Asiana Club - Young, never before joined ffp, thinking about Asiana

This is my first post (hi all). I've finally finished law school and have some disposable income to spend on travel. The thing is, I grew up traveling very little and all my research on frequent flyer programs has made my head spin. That said, I thought I'd come here and ask a few questions.

I'm looking for a ffp program that will allow me to upgrade international tickets on nice airlines (singapore, asiana, korean etc). I have no need to upgrade domestic (I'm from the US) tickets, but when I'm on a 12 hour flight I'd love to be in business class as opposed to economy.

Additionally, I don't fly that often. So I'm looking for a program that will let me earn miles through credit card expenditures (which, in turn, I can use to travel).

Asiana seems like a great choice because it 1) is a nice airline, 2) serves the destinations I like to visit the most (asia, sometimes europe) and 3) is a part of star alliance.

That being said, I haven't been able to find an asiana credit card that will let me accrue miles. Would you guys/gals recommend another frequent flyer program for me to join? Also, if I fly on a star alliance member, it's my understanding that I get to "pick" which flyer program my miles get credited to (in this case, it would be Asiana).

I'm sorry the post is long and rambling, but for someone who has traveled very little, and has never been (or known someone) in a frequent flyer program, I thought this would be the best place to find recommendations and advice from those in the know.

Thanks,

-J

Since you are based in US, you should be able to earn miles from Bank of America Credit Cards and Diners Club card in USA.

More info are available at this website:
http://us.flyasiana.com/Global/US/en/homepage?fid=CLUB15420

I would recommend choosing your primary FFP based on where you are based, and not where you want to go. You will have a better opportunity to earn miles, and you can review partnerships and schedules to determine if it is somehow possible to get you to your desired destinations when the time comes.

This is my first post (hi all). I've finally finished law school and have some disposable income to spend on travel. The thing is, I grew up traveling very little and all my research on frequent flyer programs has made my head spin. That said, I thought I'd come here and ask a few questions.

I'm looking for a ffp program that will allow me to upgrade international tickets on nice airlines (singapore, asiana, korean etc). I have no need to upgrade domestic (I'm from the US) tickets, but when I'm on a 12 hour flight I'd love to be in business class as opposed to economy.

Additionally, I don't fly that often. So I'm looking for a program that will let me earn miles through credit card expenditures (which, in turn, I can use to travel).

Asiana seems like a great choice because it 1) is a nice airline, 2) serves the destinations I like to visit the most (asia, sometimes europe) and 3) is a part of star alliance.

That being said, I haven't been able to find an asiana credit card that will let me accrue miles. Would you guys/gals recommend another frequent flyer program for me to join? Also, if I fly on a star alliance member, it's my understanding that I get to "pick" which flyer program my miles get credited to (in this case, it would be Asiana).

I'm sorry the post is long and rambling, but for someone who has traveled very little, and has never been (or known someone) in a frequent flyer program, I thought this would be the best place to find recommendations and advice from those in the know.

Thanks,

-J


congratulation on joining one of most hated profession in the world :D.

that being said, to get to your question, you should make your choice based on two things

1) where you are located (as stated above)
2) but also where you would like to go (any specific asia locations?) the most.

I am someone who likes to travel non-stop during those long flights, and due to my work/pleasure reasons, i fly to S. Korea most often. So, naturally, my *A would be OZ. but say if i was flying most often to say, bangkok or hong kong, i know my choice would differ.

you can find many discussion on which *A to become part of, and use the handy dandy search button above this thread.

good luck!

I would recommend choosing your primary FFP based on where you are based, and not where you want to go. You will have a better opportunity to earn miles, and you can review partnerships and schedules to determine if it is somehow possible to get you to your desired destinations when the time comes.

+1. US FF programs are the best when it comes to earning miles from CC bonuses and promotions. You can still redeem on OZ metal with CO/UA or US miles if there is availability. Lower taxes/fees when booking with CO/UA compared to OZ as well. For example, the rumored UA card which is supposedly for 60K miles and the Chase Sapphire Preferred card which can transfer 50K miles to CO/UA (rumors).

I'm looking for a ffp program that will allow me to upgrade international tickets on nice airlines (singapore, asiana, korean etc). I have no need to upgrade domestic (I'm from the US) tickets, but when I'm on a 12 hour flight I'd love to be in business class as opposed to economy.



You are not going to find a program that allow you to use miles to upgrade on a partner carrier "cheaply". There is star alliance upgrades, but the thing is you can only upgrade on partners with a full fare ticket, that means often 3x or 4x or more than the cheapest economy ticket, and it is often more expensive than a discount business class ticket. Are you really willing to pay that amount in order to upgrade to a buiness class seat ? Like $800 vs $2500 ?

Star alliance upgrades are meant for companies won't pay for their employees travel in business class, but they would pay for full fare economy ticket. Seldom any individual would buy a full fare ticket for leisure travel. I mean if you can afford a full fare ticket, why not simply buy a cheap business class ticket on some asian carriers, especially CI and BR often offer good deals to Asia from US in business class, and they have a nice product as well.

