How to Easily Tell How Many Miles You’ll Earn from a Different Program (or your own!)

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When a great fare comes up on an airline I don’t normally fly, the first question I ask myself is, “Can I still earn miles on this?”

Usually, the answer depends on the alliance and the fare class, but sometimes there are squishier rules as well.

Take Alaska Airlines for instance.  It has partners across multiple alliances.    I collect miles on American and Delta (long story).  Would I earn miles for a cheap flight on Alaska?  And which airline should I credit it to?

Would I receive elite miles (miles toward status) or just redeemable miles (miles towards awards)?

Luckily, there’s a Chrome plugin that will now do all the thinking for you.  

30k will show you how many miles you’ll earn for each flight, depending on what airlines you collect miles in and what status you have with each of those.

This feature in the plugin is part of an overall package that also lets you know what flights are upgradable.

So let’s look at my Alaska Airlines example a little more closely.

When I select American, I can see what my earnings are.

I can get 2,316 redeemable miles, and 1,448 miles towards my elite status next year.  This would also count as one segment (one flight) towards my elite status with American.

Then I can switch to Delta.

I’d earn 724 miles towards my next award ticket and towards my elite status.  You’ll notice this plugin also lets me know how many dollars Delta will count me as spending towards my elite status.

What I love about this plugin is that it lets me do less thinking, more buying.  Some flight deals are fleeting–so this allows me to figure out if the deal is worth it.

(For great flight deals, check out The Flight Deal).

The catch is that this plugin costs $20 per year and is only avaliable on chrome.  The first 30 days are free, but after that, you must subscribe.

This may not be a plugin that is valuable to everyone–but this can save a lot of time for those are collecting miles and points, especially those who like jumping on deals.

If you are an infrequent traveler, I don’t think this would be worth it.  But for someone constantly booking flights, this could save a lot of time.

Lately, I’ve been thinking about the opportunity cost of doing all of this flight research.  I think this software is worth $20 a year if I can use that to alleviate my research time, so I purchased a license for this year.

I think it’s at least worth the 30 day trial (again, if you are a frequent traveler), but YMMV.

If you sign up through my link, I may get credit for your sign up.  But please don’t feel obligated!