oneworld - Deciding on a Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program? Help is here.

A number of threads have been started with members asking for guidance on which mileage program they should join. In order to help users we have started this thread to allow people to post their requests for information here and to allow people to offer assistance.

Oneworld airlines are listed in this link (http://www.oneworld.com/)

For advice on the intricacies of each airline frequent flyer program [FFP] please refer to the the airline web sites and the airline specific forums (as blue links below)
- Air Berlin Topbonus (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-berlin-topbonus-696/) OW membership 20 March 2012
- American AAdvantage (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage-445/)
- British Airways - Executive Club (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club-446/)
- Cathay Pacific Asia Miles (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles-487/)
- Finnair Plus (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finnair-plus-636/)
- Iberia Plus (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus-683/)
- JAL Mileage Bank (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/jal-mileage-bank-513/)
- LAN LANPASS (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lan-lanpass-689/)
- Qantas Frequent Flyer (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer-498/)
Other Oneworld airlines do not have separate forums on FT.

Future OneWorld airlines:- OneWorld members elect link here (http://www.oneworld.com/member-airlines/members-elect/)
- Srilankin Airline (http://www.srilankan.com/en_uk/au) to join (http://www.oneworld.com/news-information/oneworldnews/details/?objectID=29625) late 2013
- Qatar Airways (www.qatarairways.com/) to join (http://www.oneworld.com/news-information/oneworldnews/details/?objectID=52692) late 2013 / 2014
- Kingfisher, of India, is/was on "elect" list but is close to or has ceased operation
- TAM early 2014 http://www.oneworld.com/news-information/oneworldnews/details/?objectID=54228
- LAN Colombia Q3 2013 http://www.oneworld.com/news-information/oneworldnews/details/?objectID=54228

Also worth looking at
- OW Member Airline Programs (http://www.oneworld.com/ow/ffp/member-airline-programmes)
- OW tier status tool (http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-oneworld-tier-status/)
- OW Lounge access (http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access/)
- Statusmatcher.com (http://www.statusmatcher.com/index.php) Interesting, but not 100% accurate for status benefits IMHO
- Overview of Frequent Flyer Programs (http://www.hotels-and-travel.de/ffp/) by FLYGVA
- AA Program Basics (http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/AAdvantage_Program_Basics_%28AA%29) Flyerguide wiki
- AA Elite Status (http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Elite_Levels_%28AA%29) Flyerguide wiki
- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/967395-help-desk-aadvantage-elite-status-challenge-gold-platinum.html
- AAdvantage Elite Status Challenge (http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_%28AA%29) Flyerguide wiki
- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1362974-your-guide-executive-club-attaining-status-earning-avios.html BA Executive Club wiki
- British Airways Executive Club basics (http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Category:British_Airways_Executive_Club) Flyerguide wiki

- 02 Nov 2011 http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/1275187-finnair-com-all-your-ow-partner-mmb-manage-my-booking-needs-you-bet.html Useful !
- 10 Aug 2012 - www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1375745-lifetime-status-other-ow-ff-schemes.html
- 12 Dec 2012 Comparing Oneworld FF programs (http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/comparing-oneworld-ff-programmes-45641.html) from Aust Freq Flyer

Frequent Flyer Programs (FFP) are not equal.
The miles/kms/points of FFP’s are not equal (just like currencies)
Each airline FFP has different rules for earning/retaining status.
Each airline FFP has different rules earning miles/km/points/avios & keeping from expiring.
Each airline FFP has different rules for rewards/upgrades using (burning) those miles/km/points & copay $$ fees.
Each airline FFP has different rules for lounge access (own & other airlines)

Award flights with your airline, other OneWorld airlines and your airlines non-alliance FFP partners are subject to availability & the rules of your airlines FFP.
OneWorld airline FFP's do not have the same non-alliance airline partners.

For low miles/points/avois/km better to keep all in one FFP, and not have multiple accounts

Earning by credit card, rental cars, hotel stays, etc are a good way of earning for many people.

Unlike Star Alliance, Oneworld does not have alliance wide recognition of some/all your airline FFP benefits (eg baggage allowance, priority boarding).
Edit:- From 01 Feb 2013 High status OW passengers get alliance wide extra baggage allowance

Edit: from a post on 2 Feb 2013
< snip>
One important thing to note is that miles/points earning and redemption are only a part of the whole FF business. A big factor in choosing your plan preferences is whether you'd fly enough with your chosen airline(s) in order to reach elite frequent flyer status. With elite status comes various perks - access to lounges, expedited passage through airports, seat selections, upgrades, baggage allowances, etc. - that can be as important if not more important to frequent travelers. So those factors also need to be understood as you make your choices.

It involves homework and research, but the rewards can be very significant, well worth the effort. (Or so many of us think. Of course we can be both delusional and exhibit OCD symptoms in this regard. Welcome to the madhouse.)

__________________________________________________

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply:
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply:
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply:
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply:
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

[Thanks to our friends at Star Alliance forum who have a similar sticky thread. This is based on that thread]

Other threads on this topic
12 Jul 2006 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/578102-ay-some-other-program.html

06 Mar 2008 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/798213-oneworld-ff-program-comparison.html
22 Jul 2008 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/847393-oneworld-program-best.html

01 Jun 2009 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/960124-frequent-flyer-program-should-i-choose-journey.html
27 Aug 2009 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/988999-member-switching-ow-rtw-ff-program-should-i-sign-up.html
04 Nov 2009 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1013367-backup-oneworld-program-qantas-ba.html

20 Jan 2010 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1041824-oneworld-program-choose.html
08 May 2010 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1082876-infrequent-flyers-best-loyalty-programs-disloyal.html http://miles.clanteam.com/
20 May 2010 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1086901-advise-please-where-move-aa-ba-when-i-hit-life-gold.html QF gold-AA/BA (updated Feb 2013)
04 Jun 2010 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1092112-advice-frequent-flyer-program-rtw-trip-please.html

04 Feb 2011 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1179996-ow-program-should-i-join-me-based-2-3-c-flights-year.html
23 Oct 2011 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1271962-switching-g-good-idea-me.html
10 Nov 2011 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1278188-g-about-join-first-oneworld-program.html
19 Nov 2011 - www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1282009-ba-exec-qantas.html
03 Dec 2011 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1286893-need-advice-malev-duna-club-vs-finnair-plus.html
12 Dec 2011 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1287828-program-join.html

02 Apr 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/airberlin-topbonus/1331372-ab-aa-account.html
07 May 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/1343600-aadvantage-ba-executive-dilemma.html
27 July 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1371096-does-aadvantage-miles-asian-miles-just-one.html
09 Aug 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1375025-cx-mpc-misplaced-loyalty.html
10 Aug 2012 - www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1375807-ba-exec-cathay-marco-polo-club.html
27 Aug 2012 - www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-asian-australian-south-pacific-frequent-flyer-programs/1381352-shanghai-based-frequent-flyer-strategy-wanted.html
07 Sep 2012 - www.flyertalk.com/forum/finnair-plus/1385202-ba-avios-vs-ay-dilemma.html
09 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/iberia-airlines-iberia-plus/1405387-iberia-avios-totally-confused.html Explanation of Iberia Plus (avios) & BA Avios
11 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1406086-flying-cathay-redeeming-ba.html Comments on BA vs CX MPC Asiamiles
12 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1406352-ba-vs-aa-living-us.html Some good informative posts
15 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1407195-emirates-ba-executive-club.html
16 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1407592-worth-switching-executive-club.html AA vs BA
22 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan/1409963-based-cdg-considering-switch.html DL/AF/KL to Alaska and credit BA flights
25 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1410635-silver-qff-relocating-hong-kong-needing-advise.html QF vs CX Marco Polo / Asia Miles
27 Nov 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1411267-avios-ex-airmiles-account-ba-account.html avios currency
12 Dec 2012 - Comparing oneworld ff programmes (http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/your-questions/comparing-oneworld-ff-programmes-45641.html) from Aust Freq Flyer
22 Dec 2012 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/1419948-rate-american-aadvantage.html Pro's & con's of AA ffp

04 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1423566-accelerated-oneworld-status-via-ab-promotion-possible.html
04 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1423967-emerald-baec-mpc-needs-help.html BAEC or Cathay MPC FFP ?
08 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1425119-help-using-asia-miles-flight-aa-metal.html
09 Jan 2013 - Family of 4 flying-can I get all miles in my account ? (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alaska-airlines-mileage-plan/1425606-family-four-flying-can-i-get-all-their-miles-my-account.html) AS - BA ffp household account (useful)
15 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1427907-almost-impossible-redeem-cx-flight-thru-asia-mile.html
15 Jan 2013 - Thinking about Converting from QF to Cathay or another 1W membership (http://www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au/community/qantas-frequent-flyer-program/thinking-about-converting-cathay-another-46568.html#post743668) From Aust Freq Flyer
19 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/1429189-calling-uk-members-better-join-aa-ba-program.html#post20075068 AA vs BA
24 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1431361-how-does-executive-club-compare-among-airline-loyalty-schemes.html BA vs the rest
25 Jan 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1431514-starting-out-frequent-flyer-world.html QF vs AA for a New Zealand resident
06 Feb 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1435616-jal-san-diego.html#post20192592 JL or AA for Japan USA flights
06 Feb 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1435720-moving-mpc-qff-evaluation.html
21 Feb 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1440769-accruing-qantas-american.html QF or AA or AS for discount economy QF flights
06 Mar 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1445106-aadvantage-makes-baec-seem-waste-time-some-routes-ie-lhr-syd.html
11 Mar 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1447090-using-points-syd-lhr-july.html QF vs AA
14 Apr 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1458101-tips-frequent-discount-economy-flyer.html BA vs AA
28 Apr 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1462332-selecting-ow-asia-base.html
01 May 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/1463114-best-partner-value-aa-miles.html
02 May 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1463405-baec-aa-medium-frequency-leisure-travel.html AA vs BA for a NY/CT resident leisure traveler
03 May 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1463827-should-i-switch-asiamiles.html For Canadian AC Aeroplan flyer looking for better
09 May 2013 - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1465314-advice-aadvantage-vs-qff-my-specific-pattern.html QF vs AA for mainly domestic Australian travel

Perfect timing! Currently, I am US/Canada-based and am *G with AC. I also have AA status because my employer participates in the AAirpass program. Starting mid-next year, I will be moving to HK for at least 1 year (but maybe longer). I'm wondering whether I should switch my OW FFP to CX starting Jan 1, 2012.

1) What is your home airport?
Reply: Will become HKG (currently EWR & YOW).
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: Flew ~95k miles in 2011, mostly with *A. Expect to fly ~70k miles in 2012, and would like allocate half of that to *A to retain *G status with AC.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Ex-US work travel (approx. ~45k in 2011) is in Business. The rest in Economy.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Some (but not complete) flexibility in airline choice when work-related.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Mostly within Asia with some transpacific travel after my move.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
Reply: AA Gold (through AAirpass) and AC Elite.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge access and priority services.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX in OW; AC in *A.

I'm going to make this thread "sticky" as these questions come up frequently.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Perfect timing! Currently, I am US/Canada-based and am *G with AC. I also have AA status because my employer participates in the AAirpass program. Starting mid-next year, I will be moving to HK for at least 1 year (but maybe longer). I'm wondering whether I should switch my OW FFP to CX starting Jan 1, 2012.

1) What is your home airport?
Reply: Will become HKG (currently EWR & YOW).
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: Flew ~95k miles in 2011, mostly with *A. Expect to fly ~70k miles in 2012, and would like allocate half of that to *A to retain *G status with AC.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Ex-US work travel (approx. ~45k in 2011) is in Business. The rest in Economy.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Some (but not complete) flexibility in airline choice when work-related.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Mostly within Asia with some transpacific travel after my move.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
Reply: AA Gold (through AAirpass) and AC Elite.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge access and priority services.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX in OW; AC in *A.

If maintaining AC status, you are not going to be able to get CX gold (Oneworld Saphire = lounge access) which requires you to allocate 60,000 miles to CX (transpac in J mulitplied by 1.25). However, you would be able to earn CX Silver @ 30,000 which allows lounge access for CX flights.

