Many of us stick with one airline, and one alliance, when earning miles. For most trips, we’ve a fair idea of what miles and tier points / status miles we will pick up for a flight in a particular class, and if we have any doubts about it, the airline’s website most likely will tell us at the time of booking. Airlines have become very sophisticated in encouraging us to upgrade the flexibility of our tickets in return for extra miles (and extra money for them). By and large, the more you spend, the more you earn. It’s the way most programmes are going.
American AAdvantage to become revenue-based
Cathay Pacific Marco Polo Club moves to revenue-based system
BA restructures Executive Club
Emirates changes fare types and rewards
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That said, promotions are always out there, it’s just knowing about them at the time of booking. You could spend your waking hours trawling blogs on the subject, or you could rely on software to keep you updated. That was the idea behind 30K – a plug in which works with your browser (admittedly only Google Chrome at the moment). It shows how many miles and tier points you’ll earn if you book a flight through the big online travel agents such as Expedia.
Here’s an online video of what the system looks like.
The software can handle over 65 frequent flyer programmes StarAlliance, OneWorld and SkyTeam. By default, award miles are shown, but you can also delve more deeply to see status miles, status segments and status points whenever applicable.
Yuo can use the software simply to give you details of miles available if you book a flight, but if you create an account and add your frequent flyer memberships into it, then the software automatically retrieves information on your current status level, miles balances and expiration dates and so can add any tier bonuses you earn for flights to give you the right figure on the miles earned.
The software also allows you to manage all your programmes in one place, though there are other bits of software that offer this kind of dashboard (and I’ve never seen the need – that said, I’ve also had miles expire on me without realising, so perhaps I’m not the best one to give advice on that.
The software has some fun things – like tracking your progress towards the next status level, and also shows you which fares can be upgraded with miles.
30K is offering a free 30-day trial of the plugin, which is available by clicking here.
After the trial, it costs £12.99/$20 a year for the plugin.
