Free Travel with Reward and Loyalty Cards

How far can your airmiles get you?

• Great rewards with Nectar
• All you need to know about collecting Airmiles
• Frequent flyer miles from BA and Virgin Atlantic
• Reward credit cards

You can get travel treats - like free flights and free Eurostar tickets - from money that you're already spending.

Whether it's just your weekly shop, or a regular spend on flights back and forth across the Atlantic, you can collect points that you can redeem. And you can get free days out with the kids and annual passes to attractions like Legoland.

So - if you aren't signed up for as many fidelity schemes as possible - you're missing out on freebies that your spending already entitles you to.

We've put together an easy guide to getting the most out of reward schemes. Read on to find out how to do it and start reaping the free travel benefits.

Great rewards with Nectar

A really easy way to turn what you are already spending into free travel is to collect points on a Nectar card.

Nectar has partnerships with loads of different companies, including online shopping sites like Amazon, restaurants, supermarkets and even phone services like Talktalk.

How to earn your points

Nectar points are a good place to start because there are so many places you can collect them. You can earn them shopping online at sites like Amazon or Play.com - or if you are booking a holiday on Expedia.

And you can also grab points by shopping at Sainsbury’s or filling up with petrol in BP. Simply sign up online or grab a leaflet in store. They'll then send you a card and you can start shopping straight away.

Where your points can take you

Nectar points can be exchanged using Ebookers to get flights for free. The distance you can travel depends on the amount of points you have.

Unfortunately there are no set zones, but as a rough guide to the scale of points you need, you’d have to get 4,000 points to get to Paris and 161,000 points to get to Sydney. Check out the Nectar pages to see how far you can fly.

You can also trade in your Nectar points for Eurostar tickets. You'll need 14,000 points or more to get to European destinations like Lille, Paris and Brussels.

If you like the sound of travelling by train, you can also currently exchange 3,000 points for a 35% discount on your chance to travel in style on Orient Express trains.

Trains travel through Europe from Venice to London, taking in the sights of the Alps and Paris along the way. Whichever way you want to travel, simply login to your Nectar account and exchange your points for airmiles.

Nectar card holders can also make the most of Nectar’s Great August Giveaway, with chances to win some fab summer prizes. Simply spend £10 in Nectar’s estores to be entered into the draw where you can win washing machines, laptops and even a bed from Argos!

Airmiles

Airmiles is an individual company that has lots of different partners, so you can collect airmiles from heaps of places. Just go to the airmiles website, fill in your details and start collecting.

Who you can collect with

Many different companies are associated with Airmiles, and they'll all let you exchange reward points for airmiles and free flights.

This table compares some of the best and tells you how you earn points. For a full list of all airmiles partnership companies, visit the Airmiles website.

How far will your miles get you?

Airmiles has split the world up into seven zones and the more miles you collect, the further you can fly. This table lists just a few of the most popular destinations and the number of points you need to get there.

For a full guide to all the destinations you can go to, check out the Zone map.

Do you have to use your airmiles for flights?

You certainly don't. If flying isn't your thing you can get alternate transport from 900 miles upwards. Nine hundred airmiles can be exchanged for Eurostar tickets for journeys to Paris, Lille or Brussels.

Or, if you’ve booked a cruise with companies like P&O ferries, Ocean Village or Costa Cruises, you can exchange your miles for on-board credit or cabin upgrades.

How to I collect the miles in the first place?

How you collect depends on who you're collecting with. For example, with Tesco and Shell, you use your normal reward card and then ask them to convert your points to airmiles.

You can do this by phoning them up and asking. Or even easier and cheaper, go on either of their websites and register for an account. You can then log in and exchange the points you've earned for airmiles.

If you're collecting while shopping online, you log in to your Airmiles account on the Airmiles website. Once in your account, you click through to the site you want to use, like eBay or Figleaves and start shopping.

If you're collecting through Lloyds TSB or signing up with other companies like Pruhealth and the Carphone Warehouse, talk to the individual companies, or if you're changing money with Travelex you just have to give them your Airmiles membership number to collect the points.

You’ll receive a statement every quarter to let you know how many miles you’ve got, so you can keep track of all those points.

How do I convert my airmiles online into miles in the sky?

To convert your airmiles into flights, simply go onto the Airmiles website, login to your account and select the 'Spend Miles' tab.

All the airmiles you've collected will be in your account, so just pick where you want to go, book your trip and start packing!

Frequent flyer miles

If you travel a lot with one airline, they often offer you frequent flyer miles to say thanks for always sticking with them. You will get a certain amount of frequent flyer miles per flight you pay for. When you've got enough, you can exchange them for free flights.

You can collect miles through big associations like Oneworld Alliance or Star Alliance which have partners in loads of different airlines.

The Oneworld Alliance includes airlines like British Airways, American Airlines, Cathay Pacific, Iberia and Qantas. The Star Alliance includes airlines like Air Canada, bmi and Lufthansa.

