What are the benefits of using loyalty programs for hotels?

Loyalty programs for hotel chains will give you the opportunity to earn points, similar to air miles. You can also earn a status with most hotel chains. So why get involved in these hotel programs?

The main reason to register to hotel loyalty programs is to earn points and use them to redeem free nights at hotels. If you manage to get a status, some hotel chains will offer you complimentary upgrades, free breakfast, lounge access and increased points earnings. Things will get interesting if you travel a lot for work and accumulate points you can use for leisure travel. Some cards also offer complimentary hotel statuses, such as the American Express Platinum card, which offers status with Hilton, Radisson, Melia Hotels and Marriott Bonvoy.

IHG Rewards Club is an example of a loyalty program for a hotel chain. The hotel chain contains several hotel brands such as Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express, Crowne Plaza (Business oriented hotels), Intercontinental (Luxury hotel brand) and a few more brands.

IHG Rewards Club has 4 different Tiers. Club is the tier that is granted to you upon registration. Gold Elite will be earned after 10 nights or 10.000 Elite Qualifying Points (EQP), while 40 nights or 40.000 EQP is necessary to earn Platinum status. The highest tier, Spire Elite, can be earned after a whopping 75 nights or 75.000 EQP.

But why chase an IHG status? Depending on your status, you’ll be entitled several benefits, for example Platinum:

Extra bonus points, room upgrades and early check-ins/late checkouts are the real main benefits for Platinum. However, you will understand why I first focus on IHG as first hotel status if you continue reading.

You may think that Platinum is out of reach, because you don’t sleep 40 nights at a hotel in one year. Good news for you, because IHG offers something that is called an Intercontinental Ambassador Status which includes Platinum status.

This status costs you 40.000 IHG points or 200 USD each year and gives you exclusive benefits when staying at the Intercontinental brand.

What is Intercontinental Ambassador status?

Ambassador status is a status that is earned by paying a fixed amount each year. The status costs 40.000 IHG points or 200 USD and will give you some very interesting benefits during stays at the Intercontinental brand:

The room upgrade is a very nice benefit as it will grant you a bigger room or even a suite. The guaranteed late check out of 4 PM is one that is very important to me. If you’re on vacation you just don’t want to be kicked out of your room if you have a flight in the evening. Those little things all add up to a more relaxed way of travel. 20 USD credit for restaurant, (mini)bar is another nice extra.

The biggest benefit where you can manage to earn back your ‘invested’ 40.000 IHG points or 200 USD is the weekend certificate. This certificate allows you to book two nights for the price of one during the weekends (Friday to Sunday or Saturday to Monday). The complimentary weekend night is only eligible on the flexible rate and is booked through their Ambassador – Weekend Certificate Booking website. Therefore, if you usually book a flexible rate, you will save 50% which is basically one night free. If you usually book non-refundable rates, your savings will be more like 30%, as the non-refundable rate is always cheaper than the flexible rate. Booking a rate with breakfast and lounge access is the perfect way to get the best return of investment for your paid Ambassador status.

My complimentary afternoon tea in the lounge at the Intercontinental Hong Kong

How to earn more IHG points and how to spend them?

IHG offers different ways to earn extra IHG points. Every stay will earn you 10 IHG points per US dollar spent. IHG usually offers a promo every quarter. During the pandemic they haven’t offered much besides double points. Before the pandemic they used to have an offer named Accelerate on regular basis. You get certain tasks that will gain you extra points. If global travel starts resuming again as it used to be I am certain they will introduce Accelerate again.

Points can be redeemed for shopping, air miles and free nights at IHG hotels. The best value for your points is to redeem them for free nights. Take into account that points can only be used to book standard rooms. IHG points are valued at around 0,005 euro (or 0,5 cents). I recently had to book a last-minute airport hotel charging 100 euro a night. Thanks to my points balance I was able to book the room at the hotel for 16.000 IHG points. That’s a value of 0,625 cents per point I managed to get. Keep in mind that IHG points are easy to earn so they are prone to devaluation. IHG tends to increase their award booking prices. If you enter the game of points earning, you better follow the rule “Earn and burn“!