SQ for sure you can't do it, as if you read some of the threads, they had banned any sort of upgrade or awards for 77W/380/345, those aircrafts basically already covered the majority of SQ's int'l routes.

KE is skyteam, not stat alliance, so you can't do it as well.

The cheapest way to get international business class tickets is by hoarding miles with U.S. frequent flyer programs -- credit card signup bonuses, buying miles at the right rates (Delta and US Airways have both had sweet promotions in recent months), etc. -- and spending them on award tickets with alliance partners.

You can get business class on Asiana pretty easily this way, using United or US Airways miles, which will also get you on ANA or Thai (or theoretically Singapore, but not usually due to the reason mentioned above). American miles will get you on JAL or Cathay Pacific. Delta miles will get you on Korean (albeit with many blackout dates) or China Airlines. Etc.

I'd have to agree with most of the veterans on this topic. Asiana actually has pretty bad burn rates IMHO when it comes to redeeming for tickets/upgrades. I personally bank miles on OZ to obtain gold status on Star Alliance for lounge access when traveling. Like everyone else has said, the the easiest way to keep miles current is to sign up for a credit cards that allows you to bank miles on everyday purchases. I heard that Chase has a great credit card for United Airlines, but that discussion is for another board XD

I'd have to agree with most of the veterans on this topic. Asiana actually has pretty bad burn rates IMHO when it comes to redeeming for tickets/upgrades. I personally bank miles on OZ to obtain gold status on Star Alliance for lounge access when traveling. Like everyone else has said, the the easiest way to keep miles current is to sign up for a credit cards that allows you to bank miles on everyday purchases. I heard that Chase has a great credit card for United Airlines, but that discussion is for another board XD


I don't understand the fuss about OZ being bad for tickets/upgrades.

OZ offers ridiculous flexibility, its not even funny to even compare it with some others.

let's get started

1) distance based can be used very creatively.
2) zones: only 3 zones: Americas / euro-afro-middle east (talk about one fat zone)/ and asia (north east south southeast southwest you name it). This works out great when you are trying to book around the world

3) great way to redeem *A, upto 5 stopovers, one FREE redo, up two 2 stopovers for a single country (but not single airport)

4) get BoA (if you are US resident) OZ card, and start walloping 2 miles for every purchase, 3 for OZ. quite doubles other CC

5) did i mention one free redo? yeah. you can change your award itinerary for free, even if you don't hold any high membership level with OZ.

this will be same for any airline but award availability is most easily accessed if you use their own miles.

One bad thing is OZ isn't part of Amex or Chase reward network, and there really isn't a way to transfer large quantity of them at once.


Use it wisely, and OZ miles can go long long long distance, when others will fall short.


yes they have YQ, but to me, it doesn't negate all the flexible benefits listed above.

The high YQ makes people flinch when it comes to award tickets. Look at BA, not many people want to fly them due to the high YQs they charge on their award tickets. Yes, there are people who still fly them but a good number of people instead go with AA, IB, etc.

I don't understand the fuss about OZ being bad for tickets/upgrades.

Well, let's take a flight from North America to SE Asia:

Upgrade on UA Y/B: 35k miles
Upgrade on AC Y/B: 25k miles
Upgrade on OZ Y/B: at least 37k miles

From my understanding, the OZ upgrade chart is distance-based for Star Alliance carriers, which means from EWR-SIN, the upgrade can go up to a whopping 47k each way... it could add up you know =p

Well, let's take a flight from North America to SE Asia:

Upgrade on UA Y/B: 35k miles
Upgrade on AC Y/B: 25k miles
Upgrade on OZ Y/B: at least 37k miles

From my understanding, the OZ upgrade chart is distance-based for Star Alliance carriers, which means from EWR-SIN, the upgrade can go up to a whopping 47k each way... it could add up you know =p


absolutely. i can understand that. let me throw this out at you though :)

Let's say you want to fly from ICN to BKK, but you also want to hit up say, Hanoi, and what the heck, you want to see Angkor Wat as well.

With OZ, you can fly all that in business for 80k OZ miles + 280 dollars YQ & Tax.

good luck getting anywhere near that for other *A (except for maybe ANA, which also has distance based award chart).


I didn't mean to say OZ is perfect FFP. but i just don't get all the hate it gets, and how people claim its only good for scoring *A gold, when it offers so much potentials, especially for shorter distance, multi-stopover trips.


but last point you bring up is crucial. use OZ if it fits your need (short hops on *A or you live near OZ hub), or stick to other *A if you fly more intercontinental and you have to rely on other *A to get you there.

going back to OP's question, i am going to reiterate my first point: where you live and where you like to go has huge implication on which *A you want to take. OZ has standard location based award chart for its own metal, but distance for *A. figure out what works for you,

I agree with the vets above.

As to getting miles, I think this should help you.

http://millionmilesecrets.com/