If your intra-asia economy travel is in full-fare Y, you should be able to maintain AC Elite, while earning AA PLT which earns you Oneworld Saphire.

Personally, I would pour all my miles into CX or AA (if flying full economy for Asian flights, you should be able to make EXP on EQPs--Y/B and higher fares = 1.5 EQP/mile flown). CX gold will get much better recognition on CX flights than an AA EXP though.

I posted a similar question couple of days ago, and the feedback is very helpful. I'll put my information here again so others in similar situations can have a reference.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: TPE; TSA (downtown Taipei)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 40K-50K. Mostly Y, occasionally C in transpacific flights.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Mostly economy, occasionally business.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose the airline and the class of service. My travel is mostly work related.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transpacific 3 or 4 times (1 or 2 in business class, rest in economy). inter-Asia 4-5times (mostly to Tokyo, 1 or 2 to Shanghai).

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: DL Gold.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: lounge access, priority services, good award redemption rates (mostly used for inter-Asia flights)

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: JL, CX, AA

If maintaining AC status, you are not going to be able to get CX gold (Oneworld Saphire = lounge access) which requires you to allocate 60,000 miles to CX (transpac in J mulitplied by 1.25). However, you would be able to earn CX Silver @ 30,000 which allows lounge access for CX flights.

If your intra-asia economy travel is in full-fare Y, you should be able to maintain AC Elite, while earning AA PLT which earns you Oneworld Saphire.

Personally, I would pour all my miles into CX or AA (if flying full economy for Asian flights, you should be able to make EXP on EQPs--Y/B and higher fares = 1.5 EQP/mile flown). CX gold will get much better recognition on CX flights than an AA EXP though.

Thanks for the advice. Given the uncertainty surrounding AC's qualification criteria for 2013, I'm thinking about a more complete switch to OW. In this case, I think joining CX's program makes the most sense.

Hello, currently am a *G, will keep it this way as it is the best way to get out of YUL.

From time-to-time I collect on Oneworld - about 4-6 regional flights a year so looking to also collect here. Don't need gold status, just would like the flights to add up to a free one-way or return YUL-NYC kind of thing.

I have had a CX membership and find that they don't honour the majority of these regional flights (usually BA, Finnair or AA). Plus the amount of work it takes to redeem a CX flight through their email-to-operator system instead of a web-based system is really fussy and annoying.

Looking for an alternative on the Oneworld crew:

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: YUL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

25k-50k in economy (not even Y, B or M usually)

Reply:
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy only.


(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? can choose the airline, not the class, travel for work.

Reply:
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Canada-Europe, Canada-US, flights within Europe.


(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: CX basic. :mad::td:


(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)

Reply: upgrades, good award redemption, easy booking and good crediting of flights flown on the OW system.


(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:
AC, Finnair, LX, BA, AF, PD, CX

Thanks flyers!

Hello, currently am a *G, will keep it this way as it is the best way to get out of YUL.

From time-to-time I collect on Oneworld - about 4-6 regional flights a year so looking to also collect here. Don't need gold status, just would like the flights to add up to a free one-way or return YUL-NYC kind of thing....

It really sounds like AA is your best bet - good earning rates including improved reciprocity with BA, and IMO the best redemption rates (for now at least) in Oneworld.

thanks Gardyloo!

It really sounds like AA is your best bet - good earning rates including improved reciprocity with BA, and IMO the best redemption rates (for now at least) in Oneworld.

Under normal circumstances, this would be correct, but if he is only desiring to redeem YUL to JFK, than BA would be a better bet. Without status, you will earn Avios at about the same rate as AAdvantage miles. AA charges 12,500 miles each way YUL-JFK, where as BA is 4,500 each way.

Under normal circumstances, this would be correct, but if he is only desiring to redeem YUL to JFK, than BA would be a better bet. Without status, you will earn Avios at about the same rate as AAdvantage miles. AA charges 12,500 miles each way YUL-JFK, where as BA is 4,500 each way.
Fair enough; however the kicker with Avios is the cumulative "cost" of connecting trips. If it's YUL-JFK, you're right, it's 4500 Avios or 12,500 AA miles. If it's YUL-xJFK-LAX, it's 4500 + 12,500 (17,000) Avios vs. the same 12,500 AA. Connecting really adds up.

Fair enough; however the kicker with Avios is the cumulative "cost" of connecting trips. If it's YUL-JFK, you're right, it's 4500 Avios or 12,500 AA miles. If it's YUL-xJFK-LAX, it's 4500 + 12,500 (17,000) Avios vs. the same 12,500 AA. Connecting really adds up.

Which is one of several reasons why I use AA over BA. But YULantonym is primarily a *A flyer who just wants to book the occasional YUL-JFK with his spare OW miles, so for him I think BA is a much better program.

Great to see a thread like this in the OW board... the *A thread is a big hit.

Let me give this a go, just to see if I'm doing the right thing or shooting myself in the foot...

(1) home airport - SIN (but might become SYD in a year or 2)
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 60-70k, mostly discount Y.
(3) types of fares bought - mostly discount Y but look for miles-accuring fares if price differences aren't large. Y+, J if prices are very cheap.
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - mostly pleasure - full choice of airline and cabins.
(5) routes flown most often - SIN-SYD and SIN-HKG. Some regional travel, plus 1 big trip per year (e.g. Europe or America)
(6) current FFP status - QF gold
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? - lounge access, priority services, good redemption rates. (in that order)
(8) Preferred Airlines - none (except the few that are on my no-fly list, and they aren't in OW).

This year I already have trips planned to LAX, DXB, TLV, (each in WT+) and 2 to PRG. If I go with BA I have a good chance of reaching 600 TP's and Silver, while if I go with American (or another miles-based FF program) I'm only looking at AA Gold. It seems like BA is the clear choice but I wanted to double-check and I'm not sure how the other OW programs work. The standard Q's and A's below:

(1) home airport - LHR
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 20-40k, combination of discount economy and WT+.
(3) types of fares bought - either a discount economy (earning reduced tier pts) or a WT+ fare (not sure of the letters for either).
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - combination of work and pleasure
(5) routes flown most often - LHR-PRG (4-6 times per year), LHR-LAX (1-2 times), and LHR-ATL (1 time max). Maybe 1-2 other trips to US or elsewhere (DXB & TLV recently)
(6) current FFP status - BA Blue (Bronze soon), AA lowest.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? - lounge access, early seat selection (when travelling w/ family)
(8) Preferred Airlines - none.

thanks!

(1) home airport - GRU - São Paulo
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 250k all in C
(3) types of fares bought - Only fly business, unless it is unavailable. Book the cheapest J class fare available.
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? I own My business so I can choose, whether for business or pleasure. I would say 80 per cent of My travel is for business and 20 per cent for leisure.
(5) routes flown most often - GRU - XXX - HKG/PVG and GRU-CDG.
(6) current FFP status - LH *G, JJ *G and FB silver
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good rates, since already get most of the other Perks for flying J anyway.
(8) Preferred Airlines - SQ LX CX TK

This year I already have trips planned to LAX, DXB, TLV, (each in WT+) and 2 to PRG. If I go with BA I have a good chance of reaching 600 TP's and Silver, while if I go with American (or another miles-based FF program) I'm only looking at AA Gold. It seems like BA is the clear choice but I wanted to double-check and I'm not sure how the other OW programs work. The standard Q's and A's below:

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? - lounge access, early seat selection (when travelling w/ family)

Since you mainly want lounge access, I would definitely go with BA here.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: CPH (Copenhagen)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: <25

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Pleasure - can choose airlines.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Intra-Europe and Intercontinental and US Domestic

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Eurobonus Basic


(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrade on travels, Priority service, Lounges

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

Flying to PHX and/or LAX, then MCO and MCO-CPH home. + Trip to Berlin. next year.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: CPH (Copenhagen)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: <25

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Pleasure - can choose airlines.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Intra-Europe and Intercontinental and US Domestic

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Eurobonus Basic


(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrade on travels, Priority service, Lounges

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

Flying to PHX and/or LAX, then MCO and MCO-CPH home. + Trip to Berlin. next year.

You are going to be hard pressed to get any sort of status flying under 25k per year. Even if you do get status, it will probably be lowest tier, which won't give lounge access.

If you want upgrades and are willing to pay for WT+, BA allows for very cheap upgrades to CW (note, you may need to book CPH-LHR separate from LHR-United States, as BA upgrades must be for the entire itinerary, and the CPH-LHR leg is only upgradeable if its a full fare ticket). If you are unwilling to pay for WT+, I would probably go with AA, as their miles are generally the most valuable.

I am not sure about the 25k thing. I have 2 trips to the States + a trip to Berlin next year.

I am new here, and I tried looking in the glossary but I don't know what CW and WT+ are. Thanks for the quick response dcAA

I know I am not a FF flier, I doubt I will ever get any status, all I am looking for is the best way to slowly accumulate miles, with the thought of eventually getting some use from them. I do like the QF A380,but, am just a budget traveller.

(1) home airport - LAX

(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - <25k economy

(3) types of fares bought - cheapest economy.

(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - usually pleasure - my choice, infrequently for work

(5) routes flown most often - LAX- SYD, annually at most, one domestic US flight per year

(6) current FFP status - QF - lowest, AA-lowest, United - lowest

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates, better award access

(8) Preferred Airlines - Qantas - but, an flexible

I am not sure about the 25k thing. I have 2 trips to the States + a trip to Berlin next year.

I am new here, and I tried looking in the glossary but I don't know what CW and WT+ are. Thanks for the quick response dcAA

WT+ = World Traveler Plus = premium economy on BA.

CW = Club World = business class on BA.

Your mileage is right about 25,000. Unless you add some more flying, you're looking at being a lower level elite regardless of who you fly. BA does status on tier points, and if you pay for WT+, you may be close to BA Silver = OW Saphire and Lounge access (two TATL round trips ex-CPH in WT+ should net you over 400 tier points, with less than 200 more needed for BA Silver).

(1) home airport - GRU - São Paulo
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 250k all in C
(3) types of fares bought - Only fly business, unless it is unavailable. Book the cheapest J class fare available.
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? I own My business so I can choose, whether for business or pleasure. I would say 80 per cent of My travel is for business and 20 per cent for leisure.
(5) routes flown most often - GRU - XXX - HKG/PVG and GRU-CDG.
(6) current FFP status - LH *G, JJ *G and FB silver
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good rates, since already get most of the other Perks for flying J anyway.
(8) Preferred Airlines - SQ LX CX TK

Help anyone?

For those who asked about perks with relatively low flying.

If 25k is bottom tier for One World, maybe you wanna consider Star Alliance, Aegean can get you Gold at 20k per year and it is for 3yrs and I heard if you just keep it active rather than getting 20k every turnaround. Another is Asiana but you do need 40k for the 2yrs every 2yrs. Others are generally 25k for Silver and 50k for Gold. 1 or 2 can be v high ie., 100k for Gold. Gold will get you lounge access if you want that.

If you want lounge access and rewards. Maybe Asiana but you need to keep up with the every 2yr thingy. Because if you do go for the cheap flights, Aegean might only give 0.70 pt per mile, and if you go too cheap some of the flights might give you NIL. This depends on the airline you are flying with as well - as they determine who cannot get points and what can and at what ratio.

Not sure about upgrades. I heard the USA might be easier with that, other part of the world might be harder or near non existent. I heard that AirNZ can be done so .. but tier structure they use for their programme is quite diff to the rest of the world. Put it this way, if you are not a business traveler forget it. You need maybe 3x return USA Asia to just get Silver on economy class.

Also note that BA. I tried to look it up once. I am from NZ and I could not join. Maybe they restrict it only UK or only EU or maybe they not allow some distant areas like NZ.

It seems like the prices on *A are 1.5-2 times of other alliances. Maybe the seatings are more comfortable and the service is better, but for a budget traveler the price might put you off.