How do I join IHG Rewards Club?

That’s pretty straightforward. Read more about the loyalty program here.

How one hotel chain status opens the door to all hotel chains

One major benefit of holding a hotel chain status that hasn’t been discussed yet is the possibility to try and enjoy benefits from another hotel chain status. The secret: Status matches. A status match is a way to tell a hotel chain that you are a loyal customer for a certain hotel chain and that you are a potential client that might move his business to their hotel chain. This means that by showing proof of my Spire Elite IHG card to another hotel chain, I might be granted a matching status. It starts to get fun when you can status match with a status achieved through a status match! A website named Statusmatcher.com is a great source to give you an idea which chain or airline matches your status.

All large hotel chains own a loyalty program. Some tend to be more generous as others. I will only discuss 2 hotel chains that are worth to mention and that offer a status match frequently.

Hilton Honors: has regular status match promo’s to Gold and Diamond status.
Diamond status gives you guaranteed lounge access (if available) and free breakfast for 2 (in EU and Asia) which are huge benefits compared to other chains. Pitfall: the majority of Hilton hotels are outdated.

Hilton Bali Resort upgraded to private villa with pool after a status match to Hilton Diamond status

Marriot Bonvoy: has regular status match promo’s up to Platinum status.
This chain has a lot to offer but the benefits you get as a status owner contain a lot exceptions. The chain has a lot of brands and each brand has their own rules. As a platinum member you sometimes get lounge access (if available) and breakfast. Sometimes you get bar credit instead of breakfast. The full list of benefits and its rules can be checked on the Marriott Bonvoy website.

Lounge access with complimentary food & drinks at the Marriott Hong Kong after status matching to Platinum

Whether it is worth to invest the time and money is something you have to decide yourself. If you travel frequently I strongly recommend to invest some time and investigate which loyalty program suits the most with your travel pattern.

Earning air miles is not all about flying. You can earn air miles from using your credit card too or by transferring credit card points to miles. You can earn miles or points just for signing up (= sign-up bonus) followed by miles calculated on how much you use your card. The amount varies from 1 point/mile to 2 miles/points per euro spent. I will guide you through the very few possibilities here in Belgium.

Brussels Airlines American Express Credit cards

As these cards are not available anymore for new members, I will skip this one, as it is not relevant for newcomers in the miles-scene.

American Express Gold & Platinum Credit cards

With the American Express Gold & Platinum you can earn Membership Rewards points. By using referral links you can earn a generous sign-up bonus.

Membership Rewards points can be transferred to a handful of partners:

Earnings for both Gold & Platinum card is 1 point = €1.

How to interpret the table above?

Let’s say you have 110.000 Membership Rewards points, you can transfer them to Miles & More miles, netting you 55.000 M&M miles. If you’re checking the monthly Mileage Bargains, you get the chance to get a return trip to North America in business class. Africa can be sometimes booked for as low as 40.000 M&M miles. The only caveat: you have to pay taxes and they can be quite high on Lufthansa Group (from 300-500 euro for a return trip in business class long-haul).

Examples of Mileage Bargains of 2024:

So what’s the difference between the American Express Gold and the Platinum besides the annual fee (240 euro vs 780 euro)?

Both cards offer extra’s and depending on your lifestyle and travel habits, it might be useful to choose for the Platinum card. The main differences are:

• Higher annual dining credit (300 euro instead of 100 euro)
• Free hotel statuses (MeliaRewards, HiltonHonors, Marriott Bonvoy and Radisson)
• PriorityPass unlimited vs 4 passes each year
• Unlimited fast lane access at Brussels Airport for Platinum
• A free Platinum card for your partner or friend which also gets PriorityPass unlimited
• More insurance coverage and extra coverages

Depending on your travel habit and your lifestyle you can calculate how much all these benefits above are worth it to you. For example, if you own an airline status, the PriorityPass will be worth less for you and will not count a lot as a benefit.

