Due to the crisis, save up bonus miles It has become more difficult to buy an award flight - banks have increased their prices, and airlines have increased the taxes and fees required to purchase a ticket. In addition, if there is no income to the bonus account for several years, the accumulated miles “burn out.” Not everyone knows that even a small number of miles can be spent.
Aeroflot
The cheapest bonus ticket within special offers Aeroflot costs 15,000 miles. Moreover, if the account holder has at least 1,769 miles, then they can be used to purchase a certificate for a movie ticket (at a regional cinema). For Muscovites, the cheapest certificate will cost 2,222 miles. You can also exchange miles for going to a restaurant, visiting a water park, bowling alley, various shops, etc.
Examples of rewards in the Aeroflot bonus program:
- gift certificate to the Korablik store in the amount of 500 rubles. – 2208 miles;
- certificate for the IL Patio restaurant chain in the amount of 500 rubles. – 2298 miles (for 3000 rubles – 13650 miles);
- Eldorado store certificate in the amount of 1000 rubles. – 4490 miles (per 10,000 rubles – 45354 miles);
- TGI Fridays certificate in the amount of 1500 rubles. – 6783 miles;
- certificate for visiting the water park in the amount of 1,500 rubles. – 6837 miles.
The full catalog can be found at the link -
Almost all airlines offer to donate accumulated miles to charity. If you have at least 5,000 miles in your account, then at least 1,000 miles can be donated to the Gift of Life, Life Line, Spivakov International Charitable Foundation or to the Kommersant Publishing House Relief Fund. The miles will be spent on free transportation for children who need medical care and air tickets for talented children.
Miles can be spent through your personal account on the website.
UTair
The second largest air carrier in Russia has a bonus program “Status”. In addition to tickets, miles can be used to purchase accommodation in expensive hotels. For example, a room at the Ambassador Hotel (St. Petersburg) will cost 36,000 miles per night in the low season and 45,000 miles in the high season. Two days at the Moscow Baltschug Kempinski hotel cost 45,000 miles, and at the Wellness Hotel Yugorskaya Dolina (Khanty-Mansiysk) you need to pay 12,000 miles for one night in a double room.
You can spend miles on the website.
Siberia Airlines offers to spend unnecessary miles on the Ordinary Miracle Children's Charitable Foundation and Rusfond. You can transfer them through your personal account or by calling the airline’s call center (8-800-100-77-11). You will not be able to buy any items with accumulated points.
TravelmilesiGlobe
Miles are credited to plastic cards from 15 banks, including Raiffeisenbank, B&N Bank, Uniastrum Bank, Rosbank, UBRD, Intesa and others. For points you can:
- book a hotel around the world (for example, three nights in Barcelona will cost 57,943 miles);
- rent a car (for example, a day in Yaroslavl will cost 4067 miles);
- buy a ticket for Aeroexpress (with Belorussky railway station to Sheremetyevo Airport 1772 miles);
- purchase a train ticket (from Moscow to St. Petersburg from 7910 miles).
You can pay for these and other services on the website.
Milesandmore
Miles Members and more can purchase gift certificates to Eldorado, M.Video and Technosil for 500 rubles. for 3,000 miles (750 rubles for 4,500 miles). Hotel stays start from 10,200 miles per night, and car rentals start from 7,500 miles per day.
Shopping at outlets using gift vouchers in Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, France, Italy and Spain will cost 25 euros per 7,500 miles.
Miles can also be spent on international charity - from 3,000 miles to educate migrant teenagers, 5,000 miles to feed 50 African children, 10,000 miles to feed 10 African children for a month, 20,000 miles to buy specialized products for two children from Africa , which is enough for a month.
Alfamiles and compliments
Alfa Bank, where miles are awarded, and Uralsib Bank, whose currency is “compliments,” have their own bonus programs for travel cards. Miles from Alpha can be spent on Railway tickets, car rental, travel insurance, and also donate to the Konstantin Khabensky Foundation. At Uralsib you can pay for a wide range of products with compliments: from Gillette women's shaving gel for 9,041 compliments to Withings Activite watches for 128,909 compliments.
