think, and maybe I should look into this with because I set myself the challenge to try to visit all 50 US states before I was 50. Yeah. And this must have been like state four after state 42 or something. And I I my strategy was basically wherever I can get the cheapest flight, I'll always fly the cheapest thing. And I did lots of stuff with buying packages on Expedia with the hotel and the flights, which you can actually get really cheap flight deals doing that, but that's about the worst thing you can do when it comes to trying to airline status. So that was the initial point of where I started with it.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

So then when we talk about status, so you and I know what that means, but how do firstly how do you get to what like what is a status in and in comparison to a frequent flyer point? What are the other benefits of being higher up in your status, if that makes sense? Or or gaining no gaining status points as opposed to frequent flyer points. And how do you do it?

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Depends.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 5:43

The status points, it there's a couple of ways you can earn status points, and it depends on the airline schemes. A lot of airlines have the old generally the more old-fashioned and the best schemes to look for, if you can, are ones where you fly a certain distance and you get a certain number. They literally have charts saying like if you fly this number of miles in economy, you get this number of points. And uh some of the newer schemes, which are new in terms of ripping off the customer.

SPEAKER_03 6:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

But for my more understandable, so I like BA have changed from an older scheme to a new one, which is all on cash spend. So how much you spend.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:22

So BA you used to have to get earn tier points from flying distances, and they had little like gradients of like if you flew over 2,000 miles, you'd get like 140 points.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

And if you flew under 2,000 miles, you'd get like 40 points for business class. It was like very, very weirdly strange. And people were obviously like those of us sort of game the system in the old scheme, because you could you could work out you had a flight that was 2,020 miles or whatever.

— How to earn status points

SPEAKER_00 6:51

Yeah. You'd fly that rather than like the 1900 one. And so yeah, it it depends on the scheme. So like British Airways are now all on cash spend mostly.

SPEAKER_01 7:02

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

And something like Malaysia Airline, which is my the scheme I'm trying to earn status with One World with at the moment, is like the old, is literally if you fly a certain number of miles on any one world airline, you get a certain amount of a certain amount of points.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:19

And to answer a question, I don't think you asked, or we we were intended to ask, I'm just gonna use my psychic ability here. But airline alliances are really important with status as well.

SPEAKER_03 7:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:31

Because this is actually kind of true with normal airline points, but people don't talk about it as much with normal airline points because you can transfer points between schemes and things. You cannot transfer status points between airline schemes. But there are three big airline alliances in the world, and they usually have the feature, in fact, they all do, that if you if you you can book a flight for any airline in that alliance to any other airline in that alliance's scheme. So let's say when I was trying to earn British Airway status on the old scheme, I I would fly American Airlines and credit that to the BA scheme so that I could earn the tier points under the BA scheme for the flight. I wouldn't go on to American Airlines scheme, even though you can book you can book BA flights to the American Airlines scheme.

SPEAKER_03 8:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:23

Because American Airlines is a cash-based one. In fact, American Airlines is supposedly you can actually earn status if you just spend huge amounts of money on credit cards that have the American Airlines status thing.

SPEAKER_03 8:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:21

You it's important to consolidate as all of your do all of your flying in a particular airline on one airline if you can. Everything on one airline alliance, book it onto one airline alliance scheme.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:36

There are like it takes a long time, I've noticed, to get American Airline flights that actually credit on Malaysia Airlines scheme for some reason. Yeah. Like two or three weeks. But it's certainly worth it because it all adds up, and as I say, you've got to get to these critical levels where you earn status. And I've just remembered I didn't answer your other question.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

That's okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:59

So what are status levels? So the first thing is the trivial, like, you're not in group nine anymore. You're up like group four, probably, or group five.

— Airline alliances and why they matter

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Obviously, it depends how the groups in the airline works. But that's true on any, any, any uh airline alliance flight as well. So if you put your Malay, so I've got like the lowest level of status of Malaysian at the moment because I'm trying to build it. What do I get? I would I get access to the business uh class check-in desks, fast track entry. I think I get fast truck entry. No, I don't get fast truck entry at this level. I can book seats a week in advance without having to pay for them, which is weird, but that is true on some of the airlines in the One World. And yeah, I mean that's there are a few other that you get free extra luggage allowance and stuff as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

Yeah, the luggage allowance is is my big thing. Luggage allowance and and lounge access.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, well that's generally speaking, the next level up is the lounge access one. So that's the one I want to get to, and I will get to in then in the by the end of the year. And then the level above that typically is first class lounges and first class entry. So I'm going to so the so the bottom level is like, well, it's called that bronze, even though it's not always called bronze, but let's call that bronze because the topic A called the A is Yeah, and that's literally you get a higher group, you don't have to worry. And that's actually more useful than you think, because you get it to enter the on the plane earlier. And also there is something that's kind of unsaid. If they've all oversold a plane, the first people who are safe are people with status. Yeah. So you don't want to the people who are going to get downgraded, and I have been downgraded on flights, even when I I've had like a business class flight and been downgraded to economy by BA in class.