For my own calculation, I value Membership Rewards points only 0,005 euro per point, as the conversion rates for Belgians is quite horrible (e.g. 2 points = 1 Miles & More mile). Using this metric and knowing how much you spend on a yearly basis, you can calculate how much value in points you’ll earn with your card, which also contributes to determine if a card and its annual fee is worth choosing for.

Business class starter on Brussels Airlines – Long haul flight

The best way to maximize the value of your points/miles is by spending them on business and/or first class flights. Loyalty programs will advertise to spend your miles on shopping, hotel bookings or other things but the use of your miles are never as valuable as booking business class flights.

Beobank Flying Blue Mastercards

Flying Blue is a frequent flyer program for the alliance Skyteam with airlines such as KLM, Air France, Delta and a few others. With the Flying Blue cards you can save air miles that can be used on Skyteam partners.

Sign-up bonus for Flying Blue World MasterCard fluctuates but is usually something around 3.500 miles whereas the Premium card gets you 5.000 miles most of the time. You will get 1.25 miles per euro spent in Flying Blue miles with the Premium card.

Business class lunch on ITA Airways (SkyTeam member) – Intra-European flight

The card offers similar insurance options as the American Express cards (see here).

An advantage to take into account when comparing Mastercards with American Express is the fact that MasterCard is usually accepted everywhere.

Conclusion:

Beobank cards are handy if you want to be able to use the card everywhere, as MasterCard is widely accepted in Belgium. However, the sign-up bonus is fairly low with Beobank so earning enough miles takes longer to get your first free flight.

If we make the calculation, considering the value of 1 Flying Blue mile as 0,01 euro per mile, you’ll need an annual spent with your Beobank card of 12.000 euro to have a fictional break-even, which means earning miles gets more return of investment compared to American Express Membership Rewards. But, because of the low sign-up bonus compared to American Express and the non-existent added benefits, I would say that American Express is a better return of investment, but it all depends on your own lifestyle.

Introduction

Each airline or a alliance (group of airlines) has a frequent flyer program. Depending on several factors, it may be interesting to pick your frequent flyer program wisely. Why? Because a status in a frequent flyer program can give you many additional benefits.

You have three main alliances in the aviation industry:

• Star Alliance
• SkyTeam (Air France, KLM, TAROM, Delta and many more)
• OneWorld (British Airways, Finnair, Iberia and others)

I will only go into detail about Star Alliance, the largest alliance and the one that is mostly relevant for my own main hub BRU (= Brussels Airport).

Some airlines have a frequent flyer program on their own, while some airlines are collaborating with each other. The most important and interesting thing is that a status with any star alliance frequent flyer program will give you benefits with all star alliance flights.

Why bother earning a status?
Usually you have two types of tiers (= statuses). Silver status will give you some benefits such a limited lounge access and a small chance to get upgraded to a higher class cabin. Some airlines even offer upgrade vouchers. However, your way of travelling changes drastically when you manage to earn Gold status. Gold status will give you following guaranteed benefits on all Star Alliance flights:

• Priority Airport Check-in: a separate check-in desk is open for business passengers and Gold status holders.

• Airport Lounge access: enjoy free drinks and food in a dedicated area for business passengers and Gold status holders + invite one guest when flying on Star Alliance flights.

• Priority boarding: board the plane first or choose whenever you prefer to board the plane.
• Extra baggage allowance: get an extra luggage for free
  ~ restrictions apply for the cheapest economy fares such as GoLight on Brussels Airlines.
  ~ Always check the rules by the operating carrier for luggage allowance.
• Priority Baggage Handling: Your luggage will be tagged with a priority label.

• Priority Reservations Waitlist Airport Standby: when the flight is overbooked you’ll be one of the last passengers (including other status holders and business class passengers) to get bumped or rebooked to a next flight. In case of a full cabin where economy passengers have to be moved to business class, status holders will be prioritized to be upgraded for free before other passengers.

Some frequent flyer programs offer their own extra benefits. Typical additional benefits are upgrade vouchers to upgrade yourself to business class, extra accrual factor of award miles and so on. Trust me, gold status makes travelling a lot less stressful and much more enjoyable.