(1) home airport - GRU - São Paulo
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 250k all in C
(3) types of fares bought - Only fly business, unless it is unavailable. Book the cheapest J class fare available.
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? I own My business so I can choose, whether for business or pleasure. I would say 80 per cent of My travel is for business and 20 per cent for leisure.
(5) routes flown most often - GRU - XXX - HKG/PVG and GRU-CDG.
(6) current FFP status - LH *G, JJ *G and FB silver
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good rates, since already get most of the other Perks for flying J anyway.
(8) Preferred Airlines - SQ LX CX TK

Help anyone?Interesting. If you already have status with JJ (*G, right?) it probably would make sense to see how the Lan/Tam merger ends up with regard to alliance. If LATAM stays with Oneworld, then presumably you'll have your status matched - either to Sapphire or Emerald levels (Silver or Comodoro respectively) in which case you'd probably want to stay there.

Otherwise, I think it's hard to beat AA in terms of redemption rates - IF you fly in business class, where flights on most Oneworld members will earn 100% redemption mileage bonuses in addition to usual class-of-service bonuses. It really adds up.

Judging from your described routes and preference for cheap J fares, you really sound like a candidate for Oneworld RTW products - maybe a couple at a time - one eastbound and one westbound. The Oneworld Explorer has unlimited mileage unlike the Star RTW products, and prices are generally better than on Star (often MUCH better) so the combination - low price per flown mile and no mileage cap (but like Star a 16-segment overall cap) might be just the ticket. Certainly it bears some scrutiny on your part - a little homework on this board will be time well spent. Combined with elite status, RTW products can be major mileage cows, and they're nowhere nearly as "inflexible" as many people think.

So short answer, maybe join AA, but wait to see how LATAM shapes up before making a push for Oneworld elite status.

(1) new home - LHR
(2) 2012 mileage - 100K
(3) Economy fare
(4) Work travel, can choose airline
(5) 2012 expected R/T destinations: AMS (6x), YVR(4x), YYZ(4x), IAD(3x), RTM(3x), ZHR(3x), HEL(2x), HKG(1x), LAS(1x) -- some domestic travel once I'm in Canada, USA, NL, and FI
(6) current status: UA Gold (37,9 on UA), BA Bronze (13,7)
(7) MOST IMPORTANT: upgrades on travel and free lounge access

I realise I've made the mistake of not consolidating my air miles in the past - ready to be loyal to one airline, but not sure which. Thinking BA since I'm flying out of LHR...? Would it be worth shifting from * to OW?

So grateful for this forum! Thanks in advance

I'm another potential AC refugee. I decided against switching last year but I'm reconsidering it again now.

(1) What is your home airport?
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
(5) Which routes do you fly most often

I fly about 30-40k miles from DUB to NYC, (work) SFO, (work) and YUL (vacation) each year.

I'm pondering a vacation trip to AUS sometime in the next year though which might be instead of YUL...

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?

On AC I was paying for M fares which are about as expensive as WTP+ or equivalent. For my personal travel I book the cheapest fares usually.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?

I just lost AC*G :(

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Top priority is totally upgrades. After that lounges (that have showers after red-eyes). Don't really care about the rest.

What I worked out previously was that on BA if I could maintain BA Silver (which I'm not really clear on with the new rules) I could buy WTP+ on all my business flights and upgrade to CW with the miles I earn as fast as I earn them. My personal travel would be in the back of the bus.

What I don't know is how any of the other OW programs stack up. Does AA have any similar benefits? AA flies direct to DUB so it would be tempting to fly them sometimes, at least for the daytime flight.

If I do manage to put together a vacation to AUS obviously BA, CX, and QF are all tempting. Do any of them have any way to get into premium economy with the miles I earn on my business travel?

(8) Preferred Airlines

AFAIK the OW routes to DUB are either AA through ORD or BA through LHR. Are there other options I'm not thinking of?

My post isn't so much a request for information or advice, rather, I'd like to share my route to elite status.

Vital Stats:
Currently resident in YYZ, formerly EIN/MST and before then BDA.
I have been an AA member since 1993 and a BAEC member from 2007.
leisure flyer till 2010. Business and leisure since then. Tickets booked 'on the cheap'
Major routes YYZ-LHR; YYZ-RDU; YYZ-AMS; AMS-LON
BA Membership Year begins/ends: May

2 Scenarios

My flights can be seen on ba97.com and below is an overview of what I would be credited to BA or AA's program for my oneworld flying
BA

Membership Year Reset:
LHR-AMS in Club Europe on BA: 40
AMS-LGW in Club Europe on BA: 40
LGW-AMS in Club Europe on BA: 40
AMS-LHR in Club Europe on BA: 40
YYZ-LGA in Discount Economy on AA: 10
LGA-RDU in Discount Economy on AA: 10
RDU-LGA in Discount Economy on AA: 10
LGA-YYZ in Business (cash UG) on AA: 10
YYZ-JFK in ineligible fare bucket on AA: 0
JFK-BDA in ineligible fare bucket on AA: 0
BDA-JFK in Business on AA: 40
JFK - YYZ in Business on AA: 40
YYZ-LHR in World Traveller Plus on BA: 90

BA Bronze, oneworld Ruby

LHR-AMS in Euro Traveller on BA: 20
AMS-LHR in Euro Traveller on BA: 20

BA (Euro)Silver, oneworld Sapphire

LHR-YYZ in World Traveller Plus on BA: 90

Total: 500 Tier Points = BA EuroSilver

AA

RDU-LGA in Discount Economy on AA: 430 EQMiles / 215 EQPoints
LGA-YYZ in Disctount Economy on AA: 356 EQMiles / 178 EQPoints
LHR-AMS in Club Europe on BA: 229 EQMiles / 343.5 EQPoints
AMS-LGW in Club Europe on BA: 226 EQMiles / 339 EQPoints
LGW-AMS in Club Europe on BA: 226 EQMiles / 339 EQPoints
AMS-LHR in Club Europe on BA: 229 EQMiles / 343.5 EQPoints
YYZ-LGA in Discount Economy on AA: 356 EQMiles / 178 EQPoints
LGA-RDU in Discount Economy on AA: 430 EQMiles / 215 EQPoints
RDU-LGA in Discount Economy on AA: 430 EQMiles / 215 EQPoints
LGA-YYZ in Discount Economy on AA: 356 EQMiles / 178 EQPoints
YYZ-JFK in Discount Economy on AA: 365 EQMiles / 182.5 EQPoints
JFK-BDA in Discount Economy on AA: 761 EQMiles / 380.5 EQPoints

January 1 EQM/EQP reset (total for 2011: 4394 EQM / 3107 EQP)

BDA-JFK in Business on AA: 761 EQMiles / 380.5 EQPoints
JFK - YYZ in Business on AA: 365 EQMiles / 182.5 EQPoints
YYZ-LHR in World Traveller Plus on BA: 3553 EQMiles / 5329.5 EQPoints
LHR-AMS in Euro Traveller on BA: 229 EQMiles / 229 EQPoints
AMS-LHR in Euro Traveller on BA: 229 EQMiles / 229 EQPoints
LHR-YYZ in World Traveller Plus on BA: 3553 EQMiles / 5329.5 EQPoints

2012 running total: 8690 EQM / 11680 EQP


Conclusion: For my travel pattern: BA is the better choice bringing me up to oneworld Sapphire until May 2013, whereas all the flying combined on AA wouldn't get me close to Ruby, even if the points didn't reset. I must add that I wouldn't be sapphire on BA if I didn't have a European Address. In essence though, I'd only be 100 points away from the 600 tier point threshold for sapphire.

Besides the obvious benefit of reaching a higher status tier, BA Silver also allows me to use AA's lounges domestically. A perk not extended to AA members of equivalent tier.

The drawback to BA's programme is the higher cost of reward travel. However, to get the most out of my miles I intend on using them for World Traveller Plus (Eremium Economy) to Club World (Business) Upgrades.

(1) home airport - MXP and GVA

(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 200,000 in business

(3) types of fares bought - discount business

(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - always my choice for both work and pleasure

(5) routes flown most often - HKG/GVA on RJ, MXP/LHR/HKG on BA - MXP/LHR/MIA on BA - MXP/MAD/LAX on IB

(6) current FFP status - BA - GOLD/EMERALD, UA - 1K (dropping UA altogether), BD - highest, A3 - (considering using them for Star)

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates, ease of redemption (unlike BA)

(8) Preferred Airlines - BA, CX, LX

So here is my dilemma, I am BA gold but after all the changes with AVIOS, it seems like I have to pay 9000 more miles for a business flight back to my home airport. I think this is highly unacceptable.

My question is would be better off going with AA? I never fly them except for trips like MIA/PLS for work and PLS/LAX, always in paid business or first. I find that AA codeshares with BA are on the whole usually $500.00 more expensive that just booking straight BA flights.

One of the big things that attracted me to the AAdvantage program was RDM bonuses for Oneworld flights based on status. This means that if I fly business class from LAX to NRT on JL in business class even booked as JL flight number, I would get 5500 miles, plus 25% COS bonus, plus 100% Executive Platinum bonus. Please correct me if I am wrong but if this is the case, then this program beats BA hands down.

Thanks so much for this Sticky. Its what i've been looking for.

I'm looking at buying a RTW ticket (16 legs) from One World, so any help with which FF program to sign up for would be much appreciated. I already have a Finnair membership with zero miles, am looking at signing up somewhere possibly better.


(1) home airport - BRU

(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - not much and all on *alliance so far/ Economy all the way, also for the RTW trip

(3) types of fares bought - economy

(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - whoever has the cheapest fares - pleasure

(5) routes flown most often - never flew OW so far, mostly travel in Europe but there might be a flight to Asia and/or USA after the RTW trip.

(6) current FFP status - M&M blue

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free flights

(8) Preferred Airlines - Mostly Quantas and Lan on the RTW trip I think.


My travel agent advised me to buy the RTW ticket from OW rather than *Alliance as OW is cheaper :/

My post isn't so much a request for information or advice, rather, I'd like to share my route to elite status.

Thanks. This is super-useful.

I find it odd that shorthaul club europe flights earn so many tier points but long-haul economy flights earn so little. Even WTP only earns twice what a much cheaper shorthaul european flight earns.

It would be neat if someone put together a webapp that let us enter a set of flights and see what would happen under multiple programs side-by-side.

Thanks. This is super-useful.

I find it odd that shorthaul club europe flights earn so many tier points but long-haul economy flights earn so little. Even WTP only earns twice what a much cheaper shorthaul european flight earns.


I guess it's all relative to the demand and the market. Club Europe is BA's Short-Haul Business class; Discount Euro Traveller only earns 10 TPs whereas it used to not earn any at all. BA really have to entice the (business) traveller to choose them over the competition which I feel is greatest for them in Europe. That's also why they had separate elite thresholds for European members up to this year. By giving them that bit of 'extra' recognition I'm sure they have swayed many others to go for Club over traveller. I know it's been a deciding factor for me.

Of course, Joe Public doesn't often care about these things, but I'm sure that there are quite a few who do; not only here on FT.

Why Long-Haul Economy only earns so little: also enticement for those 'in the know' and those who care to buy higher classes. Don't forget that flexible Economy on a route such as YYZ-LHR earns 70TPs. In turn, if tier points are what matter to you; you're more likely to buy a WT+ fare to earn 90 (which would probably be cheaper). I think BA's model not only rewards loyalty, it rewards premium loyalty with all the incentives to book into higher cabins.


It would be neat if someone put together a webapp that let us enter a set of flights and see what would happen under multiple programs side-by-side.

Sadly my coding capabilities aren't quite up to the job of creating something like that. I love the idea though. Hopefully someone can come up with it.

Hi everyone,

I need a pice of adivce from all of you.

I live in Argentina (Home airports: EZE & AEP) and I fly frequently, 3 or 4 trips per year, to USA or Central America (AA or LA) and then 2 or 3 trips within Argentina (LA), and 1 trip every two years with IB. All of them economy discounted. That is approximately 25K to 40K a year per person.

I have been an Executive Club member for almost 4 or 5 years. I have earned within my Household account almost 200K points. But I'm beeing scared by the fact that it it very hard to get AA or LA award tickets to USA with BA points and the taxes that BA chrges for award flights with them are understandably high, but I like the option of having a household account as each of my family members don't accrue a lor of points by them alone.