This means that you collect points from all of these airlines, and they can then be used on any flight with an airline in that association.

So, if you collect miles with British Airways, you can use them for flights with other airlines in the Oneworld Alliance like Qantas and American Airlines.

We've gathered together details of the main frequent flyer programmes, so you can get the most for your flights.

• British Airways Executive Club

How you earn

To collect BA miles, you simply join their executive club online and become a blue cardholder.

There are loads of different ways you can earn miles with them. The biggest is of course, to collect miles while you fly. If you fly with a flexible economy ticket you get a mile for every mile flown, but if you fly with an economy ticket you only earn 25% of the actual miles flown.

A flexible economy ticket allows you to make changes to your travel plans, whereas if you buy the cheapest economy ticket then you don't usually get refunds or the possibility of changing your flight if something comes up last minute.

There's a pretty big difference in flight prices, so we'd suggest you go with the lowest price economy flight.

You can also earn BA miles by shopping online on sites like Waterstone’s and hmv.com. Just log in to your account through the British Airways site, click on the links to the sites you want to shop on and start spending.

You can also get places like Tesco and Hilton Hotels to convert the points you collect on their rewards scheme to BA miles, in the same way you do with Airmiles. On top of all this, there is a BA American Express Credit card.

Tier points

BA operates a tier points system. This means that every time you fly you collect tier points as well as miles. These tier points are a reward for flying with BA, and the more you fly the more you get.

When these tier points build up, you move on to a silver and then gold card. These cards give you extra benefits, like letting you into the airport lounges for all the free sandwiches you want.

What you can get with your miles

BA miles can become BA flights, or flights with any of their partner airlines. You can use miles only for flights - if you have enough - or you can use miles and money.

For example, with 9,000 miles, you can fly to anywhere in the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Holland, Belgium or Switzerland. However, if you only have 6,000 miles, you can pay an extra £30 to go to the same places.

To get further afield, you need 50,000 miles, or 35,000 miles with £115, to get to North America, South Asia and the Caribbean. 100,000 miles, or 70,000 miles plus £250, will get you anywhere in the world.

• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Alternatively, you can collect through individual airlines' rewards scheme. Virgin Atlantic’s rewards scheme is called the Flying Club and anyone can earn when they fly.

How you earn

Simply go onto the Virgin Atlantic website, sign up to their Flying Club to become a red cardholder and start earning miles on any Virgin Atlantic flights you take.

When you’re in Economy class you receive 50% of the actual miles flown, while in Premium Economy you’ll receive 150% of the miles flown and in Upper Class you receive 200%.

For example, if you were to fly to New York on a return flight, you’d earn 3,458 miles in Economy, because that would be half the distance you’d travelled.

You can also earn miles with hotel chains like Marriott, Hilton and Hyatt, or with car rental companies like Avis and Hertz.

And you get miles when you pay for services from other Virgin group partners, like Virgin Holidays or Virgin Experience Days, as well as the Virgin Atlantic Credit Card.

Tier points

The Flying Club, like BA’s Executive Club, has different coloured cards depending on how frequently you fly. Their tier points system is similar to BA - the more you fly, the more tier points you get and the better your card becomes.

The first card is red and then you progress to silver and then gold. The gold card has top level benefits like airport lounges and an increase in the miles you earn when you fly.

For economy flights, you receive two tier points, for premium economy you earn three points and for upper class you earn five points. Fifteen tier points will upgrade you to a silver card and 25 more points will upgrade you to a gold card.

Where you can go

Virgin miles can get you flights to all their destinations - see the list here. As usual, the number of miles you need depends on your destination. Here's a few examples:

• New York - 40,500 miles
• Cape Town - 50,000 miles
• Tokyo - 60,000 miles
• Sydney - 105,000 miles

You can also use your miles to upgrade your current flight. 20,000 miles will get you a lovely upgrade from Economy to Premium Economy and for 40,000 miles you can upgrade from Premium Economy to the swish Upper Class.

If you don't have enough points for your big flight, the Flying Club does let you use your points for other goodies. Virgin offer an airport chauffeur service for 12,500 miles.

And you can also exchange your miles for Eurostar tickets. You're looking at around 18,000 miles to get to Paris, Brussels or Disneyland Paris.

If you don't fancy going anywhere, you can spend your miles on hotels and treat yourself to a bit of pampering closer to home.

Virgin have a partnership scheme with Hilton hotels. Simply phone up and change your miles into Hilton Honors points, which you can then use on free stays. One mile is equivalent to one hotel point and a free night’s stay starts from 10,000 points.

Are there any downsides to frequent flyer programmes?

Frequent flyer miles are great, but there are a few things to remember about them.

First, each flight only has a certain quota of seats that can be bought using frequent flyer miles, so more popular flights will go really quickly. This means if you want a specific flight or you're travelling in a group, you need to book early.

