newbie-ff

Hi there.

I have never been frequent traveller before, but in the near future, I will have to fly a few times per year for business purposes. Therefore I'm trying to determine which Skyteam programme I can best enroll.

I will be starting my flights from Amsterdam or Paris on KL/AF usually, yearly somewhat 10 returns, mostly to UK and European destinations and probably 3 or 4 times yearly intercontinental itineraries, to USA, Philippines, Middle East.

Flying Blue seems the obvious one to enroll, but the expiration of miles and level and low percentage of earning miles in lowest farebuckets looks tricky to me or am I mistaken? I'll be flying mostly lowest farebuckets, eg R, N, on KLM/AF and probably U, T on DL. I saw somewhere that flying in R gives 25 pct mileage on KL/AF Flying blue but 100 pct on Delta Skymiles? Would it therefore be better to enroll the DL Skymiles programme? Any other programme better suitable?

Main goal is lounge access, select seating and waitlist clearance.

Thanks for replying !