Frequent flyers can transfer airmiles from one loyalty program to another only if…

This debate goes back ages. Airlines have always wanted both frequent and occasional flyers to stay loyal—and ignore all other options. But this is a very puritan approach, and worked many moons ago. Times have changed, and so should you. Because miles are like money, and just like you keep your mutual funds diversified, you also need to keep your miles collection diversified.

You will typically need to select one airline that meets many of the requirements for your travel purposes. For instance, back in the day, Jet Airways was my preferred airline, which used to fly me around India, as well as to Europe and Asia. Consequently, JetPrivilege was my core programme. It also had deep partnerships with other airlines, such as KLM, Air France, and Etihad, allowing flights on these airlines to earn me miles on JetPrivilege.

Airlines frequently enter into partnerships with other airlines, because one airline cannot usually bring people around the globe. This allows them to provide their passengers the ability to fly to their final destination by changing planes. The next step in their partnership is usually to collaborate for frequent flyer programmes. This allows passengers to credit their miles for the entire trip on a single airline, according to their preference or loyalty. Therefore, you don’t need to open accounts with multiple airlines and credit a small amount of miles to each. You can accumulate most of them in one programme.

Friendships become alliances

Many airlines around the globe have organised themselves one step beyond a partnership. They participate in an alliance. This membership is akin to a cohort, which provides passengers with a uniform set of benefits across all member airlines.

There are three major airline alliances globally. Star Alliance (www.staralliance. com) is the largest, with 25 member airlines, including Air India (India), Lufthansa (Germany), United (US) and Singapore Airlines (Singapore). Oneworld (www.oneworld. com) comprises 15 member carriers, including British Airways (UK), Cathay Pacific (Hong Kong) and Qatar Airways (Qatar). SkyTeam (www.skyteam.com) comprises Delta Air Lines (US), KLM (the Netherlands), Air France (France), and 15 other airlines as its members.

Suppose you travel frequently on member airlines of a single alliance. In that case, you can also credit your flights from all airlines into one loyalty programme, which allows you to accumulate miles in one place, rather than crediting them in small amounts to various airlines. The benefit is that you will be able to collect enough miles for a redemption ticket, rather than having a small number of miles in many places. This is the piggy bank approach, as I call it. For instance, when I fly Lufthansa or any other Star Alliance carrier, I put my Air India Maharaja Club membership number to accrue Air India points rather than Miles & More miles (the frequent flier membership programme from Lufthansa).

Entering my Air India number also allows me to access benefits across all member carriers. For instance, as a Star Alliance Gold tier member (due to my airline status with Air India), all other member carriers offer me priority check-in at their business class counters, even when I am travelling economy class. They also offer lounge access worldwide due to this status equivalence, allowing me to board the plane before most other passengers.

Core and satellite programmes

The wise approach is to have one core loyalty programme and then have additional memberships in other programmes as needed. This is because one airline may or may not be able to fly you to all the destinations you want to visit, so you will need to use others as well.

Alternatively, you can find cheaper redemption options on other airlines due to the redemption rules of these programmes. For instance, to fly between Delhi and London, British Airways charges 30,000 miles on its programme for an economy ticket and 90,000 for business class. But American Airlines, another oneworld member carrier, can provide you with the same ticket for 20,000 American Airlines miles. So, while you might want a core programme to be the centre of your efforts, you might want to build mileage balances in other programmes because there might be a good opportunity for you to save miles there.

The question that people often ask is whether they can transfer miles from one programme to another to build balances quickly. That does not happen, except if the same entity operates the programmes. For instance, you can move around miles between Qatar Airways, British Airways, Iberia, and Finnair because all of them participate in Avios, the loyalty currency of IAG. However, if you expect to convert Air India points into United miles because the ticket is cheaper in United, then that is not possible.

The Author is THE FOUNDER AND EDITOR OF LIVEFROMALOUNGE.COM