If you are just about to start accumulating miles, we recommend that you read the rating.
09.04.18 64 952 4
Friends invited me to Barcelona for a Metallica concert.
We have already bought and booked everything ourselves. We are happy with how we saved on tickets: we fly with Aeroflot Bonus miles. I've been in the program for ten years now, so I don't skip the details.
Grigory Yaroshenko
counts miles
For nothing, the friend beams, only 30,000 miles and fees.
A check on the Aeroflot website confirms my doubts: this is the case when it is better to buy with money. I'll tell you why.
What are Aeroflot Bonus miles?
Miles are the units by which the airline measures passenger loyalty. The same scheme applies here as in stores: you buy goods, receive bonuses, and spend them on other goods. In this case, you buy tickets, get miles, and spend them on other tickets, hotels or car rentals.
The Aeroflot Bonus program encourages the loyalty of frequent flyers by awarding miles for using the company's services. They don't have an official cash value, but you can calculate the price when you use them because you'll be exchanging a certain number of miles for a service with a certain value. And just like when exchanging currency, you can return your accumulated bonus miles at a favorable or unfavorable rate.
The more often you fly, the more bonuses you receive and the higher your status. The program has three elite levels: silver, gold and platinum. Members of these elite levels can receive additional miles for each flight on an Aeroflot or program partner airline.
What are miles awarded for?
Loyalty program "Aeroflot Bonus" offers two ways to accumulate miles: fly Aeroflot flights and use the services of partners.
These miles are called qualifying miles. To move from the basic level to the next one, silver, you need to accumulate 25,000 qualifying miles in a year or fly somewhere with Aeroflot 25 times.
Miles in the Aeroflot Bonus program are awarded for flights on regular flights of Aeroflot or airlines that have become partners of the program. When purchasing tickets, you need to pay attention to the tariffs: not all tariffs are included in the accrual of miles.
Miles in the program are given based on the distance in miles between the airports of departure and arrival and the fare indicated on the ticket. Miles are earned only for completed flights.
Miles are awarded for each leg of the journey. Such segments are called flight segments. If you fly on a flight Moscow - Istanbul - Delhi, you will have two flight segments. If on any of these segments of the journey you purchased a ticket at a fare that does not contribute to the accrual of miles, you will not be credited with miles for that flight segment.
For flights less than 500 miles, the member's account will be credited with 500 miles. If you flew on a partner airline, miles may be calculated differently. This is the case when the agreement between Aeroflot and the partner requires a different payment procedure. You can find out how miles will be credited in this case in the “Partners” section.
If you have already flown on regular Aeroflot flights and only later registered in the loyalty program, you will be credited with qualifying miles for all flights that occurred within 6 months before the date of registration in the program, if tickets were purchased at fares that participate in the accrual of miles.
To take these flights into account in the program, enter data about them in your personal account in the “Accrue miles” section or send to "Aeroflot Bonus" flight documentation - a copy of the itinerary receipt and originals or copies of boarding passes. You have 3 months to do this from the date of registration in the program.
If there is a forced transfer from one Aeroflot flight to another or to a partner airline flight and new route will differ from the original one, miles will be credited to you based on the actual flight. If the flight is canceled and you are transferred to another airline that is not part of the program, you will not be credited with miles.
Miles for purchasing goods or services from program partners. If your work does not involve business travel and you can go on vacation a couple of times a year, it is more interesting to accumulate non-qualifying miles. They are received by using the goods and services of program partners: hotels, car rental services, restaurants, banks. These miles can only be used on an award ticket and do not count toward elite level qualification.
Miles for partner products are awarded to the member upon registration in the program. Goods and services purchased before registration are not included in the mileage collection. Not all partner products offer miles. You can find out what's included and what's not directly from the retailer.
The miles will automatically be credited to your account - this takes up to 60 days from the date of payment for the partner’s product or service, if you presented your program member card when paying. Moreover, this must be done before the check is generated for you. It is not possible to restore miles after payment has been made.
