Take to the skies for free

In the club: You don't have to be the daughter of a hotel magnate to fly business class

Over the past three years, my husband and I have flown to South Africa, Brazil, and, with our baby daughter, to Barbados. Each time we've flown British Airways business class. And each time, we haven't paid a penny.

Our secret is that we are air miles obsessives.

No doubt you're aware of air miles. But do your entire family finances revolve around collecting them? Ours do, and the benefits are spectacular.

We don't spend more to get the miles; rather, when we pay for anything - be it groceries, a sofa or even our council tax - we make sure we collect points in the process. We then cash in these points using one of the five major air mile schemes, BA Miles.

For example, we only shop at one supermarket - for our scheme, it turns out Tesco gives the richest rewards. And we use a special Tesco Finest Platinum Visa because it gives the maximum points that can be exchanged for BA Miles.

For the things that Tesco doesn't stock - clothes, furniture and so on - and for eating out and holiday expenditure, we always use our British Airways American Express credit card, if it's accepted.

Why? Because if you spend £15,000 on the card within a year, you get the star prize - the Willy Wonka golden ticket of air miles schemes. It's a voucher that entitles you to 'buy' two air miles British Airways tickets for the price of one.

That is the only way we can both afford to travel Club class. Rather than costing us 100,000 BA miles to get one of us to Barbados and back in the Club cabin, with the voucher it is 100,000 miles for both of us.

It goes on... our telephone line is with Tesco, as is our insurance, whereas our electricity is with Powergen, as they offer bonus points.

It turns out that you can pay all sorts of bills with credit cards, too - many local authorities allow you to pay your council tax that way; private healthcare can also be paid for by card, so can car breakdown service membership.

And, no, we're not sinking into credit card debt - we always settle the bills, in full, at the end of the month.

Basically, I never use a cheque book or cash unless it's absolutely necessary - even tiny expenditures are put on a credit card to earn more miles.

And large expenditures certainly help - renovating our house earlier this year meant a lot of added expense on the credit cards. We even bought our car with the Visa.

As you can see, it's a serious commitment. But if you're focused enough to make the same commitment, you won't believe the benefits. Want to know more? Then read my guide - and get the suitcases out...

Air Miles: Getting off the ground

Air Miles are, simply, a points scheme. You collect them and then redeem them for free tickets, upgrades, package holidays, hotels, or car rentals. They started years ago as a reward plan for frequent flyers. But now they are given out by virtually every passenger airline, apart from the no-frills carriers.

It's a vast operation: around 120 million people are members of frequent flyer schemes and 14 million flights are bought with air miles each year. British Airways alone has 1.7 million frequent flyers in its Executive Club, and says air miles are among the four biggest currencies used to purchase flights.

Airlines now sell miles to partners such as credit card and car rental firms, and about half of all miles are earned through these and other schemes, rather than by actually flying.

The biggest programmes for collecting air miles through shopping are with the Nectar card loyalty scheme; AirMiles (yes, it's confusing, the name of this scheme is also the general term for this whole subject); Buy and Fly; Flying Club; and BA Miles.

If your main objective is free flights, AirMiles offers by far the greatest number of destinations and opportunities to collect miles. But we have worked out our system with BA Miles, and we're sticking to it. We registered by joining the BA Executive club (at www.britishairways.co.uk) and earn points by shopping in the right places and flying with the oneworld group of airlines such as Qantas and Iberia.

So how do we pull in the points? Tesco gives us 600 BA Miles for every 250 Clubcard points earned. Both the Tesco Finest Platinum Visa card and American Express earn 1.5 BA Miles per £1 spent, and Diners Club earns one BA Mile per £1 spent. The Hilton and Intercontinental hotel groups offer 500 BA Miles per stay, and Thistle gives you three BA Miles per £1 spent.

If we rent a car with Avis or Hertz we can harvest up to 750 BA Miles per rental. When you think that to get to New York in economy 'costs' 50,000 BA Miles, it's worth making everything count towards your next holiday.

Take a look at the alternatives (summarised right) but whatever you do, when you choose a scheme, commit to it. Find out everything you can about how to maximise your points, and start collecting in a serious way. Then settle back and enjoy those free flights.

How to go further with air miles

FREQUENT FLYING

? ALWAYS ask if you are entitled to frequent flyer points with your flight - even if you are going on a short-haul, discounted flight.

? DO NOT assume the airline you fly with is the best one to save with. Check www.globalflight.net which has a list of every airline and the loyalty schemes it is part of.

? IF YOU are flying, you are entitled to the air miles, even if you didn't pay for your ticket.

? HOLD on to your boarding pass stub - this is what you need to prove you were on a flight and collect your miles if you didn't do it at check-in.