LA FFP does not really catch my attention and I have some miles with AA, not much.

On January I'm going on a trip to USA flying with LA and AA.

What do you recommend? Staying with BA and try finding an award, changing to AA or LA?

Thank you very much.

Should i ditch BA for CX or stick with what i already have?

(1) What is your home airport?
Currently LHR - but moving to HKG in a month for 1-2 years.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
25-50k.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
If it's a narrow body usually economy, if its wide body either premium economy or business. Ill fly narrow body business if its a good price.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly leisure travel so i can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
I'll do at least one HKG to LHR/MAN each year in business. I'll also take a few long weekends around Asia over the course of the year. I may do other flights but don't know for certain yet.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I have BA Exec Club blue with approx 40k miles and an Amex 241 voucher.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access and free advance seat selection.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Any OW carrier

I want to make sure that i am putting my $$ where it can be best utilized for RTW fares and would like lounge access. Its my understanding that if i were a BA Silver/GLD i could get AC lounge access in the US by showing my ID and BA Slvr/Gld card. Am i missing something?

(1) home airport - DFW

(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 50k+ Y Discount

(3) types of fares bought - discount Y

(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - always my choice for both work and pleasure although AA is preferred biz airline.

(5) routes flown most often - No consistency but primarily domestic, i flew DFW-ORD 50x 1yr, another year i never flew the same route twice...depends on my projects

(6) current FFP status - Currently AA Plat, will be EXP by end of the month

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? RTW Fares, Lounge access (primarily US domestic)

(8) Preferred Airlines - AA, BA, CX

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: BOM & DEL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25k-50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy most times, Business occasionally.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airline and class or service. Travel for both work/pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Within Asia and India to USA. also India domestic.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Delta Silver Medallion, Kingfisher Gold, British Airways Blue. These are all mine. My wife has none and I need to start her account to accumulate miles too as she travels with me almost 100% of the time.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades on travel is most important.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: KLM/BA to USA and no specific ones in Asia

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: DEL
[B](2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply:None till now.. but am looking at abt 12000 to 15000 miles each year from this year end.. Economy Class
[B](3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply:Economy
[B](4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:Yes i can choose my airline. Itravel for both work and pleasure
[B](5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: Trans Atlantic and India to Australia.. Vacations can be anywhere
[B](6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply:None
[B](7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply:Upgrades, Extra Baggage
[B](8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:None

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: FRA
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Europe: economy, Longhaul: business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, work mainly.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Europe, TATL USA
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: *S / FTL on LH
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Lounge access, priority services, upgrades
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

I usually fly *A in Europe, but now have a couple of TATL flights in C/J this year where BA is often the more cost effective option. Not partial to BA though...

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: FRA
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Europe: economy, Longhaul: business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, work mainly.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Europe, TATL USA
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: *S / FTL on LH
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Lounge access, priority services, upgrades
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

I usually fly *A in Europe, but now have a couple of TATL flights in C/J this year where BA is often the more cost effective option. Not partial to BA though...

You could earn status miles on AA even when flying BA. And if you do the challenge, you'd get AA PLT after your first trip in J, which gives you priority boarding on BA. You'd already have lounge access with AA PLT, but you would get that from the J ticket too

Also, since airberlin is joining, you might keep your AA PLT status for all the OW benefits, and then earn against topbonus later. Hopefully the benefits get better once they join. I hope the program will be more extensive.

You could earn status miles on AA even when flying BA. And if you do the challenge, you'd get AA PLT after your first trip in J, which gives you priority boarding on BA. You'd already have lounge access with AA PLT, but you would get that from the J ticket too

Also, since airberlin is joining, you might keep your AA PLT status for all the OW benefits, and then earn against topbonus later. Hopefully the benefits get better once they join. I hope the program will be more extensive.

FS_FRA would have lounge access everywhere except in the US for domestic flights if he were to stick with AA. Also, to complete the challenge they would have to fly on AA metal. If the TATL flights are in J, I would say go with BA. Flights in higher classes earn many tier points, you get lounge access domestically with AA (though this might be moot if only flying business TATL and not taking any domestic flights); BA have published they have a soft-landing policy whereas AA can decide to do away with it.

BA are not as generous with upgrades, plus redemptions are cheaper with AA. If that's important then go with AA.

I don't know much about airberlin's programme but they might be worth considering once they join oneworld.

Hi there, as my home Airport is Munich most of my travel is with Lufthansa and Star Alliance (have status with Lufthansa) but not all of it. My answers to the questions below are only about the non *Alliance Part because thats what i need a little help with:

(1) What is your home airport?
MUC

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
<25 k,

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
travel for work and pleasure - but can choose airline etc.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Longhaul Travel mostly *alliance - but a number of intra-european and
domstic flights mostly with AirBerlin or BA

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
No Status with OW - but Lufthansa Frequent Traveller and Etihad Silver

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
as this is only for those flights where i don`t use star alliance i simply look for a FFP where i can credit my miles to with the goal to redeem them for a flight (preferably in a premium class) sometime in the future

(8) Preferred Airlines
Air Berlin & BA

To cut it short i am simply looking for advice on the following:

Most of my flights are with Star Alliance - but there are still a few flights every year with OneWorld Airlines and i don`t want to waste the miles i can earn on these flights. So i am looking for a FFP where i can credit those flights to. Whats important is, that its a program where the flights stay valid as long as i have activity every year or so - as it will take some time until i have accumulated enough for a redemption.

FS_FRA would have lounge access everywhere except in the US for domestic flights if he were to stick with AA. Also, to complete the challenge they would have to fly on AA metal.

No, it can be any metal as long as it has an AA flight number. This changed about a year ago.

No, it can be any metal as long as it has an AA flight number. This changed about a year ago.

My bad, Still a caveat to take into consideration though.

Hi,

Thanks everyone. Just 2 questions for clarification:

1. Where do I sign up for the AA Plat challenge?

2. All my flights in BA would have to be booked under the AA number, right?i guess this applies actually for all flights?

Have a look here:

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_(AA)

I've received an invitation to do a challenge after contacting AA by e-mail.

for 2) I thought it was always AA metal only but apparently yes, you can book BA flights as long as you are flying under the AA codeshare. Can't back this up though.

I am currently AA PLT and CX Silver.
So here is my travel plan for this year.
I will have 1-2 trips from TPE to US, also 5-7 trips intra-asia from TPE.
My travel is always deep discount Y.
So for trip to US, I have the choice of AA and CX.
For the trip intra-asia, I have the choice of CX.
What program should I credit my miles?
For AA, I can get 100% bonus miles if I fly AA or CX H fare. But I will get nothing for intra-asia fare.
For CX, I can get all the miles, but I will not have 100% bonus miles.
I can try to do both, which means using AA for the trips to US and using CX for intra-asia.
Any recommendations?

Thanks

(1) What is your home airport? MAD
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Around 100,000 but split across one world, star, sky team
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? Gold Iberia, Gold Spanair (worth nothing since they just went bust), Silver FlyingBlue
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, accumulating and redeeming miles
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? 4* year MAD-USA, 6* year MAD-GRU or CDG-GRU, 4*year MAD-SCL or MAD-EZE, 12* year MAD-LON or MAD-CDG, 12*year MAD-PMI
(7) Preferred Airlines? Iberia has lots of nonstops to Latin America from MAD but is expensive. TAM seems fine for Brazil
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both


Thanks for any advice!

Can someone advise me which FFP from One World allows the quickest way to partner lounge access?

I have been with AirNZ Star Alliance 15yrs but since 2003/04 when they switched to dollar points not gotten anything other than domestic, I just joined Asiana but not done any mileage. So just wondering about One World.

I have looked at Qantas but seems longer to get status or rewards. I also looked at their earning tables, if you fly Cathay, Qantas only give you 0.50pts per mile and 0.25 with British Airways - with the economy fares. The Cathay Marco Polo club isn't as generous to get to Sapphire (ie., 60,000). The British Airways FFP doesn't allow New Zealanders to enrol.

Edit - normally taking cheap fares. Flying NZ to Asia mainly maybe to Canada occasionally. Once or twice per year that is 14,000 miles per time so 14-28k per year in total. 1) which is quickest to get lounge access? 2) which is faster for rewards ignoring lounge access.


Cheers.

Hi all!

Would appreciate any advice thanks :)


(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: DME soon to be HKG


(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 50 - 75k


(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: J or full fare whY
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 100% pleasure


(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Kangaroo on the odd occasion, AU domestic, lots of Asia to EU and AUS as well


(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: QF bronze... I know! but if I don't get any advice from you guys will go ahead with my planned out scheme for gold :P


(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: equal 1st lounge access and easy status 2nd good redemption rates 3rd better award access


(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I have 110,000 points on QFF so If you could help me think up a cheaper scheme for gold happy to stick with them :P Any


PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT ABLE TO JOIN ANY FF PROGRAMMES WHERE YOU MUST BE OVER 18. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS :)

Hi,

Thanks for all the help with our choices. Unfortunately, MALEV is gone now and I'm not sure what will happen with my oneWorld points (had less than 10% of my points from MALEV in the last 18 months), I'm looking for some new team to join.

1) BUD
2) 50-70k
3) Economy, sometimes Business
4) I can choose, fly for both work and leisure
5) Have 2-3 BUD-US East Coast flights a year (AA or BA), 20-30 Europe, 1-2 BUD-Asia (FinnAir)
6) Have a MALEV Sapphire (exp 2013) for 4-5 yrs now
7) In order of importance: lounge access, priority boarding, excess luggage, redemption
8) Don't like AA, other OW are okay

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Thanks,
Nash

Please advice me. I am a newbie in the forum and a new flyer, I would like to get some advice about the FFP selection in OW

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HKG but could start from any CX destination in far east
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50k economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy (would become a J-flyer later)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: BA, Y+ and usually pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: HKG-LHR, HKG-YYZ
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: BAEC
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrade and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, CX, JL

For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
SFO

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
30-50k, mostly in Y (and mostly on *A)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Y

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, I choose. Pleasure mostly.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
US Domestic

Last year, NONE of my travel was on OW. It was 2/3 *A and 1/3 Skyteam

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
United 2P (don't laugh)

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Better access, especially in business class

(8) Preferred Airlines
I like BA, haven't flown many other OW carriers other than AA.

I'm a member of both AA and BA, have had both credit cards (no longer have BA's), but seem to prefer BA's program to AA's. I just did a big redemption of OW miles (http://deirdre.net/blowing-out-the-airline-miles/) for half a RTW trip.

So my question is: I'd like to drop one of the two programs, but which one?

Hi guys!

I am planning a RTW on oneworld and wanna know which of the OW programs will give me the most miles. I mostly will fly with CX, QF and BA in Y. Moreover, will I get 100% of the flown miles with the AA program?

best,
flo

Hi guys!

I am planning a RTW on oneworld and wanna know which of the OW programs will give me the most miles. I mostly will fly with CX, QF and BA in Y. Moreover, will I get 100% of the flown miles with the AA program?

best,
flo
Moving this to the existing "which FFP" thread. If possible, could you edit your post to include the "stock" questions at the head of this thread?

You should also consult the AA board regarding mileage eligibility when using other airlines.


Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Good comment here as post 2 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travelbuzz/1313150-infreq-fliers-ffps.html#post17998158) in another thread. My underlining
My general rule of thumb is that unless you're flying at least 25,000 miles per year, the cost of remaining loyal to a single carrier probably outweighs that of the eventual reward.

Say the cheapest flight on your mom's usual route is $800 via Air Anybody, but she spends an extra $200 to fly AC because she gets miles for it. You said she flies about 12,000 miles per year... I don't know how many return trips that is, but let's say two. So to stay loyal, she's spending $400 more than she needs to each year. She is racking up 12,000 miles per year plus 10,000 miles from credit card use, or 22,000 total. Perhaps the credit card annual fee is $75. That's $475 / year in unnecessary spending.

If an award ticket costs 50,000 miles and it takes Mom 2.5 years to compile 50,000 miles, she is theoretically spending $1200 in pursuit of a prize worth $800. Smart money says she should have just flown as cheaply as possible with Air Anybody in the first place, and forgotten about the miles.