Also bear in mind that the flights aren't entirely free. You've still got to pay airport tax and fuel surcharges. At the moment, fuel surcharges are soaring and they can amount to more than simply buying a flight with a cheaper airline.

However, if you're savvy and know the tricks of the trade, you can still get great deals, especially on long distance destinations. If you are a frequent flyer, there's no reason not to sign up and get free flights for money you're already spending.

Reward credit cards

Another good way to cut travwel cost is to use a reward credit card that gives you miles when you spend on it. There are plenty of these to choose from.

The most important thing to remember with these cards is that they are useless unless you pay off your bill every month. You will not earn miles on outstanding balances and you could get a card with a cheaper interest rate elsewhere.

Not sure you've got the right card? Check out our credit card comparison tables for the best deal for you.

However, if you're good and pay off your balance each month, a reward credit card could be the right choice for you. We've rounded up the best ones for travel - see the whole lot in our article here.

Tesco Clubcard credit card

With a Tesco Clubcard credit card you receive a clubcard point for every £4 you spend on your card on everyday shopping. You also get five points for every £4 spent in Tesco, which can really build up if you do your weekly shop in there.

£2.50 worth of vouchers from Tesco will get you a whopping 60 airmiles.

The Tesco Clubcard Credit Card has a typical 16.9% APR, 0% on balance transfers for 14 months and 0% on all purchases for six months.

British Airways American Express Credit Card

British Airways have two credit cards for you to choose from. With the ordinary BA American Express credit card you get one BA mile for every £1 you spend. You also get 1,000 BA miles the first time you use your card. This card has a typical 17.9% APR.

With the Premium Plus card, however, you earn 1.5 miles for every pound you spend, as well as a bonus 6,000 miles the first time you use your card.

On top of this, you get double miles every time you buy any British Airways flights with your card.

However, this card has a massive 43.5% APR and you have to pay a £150 annual fee, so it's definitely not one for those who can't pay off the monthly bill.

Virgin Atlantic Black and White Credit Cards

Virgin Atlantic also have two credit cards which you can use to collect Flying Club miles.

With the Virgin Atlantic White Card you get a Flying Club mile for every pound you spend anywhere. Plus, you get two miles for every pound spent directly with Virgin Atlantic or Virgin holidays.

There’s also a bonus 3,000 miles given to you on your first spend. The card has a typical APR of17.9%, and offers 0% on balance transfers for the first six months.

The Virgin Atlantic Black Card is pretty much the same as the white one, except you get more miles for your money. However it will also cost you more.

The black card gives you two miles for every pound you spend and then four miles for every pound spent with Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays. You also get 6,000 bonus miles on your first spend.

This card also has 0% balance transfers for the first six months, but the typical APR is high at 37.1% and there is a big £115 annual fee.

easyJet Mastercard

With the easyJet card you earn one mile for every pound spent in the UK, two miles for every pound spent abroad and three miles for every pound spent with easyJet.

Each mile has the value of 1p, so if you collect 10,000 miles, you’ll have enough to put towards a £10 flight. If you spend £250 in the first three months, however, you will receive 40,000 miles, which is the equivalent of a £40 flight.

Once you have enough miles, just go on to the easyJet website and buy your flight and your miles will automatically be taken from your account.

This card comes with a typical APR of 16.9%. If you fly with easyJet all the time, this is a good way to make the most of your flights, as they don't have a frequent flyer card. Just make sure you can pay it off every month.

bmi credit card

The bmi credit card offers you 20,000 miles when you spend £250 in the first 90 days of opening your account. That’s enough for two return bmi flights to destinations in Austria, Germany, Belgium or France.

You also earn 1.5 miles for every £1 spent on everyday shopping, while you’ll earn double miles when you buy bmi plane tickets with your bmi credit card.

Bmi miles can also be used on any other Star Alliance member airlines, so you're not limited to one airline and can travel all over the world.

The bmi card has a typical APR of 15.9%, 0% on balance transfers for the first 12 months and 0% on purchases for the first three months.

Blue Sky Card from American Express

Until June 2008, this card was called the Blue Travel Rewards card. With the Blue Sky credit card,you earn a travel reward point for every pound you spend.

You then use these points as a rebate on any travel expense charged to your card. This can be anything from a train ticket to a cruise or flight, but they have to have cost at least £50 in return for 4000 points.

This is great if you don't like flying, because you can use it for things like trains, coaches and boats as well. Just make sure that you claim within 90 days of the purchase being debited to your card.

This card has a typical APR of 17.9% and 0% interest on your purchases for the first six months.

For more information, check out our credit cards with rewards article.

Useful links

• Airmiles
• Nectar
• British Airways
• Virgin Atlantic

Now go to...

• Credit Cards with Rewards
• Clever Holiday Money
• Best Buys Credit Cards

Take a look at our other article on other rewards you can get with your fidelity cards - not just free travel and days out.