Relevant frequent flyer programs

The easiest way to earn a frequent flyer status depends on several factors. Which airport is your main hub? Which airline do you usually fly? Do you fly for work? All these factors will influence which frequent flyer program you should choose. I will list a few of the relevant programs.

Miles & More

Miles & More is the biggest of Europe but in my opinion the hardest to get Gold status with. Silver status however may be easier for some Belgian citizens. Miles & More is owned by Lufthansa Group and works with LOT, Swiss, Brussels, Austrian and Lufthansa. Silver status is called “Frequent Traveller” whereas Gold status is named “Senator”.

The silver status is not really that hard if you fly a lot as the qualification to get this status is to fly 35.000 status miles with any Star alliance airline or 30 segments with Lufthansa Group members. The requirement to get 30 flights on Lufthansa Group is the most easiest way in my opnion. This status will give you access to the Lufthansa Group lounges and some other benefits.

Gold status is pretty difficult to achieve with Miles & More unless you fly business class on occasion, as you will need 100.000 status miles to achieve this status each calender year.

Take into account that Miles & More may be great for you to earn silver status and its benefits, but it is less interesting to earn award miles, the miles you use to book a free flight. Award miles are earned according to the price you paid for your flight ticket on Lufthansa Group flights. This is called revenue-based mileage earning. The distance you physically fly in miles is usually used to calculate the award miles on other frequent flyer programs. However, with Miles & More, revenue-based mileage earning does only apply on Lufthansa Group flights and not on non-Lufthansa Group Star Alliance flights. Status miles however are always calculated according to the physically flown distance in miles.

Conclusion: Miles&More can be interesting for some, as silver status is relatively easy to achieve when you fly a lot in economy for work. You’ll enjoy lounge access, one of the best benefits you can get for air travel. The moment you achieved your airline status in a calender year, it is best to book Star Alliance but non-Lufthansa Group airlines to maximize award miles during the rest of the year. Keep in mind that award miles have a validity of only 36 months, meaning that you don’t have much time to accumulate miles. If you already have a status, your miles won’t expire. Therefore, I only recommend this program for people who manage to get Silver status or higher.

It is also a great transfer partner if you have earned a large amount of Membership Rewards points with your American Express card. As miles can be earned relatively easily with this credit card as Belgian citizen, the Miles & More monthly promo awards can give you some great deals such as 55.000 miles for a long haul business class return flight (taxes + fees excluded) on “meilenschnaeppchen.de“.

To understand award & status accrual better, I recommend you to read the Miles & More webpage about how you earn miles on Brussels Airlines, one of the Lufthansa-Group airline members of Miles & More.

Asiana Club

Another interesting frequent flyer program is Asiana Club. It may sound weird to join an Asian frequent flyer program but you don’t even need to fly Asiana Airlines to get a status on this program.

Asiana’s Club tier names may be confusing. Asiana Club Silver is an account without any status. Asiana Club Gold is equivalent to Star Alliance Silver status and Asiana Club Diamond / Diamond Plus and Platinum are similar to the Star Alliance Gold status.

The most interesting part about this frequent flyer program is that you have 24 months to accumulate miles to achieve your status. The moment you achieve your status, your status will be valid for the remaining months of your qualification period plus 24 months. This is pretty unique and puts less pressure on you to attain the status. For example, if you register an account at Asiana Club and take 1 month to acquire the status, your status will be valid for 23 months plus 24 months, that’s almost 4 years. Therefore, the moment you register your account at Asiana is very crucial: create your account right before your flight.

For Asiana Club Diamond, which is equivalent to Star Alliance Gold status, you will need 40.000 tier / status miles on Star Alliance flights or 50 flights on Asiana flights (the latter is probably not interesting for EU citizens). Keeping the status is easier than acquiring it for the first time, as you’ll need 30.000 miles on Star Alliance flights or 30 Asiana flights.

Please take a look at their extended chart to check how much miles you earn depending on the airline you fly.

