Exchange for a free ticket to travel

There was once a joke about free travel: French writer François Rabelais was in a hurry to go to Paris once, but he had no money to travel. What should he do? He got some colored powder, wrapped it into three packets, and wrote "medicine for the king", "medicine for the queen" and "medicine for the prince" on it, and then deliberately let the police see these things. After the police found out, they immediately arrested him and sent him to Paris as a major suspect. After investigation, there was no basis for conviction, so he had to be released, and he achieved the goal of going to Paris for free.

Actually, you don't need to take such a big risk to travel for free. Following our guidance and your intentions, it is not very difficult to go anywhere. And, we travel by plane, for free!

Join the airline club

There are many ways to get free air tickets, but the final flight depends on the airline to honor, so among all the ways, joining the airline's frequent flyer program is undoubtedly the easiest The direct method is, in fact, the main source of free airfare for the vast majority of free flyers.

As an important step in attracting repeat customers, airlines have packaged their traveler clubs quite attractively. From the point of view of the rules, they are also similar, especially for the way and standard of accumulating mileage by flying, which are all calculated according to the international standards. The more points you get, when the points accumulate to a certain level, you can use them to redeem a free ticket.

The calculation method of points that can be accumulated for each flight is as follows: mileage points = standard mileage of flight segment * class factor + ∑ extra award mileage + ∑ promotional mileage. The cabin coefficient in this formula is basically the same for all companies. First class is 1.5, business class is 1.3, and economy class is 1. Some airlines have more detailed rules. Factor 1.4.

It is worth noting that ordinary airlines will also provide upgrade services for membership cards, which means that the cardholder can upgrade the ordinary card after holding the card for a period of time _usually one year-flight accumulation to a certain level Whether it is a silver card or a gold card, there will be different improvements in various benefits after the natural upgrade. However, all airlines stipulate that only the miles accumulated through flying can be used as upgrade points, and the points obtained from other consumption cannot be used as upgrade points.

Of course, it's not enough to be a seasoned free-air trapeze just knowing that. In fact, although the regulations of airlines are similar, experienced free flyers will stick to the "small differences" to gain greater convenience for themselves.

For example, Shanghai Airlines provides a never-expiring discount for its frequent flyer points, which is good news for business people who take infrequent flights every year. At least every flight can be rewarded , the accumulation of small amounts can also achieve satisfactory goals. In addition, the special policy of China Eastern Airlines is that you can buy certain points in cash. Don't underestimate this point. If you are 100 points short of redeeming the ticket, and the ticket is expensive during the Spring Festival, you may only need a small amount of money based on this policy. You can get a flight ticket.

From the practical point of view, joining the airline club is the easiest way of all. It is especially suitable for business people who travel a lot on business - after a year of work, they have unknowingly saved up With a round-trip air ticket, you can easily go home to accompany your parents.

Consumption by special customers

It is indeed easy to exchange air tickets by flight mileage, but not everyone is so lucky. It has become an inevitable choice for airlines, and of course, there is a little more chance for us to win free tickets.

Now, let's have a daydream together: get up early in the morning, walk into the fitness club as usual and spend 50 yuan, and your Oriental Miles increase by 25 points in an instant. The flight ticket is one centimeter closer; when you are ready to end, you answer a mobile phone and spend 0.4 yuan, making a small contribution to the increase of points on the bill at the end of the month; at noon, you walk into the CITIC Pacific's house that sounds like The very ferocious leopard entertained two customers, and 200 points were easily obtained, no, because you happened to use the co-branded credit card when you checked out, your points increased a little bit; when you get home at night, look through The new magazine just delivered, and I copied a notice: "Because you subscribed to our partner's magazine, we will add 200 points to your account"... Before you know it, your life has been cancelled Around, as if everything can be related to the ticket.

Generally speaking, the bigger the airline, the more special customers, the easier it is to accumulate points through everyday life. Taking China Eastern Airlines as an example, there are as many as 11 types of special merchants announced on the website, with a total of more than 40. These special merchants cover almost all aspects of daily life and business. It is no exaggeration to say that they are doing almost every business. You can find opportunities to increase your points every time you do something. This way of earning tickets is more suitable for people with average flight frequency but more colorful daily life. In terms of the speed of accumulation, since the businesses and levels involved are relatively rich, the accumulation will not be much slower than the accumulation of flight miles, the only fly in the ointment. The only thing is that the cost will be higher - almost all the special merchants take the high-end route, and in the end, you may not even be able to tell whether this free ticket is really free.

