Air Miles - Air Miles United Kingdom

Air Miles United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, Air Miles has eight million customers. Airmiles can be collected through Lloyds TSB Airmiles Duo credit card accounts, Shell petrol stations, Tesco supermarkets (50 airmiles for every £2.50 in Tesco ClubCard vouchers), Southern Electric, travel products, package holidays purchased from Air Miles and over 100 online retailers.

Air Miles was created in the mid-1980s by Alan Deller, Commercial Director of British Caledonian Airways and the partners of advertising agency Mills, Smith & Partners – initially Keith Mills, Brian Smith, William Kershaw, Nick Tomlin, Peter Badham and Geoffrey Bean and later Liam Cowdrey. Together they formed the Air Miles Travel Promotions Company Limited in 1986 and sold 51% of the UK operation to British Airways soon after. They produced the consumer launch campaign ‘Stop dreaming. Start Collecting’, gaining a database of three million Air Miles collectors in the first three months. Keith Mills later founded the Nectar loyalty card. Operations in the UK commenced in November 1988.

The British program also has an online shopping portal including UK retail partners plus eBay and Currys. Airmiles can be redeemed for flights with British Airways and other airlines, Eurostar and ferry crossings, cruises, hotel accommodation, car hire, travel insurance, package holidays, spa and golf breaks and leisure activities. It is based in Crawley.

Air Miles is a subsidiary of British Airways, but the airline operates a different scheme for its frequent flyers called BA Miles.

In September 2011 Air Miles announced that it would be rebranding to Avios and that taxes and charges would then be chargeable, quoting £497 for a return flight to Sydney; many previous users expressed regret and anger over this. The Airmiles scheme ended at midnight November 14.

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