TFCanswers: does it make sense to be enrolled in multiple loyalty programs?
In our weekly appointment TFCanswers we want to have our say on the question of one of our readers who in the comments [...]
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In our weekly appointment TFCanswers we want to have our say on the question of one of our readers who in the comments in our FB group asked:
Does it make sense to be enrolled in more than one loyalty program? And if so what should be the strategy?
First of all. you have to make a distinction between being enrolled in a loyalty program and giving the hunting for the status of that program. These two activities do not necessarily go hand in hand, and most importantly, being a member does not mean you have to be elite.
Coming then to the our reader's question, the answer is obviously YES.. And there are many reasons for this:
- Being enrolled in multiple loyalty programs is the ABC of reward travel, because it allows you not to lose points along the way. It does not matter if you fly only once with a company, be enrolled in at least one program per alliance allows you to accumulate points also in these cases.
- Leveraging status match campaigns also allows you to multiply benefits with minimal effort, such as jumping from one phone company to another just to get the most out of the offer of the moment.
- Often cross-promotions allow you to accumulate points without doing anything, such as to Flying Blue and Accor example or Marriott and Emirates.
- In general, everyone has a preference for one company, and that should be our main destination in terms of accumulating points. One assessment to make, however, is choosing the loyalty program that allows us the highest number of benefits and advantages.
What strategy to implement with secondary programs.
Precisely because they are not the main program, my advice is. Of targeting programs that do not have a fixed deadline of points. For example. Skywards, Emirates' program, makes accumulated points expire after 3 years since they were accrued. Other programs, however, have a fixed duration, regardless of when they were accrued; this is the case with Alitalia's old Millemiglia and the current program Flying of ITA Airways that provides expiration every 3 years.
Then there are programs that link the Expiration of points based on profile activity, for example after 24 months of inactivity they make the points expire. My advice is to focus on these programs, because in fact they potentially make the points valid for life, just remember every X months to do a minimal activity such as buy 1 point, use 1 point, transfer 1 point.
By taking advantage of the possibilities to transfer points from credit cards as well as other loyalty programs, this activity is easy and inexpensive and thus allows you to keep your points valid for life.
As always, I hope this answer will help newbies in the reward travel world make as few mistakes as possible and reach their goals faster. See you next week.
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