Your figures will vary, of course, but think along those lines. The math is pretty gloomy for sub-25k flyers trying to make these programs work to their advantage.

And of course, as you probably know, the FF programs are getting more and more dilute... redemption is harder, and costs more miles -- making them of genuine value to fewer and fewer people, especially occasional flyers like Mom.

Hi,

Thanks for all the help with our choices. Unfortunately, MALEV is gone now and I'm not sure what will happen with my oneWorld points (had less than 10% of my points from MALEV in the last 18 months), I'm looking for some new team to join.

1) BUD
2) 50-70k
3) Economy, sometimes Business
4) I can choose, fly for both work and leisure
5) Have 2-3 BUD-US East Coast flights a year (AA or BA), 20-30 Europe, 1-2 BUD-Asia (FinnAir)
6) Have a MALEV Sapphire (exp 2013) for 4-5 yrs now
7) In order of importance: lounge access, priority boarding, excess luggage, redemption
8) Don't like AA, other OW are okay

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Thanks,
Nash
Your Duna club points are gone, irrespectively where they came from.

Best program will depend a bit on which airline you do the 25 intra eu trips with. I would suggest to look at BAEC first, since your main longhaul is with BA. You should also pay close attention on AB topbonus, when they announce their thresholds for status once in OW.
If your longhaul to asia is in business, then Finnair plus can be of interest as they credit 200% for C. If they are in discount Y, Finnair is not the program for you.

Can someone advise me which FFP from One World allows the quickest way to partner lounge access?

I have been with AirNZ Star Alliance 15yrs but since 2003/04 when they switched to dollar points not gotten anything other than domestic, I just joined Asiana but not done any mileage. So just wondering about One World.

I have looked at Qantas but seems longer to get status or rewards. I also looked at their earning tables, if you fly Cathay, Qantas only give you 0.50pts per mile and 0.25 with British Airways - with the economy fares. The Cathay Marco Polo club isn't as generous to get to Sapphire (ie., 60,000). The British Airways FFP doesn't allow New Zealanders to enrol.

Edit - normally taking cheap fares. Flying NZ to Asia mainly maybe to Canada occasionally. Once or twice per year that is 14,000 miles per time so 14-28k per year in total. 1) which is quickest to get lounge access? 2) which is faster for rewards ignoring lounge access.


Cheers.

I think you should stay with NZ, even if it is all black! :D There just isn't any program in OW that will award you status on 14k-28/year.

What you can do, is to very carefully examine the fare classes of your NZ flights, especially your longhaul, to the earning table of A3 Miles&bonus (*A). Some low econ classes earn 70%, and if so your 28k miles will just barely put you over the threshold of *G and you will be back in koru lounge, 'Maramara keke'.

Hello,

I recently moved to Hong Kong and have been flying Cathay/DragonAir in Asia for personal travel. I am pretty sure that I can make the Silver Tier in one year but will not be able to move past that to Gold. I will also probably be able to maintain a Star Alliance platinum level through my transAsia flights. Is it worthwhile to go completely OneWorld and get the 1k equivalent status via AA?

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HKG and SFO

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 1K past 2 years in economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes. I can choose airline and class of service (price sensitive thought). Travel for both. SF - Asia is work and withing Asia is pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: SF - HKG (work), HKG to Asia (PVG, NRT) pleasure

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: UA 1K

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades, lounge access, baggage allowance

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Star Alliance partners for transPacific, Cathay for interAsia, UA for domestic US

Hi guys, so I managed to get a job that might offer me the possibility to continue my jetsetting lifestyle, only that from now on, the company would be paying for it.

I need your help to suggest the best FFP.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: LHR/LGW and SIN for leisure

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 25k-50k in cattle class

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Cattle, always

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Usually EK for pleasure, Ryanair for UK-EU for pleasure. For work, it might involve UK-US, UK-South America and UK-Ireland, rest of EU.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: LHR/LGW-SIN 1-2x per year, UK-EU flights 2-4x per year

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: EK Skywards (30k points), SQ Krisflyer (80k points), QF (12k points) all with no status, except EK where there is a chance to upgrade to Silver soon.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Extra baggage allowance for longhaul, good award redemption rates, better award access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: EK, SQ, don't really like QF and never taken BA before. LH is not too bad for continental flights, actually.

(9) Remarks:
I'm definitely keeping my EK FFP (30k with a chance to upgrade to Silver soon). I'm collecting lots of points from my Singapore credit card on SQ's Krisflyer (80k). I have 12k points in QF and naught in my AAdvantage membership.
Could you also suggest the best UK-based credit card to earn miles that I could credit into either a *A or OW FFP?

Sick of AY as a airline and as a FFP program.

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport?
Reply:
BER
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply:
>300K J class
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply:
restricted C Class fares like Z/P/J
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
I travel mainly for work, and can choose whatever I want.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply:
Going to SEA very often SIN/BKK/CAN some trips to the US (Westcoast) and EZE.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply:
BAEC Gold & AY Platinum
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply:
I need lounge access, good chance of upgrades and good service if things going down the drain.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:
BA - I like their C seats and the service,

Hello. I am quite new here and to FFP, though not a complete noob. My situation is a little special in that I do not plan to have a home airport for the next few years, so I thought I'd ask the experts for help.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: None planned. Currently EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: At least 25k. Maybe over 50k.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose. Leisure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: I plan to spend the next few years flying mainly between Asia, Europe and Oceania/Pacific. Only occasionally to the Americas or Africa.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Have 38019Km in LANPASS of which 25602 were this year. No status.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades on travel, lounge access. Awards only in a distant third place.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Do not have a preference at all. So far I have flown the cheapest.

tl;dr

Starting a nomadic lifestyle
Plan to move a minimum of 3-4 times a year
Mainly between Asia, Europe and Oceania/Pacific.
Less than once a year the Americas.
Self-funded.
Earning from flying mostly.


Long version:
Due to my job, I am able to be anywhere I like in the world, and as I know from experience I love that lifestyle, I plan to do just that for the foreseable future (5-10 years). The regions that interest me the most are Asia, Europe and the Pacific (in that order). I will not have a home airport and will be self funded. Being a resident of Argentina, I can't access any worthwhile credit card offers.

I aimed at Oneworld mainly because I have some miles in LANPASS from previous leisure travel. If you tell me it is worth going to another alliance, that's fine too.

As you can see, this is not an easy problem to crack for a newbie, so any help is very much appreciated!

A bit of background: My partner and I are Americans who live in Spain most of the year. We've been Diamonds on Delta, and were happy until the domestic upgrades started to disappear. Now we're looking elsewhere.

Your feedback and suggestions would be very much appreciated.

(1) What is your home airport?
MAD, VLC, BCN, LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
125k-plus


(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Cheapest upgradable

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
We travel for pleasure and can select our own airlines

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
MAD - SEA
LHR - MEL/SYD
LHR - EZE
And anyplace there is a good fare.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

Diamond, Delta

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?

a. International upgrades
b. Domestic upgrades
c. Personalized service, especially where their is a disruption on the journey
d. Quality of food and service onboard

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
R: OTP (Bucharest, Romania)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
R: starting to be >50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
R: economy, premium eco, low business


(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? can choose the airline, not the class, travel for work.
R: yes I can choose the airline but usually in economy and premium eco; not ot often business

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
R: I think it would be easier this way: http://flightdiary.net/andreim


(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
R: nothing with OW


(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
R: redeem on exotic places like Male, Bali, Fiji and being able to pay taxes with points and lounge access

Many thanks for your thoughts! 

Somehow this thread was inadvertently merged with an unrelated thread, so I'm re-posting it here and moving the affected posts back. (Apparently there isn't a means to "un-merge" threads which have been combined.)

Please send me a PM if you posted to the "old" thread and it doesn't reappear here, and thanks for your understanding.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
NYC

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
70-90K, usually J

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
First

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, I choose. Business and pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
US domestic and 2-3 trips per year to Europe and 1 trip to South America

Last year, NONE of my travel was on OW. It was mostly on *Alliance

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Lufthansa Senator, United Gold.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reward trips

(8) Preferred Airlines
I like Lufthansa, but it has come harder to get Reward Travel (all of their reward travel seems to be pushed to Swiss) and I will start going to London a couple of times a year, so I was thinking it may be time to try One World.
What program should I use? American or BA?
Thanks

Pcosta Welcome to the FT forum


< snip >
(8) Preferred Airlines
I like Lufthansa, but it has come harder to get Reward Travel (all of their reward travel seems to be pushed to Swiss) and I will start going to London a couple of times a year, so I was thinking it may be time to try One World.
What program should I use? American or BA?
Thanks
As you live in the USA AA. Do the AA Plat challenge (see AA forum sticky). With travel in first should be easy.
And you can feed credit card and/or hotels and/or rental cars miles into the AA ffp if you want to.

I'm thinking of switching to OW from *A (UA). I am BD*S, so will become BA Silver as of May1-ish. I could also obtain AA PLT right now based on my Premier Gold UA status, although if I go AA I may be better to wait until June 16/July 1 and pay for a challenge as I have a SFO-LHR WT+ trip in July which will easily get me >10k EQP and then I'll have status until Feb 2014 right?

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: ~50k perhaps less actual miles with ~20% in FF coach.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: mainly economy, some full fare economy and premium economy (BA)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work is all coach, mainly UA options, but I can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Transatlantic (SFO-LHR, ~2x year), US domestic.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: I will soon get my BMI status matched to BA Silver.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Low-cost redemptions, Elite ground handling (check-in, security etc), upgrades, lounges (international)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: AA, BA

TIA

although if I go AA I may be better to wait until June 16/July 1 and pay for a challenge as I have a SFO-LHR WT+ trip in July which will easily get me >10k EQP and then I'll have status until Feb 2014 right?

There's a sticky in the AAdvantage forum on this, but I believe that this would qualify only if booked as an AA Codeshare


(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: ~50k perhaps less actual miles with ~20% in FF coach.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: mainly economy, some full fare economy and premium economy (BA)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work is all coach, mainly UA options, but I can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Transatlantic (SFO-LHR, ~2x year), US domestic.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: I will soon get my BMI status matched to BA Silver.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Low-cost redemptions, Elite ground handling (check-in, security etc), upgrades, lounges (international)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: AA, BA

TIA

I would go with AA, as you don't appear to fly enough high TQP routes to earn Silver with BA. However, you state your actual mileage may be a little below 50k, which could make AA PLT will be a close call. Unlike UA which allows high bucket fares to earn 50% extra EQM, AA separates out EQM and EQP. High bucket fares earn 1.5 EQPs per mile flown, but only 1.0 EQM per mile flown. Many low bucket fares that still earn 1.0 EQM/mile flown only earn 0.5 EQP per mile flown.

Illustration: If I fly 35,000 in deep discount Y, and 10,000 in full fare Y, I have earned 50,000 EQM with UA.

But with AA, I have earned only 45,000 EQM (35,000 + 10,000), and only 32,500 EQP (35,000 * 0.5 + 10,000 * 1.5).

This is interesting, the question for me is to stick with Star Alliance, or to acquire a new status in OW. So let us see how I do! (I thank you for your answers.)

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply:

SIN

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply:

Usually 75K-125K, mix of economy and business, but more in economy.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply:

Mostly economy, but some business. First only when upgraded.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:

Can usually choose the airline, often forced into economy, but will be business at client's discretion. Mostly work travel, but substantial pleasure travel also.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:

"Kangaroo"?

(1) Intra-Asia
(2) Asia to US
(3) Asia to Europe
(4) Other destinations (Australia, Africa, South America, Pacific islands)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply:

I will very soon have million-mile status on United, so the question is to continue in this system, or cover additional bases by acquiring a OW status. I am in BA plan right now, and also AA (maybe expired years ago), but without any status, unless my recent trip to London in business will get me some status. (Probably not enough?) Silver in EK, but I think this will expire soon.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply:

Upgrades, lounge access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

SQ, EK, CX, QR. I guess BA is alright, just flew AY for the first time in 27 years, and it was OK, but probably not good for my travel patterns.

This is interesting, the question for me is to stick with Star Alliance, or to acquire a new status in OW. So let us see how I do! (I thank you for your answers.)