unknown 12:47

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 12:48

When uh before I had status.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Yeah, yeah. Because also, Tim, I find that I don't know what it's like with BA, but I know because uh Kwanis is part of one world and I'm trying I'm actually trying to I'm chasing status as well. So I do status runs, which people, for those people that don't know what that means, it means that when you're about to expire, you're you go on a a quick trip somewhere and try

— What status levels actually get you

SPEAKER_01 13:12

and get this status to bump you up to make sure you stay in that kind of bracket. And so at the moment I'm I'm chasing lifetime silver, but I'm trying to chase lifetime gold. But it means that I've got another three and a half years or something of platinum to be able to do that. But it's not always the it's not always that easy, is it, to be able to chase the status because sometimes those airlines don't, even if it's part of a big alliance like One World, you still can't, if you go into some weird place, you can't actually fly a One World airline. So how do you, going off on a tangent here, but how do you pick the right the loyalty program, you know, because I'm I belong to two. I belong to Alliance, not Alliance, is it? No, Alliance, and I also belong to One World. How do you choose the right, you know, alliance for you, like for the per like person? How do they choose the right airline?

SPEAKER_00 14:08

Well, the first thing I would say is like, where are you based in the world? Look at your like where is the airport that you use the most? Who is the biggest carrier that flies to the most places from the airport? So for me, it's kind of omnifty, he thrown and it's BA. So it has to be one world really. Funnily enough, I uh I have got status with SAS and with Lufthansa as well now. But I'll come on to how you can get that in a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 14:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

But no, the well, there are two things that matter. One, which airline alliance is the most active and wherever you fly from is probably the the best answer to that question. Then which scheme you go in is which is the easiest for you to qualify for.

SPEAKER_01 14:55

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

So let's say and it's not as simple as you would think. So for me, because I'm a bit of a cheapskate and I like flying long distances, yeah, and I I'm prepared to put the time into research, get the little maller out and work out, go on to fly connections and work out is this flight two thousand two hundred miles as opposed to two thousand and one hundred. Because

— Priority boarding, lounge access and other perks

SPEAKER_00 15:18

like easy's got this weird if you fly over to it's got like limits of two thousand two hundred, you get like quite a few points more than if you've got less than that.

SPEAKER_03 15:26

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:27

Then I will do that scheme, even though I know it has issues because it's their customer support is not very good. They you have to chase them all the time to get them to credit anything. But actually, I think it's one of the easiest schemes to to earn status with, quote, strong fresh, because the the a lot of people can earn airline status pretty easily without for on a status match basis. So what happens is that you can match from one status to another status a lot of the time, and they will give you then that status for one year, but you you haven't earned it properly, if that makes sense. Yeah. So it's not like you've just got it. So that's how I I I status match from British Airways to Lufthansa, because they were running status match still. So I had British Airways gold and I'm status match to Senate. And you usually what happens with these schemes is you pay like $100 or something like that to status match across.

SPEAKER_01 16:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

But what's interesting is that some airline align uh some airlines let you status match really, really easily to hotel schemes.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_00 16:33

Yes. Okay. So there's two examples I know of. Well, there's three, I think, but they they vary. So as we were talking before, I'm gonna be going to this conference in Kazakhstan in in August time. One wheel do not fly to Kazakhstan.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

Yes, I know that.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

Aristana do though, and they're based in Astana in.

SPEAKER_01 16:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

So I looked up, I thought, well, like, and actually put this in the Facebook group for the thing. You can status match from all sorts of schemes to Eristana for 35 euros.

SPEAKER_03 17:05

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:06

So I'm now gold in Aristana, even though I'm gonna be like flying them four times basically there and then I'm going somewhere else. But that's gonna give me free lounge access, priority building, all of these things. And it's like, well, it's really worthwhile. So Kenya Airlines is another one that status matches to hotel schemes.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 17:29

And a lot of hotel schemes let you get up to status with just getting a credit card or a debit card. I don't know about certainly you can in the UK. US, definitely UK.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, US is great like that.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

Yeah, I'm not sure about Australia, but I've i I know you can get you can get like uh Hilton, I've seen the IHG, there's a Marriott debit card so you can get in the UK, which will give you instant gold status. You could get that. And then status match, the Kenya Airlines, who are in the Sky Team Alliance, which is the same one as Virgin Air France, Scarlet, all the rest of it.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:02

So but but but you get it for

— How to choose the right loyalty program

SPEAKER_00 18:04

basically one year, and then you're like they won't let you read status match again. Yeah. I think they might do after a year or so, but it's like so that's interesting.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

I'm gonna I think I thought I knew about status, but obviously I don't. I'm obviously not really I'm a married Bon Boy Girl, which you know, which I like because you get again the lounge accesses and and stuff like that. I don't know enough about the other hotel scheme. So maybe that's something I need to look into moving forward. And with the status points, so so wet to gain so we now we know how to gain status points. They're different of frequent flyer points, aren't they? Because frequent flyer points you can gain by, you know, using your credit card, or for me it's like buying petrol or, you know, stuff like that. So what is the benefit of those points as opposed to status? So status gets you somewhere where what where why are we gaining frequent flyer points? What does that do?

