100.000 miles per year - Life in the fast lane

I recently read the following advice on how to get upgraded to Business Class when checking in at the airport:

- Show off your title and Business Card
- Be arrogant and unfriendly
- Always be late to your flights, important people always show up last

To me this seems like a really bad idea - how would you treat that unfriendly, arrogant bastard that shows up late at the Economy Class check-in demanding a upgrade?



I've logged about 280 flights during the last five years with decent success getting upgraded and seated in Business Class without paying list prices.

What is a mile?
One mile is 1.6 kilometers and one mile also equals one point in the Frequent Flyer world. A flight from Stockholm to London is 911 miles and would add you 911 points to your account. When flying in Business Class you usually get double miles.


Start earning miles
Get a Frequent Flyer card with the airline and/or alliance you plan to fly with. I've flown a majority of my flights out of ARN (Stockholm, Arlanda) so it's been natural to use SAS Eurobonus and collect all my points/miles there.

With Eurobonus you reach Silver level after only 20.000 miles and Gold at 70.000 miles. Please note that the Gold level is only 45.000 miles if your mailing address is located in Europe outside of Sweden, Denmark and Finland. So my first advice would be to ask your friend or relative in UK, Germany or Spain if it's ok to recieve and forward your Gold card once a year...

Being a Gold member also means that you have Alliance-wide status. SAS belongs to Star Alliance with 30+ airlines and this means that every participating airline will be notified that a Gold member is flying with them and treat you accordingly with Business Class check-in, Priority luggage, Lounge access and Priority boarding.


First Rule: Status
Make sure that you add the Frequent Flyer number to your booking before getting to the airport so that any pre-planning by the airline take account of your status. Being a Gold member means that you check-in at the Business Class or Gold check-in counters giving you a early advantage when looking for a upgrade. During a recent trip in the US I actually scored upgrades at every check-in just by being a Gold member.

On average I've got about 35% possibility scoring a upgrade with Star Alliance partners in this way. Flying on SAS Intercontinental on flights with a full Economy cabin almost always means a free upgrade.



Singapore Airlines A380 Suites. You can actually close the doors for privacy.


Second Rule: Volunteer
Seating is complicated on busy flights where overbooking is common. Most people are not willing to change seat or are travelling in company with friends or family.

Tell the person behind the check-in counter that you are willing to help them sort out their situation by giving up your seat assignment in exchange for a upgrade at the gate. I've even volunteered to take a one hour later flight, upgraded into Business Class and got €350 cheque as compensation.





Third Rule: Play the game
Last year I joined a friend who was flying Lufthansa First Class to the US using a award ticket (miles) and we enjoyed the dedicated First Class terminal at Frankfurt for several hours before boarding. I got my boarding pass in a nice red folder with the text Lufthansa First Class on top. I saved that folder and have it visibly in my Passport holder together with the Gold Card so that the check-in team will know that this is neither my first or best flight ever.

Having a nice passport holder (Flight001 has a few cool items worth looking at) and carry-on (I've got a Tumi) gives you that "business touch". I also have two "Priority luggage" tags on my carry-on together with the Eurobonus Gold tag and Flyertalk tag.

Seems silly - but I've actually been confronted by the purser when boarding who noticed the tags and said that he'd look for a better seat for me (I had a Economy ticket)....


Last Rule: Upgrades using miles
Pay for upgrades - that's not free is it? Well - that's the way I usually spend my miles. Buying a cheap ticket and then upgrading from Economy to Business Class on SAS is 30.000 miles and saves you €2500 on actually paying for it.

I've actually scored free upgrades just by offering to use points and then somehow got the seat for free.

Some airlines also offer cheap paid upgrades using cash at check-in. I've paid US $200 to upgrade on Thai Airways regionally in Asia and $300 Intercontinentally on Malaysia Airlines. Getting a €380 ticket ARN-EWR and then upgrading to Business Class for $300 is a great deal for a very nice experience.

I've seen the headline "Get upgraded to First Class for free - 10 easy steps" in the news at least ten times the last year. Most of these news items are carbon copied from american magazines where the whole airline industry is completely different.