? LOOK on the website of your favoured scheme and see how you can boost your miles by using certain hotel chains, car rental schemes, supermarkets, credit cards and so on.

? CHECK whether your air miles have a 'use by' date - some last only two years. If they are about to run out, you might be able to give them to a charity through the airline.

SHOPPING

? ASK whether your regular supermarket offers a special credit card to earn extra points.

? DECIDE which credit card to use for bills and purchases and put as much of your expenditure as possible on it. You can pay many regular charges such as the AA, internet providers and council tax in some parts of the country by credit card. Just ensure you settle up your bill in full each month.

? WHEN choosing a scheme, think about your monthly expenditure and what you really spend your money on. The idea is that you get free flights for what you would usually buy anyway - not spending money on things you don't want.

? FIND out about the programme partners - for example, switching to Powergen can give you Tesco Clubcard points, and thus AirMiles or BA Miles on your gas and electricity; changing to Talktalk for your telephone bills gives you Nectar points.

? LOOK out for special offers, particularly if you are looking to make a major purchase. See www.moneysavingexpert.com, which has information about offers that can boost your points and miles.

SPENDING

? YOU claim your air miles seat by phoning with your membership details or accessing your account online. You can't book more than a year in advance and when seats do become available, there is a rush. Research your chosen destination and make sure you are first on the phone to get the seats and dates you want.

? THE best value for air miles seats is on long-haul routes or short-haul flights not served by budget airlines.

? JUST before and after the main holiday seasons tend to be good times for special offers. Check with airlines for details of 'cut-price' air miles seats.

? YOU might need special air miles insurance should you cancel your flight at short notice. Check with your loyalty scheme.

... and the other major players

AIRMILES

The AirMiles Travel Company claims to be the UK's most popular travel loyalty scheme.To register, you sign up with one of the programme's partners - for example, by taking out a NatWest credit card.You then shop with some of the programme's 50 High Street and online partners, use an AirMiles Mastercard or NatWest credit card, switch to Southern Electric and shop at Tesco.

You can also collect BAA Worldpoints when spending money at any UK airport and exchange them for AirMiles. In return, you can secure flights with more than 100 airlines, rooms in 25,000 hotels, or holidays with more than 100 of the UK's tour operators. AirMiles customers can pay for their travel and leisure with cash, part-miles/part-cash or all miles.

Just don't confuse AirMiles with BA Miles. They are totally different schemes.

NECTAR

Nectar says it is the UK's largest rewards programme - rather than having a different card for each partner, you save all to one card and then exchange points for flights, holidays, discount vouchers or other products. Once you've registered online (www.nectar.com) or by post, get shopping.

Sainsbury's, Debenhams, BP and Ford are all partners.There's a new Nectar American Express card and you can also benefit by using some Sainsbury's Bank credit cards.

When it comes to spending, choose from Cannon's health club membership, meals out at TGI Friday, days out at Legoland or Madame Tussauds, Eurostar trips and, of course, flights and holidays booked through Thomson or ebookers.com. Watch the small print: you need more points for peak-time flights and the number of points a flight costs depends on the airport.

BUY AND FLY!

A smaller loyalty scheme, where points can be exchanged for flights, holidays and leisure activities. Go to www.buyandfly. co.uk to register, then gather points by spending at Odeon cinemas, Domino's Pizza and The Tanning Shop.

You can also exchange ipoints (available from John Lewis, Boots, Mothercare and Woolworths) for buy and fly! points. Using a Morgan Stanley buy and fly! Mastercard you can earn one point for every £10 spent.

You can then spend with bmi, American Airlines,Virgin and Cathay Pacific, as well as travel companies such as Thomson Holidays, P&O and Orient-Express.

Each flight you book through this scheme has to be totally paid for with points (ie no cash). In some cases you have to send in ticket stubs or receipts to collect your points.

FLYING CLUB

Virgin Atlantic's frequent flyer scheme (www.virgin-atlantic. com, or 08701 61 60 59) earns you miles to spend on flights and hotels. Collect miles with Virgin Atlantic, or partners such as South African Airlines, Air New Zealand or Continental.

Stay at hotels in the Hilton, Radisson or Mandarin Oriental groups, hire cars through Avis or Hertz and buy Texaco petrol. You can choose from two Virgin Mastercard credit cards to boost your miles.

There are also deals with American Express and Diners Club credit cards for collecting Flying Club miles.You get Virgin Atlantic flights and seat upgrades, hotel stays, car hire and discount vouchers for Virgin holidays.

If you spend £15,000 or more a year on your Virgin Credit Card, you'll earn a companion ticket next time you book a qualifying flight with Virgin Atlantic.You could even get a week's stay on Richard Branson's private Necker Island - for 1 million Flying Club Miles!

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