SPEAKER_00 18:59

The frequent flying points are the things that all of these influencers are using to get to be in first class. I I've flown first class from Heathrow to the US. Cost me like 90,000 Avios points at the time, plus like 500 pounds. So it's not cheap, cheap.

SPEAKER_03 19:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:20

But given that it I the I think it will probably uh cost me that's probably about 1,500 pounds to get a first class flight, which cost like six or seven grand. Yeah. So that's where the points are useful, the s the frequent flyer points, because you can redeem that if you can get a good flight redemption deal. And there's so many people who do content on that.

SPEAKER_03 19:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:47

It's like I learned the other day that apparently if you want to fly United, get Air India points.

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Apparently Air India have really good redemption rates on United flights in the US. I mean, this is the thing, it's like Iberia are much better value for Avios Point redemptions than British Airways. And Qatar are better actually in terms of what you get.

SPEAKER_01 20:12

Qatar's good.

SPEAKER_00 20:13

Yeah, Qatar are good for. And they all share the same them and Finair all share this Avios scheme. So that but that's the that's a frequent flyer point, so they do not share status points. Yeah. Qatar have got this Q Q points thing.

SPEAKER_03 20:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

BA have got their tier point ones. Iberia have got their very similar to BA's, but the same amount in Euros scheme.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 20:38

FinAir have got their own thing, and uh, people have started moving from the British Airways scheme to FinAir and to Qatar. I've decided to go all the way to bloody Malaysia. I mean, this is this is actually something to consider

— Status matching: the shortcut most people miss

SPEAKER_00 20:54

as well in the Malaysia's frequent flyer points, the enrich points, are not as good as the other airline schemes. So this every obviously, if you're flying on a particular airline and you're crediting it to that scheme to get status, you are stuck with the points that you get on that scheme.

SPEAKER_03 21:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

So to some people it may make more sense to try and stick in the Avios community of for of status airlines.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

Yeah. Because the other thing I've noticed, so with with Singapore Airlines, with their scheme, the thing I love about them is that you can your partner, so my obviously my husband's status is is much higher there in that scheme. So I can actually get his the same status as him, which I like, because I don't I wasn't flying them as much. So he gives me it gives me la access to the first class lounge. It actually gives me like lots of status, even if I'm flying scoot, which I love. However, the problem with their airline status program is that you can drop from the highest tier to the bottom of the rings in a year. Whereas in Qanta's scheme, you don't really do that. You know, you don't lose your whole they also don't actually you can drop to the bottom of the ring if you're not a lifetime member, which they don't have. That's which is what I'm I'm getting at, which they don't have in Singapore Airlines. You don't get a lifetime. So in British Airways or Malaysian Airlines, do you have a lifetime scheme as there as well there or no? Or you don't know?

SPEAKER_00 22:23

British Airways do have one, but it's now virtually impossible. And this is one thing they change when they changed the scheme, there were people who were getting really close to it. Yeah. Now they've realized you've got to spend like a million pounds or whatever to get that.

SPEAKER_03 22:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:37

To answer your question about dropping down the levels, I know that BA dropped down each levels. Because I I I earned all the way up to gold, and then I've been since they've changed the scheme, I've been silver and I'm gonna turn to bronze in September. But also, lift hands are the same. When I status match, I status to senator level, and now I'm pre compliant level on the lift hands are.

SPEAKER_03 22:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

So they I don't know about Malaysian airlines. I think they might do, but I don't know. So it's again, it's up to the scheme.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

Because when you're at a certain level, so say when you're at gold, it's much easier to get to platinum when you're at gold rather than start from scratch, because the scheme itself normally, I don't know about all of them, but generally speaking, they give you more status points the higher level you are. You know, like so if you're gold on Qantas, you get more points for flying A to B than you would if you were bronze.

SPEAKER_00 23:31

Well, I'm not seeing that. I don't know the quantity scheme.

SPEAKER_01 23:34

Okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:35

What you do get is more of the frequenflyer points.

SPEAKER_01 23:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 23:39

So I think I I'm not sure about it's usually like a multiple. Or some Yeah. But yeah, you used to have a very good light, you used to get twice as many points in gold and you would in in uh thing now it's like forty percent more or something. But that's actually something that that's another benefit of status.

SPEAKER_03 23:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

There's all sorts of weird other benefits

— Avios, Qatar, Finnair and the points ecosystem

SPEAKER_00 24:02

of status, like for the British Airway scheme, and I don't know if this applies across one world or not, but the way they allocate seats on the plane is that the people who have status have somebody sitting next to them last. Yes. Depending on the way it lines out. Yes. So often if you're an economy and you get the window, uh you get the aisles seat. Yeah. Or the window seat, you won't have anybody sitting next to you. The higher up less chance if the plane is not empty, it's not full. But a lot of airlines do that and they do everything by status level, and it makes a bigger difference than you'd think, actually.