First is Business Class?
When flying domestically within the USA you'll mostly find 2 class flights: Economy and First Class. The same flight within Europe would probably have Economy and Business Class. So what's the difference? None! It's just that the US airlines traditionally have used the word First and it's stuck. So whenever you see a "get upgraded to First" it's probably been written in the US and refers to the traditional domestic Business Class service.

Domestic and intra-Europe
Flying in Business Class domestically or intra-Europe usually means a single-isle aircraft with limited legroom using the same seat type as in Economy class. The only difference is the food and drink service which usually provides you with hot food included in the price of the ticket. I've flown SAS / Scandinavian Airlines within Sweden with a pretty expensive Business Class ticket and had to pay for water. Don't expect Caviar when flying domestically!



Lunch served on LX Swiss flight ZRH-DAR in Business Class


International flights
Most airlines offers a Economy and a Business Class cabin. Some airlines has recently added a Economy Extra or Premium Economy class between those levels offering added flexibility and more legroom but not the full Business Class meal service and seats for sleeping.

Some quality airlines still offers a First Class product but it's usually limited to long-haul International flights and only 8-12 seats per plane at amazingly expensive prices.

Business Class seats has changed dramatically in the last five-eight years. Some top notch airlines such as Singapore Airlines has seats that is far better than traditional First Class. So if you can be without the Dom Perignon or Krug Champagne and skip the Caviar but still get a full five course meal with good Champagne and Grand Crü Bordeaux - stick with Business Class.

Read more in Part 2

The Benche has a new Toolbox with frequently used services within Trade. When finished with all planned modules you'll find all you need in one spot: The Benche.

This is what you find today:

Cargo Track & Trace
Instant tracking from 500 partners within Air Freight, Sea Freight and Couriers. Find your package or container using your Air Waybill, Bill of Lading or Tracking number.
Cargo Track & Trace

Country Reports
Up-to-date country reports and risk analysis of countries ranging from Bangladesh to Ukraine.
Country Reports

Convert numbers to written text
This is a very handy feature when converting large numbers to written text in foreign languages. Did you now that USD 120.550 is spelled "CENTVINGTMILLECINQCENTCINQUANTE 00/100 US DOLLARS" in French?

Date Calculator
When working with L/C's timing is essential. What date is 21 days from now? With this tool it's easy to find out!


First few steps for The Benche Toolbox. What do you think? Any suggestions on new tools?

TGIF!

Every Friday it's time for casual talk in the Friday thread here at the Benche. Tell us about your exciting weekend plans or get advice on what to do or where to do it!

You'll find the Friday Thread in the Lounge:
https://www.thebenche.com/forum/loun...ay-thread.html

Ps. This thread is only active on Fridays!

The time has finally come!

Today (November 14th) is the birthday of the Benche! For me it's the end of the beginning - I've worked with this project for almost 18 months now since SEB came to us with loose ideas regarding a Trade Finance community.

So much has happened since then that it seems like a lifetime. I've met so many new nice friends and colleagues at SEB and the team from Mantaray has spent hundreds of hours planning och building the site you see today.

I have personally worked with online communities since early 2001 when I started a community which now has about 65.000 members and more than 1.5 million posts. Working with online communities has certainly changed my life in many ways - the site is a "baby" that needs constant attention, night and day. And with more than 40 new members every day there's always things to attend to.

I'd like to give Tobias Nilsson huge credit for designing the Benche - a site that became everything we wanted during our first planning sessions. It's very difficult for a technical person to express everything you have in your head but Tobias listened and came back with the site you see today.

Martin Belak has showed his coding skills creating a first class community meeting all expectations and beyond. Belak is the kind of person that is constantly learning new techniques and ways to improve the functionality, programming code and usability. He always delivers in time which is essential in huge projects like this.

Anders Ingelstam has provided the "soft" knowledge during our pre-studies, planning, and marketing sessions. He's a true "people person" with endless of experience from running projects, meetings and is a expert of "getting to the point" when there's just to much information and ideas running in the room.

My final thanks goes to Lars, Mia and Rami, which I've spend endless hours with on the phone from Melbourne, Australia. I am glad that SEB seems to love this new baby as much as we do.

Boys and Girls - the fun begins now!

Are you new to communities? Don't hesitate to send me a Private Message whenever you have questions or comments!