Airmiles for flights
BE SURE TO CHECK THE DATE OF THE COUPON/POST - Old posts are NOT removed as they must remain in-order for you to find this site and the most recent deals.A reader asked about using your airmiles for flights. What sort of fees are involved? How early do you have to book to get flights on high-demand days? How often you can get flights in high season? etc...
Very good questions and the topic of a couple of posts. Today I'll outline the fees involved when using your airmiles to get a flight.
To begin, the one flaw of airmiles is having to actually pay money to fly free. Many people don't like this 'hidden fee' and would prefer to spend their points on merchandise and/or gift certificates. Personally, I don't mind as i'm still basically flying for free.
Anyway, to fly using airmiles you must pay the following fees
- The taxes on a regular flight
- A booking fee (I think it's $20) ( I heard there might be no fee if you book online...can anyone confirm this?)
- Any extra fees associated with a flight (Airport improvement fee, US sept 11 security, US international tax, etc...)
Remember to always book early as you don't want to be disappointed. If anyone else has had experience with this please leave a comment. Myself and my readers would love to hear from you.
Comments
Oh – is this a Canadian website, i.e. with reference to Canadian Airmiles program? I know there are other Airmiles programs which differ in the UK and elsewhere.
Hi Anne,
That is quite the problem. I never get cancellation insurance as I’d like to assume that I will find no reason to cancel my trips. And if I did have to cancel my trip for whatever reason it’d be worth losing out on the money that I’d invested in the flight. Weird or wrong thinking? maybe. But it keeps me content. 
I’ll take a look around and see what I can find about cancelling a flight booked with airmiles. I know that I’ve read something about that somewhere and I can’t seem to remember off the top of my head. I’m sure i’ve written it down though.
If you haven’t booked on points to Europe yet I’d recommend actually not using your airmiles for that purpose. If you have the BMO mosaik Mastercard you can travel anywhere Westjet flies in Canada and US for 1600 airmiles. That works out to 12 flights … Where as, I’m not even sure if 20000 airmiles would get you 3 flights to Europe…
Hi,
I fly with Air Miles quite often and regarding the fees, you forgot to mention there is a $40.00 Loyalty fee, which I think is ridiculous! Why should we be charged for remaining a loyal customer of Air Miles?
Hello all Airmile users: I was in a dilemma last year and I ended up in a situation where I couldn’t use my return flight back. I therefore, tried to use my cancellation insurance that I paid for with the extra protection BUT the only reimbursement I received for my extra money was a trade date of return which would mean I would have to use my own money to fly back on a flight to where I was going and then fly back, how ridiculous is that? I lost my airmiles for the return flight and my money for cancellation insurance was a waste of time. I personally will never take out any extra travelling insurance with my airmiles coverage.
Hi, iam going to start working for this comp. that requires me to fly between canada and africa round trip every month.I was wandering what would be the best way to collect airmiles from this as the comp. is paying for the plane tickets but allowing me to collect the miles.
Hi
I’ve done a fair bit of travelling on Airmiles points. My big complaint is the expense of cancellation insurance through them. I have BMO Mastercard Airmiles credit card with the Gold Travel option which provides cancellation insurance for travel. HOWEVER, there is real doubt whether they would refund anything other than the fees etc that you charged to your Mastercard – i.e. they would not provide you financial compensation or give you the Airmiles points back. I have talked to World Access/Allianz who provide the insurance to BMO Mastercard and they say they don’t have anything in writing but they would “tell Airmiles to reimburse the points”. But I say (and insurance people tell me too) that there’s no reason or compulsion for Airmiles to do that! I don’t want to be out my close to 20000 Airmiles for my 3 flights to Europe if I had to cancel somehow. I do wish I could rely on the Mastercard insurance coverage because that costs $70 and the Airmiles coverage will cost almost $450!!
Any thoughts, folks?