SPEAKER_01 24:41

Especially on normal.

unknown 24:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

Do you and some of the airlines, not all, they come up and welcome you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:51

Like a nice how are you? Welcome back. And then they give you a little, you know, a little special, would you like anything I can get you or something? Which is also a nice nod, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 25:02

Yeah. And the and the other thing which I tend to forget because I was a BA status holder holder. Well, I still am a BA status holder, because BA don't do it very much, is upgrades. Like I've heard the US airlines, especially, upgrade to the whole thing. So some airlines, like I think it's Aegean, give you upgrade vouchers for each level of status. So they give you like two or three upgrade vouchers that you can use.

SPEAKER_02 25:28

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 25:30

So that's another advantage of status. It all depends. They're all different all the schemes are all different. It's a tremendous kind of hurly burly thing, but it's really worth trying to get status because I suppose if you I mean, let's say you only fly like twice a year, obviously status probably doesn't matter too much to you. But if you fly like six or seven times a year, the status can make a big difference.

SPEAKER_03 25:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

And to answer your question, well, no, you didn't really ask a question, but about this. But a lot of the time, most schemes let you bring in a guest to the lounge.

SPEAKER_03 26:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:06

So if you're on the same flight as somebody else on this or and or the same airline alliance, depends on I think like some of the alliances are a lot tighter than others. You can bring a guest into the lounge with you because of your status.

SPEAKER_01 26:19

So Because also um used to, they don't anymore, that they used to, if you were platinum and you travelled a certain amount of times, they offered you a gold card for one of your family members, which

— Dropping status levels and lifetime status

SPEAKER_01 26:33

is how I started the status pro you know, to begin with. If it wasn't for my husband giving me a gold card, I probably wouldn't have been on this journey of status, you know. Because then you get the luxury of feeling, you know, it's not just when you're traveling with him that you get to go into the business class lounge, but you actually get to go in on your own. And then it started that journey with my son, like we gave it to my son, and now he's very big into, you know, the flying the right airlines because he wants to, you know, fly business class and stuff like that. Because I think for most people, just going on a holiday is exciting, right? But I think when you travel a lot, having the benefit of just those little perks makes such a difference to your travel, you know, especially if you're doing it for work. If you're traveling those, especially the way that you're doing it and you're traveling quite a few airlines or quite a few destinations to get to your destination. Most people were would be knackered, right? But if you've got those little perks like nobody sitting next to you, or you know, being able to go in the lounge, it makes a difference, you know.

SPEAKER_00 27:39

And the funny thing is, because I traveled to the US so much, or at least used to, might not even travel to uh the US for a year now because of various things. On the one-world schemes, there's this really weird rule that American status holders and Alaska status holders, who were both on the one-world scheme, cannot use domestic lounges in the US on domestic flights.

SPEAKER_01 28:02

You're kidding.

SPEAKER_00 28:02

No, they can't. But if you are a one-wheeled status holder.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

Yeah, because I just did it.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

I know. For like Qantas BA Malaysian. You do act you can access so what I started to do a lot when I had well, uh when I've been is I would book connecting flights via Dallas.

SPEAKER_03 28:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:21

From the morning, go to Dallas for about four hours of lunch, go to the lounge, eat lunch, then fly to the next and then you don't have to worry about being too early to check in at the hotel or the place you go to.

SPEAKER_03 28:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:35

And it's like little things like that. It does change the way you fly, to be honest, and it makes connections a bit more enjoyable. And also the thing is you get generally get more points for connections, most schemes.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Yeah, but I think also I don't know if BA does it or Malaysian Airlines, but I also look for double status points. Excuse me. So like Quarners just offered everybody, you know, if you book between a certain amount of time, you get double status points for those airlines, as long as they're not a coach here. But I'm gonna tell you, I was very upset with Quarners because I booked my trip business class to the US because I wanted the double status points, so then that would get me to where I needed to get to. And they changed that flight to a coach here. So one of those flights I didn't get my double my status points. I was so upset. I was so upset, but there's nothing I could do about it.

SPEAKER_00 29:31

Yeah. Well, that's the thing, and like I had a similar, not quite as big issue in Malaysia airlines earlier on, in that I read their they had their website and it had all this big thing. If you booked a hotel via their enrich hotel scheme, you get a whole boatload of enrich points, but you get one status point for every 8,000 enrich points you earn. Yeah. Now I'm not sure if I misread it or if they their language was quite confusing on the website.