SIN


Usually 75K-125K, mix of economy and business, but more in economy.

SQ, EK, CX, QR. I guess BA is alright, just flew AY for the first time in 27 years, and it was OK, but probably not good for my travel patterns.

Unless you want to hop to HKG every time you fly, I would probably stick with *A as your primary program.

If you want to get status on OW for the occasions you do fly it, BA is a good program to consider. If you fly Longhaul in business, one trip on BA to London in Club World nets you 560 TPs and nearly enough for BA Silver (available at 600 TPs) and OW Saphire.

If you do want to switch completely to OW, I would go with CX given that they will be your primary OW carrier.

"Kangaroo"?

(1) Intra-Asia
(2) Asia to US
(3) Asia to Europe
(4) Other destinations (Australia, Africa, South America, Pacific islands)

I will very soon have million-mile status on United, so the question is to continue in this system, or cover additional bases by acquiring a OW status. I am in BA plan right now, and also AA (maybe expired years ago), but without any status, unless my recent trip to London in business will get me some status. (Probably not enough?) Silver in EK, but I think this will expire soon.
"Kangaroo" refers generally to UK < > Australia routes. SIN is a typical fueling stop for Qantas and BA services between Europe and Oz.

I think if I was living in SIN (ha ha - first time you've heard that, right?) I'd probably wait a few months until Malaysian is a full OW member, then look at how MH structures its FFP to align with Oneworld standards. I'm guessing their Enrich program is going to get quite a makeover, but we'll see.

Remember that most Oneworld FFPs require a minimum number of flights be taken on the airline's own metal (typically 4/year) in order to achieve/maintain elite status. Some are less stringent about enforcing it (AA) but it's there generally.

In the meantime, though, I'd look at BA, CX and Qantas. Different earn/burn/upgrade standards, but all are quality programs.

OK, thanks for the suggestions. I am in the BA programme, but it may be awkward to fly on BA metal every year, given my location and travel patterns. So maybe Cathay or Malaysia makes sense. But we will see.

Just starting out, so asking if I should continue to chalk things up in my QF or switch to other OW.

(1) home airport - SGP
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? 52k all chalked on Qantas from Jul(start point)-Dec 11. Estimating this year will be 52-80k? Economy
(3) types of fares bought - either a discount economy or economy
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - work basically whatever is cheapest or reasonably cheap.
(5) routes flown most often - SIN-SYD (2X a year), SIN-LHR (2X), SIN-MIA(1X). Sin-MNL(3X). SIN-PVG(2X a year)
(6) current FFP status - QF Silver. BA lowest (LHR-EDI). United (not sure expiring. First flight may09. silver). AA (1000 miles)
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? -redemption, upgrade, lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines - none. SIN-MNL-Sin will be on SQ

Please advise- Going to embark on SIN-LHR-SIN again(CX flights out, BA in)

Just starting out, so asking if I should continue to chalk things up in my QF or switch to other OW.

(1) home airport - SGP
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? 52k all chalked on Qantas from Jul(start point)-Dec 11. Estimating this year will be 52-80k? Economy
(3) types of fares bought - either a discount economy or economy
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - work basically whatever is cheapest or reasonably cheap.
(5) routes flown most often - SIN-SYD (2X a year), SIN-LHR (2X), SIN-MIA(1X). Sin-MNL(3X). SIN-PVG(2X a year)
(6) current FFP status - QF Silver. BA lowest (LHR-EDI). United (not sure expiring. First flight may09. silver). AA (1000 miles)
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? -redemption, upgrade, lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines - none. SIN-MNL-SIN will be on SQ

Please advise- Going to embark on SIN-LHR-SIN again(CX flights out, BA in)
baby00 Welcome to the forum ^

Better if to have 1 ffp with a OneWorld airline (for QF, CX, AA, & BA flights) and 1 ffp in star alliance (SQ, United & many others) and collect miles in those 2.

QF has very high surcharges on rewards. AA much less. BA some.

Apart from some exceptions, upgrades with airline miles/points can only be on a segment that is both marketed (airline flight number) and operated by the airline (metal). This is a common rule of freq flyer program. So if you want the chance of upgrade you need to collect miles in that ffp. Upgrades are at times very hard to get. Status helps.

Thanks Mwenenzi.

Should I just keep using my QF account to earn status and miles or should I start all over on AA? I like flying in the 380s from sin....which is a flight that QF provide from SIN-SYD or SIN LHR. Not sure about the others on OW. Didn't know its so hard to get an upgrade- got bumped up on biz once and that flight was non-qualifying for miles i think(zuji.com booking)

SA group- which one will be easy to redeem? I didn't know they changed the ffp for UA and hence under the new program, all my miles(44k) were expired 1 April 12. (My flights were taken end may 09 and late aug 10.) My email account with them was down but UA did not send a hard copy to my physical address too, so I wrote in last night the request for extension of the miles. Getting ready for the worse case scenario of UA not to extend the time I can use to redeem the miles I had. In that case I will be starting ffp in SA from scratch, so need to know which ffp in SA should I use.

Also need help- When I flew SIN-MIA last year (SIN-LHR qantas->LHR->MIA BA. When I returned, I did a 1 week break in LHR), I was only allowed 1 bag. Is it a norm? Do I really have to fly SA routes to get a 2 bags allowance?

Should I just keep using my QF account to earn status and miles or should I start all over on AA?..
AA is generally considered a far better freq flyer program than QF, but if you fly QF more and want to partake in the upgrade lottery, QF may be better for you. Especially since you QF 52K points and silver status. Would take many flights to get 30K ~ 40K AA miles

If you have AA miles they cannot be used to upgrade a QF flight.

With QF, it is notoriously difficult to get points upgrade. You do not known if your upgrade request [upgrade lottery] has been successful until just before the flight. And they cost a lot of QF points.

At times a straight out reward redemption with AA miles (on a QF flight) is far better value (and its assured). QF redemption can be difficult to impossible if you are not flexible with dates and/or route. High points cost and very high $$$ co payment fees (compared to AA)

Some low cost QF flights do not get AA miles in the AA program.
All QF flights do get QF points in the QF program.
I have no idea which CX fares get QF points in the QF program. Check the QF web site)
But some QF fares (buckets) are not able to be upgraded with QF points

Be aware that your QF points will expire if you do not have eligible QF activity in 18 months. Expiry after time happens in most programs. Need to log into the airline web site to check. Hard copy freq flyer statement now rare: costs airlines too much real money

SA group- which one will be easy to redeem? I didn't know they changed the ffp for UA and hence under the new program..Better to ask on the Star forum (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-alliance-413/) They have a sticky thread on the top of the page about ffp. Gets good response from several posters (better than here)

Number of bags / allowable weight varies a lot. You just need to check carefully before making a reservation.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: DUB Dublin Ireland
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: not so many on OW - typically only as a last resort - but with BA acquisition of BD perhaps more in future - typically in economy (fly 50-75k or more overall I guess across all alliances)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy only
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines but am a self-payer for all of my travel
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: TA, EUR Domestic, Eur-Asia
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: DL Platinum (ST Elite+), was UA Silver now about to be Aegean Gold (*G) (also Silver in EQ in case that helps - acquired as a 'promo')
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: access to lounges, exit row or prem economy seats, opportunity to redeem for complex itinerary Biz or First awards.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: whatever works, but I naturally lean towards AF/DL

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: Melbourne
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I travel primarily for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: MEL-BNE, MEL-HKG, MEL-PEX.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Nope
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Gradual points accumulation. I am increasing the rate that I fly this year and next (taking a RTW mid next year), so I should be able to crawl over the line for some crummy status.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25k
< snip >
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: MEL-BNE, MEL-HKG, MEL-PEX.
< snip >
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Gradual points accumulation. I am increasing the rate that I fly this year and next (taking a RTW mid next year), so I should be able to crawl over the line for some crummy status.



Who do you credit your current flights with (QF / DJ) ?
Is PEX Peking or ? PEX is in Russia (http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=MEL-PEX%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=&PATH-UNITS=mi&PATH-MINIMUM=&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=)
Will the RTW be OneWorld or Star airlines ?
With any ffp need to check if you get miles credit with your home ffp and other airlines in the alliance. All depends on fare bucket
Hard to get status when traveling few miles/trips and in economy

Who do you credit your current flights with (QF / DJ) ?
Is PEX Peking or ? PEX is in Russia (http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=MEL-PEX%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=&PATH-UNITS=mi&PATH-MINIMUM=&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=&MAP-STYLE=)
Will the RTW be OneWorld or Star airlines ?
With any ffp need to check if you get miles credit with your home ffp and other airlines in the alliance. All depends on fare bucket
Hard to get status when traveling few miles/trips and in economy

I actually meant PEK, so Beijing. RTW will be OneWorld.

I currently credit any miles I get to both QF and DJ. I have been quite stupid. I have no false illusions that I am likely to get status any time soon, but depending on how agreeable to wife is, there is a slim chance I will do enough miles.

Please help I am completely new to one world!
(1) What is your home airport? AMS
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? <25K not interested in status.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? Yes. Mostly pleasure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most most? 1 Europe to USA 2 Europe to europe 3 USdomestic
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? N
(7) What is most important to you in FFP? Easy to earn miles, good reward redemptions in Econ and business from eur to America and eur to Asia.
(8) Preferred Airlines ???

if I choose iberia or BA can I book awards on AA and vice versa?

Please help I am completely new to one world!
<snip>
if I choose Iberia or BA can I book awards on AA and vice versa?
Yes. But BA have very high add on surcharges on rewards. I have no idea about IB surcharges. Much less on AA

Where, if any, do you OW miles go now ?

AA has good earn to burn rates. But some fares with BA, IB etc may not be miles earning. For miles collecting with few flights, AA may best for you.
Wait to see what others think

I've got 25,000 miles in Asia Miles.
I've only got 600 miles on American this year.

I'm about to book a round trip from ORD to Perth.

I'm confused with AAdvantage vs Asia Miles, so should I book this new trip using my Asia Miles number, or my AAdvantage number, and start building some One World status?

I am Gold Premier on Star Aliance, but the One World carriers are so much cheaper on this route.

I'll be making this same trip a couple more times, this year.

This board is so full of knowledgeable travelers, so please give me some advice....

Where do you live ?
Do you get miles from credit cards or other non flying activities?

Some of your other thread's answered some q's
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-asia-miles/1337189-ff-do-i-give-them.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/milesbuzz/1289248-ord-australia-what-should-i-know.html --> Post 12 by Dave

I live near Chicago.
I do get miles from credit card (Mileage Plus Explorer card)

It also depends on what you want to get from a Frequent Flyer program.

- rewards flights?
- lounge access?
- upgrades?
- lifetime status?

Unless you fly a lot of CX there is very little incentive to be with Asia Miles. So personally I would most probably go for AA even so you don't get lounge access domestically.

I'm primarily interested in earning free flights. Second would be lifetime status.

That's what I feeling, regarding Asia miles vs AA. So, I think also that doing what I can to earn AA would be better.

Any suggestions for what I can/should do with that 25K miles I've banked with Asia Miles? I'm kicking my butt for even putting those couple of trips into Asia miles rather than AA.

I am merging this thread with the ongoing "Deciding on a Oneworld FF Program" sticky thread.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I'm no expert on AsiaMiles but the first level is I believe 30K, so did the 25K come from current flying? If so, I'd certainly consider that fact in my decision.

If your flying pattern normally includes SEAsia and/or Australia, the call between the two is more difficult as posting on Flyertalk indicates that CX does take incredible care of its own FF members. And upgrades with miles are relatively easy. And allows the use of premium cabins and status earning simultaneously. Remember you have to register for MPC separately.

OTOH my experience with AA has been quite good. And if you fly long haul economy, gaining and keeping status is quite "possible". And currently the award flights with AA are "economical". Lifetime status though is now going to require a LOT of BIS flying.

Happy wandering

Fred

95% LTG (AA)

Hi everyone,

As you can see on my profile, I'm a Star Alliance G* member already and this year, I'm planning to have two trips SIN-ZRH and return, which could earn me around 25,600 miles (flying in Y).