Exchange of financial consumption points

In addition to special merchants such as food, drink and entertainment, various airlines have a very close relationship with banks. Not only have they launched co-branded credit cards, but the consumption points of ordinary credit cards can also be converted into accumulated miles .

In general, airlines always offer more discounts to co-branded credit cards with banks. For example, the China Eastern Airlines Dragon Card jointly launched by China Eastern Airlines and China Construction Bank, in addition to accumulating Eastern Miles points by taking China Eastern Airlines flights, cardholders can also accumulate Eastern Miles points for consumption by using China Eastern Airlines Dragon Card. 10 points), every 15 points of consumption points will be automatically converted into 1 point of Eastern Miles. You can also accumulate double points at the same time when swiping your card at China Eastern's preferential merchants (the points do not participate in the CCB point exchange activities). The consumption points of CCB ordinary credit cards are exchanged for every 30 points for one mileage point, and co-branded card users can also enjoy a series of insurance benefits. In addition to CCB, the credit card points of Bank of China, Bank of Communications and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank can also be exchanged for China Eastern Miles, with a ratio ranging from 12 to 1 to 25 to 1.

In addition to China Eastern Airlines, other airlines also have their own financial service partners, and the cooperation methods are mainly co-branded cards and credit card points redemption. The general redemption ratio is between 12:1 and 24:1. Compared with the first two points, this point method is more flexible. As long as there is living consumption, the points can be exchanged for mileage by swiping the card. It can be said that it is suitable for all ages. However, it should be pointed out that the validity period of general bank card points redemption is relatively short, and you need to contact the bank as soon as possible to prevent the consumption points from expiring.

Accumulation of points on travel websites

In fact, no matter whether you join the frequent flyer program, special merchants or credit card points, in the final analysis, you need to ask the airline for air tickets through certain procedures. However, even if you don't go through an airline, you can get a bonus free ticket, and that's the Internet.

There are two main websites that have opened up air ticket booking and hotel booking business earlier in China, one is Ctrip and the other is eLong. If customers book air tickets, hotels or other vacation products through them, the website will give customers a point, which can be redeemed for prizes when they have enough points, including air tickets.

Taking Ctrip as an example, his points rules are as follows. If you are an ordinary member of Ctrip and book hotels/air tickets/tours through Ctrip, the basic points are based on hotel reservations: basic points = reservation amount, online booking = basic points * 2; air ticket booking: basic points = reservation amount / 4 , online booking = basic points * 2; holiday product booking: basic points = booking amount / 4, online booking = basic points * 2. It should be noted that since Ctrip has close ties with most domestic airlines, it is very likely that the cardholder is both a member of Ctrip and a member of the airline, so you should also choose what to use when booking. Identity reservation.

According to Ctrip's regulations, if the airline's membership card is used, the points for booking hotels will be directly included in the airline's mileage range, and Ctrip does not provide points. However, for vacation products and air ticket business, Ctrip and airlines will provide their own points, but the two cannot be exchanged for each other for the time being, so you have to choose according to the actual situation.

Try to use cards as much as possible

Because it is free to apply for airline membership cards now, if there is no cost pressure, it is no problem for each company to apply for one, but if every card is used, You don't have to.

In general, we advocate the use of one card as much as possible. As for which card to choose, it depends on the actual situation: first, the airline and its partners must cover the area you often travel to; second , when considering practicality, you should take into account the number of airline partners, because the flights between partners can be accumulated on one card, which is more helpful to increase points as soon as possible; finally, personal purposes should be considered as much as possible In terms of the flight situation, if your hometown is in Changsha, as the only airlines that carry out the Shanghai-Changsha route are Shanghai Airlines, China Eastern Airlines and China Southern Airlines, if you have a Shanghai Airlines and an Air China card, it is recommended that you choose to use Shanghai Airlines. With the frequent flyer card, on the one hand, the mileage of Shanghai Airlines and Air China can be accumulated together, and on the other hand, it can also take into account the routes for visiting relatives.

Also, consider carefully when choosing a beneficiary for an award ticket. Now the rules of each airline are the same: if the cardholder stipulates that the beneficiary of redemption is himself, he cannot redeem free tickets for others. If he stipulates a list of beneficiaries for redemption, he can only redeem free tickets for those on the list, but this list can be changed. If no beneficiary of the free ticket is specified, the free ticket can be redeemed for anyone. Generally speaking, the wider the scope, the greater the risk of being taken by others, so it is better to think more about how to choose the scope.