SPEAKER_03 30:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

It was 8,000 in one booking. Ah, and I did one with 7,500 in one booking. And I was like, Where's my one elite point I was gonna get? So yeah, the thing is, you are you are totally at the mercy of the people running the scheme. Like British Air, I mean British Airways, the reason they changed their scheme was that people were gaming it massively because they had a double double points thing for BA holidays. And like apparently people were i if you got a car, hired a car and did a flight to a destination, you could get double points. So people were flying to like London to Bulgaria, coming to the car rental place, so we don't need the car. They're just flying back again to unlike half the status points they needed to get like the lowest

— Frequent flyer points: redeeming for flights

SPEAKER_00 30:51

level of status. So people gain the the things and then they change the scheme, and half the time people who've done it legitimately get screwed over, but that's part of the fun of it, I suppose, really.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Yeah, I that that makes that that's a good point. That because things change so often as well, it's it's good to read the information that gets sent to you, you know, like the emails and you know, because they do change things a lot. Quantas has just changed that. You used to be able to give so everyone when they uh I think it's uh I think it's I don't know if it's just a platinum thing or if it's a goal thing as well, where you get two lounge, extra lounge cards for someone to use. They've scrapped it as of this year or next year, so nobody can, you know, those extra people can't go in the lounge. I used to give them to the kids so that they could go in the lounge when we went with them, but they've scrapped that and there's a big uproar about it. But I kind of understand because you know, when you go into a lounge and you can't get a seat, it's so annoying, you know, because you do all this stuff like you're saying, you do all these status runs and stuff like that, so that you can relax in the lounge if you've got to do some work or you know, you want to have a bite to eat and relax before a long flight. And then all of a sudden you're searching for a seat to sit down. Aquinas is bad, Quanas Business Lounge in Sydney Airport is awful because it's oh well of the fact now they're refurbishing it, so we're at a temporary one. So then they changed it, they've now got first-class lounges in places like Singapore and stuff like that, which helps. But even the first class lounge in Singapore is always busy, or even in Sydney, it's so you can't get a seat. So they've now got Cornes Club, so you earn frequent flyers and not the status, the status isn't as important. So they've got separate they needed to do it because everyone was doing what you're saying and understanding how easy it is to try and you know gain points and your status. And so then you know, then you the the one thing though, I don't know what BA is like, but I know Aquinas, if you use your frequent flyer points to to fly, you don't get status points on those. You don't earn status points on those. Unless unless, which is what I always do, is book an economy flight. So I use

— One World domestic US lounge access quirk

SPEAKER_01 33:01

I get those status points and then I upgrade with my Aquanus points. That's the way I use them.

SPEAKER_00 33:07

My understanding is I think Virgin are the only people who give like points for status points for redemption fights, is what we would call them.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:19

As I say, it's like there's just huge numbers of these schemes. And the thing is, like, I've looked at quite a few of them. Like I I as I say, I status match the Lufthansa scheme. So to show you how it can change across different I'll give you like a couple of examples about how you would optimise the strategy for each of these schemes.

SPEAKER_02 33:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:38

So Lufthansa's Miles and More scheme, which actually covers a lot of airlines, there's like Air Austria, all of their little satellite things are all in this one scheme, and also Air Croatia and people for some reason.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:51

You earn the way you earn the most points status points, you have to earn half the points on Lufthansa Group airlines. That includes all of these millions of little European airlines and uh Eurowings and lot airlines in Poland. They give you like about five times as many points if you fly from one co what they consider one continent to another continent. But they include uh North Africa as part of Europe.

SPEAKER_03 34:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

So in theory, if you could fly like there's a Eurowings flight from Germany to Dubai, which will get you the same number of points status points as if you flew from Frankfurt to LA.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 34:37

Because they're both a continental jump. But if you fly from like London, well, you wouldn't be able to fly from London because they'd lift out of that. But let's say if you flew from London to Cairo, because you're in the same continent, you get just this lower base level of flights. And you need uh like you get like I think it's about 20 points you would get if you're flying within a continent and you get a business class and you get 120 points, and you need like a thousand points to get like say and you then you need another thousand points from the rest of the Star Alliance flight. So it's possible, but you have like you could just be flying backwards and boards on Euro wings, the economy thing to Dubai all the time.

SPEAKER_03 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:21

Now, if we look at something like British Airways on their new scheme, the the the way to earn status of British Airlines now is if you spend a lot of money on hotels, you can book apparently at the moment, and they might well change this because people are starting to gain this, apparently. But British Airways holidays, you can pick any hotel and any flight and bundle them together and then earn that equivalent spend on the scheme. So they don't have to be in the same place. So let's say you were going to some expensive conference in like London and you were staying at the Ritz or something, 500 quid a night, yeah, and it was being expensed by business, and they could somehow wrap those five nights there with a business class flight. That could get you to like silver status and be able to seven and a

— Double status points promotions (and when they go wrong)

SPEAKER_00 36:10

half thousand pounds over the spend.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 36:12

Just from that expenditure. So all of the schemes have got their pluses and minuses, and for some people, one scheme might be better. The important the other thing to consider is obviously do you need to fly on that particular airline? So I look was looking, Japan Airlines have got quite a good scheme, but you need to fly jet certain number of flights on Japan Airlines.

SPEAKER_01 36:34

Yes, quantity like that.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Well, you don't need to fly any flights on Malaysian Airlines to get Malaysian. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 36:41

Really?