(1) What is your home airport?
SIN

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
>50k in Y unrestricted most of the times. But currently accruing on StarAlliance.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy, full fair usually.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline but not the class of service. Mostly for work.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Mostly in Asia ex SIN to India to the West and Japan to the East. Rarely China.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No but I do have around 3000 miles with BA and 2000 miles with CX.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Moslty lounge access and priority check-in and luggage handling. Then comes upgrades or good award redemption rate.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Within OW: CX mostly because of my flight pattern around Asia. JAL would be a bit too stretched out.

My intention is not really to jump programme. I am quite happy with Star Alliance for this part of the world but I was thinking that I might as well build up a status with another alliance while I can.

So the question would be: which programme has the lowest mileage requirements to attain Gold status on OW?

Relocating to London for a year; need advice on which OW program to join. No status with any OW, have A3*G though, apart from status with couple of India based airlines.

(1) What is your home airport?
DEL (shifting to LHR for a year though)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
~50k (Y on domestic; J on international). Primarily on 9W, IT (no alliance); have *G status

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
See above

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airline most of the times (given similar fares) but not service. Work mostly

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Mostly India domestic till now; will change to largely intra-Europe travel.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(a) Priority check-in, baggage (b) Upgrades, (c) Lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
None

I got to *G with A3 in just 6 DEL-SIN flights (just needs 20k M&B miles), is there a similar program in OW that makes it relatively easy to attain Gold status?

Most economy fares on CX or dragon air does not offer AA miles.

They only give you Asia Miles which is useless for most people

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: MEL (Melbourne, Australia)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25k-40k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Cheapest economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work; some pleasure (both cheapest economy)

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Australia-US, some domestic Australia

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No status

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply:
(1) good award redemption rates
(2) lounge access
(realize that upgrades are unlikely for me)

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Avoid United internationally, like the service on QF


On advice I got from you good folks before moving to Oz, I started focusing on AA. Then I realized that the bargain-basement economy tickets our work travel agent is buying us aren't getting me any ffp at all (!) on AA. I flew roundtrip DEN-LAX-MEL on AA/QF in October 2011 and only got ffp for the domestic US DEN-LAX legs, nothing for the real mileage part of the trip.

I have the following travel upcoming:

(trip 1)
MEL-LAX-JFK -- QF Q class
JFK-BOS -- DL K class
BOS-JFK -- AA G class
JFK-LAX-MEL -- QF Q class

(trip 2)
MEL-Hong Kong-Pusan, S Korea -- CX L class
Pusan-Cheju S Korea -- Korean Air Y class
Cheju-Seoul S Korea -- Korean Air Y class
Seoul-Tokyo -- JL L class
Tokyo-San Fran-LAX-DEN -- AA L class
DEN-LAX-MEL -- QF L class

I'm thinking I need to start accumulating with QF to get *any* benefit from those long-haul cheapo-class QF flights. But on the other hand my primary purpose is to consolidate enough miles to get award tickets (preferably to go to Europe). I do have a BA account with 21k Avios miles but I do know from experience that those miles are difficult and expensive to use, and I understand the same is true for QF. I could also split and try to put the AA flights on AA and QF on QF but I'm not sure I can do that on a single itinerary, and that just spreads my points out thinly.

I am also in the market for an Australian credit card, so thought about getting a QF-associated one if I need to go that route. Not sure how much that matters.

Thanks for any thoughts.

..I'm thinking I need to start accumulating with QF to get *any* benefit from those long-haul cheapo-class QF flights. But on the other hand my primary purpose is to consolidate enough miles to get award tickets (preferably to go to Europe). I do have a BA account with 21k Avios miles but I do know from experience that those miles are difficult and expensive to use, and I understand the same is true for QF. I could also split and try to put the AA flights on AA and QF on QF but I'm not sure I can do that on a single itinerary, and that just spreads my points out thinly.

In my view the reply in your first post http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qantas-frequent-flyer/1268324-qantas-vs-ba-executive-club-vs-aa.html is still relevant. To collect points/miles for a reward with low miles/fees AA is OK. With 5 in the family. some will need to pay. 5 rewards on 1 flight is very optimistic

For rewards Aust to EU you are trying to get tickets from the same bucket no matter which airline ffp. However due to different airline IT systems QF has awards from 353 days vs AA 330 days vs BA ?? days.
AA has the best burn rate / lowest $ fees by far. Indeed a full AA reward can be not much different to points needed in the QF upgrade lottery.

With cheapest economy you always needs to check earning: some earn - some don't. With only a few flights, at the cheapest economy, status is unlikely to be earned. With QF higher status gets you lounge access.

Having a QF ffp account for all the other non AA earning flights is worth while. And you can collect points at Woolworth supermarket by spending $31. Can join QF for free (all 5 of you) at https://www.everydayrewards.com.au QF allows family consolidation of points

Not sure, but BA avois may expire if no account activity after ?? months. Check the BA ffp conditions. AA has a similar no activity condition.

You can split sector into different ffp, but at times the individual ffp does not stick. Phone the TA or airlines. Check, check & recheck. Or leave the ffp out of the reservation and manually claim later.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1354003-how-change-ff-number-reservation-without-needing-ring-customer-service.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1353600-ff-programme-number-change.html
Post 4 on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1354791-can-silver-still-pre-select-ud-seats.html

Thanks Mwenenzi! This is really helpful.

Which |FFP in OW will be the most appropriate for us?

(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
>30 < 50 in Y unrestricted most of the times. But currently accruing on StarAlliance.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy but NOT discounted usually mileage accruing.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. Pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
YYZ-SIN/BKK/NRT and YYZ-GRU/EZE

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No but I do have CX basic membership.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access and priority check-in and luggage handling. Then comes upgrades or good award redemption rate.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Within OW: CX and BA

I have no status with any of OW apart from joining a couple of programs.
Based in Mel but fly various destinations a lot to asia, europe and oz and I want the best value possible.
Upcoming flights are Lhr to nce with ba one way in j
And then auh-hkg-kul one way in j
With cx

Options and programs you think are best for this?

Very confused by all the different threads at the top!

Excuse the grammar on the iPhone!

Better to ask in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1335378-re-posted-deciding-oneworld-frequent-flyer-program-help-here.html

Is class of travel mainly J ? Getting status is worthwhile.
Put some flights into http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm to check status earn
For in frequent OW flights AA is best for many. (best earn to burn with low co payment fees)
I assume you are directing any credit card / hotel / rental car points to DJ. Non flying points/miles are valuable source for many.

I have no status with any of OW apart from joining a couple of programs.
Based in Mel but fly various destinations a lot to Asia, Europe and oz and I want the best value possible.
Upcoming flights are LHR to NCE with BA one way in J
And then AUH-HKG-KUL one way in J. With CX

Options and programs you think are best for this?

Very confused by all the different threads at the top!

Edit: Post 99 & 100 have been moved from the original thread ! Thanks Mr Moderator

Here is some more info if you can assist

(1) What is your home airport?
MEL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
25-50k combo of Y, Y+ and J

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy, Flexi or Disc Business

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. A little of both

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Varies every year...could be within Europe, Asia, the US or MEL to Asia etc

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I am Bronze with QF with only 4000 points

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Being able to upgrade, not fussed with lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
The one that is going to give me the quickest status with the upcoming flight sectors that I have in J.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
I used to be LAX but now I'm being relocated to IND but I don't mind the drive to ORD.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
25k-40k-ish.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Full Fare Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airline. Class of service is a stretch. 50/50 work-pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Mostly international-EU, China, SE Asia and Dubai. Dubai is often a rarity though. From what I've heard, my EU trips in the future may be pulled and instead moved to S America.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
I was elite on EI. har har
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Lounge Access and priority is a plus. Inter-airline award F travel is also on the list but I wouldn't mind not having it. Also, with unpredictable economic times, I'd appreciate a program that doesn't have an expiry rate shorter than a year.
(8) Preferred Airlines
I know this is going to be harder when I say this, but I try to avoid AA. My parents fly them though, so I'd be open to any of the AA partners as well.

Thanks in advance!

I know this is going to be harder when I say this, but I try to avoid AA. My parents fly them though, so I'd be open to any of the AA partners as well.
Well, if you're flying full fare Y, you could easily do a Platinum Challenge (http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_%28AA%29) on AA, make Plat and therefore get lounge access on international trips, and at Oneworld partners' lounges overseas, and as AA Plat get upgraded on domestic and Canada/Caribbean/Mexico/Central America flights on any full-fare (Y/B) economy ticket. You'd also get "sticker" 500-mile upgrades (4 per 10K BIS miles) good on any domestic discount Y fare, no bag fees, priority access at the counters, and various other perks. AA supposedly requires 4 AA-metal flights annually to requalify, but it seems nobody has ever lost status by not doing the four flights.

To keep Plat status you need to log 50K EQ Points or EQ Miles in a calendar year; however Y and B economy earns 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so you'd retain Plat with 33,333 flown miles in those fares (or any business/first). In redemption terms, AA is about as good as it gets, and if you're spending more time in Latin America, AA's route structure is also the best.

Thanks! I'm a bit hesitant about this though. It seems like a reach of commitment and I'd like to stay away from AA. What would be the next likely option?

Thanks! I'm a bit hesitant about this though. It seems like a reach of commitment and I'd like to stay away from AA. What would be the next likely option?Just because you are in the AA freq flyer program does not mean you are limited to only to AA flights.
AA is best ffp for you IMHO

Thanks! I'm a bit hesitant about this though. It seems like a reach of commitment and I'd like to stay away from AA. What would be the next likely option?
Probably BA, but there you need to fly on 4 BA-metal segments. BA awards (with the exception of some short-haul trips) are generally more expensive (in mileage terms) than comparable AA awards, owing to BA's requirement that multi-segment awards are charged on a point-to-point basis rather than an origin/destination basis. For example, using BA Avios, IND-xORD-xLHR-JNB (one way) in J would cost 99,000 Avios, vs. 75,000 AA miles. 9,000 of those Avios would be needed just for the IND-ORD segment; using AA it would be all-inclusive.

Elite status in the BAEC comes from tier point totals, not miles flown, with discount economy earning very few TPs, full-fare ("flexible") economy earning more, but not as many as business or first class. You need 600 TP or 50 flights to earn BAEC Silver (Oneworld Sapphire = AA Plat) which might be tough given your flying patterns.

You wouldn't get upgraded on AA flights; however as BAEC Silver you could use AA lounges on domestic flights, which you couldn't do as an AA Plat.

Probably best for you to research the programs some more on the AA or BA boards. I do think, however, that based in the US, AA would be the way to go.

Hi everyone, I am still pretty new to Flyertalk and this is the first time I'm ever even considering oneworld. I've been (and continue to be) mostly a Star Alliance flyer. However, I've now ended up needing a flight at short notice and found a Cathay Pacific flight that's way cheaper than the nearest *A flight that seemed acceptable to me. In short, I would like to know which OneWorld FFP is best suitable for just redeeming a few miles now and then. Here are my answers to the questions:

(1) What is your home airport? (CGN/FRA)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (25k-50k, but not on OneWorld, the amount on OneWorld would be just the occasional longhaul)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( Economy)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? I can choose my airlines and OneWorld flights would be pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (mainly Europe-Asia, transatlantic also possible, perhaps the occasional Asia regional flight)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? none

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates, better award access, long validity, good recognition of booking classes (on *A some exclude anything even remotely discount, some aren't quite as strict). Lounge access, upgrades etc. are no issues as I doubt I'll be flying OneWorld enough to ever get any elite status.

(8) Preferred Airlines: So far considering Cathay, but no real preference, I'd be following the prices.


Thanks for the help!

Hey all, *A user here based out of New York. I'm likely to start flying more so than I do now, but specifically to the west coast of the US and Western Europe for work. I'm likely to continue to use my *A memberships for international via the Pacific Ocean, but I'm a bit miffed by the lack of *A coverage out of JFK specifically to London, and am looking for advice. Thanks!