If you did everything correctly, but the miles did not appear on your account within the specified period, send to "Aeroflot Bonus" application for miles reinstatement and a copy of the document confirming receipt of the service. You have one year from the date the partner provided the service. An exception is if the terms of cooperation between Aeroflot and this company require a different period.
Miles for hotel bookings. One of Aeroflot’s partners is the hotel booking service Booking.com. You can earn miles for booking hotels on this site. Please note: they will only be credited when you switch to Booking.com from the Aeroflot website. Miles are credited automatically no later than 60 days after the end of your stay at the hotel.
Please provide your program membership number when booking "Aeroflot Bonus". If you forget or enter the wrong one, you can update your details when confirming your booking.
If you are booking a room for several program participants "Aeroflot Bonus", miles will be credited to only one person.
In what cases are miles not awarded?
If you purchase something with miles, new miles will not be awarded at the same time for the purchase. Either accrual or write-off, but not both.
Miles are not awarded for lost, unused or expired tickets. Also, miles are not credited for award tickets, free tickets, air tickets to charter flights, air tickets paid at special rates.
It’s easier not to figure out what type of fare you have, but to determine before purchasing whether they will give you miles for your ticket. To do this, on the Aeroflot website, enter the city of departure and city of arrival and click “Find”.
How to check your miles
You can view the number of miles in your personal account on the airline’s website or call the Aeroflot call center.
Do miles have a price?
Miles are free. This is a loyalty reward. On the other hand, you can use them to pay for tickets. Miles become a means of payment between the passenger and the airline, a surrogate currency. Like any currency, miles have a rate. It may or may not be very profitable.
When you sell currency, for example euros, after a trip to Spain, you carefully choose an exchanger. It is not profitable to change for 68 rubles if on the next street they accept for 70. It’s the same with miles: when you buy an award ticket, you sell miles to Aeroflot. To sell a mile for more, you need to know how to value it.
How to calculate the price of a mile
For my friends, each ticket cost 30,000 miles and 5,880 rubles in fees:
By choosing the usual payment method, you can fly to Barcelona on the same dates and in the same economy class for 14,465 rubles:
If you subtract the amount of fees from the total cost of the ticket, and then divide the result by the mileage rate, you get the mileage rate:
(14 465 − 5880) / 30 000 = 0,286
Friends sold 30,000 miles at 28.6 kopecks per mile. Is it expensive or not very expensive?
To understand, I’ll compare it with another flight. A ticket to Havana costs 46,816 RUR:
And here are the conditions for an award ticket in the same direction:
70,000 miles in exchange for 33,796 rubles. This option is better - now a mile costs 48 kopecks.
To make full use of the Aeroflot Bonus, you need to get into the habit of counting miles and their value. It will help you not only sell miles more expensively, but also accumulate them faster.
How to earn miles if you rarely fly
The easiest way to earn miles is by using the services of program partners. The list includes dozens of companies, from Sberbank to the Moskhoztorg store. There is only one principle: when you spend money, you get miles as a bonus.
For example, every 30 rubles left at any of the Novikov Group restaurants brings one mile to your account. And ordering food through the Delivery Club service costs the same mile for every 23 rubles. A condition applies to Internet services: you need to go to the partner’s website from the Aeroflot Bonus program page.
Aeroflot Bonus and partner banks
The easiest way to earn miles is by using a card from a partner bank. Many banks offer joint programs: credit and debit cards. You pay for your usual expenses and receive miles in return. For a certain amount spent on the card during a month or another period established by the bank, you will be credited with a certain number of miles.
Partners change, and it is better to keep an eye on this. When a new bank appears in the program, its cards usually earn more miles than the cards of banks that are veterans of the program.
Usually mileage cards There are several statuses. The higher the status, the more miles it generates. A mid-tier card gives you more miles than a regular card, and a premium card gives you even more.
You can save on the cost of cards. Banks regularly hold promotions, you just need to ask. It’s like a discount: you won’t get it unless you ask. A platinum credit card brought me 60,000 Aeroflot miles last year. The grace period ended and I closed it without losses.