SPEAKER_02 36:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 36:42

And the same with British Airways, you don't. Oh well, actually no, you don't anymore. You used to have to fly two flights on British Airways, but it's kind of so that's the other thing to look when you're looking through the alliance is like, do I will I be able to fly with that airline? Do you need to fly with that airline? A lot of the time you don't.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

So Because that was my that was so that was trying to I was trying to wrap my head around because when you said you joined a Malaysian Airlines scheme, I'm thinking, okay, well, you must have to do a lot of Asia traveling to be able to travel Malaysian airlines. But if you don't have to travel because with Quartus you have to do four a year, and then you can use any other one world and get the points. But you obviously you don't get as many points by using other airlines, you just but you still get po points, you still get points. Because the other thing I noticed if especially with Malaysian Airlines, you know how, because you know I used to live in Malaysia.

SPEAKER_04 37:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:36

And I used to use Quantas a lot. So I used to fly down to um Singapore via Malaysian Airlines, and then I would fly to Quantas to Singapore just because I'd get more points. But I would always find I'd have to chase Malaysian Airlines for my redemption. Like so what I so what I would suggest people do is keep their their tickets handy until you get your points redeemed, and then you can throw away those boarding passes. Because quite often when I would be chasing, and then they'd say, Oh no, do you have proof? Yeah, I do. I don't know if it's changed now, but I used to have to have the boarding pass and take a photo. Cathay was the same. I used to have to chase Cathay as well for points, but they're a bit better now. They're they're actually a lot better now.

SPEAKER_00 38:20

Yeah, well, I mean the thing is that Malaysia will generally well, I mean, I'm not actually sure about the uh the backwards. Uh to be thinking, I did fly and try and credit them to BA once and I never got any points.

SPEAKER_03 38:30

So Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:33

There's a few other gotchas you need to be aware of in that certainly if you fly an economy, a lot of basic economy flights, whoever you credit them to, they do you will not get it. And it's very easy to accidentally fly on a code.

SPEAKER_01 38:48

That's a good

— How to stop your points from expiring

SPEAKER_01 38:49

point. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:58

It's not presented very well, but you can work it out. And most of the schemes have that. If you're flying business class, you're almost certainly going to get credit for it. But again, they might credit it to some weird lower class business class. Like in the US, they say it's first class, but it's really business class, like domestic business class.

SPEAKER_01 39:18

So 'cause the other thing I got caught out on is that so in Australia, I flew to Ireland with Qatar.

SPEAKER_04 39:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

And coming from Australia, they even though they're one world, they have a an alliance with a Virgin.

SPEAKER_04 39:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

So I didn't get any points to Qatar and I flew like I didn't get any points to Qatar with my One World, but I got them to Ireland from from Doha to Dublin. So that's also good to know because uh in Australia we have an alliance, Aquinas has an alliance with uh Emirates, but they're not part of One World. So you don't get status points, but you get frequent flyer points. That's the difference with a with a kind of alliance with just two airlines.

SPEAKER_00 40:03

Yeah, well, Virgin would be better in a way because you could potentially credit that to a Sky team.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

Yeah, because had I have known, I would have put those because I because I thought it was the one world and I've already given them my quantus ones, they weren't going to honour my um because I also am a virgin frequent flyer because with with virgin, because virgin is virgin blue, not virgin Atlantic, it's also a different scheme. Uh because I was with Singapore Airlines and I tried to redeem points on a virgin domestic flight here, I had to actually be a member and transfer the points across. I couldn't just use my points, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_05 40:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:46

And so I've got these points in there just you just uselessly because I don't fly fly them, which I should because they're probably going to expire. Which is another question. How do people lose, you know, because quite often I've done it in the past where I've lost all these points because I haven't used them. How do how do we stop that? Or how do we be aware of that?

SPEAKER_00 41:04

Well, this is something I've been trying to give some thought to. A lot of the time you can transfer the points somewhere.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

Like I I've I've got a debit card that for some reason gives me Singapore points.

unknown 41:16

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 41:16

And I did redeem them for a flight, but you can actually a lot it's easier if you're in the place where the airline is.

SPEAKER_03 41:24

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

But like, I I got some Etiad points from this. It was a special offer. You could sign up and get five pounds worth of Etiad points.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:33

And they let you create a little debit card and spend it as a point. You can apply for that. And I think Malaysia do Malaysia Railline do this if you're in based in Malaysia, which I'm not like.