Conclusion: Asiana Club is another great way to get a Star Alliance status with long validity and depending on the airlines you frequently travel with.

Read more here about Asiana Club.

Aegean Miles+Bonus

My personal favourite frequent flyer program is Aegean Miles+Bonus. When you register with Aegean for the first time you get a Blue status and 1,000 award and tier miles for free. Award miles on the Miles+Bonus program do not expire as long as you keep your account active. You have two types of status: Silver & Gold. The status is not the easiest to earn, but it is the easiest to retain. Travel enthusiasts use Aegean frequent flyer program as an excuse to fly to Greece in business class with their upgrade vouchers every year to keep their status. Who doesn’t want to have a yearly obligatory getaway to the Greek islands?!

SILVER STATUS

To earn silver status when you’re blue status you will need to:

• Earn 24.000 tier miles
  OR
• Fly Aegean or Olympic Air twice AND earn 12.000 tier miles

Important: each segment can be counted. For every flight, you get award miles and tier miles added to your account. A round-trip from Athens to Santorini will give you 2 segments.

Note: During registration, you receive 1.000 miles for free meaning that you’ll only need to earn 11.000 tier miles. The two Aegean flights will also earn you miles.

Retaining Silver status

If you achieved the status you have 12 months from the start of your silver status to keep your silver by

• Earning 16.000 tier miles
  OR
• Flying Aegean or Olympic Air twice and earn 8.000 tier miles

Silver Benefits

The most important benefits are listed below:

• Earn 10% more award miles with Aegean and Olympic flights
• 2 coupons to upgrade to Business class on Aegean and Olympic flights (if seats available and only when you’re not flying in GoLight booking classes U, T or P)
• 4 entry vouchers to access any Aegean Lounge in Greece
• Create a together account so you can collect award miles with friends or family (important: read the rules before starting this)
• Priority reservations waitlist and airport standby (Star Alliance Silver status benefit)

GOLD STATUS

To earn gold status when you have silver status you will need to:

• Earn 48.000 tier miles
  OR
• Fly Aegean or Olympic Air four times and earn 24.000 tier miles

Retaining Gold status

If you achieved the status you have 12 months from the start of your gold tier to keep your gold by

• Earning 24,000 tier miles
  OR
• Flying Aegean or Olympic Air four times and earn 12,000 tier miles

It is therefore much easier to retain a tier than to earn it.

Gold benefits

The benefits for Gold status are listed below:

• Earn 20% more award miles with Aegean and Olympic flights
• 4 coupons to upgrade to Business class on Aegean and Olympic flights (if seats available and only when you’re not flying in GoLight booking classes U, T or P)
• Access to all Aegean Lounges and Star Alliance Lounges if you’re flying with a Star Alliance airline + one guest travelling on a Star Alliance flight
• Access to fast lane security control and passport control and priority airport check-in (Gold Track)
• Special baggage allowance: 1 extra piece of baggage, within the maximum allowed weight limit of your ticket’s booking class
• Personalized luggage tag and priority baggage handling
• Create a together account so you can collect award miles with friends or family
• Priority reservations waitlist and airport standby (Star Alliance Silver status benefit)

For Europeans, it is much easier to earn Aegean tier as you can fly a promo ticket from almost any European city to Athens and back. There you have your two segments with Aegean Airlines and a certain amount of tier miles. A return flight to the Greek islands with a transfer at Athens Airport will get you 4 segments. You still need to earn something between 8,000 and 9,000 tier miles, depending on your earnings from the Aegean flights. The easiest way to do so is with airlines that give 100% accrual factor.

• Ethiopian Airlines (100% in Economy)
• SAS (100% in Premium Economy)
• Singapore Airlines (100% in Economy)

Some airlines will only earn you 25% or 50%. Brussels Airlines and Lufthansa flights, depending on their booking class will earn you 0% miles, even when flying business class. Lufthansa’s booking class P is notorious for that.

Business class flights (depending on the airline flown) can give an accrual factor of 150% to 200% which makes it extremely easy to gain status. That’s where exceptional deals come in handy!