What to do if banks do not offer interesting conditions. First, remember that a mile has a price - let’s determine it around 38 kopecks based on the results of the two examples given. Then estimate the monthly expenses that you are willing to pay by card. Finally, compare how many miles the card will accumulate in a year.
How many miles will I accumulate in a year if I spend 140,000 rubles per month?
Basic
Maintenance per year
1000 R
Miles at 60 R
Miles per year
Average
Maintenance per year
3500 R
Miles at 60 R
Miles per year
Premium
Maintenance per year
8000 R
Miles at 60 R
Miles per year
The average card will earn 14,000 more miles than the base card. At our rate, this is 5,320 rubles, which covers the cost of annual card maintenance. It makes sense to take it. But the premium one falls short: you need to spend more or choose another card.
How long do miles last?
The validity period of miles depends on the terms of the loyalty program. For example, ALL Airlines miles last 5 years, and Aeroflot miles expire if you don’t fly for money at least once every 2 years.
In order not to lose the miles you have received, find out how long they will remain valid and what needs to be done to prevent them from expiring.
When and how to spend
The program is designed in such a way that the cost of a mile depends on the amount you spend on the flight. The higher the ticket price, the more expensive miles you can sell to Aeroflot. This was the case in the example above with Barcelona and Havana.
The highest price per mile will come from upgrading from Economy to Business. You will have to buy premium economy - this does not work with lower fares - and spend the same number of miles as you need for an award ticket. But the cost of a mile will be more than one ruble - you will be able to save a lot on a business class flight. But you need to understand that you are paying extra for comfort, and not for additional kilometers in the sky.
If you are not ready to spend money on premium economy, you need to catch special offers. Interesting options for a vacation or short trip can be found in the Light Award promotion, when the mileage cost of flights is reduced by a quarter. The promotion takes place several times a year and includes popular destinations. The airline's newsletter notifies you of the start of Light Award.
The cheapest miles are priced in the Aeroflot Bonus online store. There you can buy a suitcase, a tenth iPhone or a movie. Before you think about buying, remember our lessons in mileage arithmetic. Calculate where it is more profitable to buy.
How to transfer miles to another person
The Aeroflot Bonus program has a Miles Transfer service. With it, you can transfer your miles to another person. A prerequisite is that the account of the participant who is transferring bonus miles has at least one Aeroflot flight in the last 24 months for which miles were given. To transfer miles you must be registered in the program "Aeroflot Bonus" no less than 90 days before the miles transfer date.
You can transfer no more than 50,000 miles per calendar year and no more than 5,000 miles per transaction. The number of miles transferred must be a multiple of 500.
The recipient will be able to accept a maximum of 50,000 miles from one or different people. This amount must be within 10 transactions within one calendar year.
Bonus miles transferred will be non-qualifying for the recipient and will not affect promotion to an elite tier or retention in the elite tier of the program.
Aeroflot charges a commission for transferring miles. You will see it in the member’s personal account in the “Spend miles” section when making a transfer. This is a fixed amount - 600 rubles for each transaction. Payment is made in rubles.
Elite members are allowed to transfer miles with a mileage fee of 20% of the number of miles transferred. The following limits apply to transfers with a commission in miles:
- Silver members can transfer no more than 10,000 miles per calendar year;
- Gold level members - no more than 20,000 miles per calendar year;
- Platinum members - no more than 30,000 miles per calendar year. For other transfers the commission will be in rubles.
You cannot cancel a completed transfer of miles: you will not be able to return bonus miles and commissions transferred from your account.
Is it possible to buy or sell Aeroflot miles?
Aeroflot prohibits the sale of bonus miles, including by transferring them for a fee. If they find out that someone has sold or bought miles, Aeroflot has the right to cancel the accumulated miles, cancel or block the account for any period, and cancel the elite level of the seller and buyer. Expenses will not be reimbursed.
Remember
- You don't have to be an avid traveler to fly for miles.
- Paying with miles means paying with money.
- With a bank card, you can actually fly with miles once a year. When choosing a card, it is useful to count the miles and their value.
- It is wise to plan your vacation with Light Award in mind.
- Aeroflot Bonus is not the best place to buy a tenth iPhone.