SPEAKER_01 41:44

Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:46

There's usually some obviously horri horrifically bad value way to convert it to Marriott points or Starbuck vouchers or something. So that's probably what you want to research for the schemes where, like, I'm going to get a load of Aerostana points.

unknown 42:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:04

Just because I match with Aristana. Obviously, I'm booking it for that scheme. So I, and then it's, I mean, it's worth it because the lounge access is worth the cost of the matching and the giving up the status point. But I'm going to look to see. I think they've got some sort of scheme with Lufthansa. I might be able to move them to Lufthansa. So it's again, it's doing new research. You don't have to redeem most of these schemes in flights. Flights are usually the best way, best value to redeem them. But if you can get half the money, half of it as vouchers to something you can use, then do that. I mean, that's the thing. Rather than letting it I mean, most th a lot of them don't expire, to be honest. Like Unite, I was looking at like I've got points in United, they don't expire. Malaysian airline ones I don't think expire. Avials expire if you don't earn any for some reason. But you have to not earn or spend anything in a year.

SPEAKER_01 42:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:58

So a lot of them a lot of them don't expire. But keep an eye on all of them and look to see is there a way I can just get a Starbuccher or something that I can just use in some way. So that's what I'd say. So all the miscellaneous points.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

Yeah, because I've done that in the past. Like I remember when I before I even knew what a status was, I received years and years ago, this is before we even moved away, Troy, my husband, we went to the tennis and he was chosen to, I don't know, some competition and had to hit the ball over whatever, and then received all these points. And we never used them because we were we didn't really travel very much. And I kicked myself now because it was now I look back, it was a lot of points. Like it was we could have done a a trip, a family trip, but yeah, I didn't know. I didn't understand the value of being loyal to a particular brand, or you know, so uh we talked roughly about the hotel. So do you belong to just one hotel loyalty program, or do you also I do

— Always save your boarding passes

SPEAKER_01 44:02

actually at the moment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:04

Well, I I just did it as like an experiment, and I'm I'm just a member of the IHG one.

SPEAKER_01 44:09

Okay, yeah. I'm a member of them as well.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

Because it's actually surprisingly easy to earn status to IHG compared to the other ones. Well, I say that. They've all got credit debit cards that you can pay like 200 quid a year and earn status. IHG have just launched one, so I'm like, oh okay, let's come get me the same level of status as I've spent all this time going to IHG hotels for. I'm not such a fan of hotel status. At least at the lower levels, you don't get as much. I'm gonna get up to the level where I can get early check-in, which I think is useful. And the lounge access is like the next level up.

SPEAKER_03 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:43

But not many a lot of the chains don't have like lounges at the hotels. Well, it's like an executive suite room kind of. That's actually really nice if you get things with that.

SPEAKER_01 44:54

That is actually, because so then you don't have to be paying for breakfast or you know, that that that's some of the some like I think Hilton scheme gives you free breakfast anyway, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_00 45:05

So get up to a particular level. But as I say, you can you can match hotel status, which is generally easier to get to airline status. So you might find that it's something like one of the sky Air France or something gives you a local airline. And their scheme is not especially easy to earn like status with. I haven't really looked spent much time looking into flying blue, but don't think it's particularly easy to earn status. But you could earn earn get a credit card, get your Hilton status, match it to Kenya Airlines who are in the same alliance.

unknown 45:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

Yeah, Setus. But they'll accept it. And yeah, uh unfortunately with Sky Team and Sky Team, they don't in the Delta does not let you into their lounges on domestic flights. I don't think he lets you in their lounges at all if you've got Sky Team membership.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

It's so bizarre. But you know, anyway. Um so if someone wanted to start today, they're starting from scratch, what should they be doing in the next 24 hours?

SPEAKER_04 46:09

Research.

SPEAKER_01 46:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:12

As I say, like, understand the airline alliances. There's three big ones, right? One world, Sky Alliance who are the biggest part. So if you're American, it the One World is American and Alaska. Sky Team is United. And uh Delta is in yeah, Delta's in Sky Team, Star Alliance United. So research those. Work out which of those alliances you're most likely to fly on. I mean, if you're somewhere like Dubai that hasn't got, I mean, Emirates is not a member of any of the alliances. That's more of an issue. Yeah. Or it's just just fly to Qatar and you new. I think Saudi are part of Star Alliance now, maybe Sky Team, I'm not sure. But yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:02

I think they're part of Alliance because yeah. I think actually, no, don't don't quote me on that. I'm not 100% sure.

SPEAKER_00 47:10

Or Google, I mean, this this is what they're gonna be doing. They're gonna be Googling all the big charts and seeing, like, oh yeah. And then it's like, yeah, look at look, I mean, depending on how diligent you are, look

— Hotel loyalty programs and status matching

SPEAKER_00 47:20

up the one. I mean, you you ideally you'd want to be a status member of the airline you most fly with.

SPEAKER_05 47:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 47:28

Because they do get slightly more benefits than everybody else in the alliance. But it's not that much usually, it's like less than you'd think. So do that and then look at their the look at the airline you most likely to fly with scheme. See, is there any way with my flying patterns that I'm gonna be able to earn status with them, any level of status? If not, look at all the other schemes and check, do I need to fly with them? Would it be a problem if I do have to fly with them? Like if you I mean, Qantas to fly if you're like in I don't know, uh, Singapore or Hong Kong, and you do go to Australia a lot, then it might not be a problem to fly two times for Qantas if you want to do their scheme. But if you're in the UK, they're flying to qu they fly twice for Qantas a year is a bigger bloody issue.