Note: always look at the booking classes before confirming a ticket and check the booking class on the website Aegean – How to earn to check whether you earn miles or not.

1. Use price comparison websites

We all know Booking.com.

Besides Booking.com there are many other comparison websites such as Trivago or Google Hotel Search. You might be surprised how much cheaper the same room can be on different websites. However, make sure to look up the hotels on their official website to compare the price because occasionally they have a better deal as they do not have to share profits with a third party company.

2. Avoid weekends and school holidays

If you have the chance to be flexible, try to plan your trips during low seasons or at the beginning or end of the high season. Hotel rates are more expensive during high season as well as during the extended bank holiday weekends. Shifting with dates may save you a lot of money. Tropical destinations such as Thailand have a rainy season which attracts less tourism. However, it is still an attractive destination as it only rains in short floods most of the time.

3. Use promo codes and look for hotel deals on forums

Flyertalk forum keeps track on the newest promo codes that are usable on certain hotel chains or hotel comparison websites. Check the up-to-date list of promo codes before you book, you never know if you are eligible for an extra discount! Flyertalk has a great subforum which lists exceptional hotel deals.

4. Use cashback websites

Websites earn a commission through cookies by forwarding you to another website where your purchases are tracked. Cashback websites will give a part of their commission back to you if you use their links to make your booking, creating a win-win situation for both parties. You can use cashback websites for online shopping, flight tickets and for hotel bookings.

My favorite one is TopCashBack. Cashbacks on hotel bookings vary from 0 to 15%.

Belgian citizens can use Shopbuddies.be too for some other interesting cashbacks.

Just to give you an idea how important it is to use cashback websites… after three years I’ve managed to earn back over $500 on hotel bookings on TopCashBack alone!

5. Earn points with hotel chain loyalty programs for free nights and gain status for free room upgrades and late checkout

All the big hotel chains have a loyalty program. Take a look at their loyalty program and take advantage of their points earning scheme.

I mainly use IHG as my go-to hotel chain but by using status matches I have been able to score free breakfast, late checkouts and lounge access in other hotel chains such as Hilton Hotels, Marriott Bonvoy Hotels and many more. Read more about my experiences with hotel status matches here.

All hotel chains tend to offer very generous cashback rates too (see previous point 4).

6. Participate in ‘Best Rate Guarantee’ programs of hotel chains

Another trick to benefit from hotel chains is participate in their program named Price Match Guarantee (Hilton), Best Price Guarantee (IHG), Low Rate Guarantee (Best Western) or Best Rate Guarantee (Marriott Bonvoy).

The idea is simple: all chains promise they guarantee to sell the lowest rate on their official website. If they fail to do so and you can find a cheaper rate on a third party website and send it to the hotel chain, they will match the price and offer you something extra in return. In the past, this was a lucrative way to score free nights but many chains have changed their policies and rewards became less interesting as they used to be.

Each chain has their own rules so read the rules carefully before trying any Best Rate Guarantee claim. I recommend to book a fully flexible (thus refundable) rate and file your claim. In case your claim is not approved, you can at least cancel your booking if you prefer to do so.

I have listed the rewards for the relevant hotel chains below.

• Hilton Honors: Will match the lower price and will give 25% off on that stay
  
• IHG: Will match the lower price and will give five times the IHG points you’ll earn on your stay, with a maximum of 40.000 IHG points. To get to know more about IHG and IHG points, read my post about IHG status.
  
• Marriott Bonvoy: Will match the lower price and will give 25% off the matching rate OR 5.000 Bonvoy Points
  
• Best Western: Will match the lower price and will give 100 USD Best Western Gift Card

The most rewarding option for me personally is the reward Best Western offers. I have tested this option myself recently. I was looking for a stay at Rotterdam Airport. I found a cheaper rate on a third party website for the same room on the same day so I booked the fully refundable rate on the official website, which was more expensive than the price I found on the third party website.

I sent a claim through this form and within 48 hours my claim got approved. I stayed at a Rotterdam Airport hotel, earned a 20 euro gift card for staying during a temporary promotion by Best Western, earned a 100 USD gift card for my claim. In total I ended up with almost 110 euro in gift cards to spend on my next stay!

