Catch me on Radio 4 at 11am in ‘Inside the World of the Frequent Flyer’

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If you came to the Head for Points Christmas party in December you may have met Laurence Grissell from BBC Radio 4. He was – with our permission – looking for interesting characters to feature in a documentary that he was producing.

The finished programme is now ready and will be broadcast at 11am today. It is 30 minutes long.

This is how Radio 4 is promoting it:

Up in the air with the frequent flyers who’ll go to extreme lengths to achieve airline status and rack up air miles. Are they playing the system – or is the system playing them? Georgie Glen narrates their stories

Many hardcore frequent flyers will stop at nothing to achieve the privileges which go with airline status, planning convoluted multi-leg journeys to maximise their points. It’s a whole sub-economy – a parallel currency which the airlines control, and which the frequent flyers seek to exploit.

The consequence is a life which is spent perpetually in transit, on airplanes and in airport lounges. We hear what motivates these individuals, what they gain and what they lose from spending so much of their lives up in the air.

I recorded a long segment for the programme but I don’t know how much of it has made the finished cut.

My contribution should be slightly detached because as a family man I don’t have the time these days to undertake the mileage and tier point runs which are at the heart of the documentary. I do, of course, understand the economics of the process from both the point of view of the airline and the traveller and that’s probably where I will pop up. Part of the reason for hiring Anika was to let me escape much of the day-to-day review travel that comes with this job – the next stop for her is Johannesburg – in order to spend more time reading “Captain Underpants” to an eager 6-year old.

If you have something better to do at 11am – like, erm, working – you can listen online via this link after 11.30am.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Leo says:

5 Mar5 March 14:35

I quite enjoyed this! I liked the narrator, amusing I thought. “Status” is a strange phenomenon after all – those TP runners….you do find yourself thinking “get a life”. I write this from my upgraded room at the Del Coronado (Hilton Diamond) after having flown to San Francisco BA F -so I’m not dissing the collecting “hobby”, I’m extremely grateful to HfP – but the contributors (not Rob obvs) are clearly hooked and I suspect it is far more to do with making themselves feel important than they are willing to admit/accept.
Master George says:

5 Mar5 March 16:43

I can understand (and have shared) the intense satisfaction of getting to Honolulu/wherever via six cities and back for less than £2k on a flat bed, being plied with champagne all the way. What I can’t understand is why you’d only spend 90 minutes there before heading home. That’s not a hobby, it’s an affliction. It’s a bit like the difference between those who will put a bet on their football team for the thrill and those who will put a bet on whoever’s playing whatever sport whenever they walk past a betting shop.
- Yuff says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 17:14
  
  Everyone has different reasons for doing various things.
  Of course I’d like to spend a few days in Honolulu when arriving but the fare needs to include a Saturday night and is only available within a 7 day period to maximise my time status wise.
  I’m only doing it to give me flexibilty of forcing open avios seats on short haul flights as I would personally, and this will probably go against the grain of a lot readers, rather fly BA from Heathrow that Ryanair from Stansted.
  The status does not bother me as I have a fair amount of avios, and my next trip is to HKG in F via PVG but being able to get to Europe, relatively cheaply, using avios is a a priority for me and my family.
  Flying to Honolulu is not something I have to say I am particularly looking forward to but a friend is happy to come and business and F isn’t too bad, seems a good jaunt for a first TP run.
will says:

5 Mar5 March 17:19

The appeal for me is simple, you can get gold in one holiday if you plan well and that gives you access to gold priority rewards (unlock any seat for double avios) which can be extremely valuable for RFS tickets at busy times, time it right and you get 2 years of gold and 1 year of silver.

At GGL you get the ability to unlock avios availability for 4 return bookings, for up to 5 people in a 2 year period in any cabin and use any companion vouchers or upgrade vouchers you may have.
If your travel plans include 3 long haul trips in a given year it’s not too hard to stretch to this.

I understand it’s not for everyone, and it’s also becoming much harder and more expensive to accomplish but it can add up if your a keen to travel with others and have a large avios balance.
- TripRep says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 17:52
  
  + free seat selection on Avios CW /WT+ redemption bookings?
- Andrew says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 21:36
  
  I flew short haul for work with a colleague and by getting silver status with a Hawaii trip, it meant we could both use the lounge at T5, for about 18 months. Best value ever tbh, as we didn’t need to buy drinks or food at the airport. It made the very short overnight work trip a more pleasurable trip and akin to night out.
  - Andrew says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 21:37
    
    I should add the short haul trips were booked with avios as a RFS, so for £35 each we got a return trip and got to use the lounge due to the TP run to hawaii
Graham says:

5 Mar5 March 18:09

Enjoyed the R4 programme whilst on the M25. Rob and Ian came across particularly well.

Thought that the ‘Cadbury’s Caramel’ narrator was utterly woeful. However, I guess every audience needs to be pitched to accordingly.
Zooropa says:

5 Mar5 March 19:05

Did I hear one of the guys interviewed as saying “he only pays £1 per TP??” so a CW seat would cost him £140?. I am pretty good at finding deals, but if I heard that correctly, that is utter nonsense.

Discuss ! 🙂
- Rob says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 19:11
  
  £1500 for a 1500 point run was fairly easy back when LCY JFK was 210 and AA 2-class flights gave F tier points.
  - Zooropa says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 20:04
    
    WOW – never knew that…
    
    I know the LCY route has gone down to 140 TP’s now, but are AA still offering F points for 2 class flights Rob?
    
    A good piece by you on the R4 article today BTW ! Keep up the good work.
    - Doug M says:
      
      5 Mar5 March 20:16
      
      No, they call it First, but the booking classes reward 40TP or 140 over 2000 miles. The only true F is on the trans cons from JFK to LAX and SFO, possibly couple of other routes too, but identified by 3 class planes.
    - Lady London says:
      
      6 Mar6 March 19:33
      
      QF has cabotage NY to YVR I think? In the right class this might give a nice return.
- Genghis says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 19:11
  
  TLL on AY?
  - Doug M says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 20:13
    
    That was 200 for £232 at best as I remember. I think some of the West Coast to Panama come in at less than £1 per TP, but nothing LH does with the current TP structure and GBP exchange rate, or does it?
Nige says:

5 Mar5 March 19:40

What a brilliant programme. Really enjoyed it, i’m relatively new to collecting points and have been following this site for a while. I never realised how much effort people put in to keep their teir status. Wow!!

Nige.
Bl0gdaddy.wordpress.com
- Doug M says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 20:16
  
  Have a browse of the BA forum on Flyer Talk.
  - Rob says:
    
    5 Mar5 March 21:33
    
    But you’ll find it too confusing and argumentative, at which point we’ll be delighted to see you back here 🙂
Yawn says:

5 Mar5 March 20:07

Sort of Off Topic – but I am in need of frequent flyer points wizard. I am 2,000 Flying Blue points short to book a reward ticket. (It’s Amsterdam to Cardiff, so there is no alternative and KLM doesn’t really sell one-way tickets.)

KLM sells them for €55. The rate is really poor. 2.75 cents per mile. Does anyone have any other good ideas as to how to get or buy 2,000 Flying Blue points? I wish I hadn’t used up all my Amex Reward Point last month…

Thanks!
- FB says:
  
  5 Mar5 March 20:52
  
  Make a complaint about your latest flight and in my experience we’ll give you at least 2,000 FB points within a few days.
Marek says:

5 Mar5 March 20:24

Annoyingly BBC now requires users to sign in to listen to the non-live Radio.
- rob says:
  
  6 Mar6 March 04:52
  
  Just ‘make up’ a new profile and submit that; worked for me…