While you’ll be able to find amazing flight deals online, there is an easier and even cheaper way to fly around the globe for a small amount of euros… Airline Miles!
Most of you probably think that you need to fly quite frequently to be able to gather enough airline miles to get free (or almost) flight tickets. If you’re one of these people, I have a good news for you, it’s not the case! In fact, there are multiple ways to earn Airline miles without flying a single time.
Among these ways to earn Airline Miles, and more particularly Miles & More miles in this case, your main source of miles will undoubtedly be your Miles & More credit card. This post will solely focus on the Brussels Airlines credit cards, but you’ll be able to get a similar card wherever you live (or almost). Brussels Airlines offers you three credit card options: i) Brussels Airlines Preferred American Express (120€ annual fee), ii) Brussels Airlines Premium American Express (150€ annual fee) and iii) Brussels Airlines MasterCard (90€ annual fee).
#1 American Express
American Express is currently offering by far the most advantageous Brussels Airlines credit cards with their double sign-up bonus for friends referrals. New subscribers of their Brussels Airlines Premium American Express will get 12,000 miles when using my personal link below (instead of 6,000) and new subscribers of the Brussels Airlines Preferred American Express will receive 6,000 miles as a sign up bonus (instead of 3,000). You will also get an extra 2,000 miles if you pay your cellphone bill with your card. The main advantages of both cards are described below, but feel free to consult American Express website for a complete list of the benefits coming with your card (Travel insurances, Luggages insurance, etc.).
#2 MasterCard
Brussels Airlines also partners with MasterCard but the deal is clearly much less interesting, even considering the lower annual fee (90€) of the MasterCard. The sign-up bonus in only 2,000 miles, and you only get 1 mile per 2€ spent with your MasterCard while you’ll get 1.5 mile per 1€ spent with your American Express Premium. For these reasons, I do not recommend this card. Below are the main benefits coming with the Brussels Airlines American express, but feel free to check Miles&More website for additional information.
#3 Who should/can apply for a Brussels Airlines American Express?
While Brussels Airlines American Express cards provide a lot of benefits, they also have a cost: 150€ annual fee for the Amex Premium and 120€ for the Amex Preferred. You should only consider getting one of these cards if you spend a decent amount per year (note that it is easy to spend €1000+ euros per month if you use your Amex to pay for your groceries, online shopping, gas, restaurants, hotels, flight tickets, Uber drives, Food deliveries, etc.).
By spending 1000€/month – or 12,000/year – with your Brussels Airlines Premium American Express, you’ll earn 12,000 miles (sign-up bonus) + 2,000 miles (if you pay your cellphone bill) + 18,000 miles (12,000 * 1.5) for a total of 32,000 miles. If you look at the Miles&More flight awards chart, you’ll see that you can already book a return flight within Europe for 30,000 miles. However, I recommend you to keep your miles and spend them on a long-haul flight once you’ve collected the minimum amount of miles. Indeed, some Star Alliance Airlines such as United offer award flights with very low surcharges (around 70€ for a return flight BXL-NYC). Thai Airways and Turkish Airlines also offer award flights with very low fares (around 60€ for a return flight BXL-BKK). You can use the powerful United’s search engine to look for Miles & More award flights.
If you spend more than 20,000€/year with your Amex Premium, you’ll also earn a 10,000 miles bonus. In that case, you can collect 12,000 miles + 2,000 miles + 30,000 miles (20,000 * 1.5) + 10,000 miles (bonus) for a total of 54,000 miles. Within one year, you’ll almost have enough miles to book a return flight to North America (60,000 miles). Or for just 52,500 miles, you can also book a one-way ticket in Business class to New-York or San Francisco :-).
I suggest you to subscribe to the Brussels Airlines Premium American Express, and cancel you card once you received all your bonus miles. You can then apply for the Amex Preferred, earn an extra 6,000 welcome miles with the friends referral and another 2,000 miles if you pay your cellphone bill with this new card. If you think that you’ll spend 20,000€+ during your first year, you can also wait one year before cancelling your Amex Premium to get the Preferred one in order to receive your 10,000 bonus miles.
#4 You want your Brussels Airlines American Express?
If you’re not enrolled in the Miles&More program yet, you can enroll on their website. You’ll get 500 miles if you subscribe to their newsletter!
To receive your personal sign-up link and get the double bonus, please complete the form below:
Please note that by signing-up using my personal link, I will also receive some bonus miles. If you don’t feel comfortable with that, you can also sign-up using the regular link and get the regular welcome bonus. Thank you for visiting my blog, and Enjoy Your Flights 🙂 !
Enjoy Your Flight! 