1. Use Search Engines for Flights

Use search engines such as Skyscanner or Momondo to compare prices from different travel agencies.

The price of a flight ticket fluctuates a lot and depends on your travel period, departure airport and arrival airport. The best way to look for the most competitive price is by using Google Flights Search Engine. To work more quickly with this search engine, I recommend you to get to know some Airport codes. Those three-letter codes are unique to each airport in the world and are very useful to quickly enter in Google Flights.

• Look for alternative airports to start your journey. Aiports of interest for Belgians: AMS, CDG, DUS, BRU  and the airports with mainly low cost carriers CRL, EIN, MST, OST, CGN … .
• Look for alternative arrival airports. If you want to go to Thailand for example, you can look up airports such as BKK, HKT, KBV, CNX.
• Always check if booking two single trips ends up being cheaper than a return ticket.  “Multi-City tool” on Google Search is another way to find cheaper fares if you are open to fly from different airports. This is a great way when you plan a road trip and want to depart from another location back to home. This way of ticketing is called open-jaw. I will guide you through an example. Let’s say you want to go on a West Coast road trip from Belgium and want to look for the cheapest possible ticket. I am open to travel from one of the following international airports near Belgium: CDG (Paris), DUS (Dusseldorf), AMS (Amsterdam), BRU (Brussels). Some of the destination airports of interest are LAX (Los Angeles), SFO (San Francisco), LAS (Las Vegas) or SAN (San Diego). As this is a long haul destination, you will probably have to transit through another airport. You can limit the stopover time by adding a stopover time limit in Google Search.

Results for our example… Cheapest ticket to West Coast:

You have to take into account that there may be additional costs to get to or from an alternative airport when booking an open-jaw ticket.

2. Check out promotion websites and forums for good deals

There are some websites that list several promotions.

My personal favourite is Premium Deals on Flyertalk. Here you’ll find business class flight deals from over the whole world. However, you’ll need to check this forum on a regular basis as deals tend to expire quickly and the chance to find a deal that departs from your nearest airport are very low.

I once found a LOT Polish Airlines ticket from Copenhagen to Warsaw to Singapore (return flight) for around €500 which I ended up posting on Flyertalk after booking it myself. This would be a reasonable price in economy class but is an absolute deal in business class. By taking this flight I even re-qualified for my Star alliance gold status and earned a lot of miles, which I used to book other flights in business class.

Flyertalk has a subforum for great economy flight deals.

3. Earn air miles and redeem them for business class flights

Air miles through flying

You can earn air miles through various of ways. The most obvious way is through flying. By staying loyal to a certain alliance or airline, you’ll be able to earn miles. I have an extensive post about frequent flyer programs with a few relevant examples for Belgians. Once you’ve accumulated enough, you’ll be able to redeem the miles for a free flight. Take into account that you’ll still have to pay airport taxes and fees. Those taxes and fees depend on which airline and which airport you’ll be flying to/from. As taxes can be quiet high, especially on Miles & More member flights, you’ll get the best value out of your miles through flying business class. Booking economy tickets can be interesting too with airlines such as ANA, Ethiopian Airlines, LOT Polish airlines or Turkish airlines as they don’t charge that much taxes.

Just to give you an example, this is how much miles and taxes you’ll pay for a flight with Lufthansa vs ANA for a one-way ticket with the Aegean Airlines frequent flyer program:

Air miles through credit cards

I have created a detailed post about all the ways you can earn miles through credit cards in Belgium. American Express is the best way to earn points/miles for Belgians at this moment. Using the American Express credit card for all your daily expenses will get the best out of your credit card. It will just need some financial planning, as you will get billed all your expenses after a month, just like any credit card. The points that are earned through your credit card will get the most value by booking business class tickets during the Miles & More promo awards named Meilenschnäppchen, after you have transferred your points from American Express to Miles & More.

Here’s an example of a ticket you can get through Meilenschnappchen from Belgium (excl. fees and taxes):