SPEAKER_01 48:14

So Yeah, yeah. Actually it's four, so it's even worse. They're going all the way because I I mean Quantas does go all the way to London, but you'd have to fly them, yeah, to Asia.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

Whereas like a GN used to be the apparently one of the easiest flights airlines to fly with, but now they've they've made it's still quite easy, but you have to fly a lot with a GN now where you didn't used to have to.

SPEAKER_01 48:36

So yeah, it's so it's worth researching.

SPEAKER_00 48:40

Worth researching. And it the trouble is it's very hard to say like this is the best scheme for you because it might not be like if you go on holiday to Greece every two months, then the GN might well be the best scheme.

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Yeah, that makes sense, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:54

And like apparently there's like Korean air Korean Airlines scheme. I can't remember what which one of the Korean airlines, but you can fly like 15 times a Korea and get like status, but it's like, well Do you want to do that every year? Yeah, yeah. Do you live near Korea? Could you do it? I mean, this is a thing, so yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:12

Do your research. Do you want to do that? And all the schemes are usually free to to join anyway. Yeah. So it doesn't hurt to join a couple and figure it out. But as long as you I always hate it getting on an airline knowing that I'm not going to get points. It just makes me it gets gives me anxiety. Especially because I went Korean Airlines and they I think they're Sky Team, and I'm not part of Sky Team. And I'm like, oh, should I be flying there? But yeah, I did, and they were amazing, by the way.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Well, that's the thing, like you could look for status match. Once you have some sort of status with a hotel or whatever, go there, type in name of airline status match. And there's a this there's a kind of a weird generic website called I think it's called Status Match or something. A lot of the airlines use that, and like literally they list the criteria.

SPEAKER_01 49:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:57

What is weird about it though is that the countries they allow often move. So like Lufthansa iStatus Match when they had the G GP match, but now you can't match onto them unless you're based in like Germany or Denmark or something. And they move the areas around.

SPEAKER_02 50:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

Often the US, for some reason, they don't like matching to people in the US. I think it's because they're worried about people getting access to their to the lounges in the US and annoying the US partner. So but as I say, like I did that with Airstar. If you're flying somewhere, especially with an airline that's not in an alliance, you can often status match. And sometimes, apparently, you can just go on the customer service site or say and say, I'm interested in it. I have status with X airline. Can I actually and that sometimes they'll give you what's called a challenge match. So they'll say you need to fly it four times and then we'll give you

— Tips for getting started today

SPEAKER_00 50:52

status for the whole year or something like that. I think that's what virgin did.

SPEAKER_01 50:55

So Yeah, I'm gonna do you know what? Thank you, because I I've learned a lot from this. I'm actually gonna go away and have a look at my next itinerary because I'm off to our Marty. I'm hoping to be off to Almaty and and Vietnam soon. So I'm gonna have a look and see what I can come up with as well. But if someone wants to find you, Tim, where can where's the best place to find you?

SPEAKER_00 51:15

Well, for the travel stuff, I have a Substack called Tim Lewis TCF, which was travel conferences. I think I put fun. I never knew any I'm now changing it to kind of the future. Okay. I will I'll now be inspired to produce a bit more content. I I do need to I was gonna I promise to do a guide to people to do the Malaysia Airline scheme. Yeah. Because I've kind of Malaysia's scheme is interesting in that it rewards economy flights way more than most of the other schemes. Yeah. So you can earn status by flying economy. You have to fly a long way in economy.

SPEAKER_03 51:52

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

But you can earn status. Theoretically, you can earn status with two long flights from Dublin via Qatar to somewhere in the Far East via Malaysia.

SPEAKER_01 52:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:04

On economy. So that you can't really do that on any other airline I know about. So that's something I'm I'm gonna follow up with and tell the world. But uh it is very much like hope, hope, they hope they credit it. Hope they credit it.

SPEAKER_01 52:18

Well, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna find out. You you keep me posted and let me know how you go. I'll put all your details in the show notes anyway, for those who want to speak to find Tim. Thanks again for coming on. That was really good. That was very, very good lesson. I feel like I sat in the classroom and I've learned a lot. So yeah, thank you. So thank you again for listening to Truly Expat Travel Podcast and happy travels, and I'll see you next week. Miss Dop. Thank you for joining me on the Truly Expat Travel Podcast. If you liked this episode and you found it valuable, then why don't you go ahead and like and subscribe so that you don't miss an episode moving forward. I've got some amazing guests and some fantastic destinations coming up. But if this is the episode and this is the destination that you really want to go to, then I suggest that you head over to

— Where to find Tim Lewis

SPEAKER_01 53:11

truly expatravel.com where you'll find travel guides and deep dive into this sort of destination. If that's not what you want and you can't find an episode that is a destination you want to travel to, then head over and follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok because I'm pretty sure you'll find something there. In the meantime, save travels and I'll see you next week.