Frequent Flyer Programs - Signing Up, Earning Miles & Redemption

When planning for your travel, always make sure that you take advantage of one of the travel perks especially if you are on business trip - the airline rewards programs! Check what reward programs your airline offer and sign up for it! It's usually a free signup membership for all these airline rewards programs. 

The number one reason to get a frequent flyer card or membership is to be able to earn points and redeem them for cheaper flights by using the points to pay for a portion of a flight with cash and the rest with points.You can also use your points to upgrade your flight from economy to business or first class and get other travel perks. Also, depending on the card you can use your points to book into a hotel or even rent a car.

Below are some of the reward programs offer by the following airlines:

• Cathay Pacific and Dragonair: (*FREE) Asia Miles
• Singapore Airlines and SilkAir: (*FREE) KrisFlyer
• Malaysia Airlines: (*FREE) Enrich
• Qantas Airlines and Jetstar: (*Joining fees required) Qantas Frequent Flyer
• Emirates Airlines: (*FREE) Skywards
• American Airlines: (*FREE) American's AAdvantage program
• Japan Airlines: (*FREE) JAL Mileage Bank
• British Airways: (*FREE) BA Miles (soon going to be rename as Avios starting from Nov 2011)
• Thai Airways: (*FREE) Thai Royal Orchid Plus
• Delta Airlines:  (*No annual fees for the 1st year) SkyMiles
• Alaska Airlines: (*FREE) Mileage Plan
• US Airways: (*FREE) Dividen Miles
• Lufthansa: (*FREE) Miles & More
• Air France/KLM: (*FREE) Flying Blue
• Virgin Australia: (*FREE) Velocity Frequent Flyer

Apart from earning miles from traveling in those airlines only, you can actually convert your credit card points to the frequent flyer miles. In Malaysia, the most commonly offered frequent flyer miles conversion from your credit cards points are:

• Enrich Miles
• Asia Miles
• KrisFlyer Miles

I have make a comparison table as below on the credit card points required to convert to the frequent flyer miles for Enrich Miles, Asia Miles and KrisFlyer Miles:

*NOTE: If you have Citibank or AMEX credit cards, apart from the listed above, you can be able to convert your points to redeem for Delta Airlines SkyMiles or Thai Royal Orchid Plus.