(1) What is your home airport?
JFK/LGA. EWR is out of the question due to distance.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
About 15K in Economy on leisure, but I am anticipating 10K or more in Business. Those 15K leisure miles may end up getting split with oneworld and *A.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy, though if the price is reasonable I would buy discounted Business. For work, it's also going to be a mix, but I don't think they'd put me in Y even to the destinations listed below (cross-country or to Europe).

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, and no (on choosing cabin class). I do travel for both, but for now it's heavily weighted towards leisure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Right now, all my leisure flights usually are JFK-NRT and NRT-??? (using NRT as a connection). I imagine I'll be doing a lot of flights to SFO/SJC/SEA/LHR/ZRH.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No, but I do have an aging JMB card and membership -- it may even be inactive now as I haven't flown JAL in 6 years :(
I am planning on getting *G through A3 at some point though, so that will eat into some miles. I use NH for redemption purposes only, as MR points transfer there and it's fairly easy to get JFK-NRT.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reasonable redemption rates for domestic travel or to Western Europe, and easy-ish elite status.

(8) Preferred Airlines: I currently do most of my spending on AMEX, so BA is the only option for transferring miles, unfortunately. I'd have to justify getting a paid AAdvantage card (and that would eat away at my MR points). I don't think I'd want to do JAL for the JFK-NRT route, however I would consider using AA for JFK-HND at least once.

Hi, I was after a bit of advice.

I have emigrated from the UK to Australia and have been an executive club member for some years now. I have gained Silver (one world sapphire) on a couple of occassions but am now down to blue with 50k avios points. Most of my points are gained through travelling to the US, which I usually pay for premium economy and use miles to upgrade to Club (business). I usually gain 13,000 miles and spend 25,000 on my flight and top up my miles inbetween flights with Amex purchases. I have been told by BA that I can use miles on the route from Sydney/west coast (on AA/QF) but only in full payment ie not money plus miles)


My question is with regards to which loyalty club to join and try to gain points through. I had thoughts of joining Qantas or American's loyalty clubs as I am still plaining on visiting the USA, although this will probably be via San Fran/LA. Given how I use my miles I would appreciate any advice (and reasoning behind the advise)

Many thanks

Barry

PS im posting this in BA, AA and QF forums

Hello and welcome to FlyerTalk, iambazza! We are always happy to have new members. I see that you have posted this question in 3 different fora. While I appreciate that you're looking to canvass a large audience for this question, cross posting is prohibited by the FlyerTalk Terms of Service. Specifically:

Post Your Thread to Just One Forum
Don't post the same thread more than once. Our members read many forums, and weeding through the same message in multiple forums can be frustrating. Duplicate threads will be deleted, combined or locked.

You can find that rule here (http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php/#q64), and the entire list of FlyerTalk Guidelines and Rules here (http://www.flyertalk.com/help/rules.php/). I've gone ahead and moved your question to the oneworld forum, which I believe is the right place for this type of questions. Our friends here will be able to offer you some good advice I'm sure. :) If you have any questions, please do feel free to PM me or my moderator colleagues.

~Microwave
AAdvantage Forum Co-Moderator

OK, many appologises, my intention was to gauge information from people who knew the different specific programmes well. I wasnt trying to break any rules

Barry


I wasnt aware of the template so here goes


(1) What is your home airport?
SYD

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Not sure only just moved to Oz, but have a couple of USA road trips planed for SYD-ORD, JFK-SYD and SYD-LAX LAS-SYD for june and sep next year both would be in Business as well as a couple of Australian domestic economy flights.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
short haul Economy and long haul business usually using money + miles (see comments above) although I will buy long haul business if needed

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. shorthaul business and long haul pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Now will be SYD-USA

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I have a QF card (but no points) and BA ex silver (now blue with 50k)

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Being able to use a flat bed on the flight, lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
none but would prefer to stay in a 'better, respected' carrier

iambazza,
Given that it comes down to AA or QF in my view. Unlikely with that amount that you could go for both

QF advantages
- Easier to get to sapphire/emerald using paid J or F (including YUPs)
- Access to AA lounges on US domestic itineraries
- Ability to upgrade QF metal (important given this seems to be your main longhaul)
- Ability to combine with Aussie credit cards
- More achievable lifetime status (now that AA has gone BIS only)

AA advantages
- Generally better earn/burn rates
- Upgrades on AA domestic legs
- Status challenge to move you up the ranks quickly

Personally if in your position I would value the ability to upgrade the longhaul legs, but others will look at the earn/burn ratios.

...(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Not sure only just moved to Oz, but have a couple of USA road trips planed for SYD-ORD, JFK-SYD and SYD-LAX LAS-SYD for june and sep next year both would be in Business as well as a couple of Australian domestic economy flights.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
short haul Economy and long haul business usually using money + miles (see comments above) although I will buy long haul business if needed...

Not directly related to your decision on which FFP, but it sounds like you might want to investigate a Circle Pacific fare (ex-HKG, starting around US/AU$ 5000++ in business class) which could dramatically reduce your long-haul business class outlay and still keep you in high-standard carriers (QF, JL, CX) in the process. The intra-Oz flights could be included (in J.)

for iambazza would US Airways be worth considering as a play towards the expected switch of US Air out of *A into Oneworld assuming the purchase of AA by US Air is going to succeed reasonably soon? wondering if it's worth a gamble of using the advantages of the US Air program whilst accruing a balance that presumably will become a Oneworld cache of miles?

1) What is your home airport?
JFK and BNE

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Jan 1-present: 8,000 in BA Y, 8000 in BA Y+, 22'ish in QF paid J (JFK-BNE round-trip). 2013 will include at least 1, possibly 2 round trips JFK-BNE in paid J. Also, perhaps a BNE-HKG trip.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Dependent on price, distance etc, Y, Y+, and J. I am both price sensitive and comfort sensitive.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes. I travel to get to uni and for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Will be JFK-BNE.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I have BA silver with 52k avios. Barring an ad hoc trip across the pond, I will lose this in Oct 2013 due to not flying 4 segments with BA.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, redemption availability (YQ charges aren't a huge bother...I just want availability). MAINTAINING OW SAPPHIRE!

(8) Preferred Airlines
Because of my limited flying, obviously only OW.

for iambazza would US Airways be worth considering as a play towards the expected switch of US Air out of *A into Oneworld assuming the purchase of AA by US Air is going to succeed reasonably soon? wondering if it's worth a gamble of using the advantages of the US Air program whilst accruing a balance that presumably will become a Oneworld cache of miles?

It is pretty clear that if AA and US does merge, the combined airline would be in OW. However, that does not mean the merger will go through.

Hi all,

Very happy to have found this forum. I am a frequent traveler and long term Miles & More member. Having moved from Switzerland to the US (San Diego), I am now evaluating my options. Given that BA is the only airline flying directly from San Diego to Europe, I thought I'd look beyond Star Alliance into Oneworld - but no experience with them at all. Would be great to get some opinions.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SAN

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: roughly 100k, primarily in Business

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Primarily Business (some random Economy for personal use that I'd like to upgrade with miles)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines, yes (although my business prefers Star Alliance). Travel primarily for business, sometimes pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: Primarily international to Europe (London, Moscow, Dusseldorf, Rome, ...) - sometimes Middle East (primarily Dubai), although I might just fly with Emirates for these instances. Every now and then I also fly within the U.S. (either with Southwest or United)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: Miles & More Senator (Gold) status

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Good question. I'd say easy upgrades, either with few miles or free vouchers when achieving status (e.g. M&M only gives you two vouchers per renewal period, and can't be used long-distance... surely there is better options). Also important that there are not too many restrictions on these upgrades in terms of booking classes, etc. Would also be nice to not have to pay a million miles for a free ticket and not spend as much in airport fees as a flight would cost... Lastly, priority services are nice to make frequent travel easier.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I like Swiss. Don't like Lufthansa, as their business seats don't recline 180 degrees. Heard good things about BA, but never flown with them. UA is ok - nice that their seats recline 180 degrees. Generally open to other airlines, but need to have good business seats that lie flat.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Welcome to the forum !

Hi all,

Very happy to have found this forum. I am a frequent traveler and long term Miles & More member. Having moved from Switzerland to the US (San Diego), I am now evaluating my options. Given that BA is the only airline flying directly from San Diego to Europe, I thought I'd look beyond Star Alliance into Oneworld - but no experience with them at all. Would be great to get some opinions.

< snip>

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I like Swiss. Don't like Lufthansa, as their business seats don't recline 180 degrees. Heard good things about BA, but never flown with them. UA is ok - nice that their seats recline 180 degrees. Generally open to other airlines, but need to have good business seats that lie flat.


Only one to consider: AA.
Forget about considering any other OW airline. You get AA miles on BA. A recent AA - BA ffp agreement has cross airline benefits

If you can book AA or AA codeshare and do the AA plat challenge you have a flying chance to get AA status
Look at the sticky threads on the top of AA forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage-445/

There is a similar thread on the Star forum to ask about star airlines. But staying with your current program best as a first assessment

Welcome to the forum !

Thank you :)


Only one to consider: AA.
Forget about considering any other OW airline. You get AA miles on BA. A recent AA - BA ffp agreement has cross airline benefits


So I take it the AA program is better than the one from BA?


If you can book AA or AA codeshare and do the AA plat challenge you have a flying chance to get AA status


Never heard about this challenge before, but just read up on it. Sounds like a great thing. Thanks a lot for bringing this up.


There is a similar thread on the Star forum to ask about star airlines. But staying with your current program best as a first assessment

Miles & More lets you keep your status for two years. So I will stay with it as well (have like 300k miles), but thought I might join a second one, now that I live in the U.S.

Does the AA program allow for easy upgrades and free flights without much hassle?

Only one to consider: AA.
Forget about considering any other OW airline. You get AA miles on BA. A recent AA - BA ffp agreement has cross airline benefits

If you can book AA or AA codeshare and do the AA plat challenge you have a flying chance to get AA status


So I take it the AA program is better than the one from BA?

Never heard about this challenge before, but just read up on it. Sounds like a great thing. Thanks a lot for bringing this up....

Does the AA program allow for easy upgrades and free flights without much hassle?

Well, hang on a wee second here.

I agree that AA's is an excellent program, and with your flying pattern (100K miles mainly in premium cabins) you could easily hit AA Executive Platinum, Oneworld Emerald (the highest tier.) With that status comes 8 SWUs (on AA metal) and unlimited "free" upgrades on AA North American services, so certainly not to be poo-pooed.

BUT, your description of your intended likely travel patterns (a lot of international J segments ex-SAN, likely on BA metal) and your questions about upgrading do raise a point.

BA's "MFU" - miles for upgrade - works very well, and might save a lot of money going forward. Flying out of SAN, you'd purchase a Premium Economy ticket in the cheapest bucket (T) then use BA Avios for upgrading to business, or, buy a J ticket and MFU into F (which I don't think is offered on SAN-LHR, but you get the idea.) AA miles can't be used for upgrades on BA metal unless the underlying ticket is full-fare (Y, B, W etc.) which of course is usually more expensive than buying a business ticket outright.

AA elites (Plat or EXP) also are not allowed to use AA lounges on intra-North American flights, while non-AA Sapphires and Emeralds are, so if you were a BA elite you could use Admiral's Clubs in North America regardless of destination or class of service flown. Partner elites also get priority boarding and other perks on AA flights.

One achieves BA status through the accumulation of "tier points" - so many points per flight according to class of service and distance flown. To achieve BA Silver (= Oneworld Sapphire = AA Plat) you need to accumulate 600 tier points. A return trip in J from JFK to LHR would earn 140 TP in each direction; a return trip in AA F from SAN to JFK would earn 210 each way, so with the one return trip you'd have earned 280 + 420 = 700 TP, bingo. (Note you also need 4 BA-metal flights to actually make Silver, so you'd need to buy a cheapo return from London to someplace close - Paris, Edinburgh, whatever - to fulfill that criteria.)

So practically speaking you could do one of your trips crediting to BA, make Silver, get your card and use the AA lounges, then do the Plat Challenge the next time and use AA as your main mileage earner going forward. Of course you'd want to credit some to BA (using your 100% bonus) to build up your mileage there for use with MFUs going forward.

One other thing with the BA program is the existence of family/household accounts, so members of the same household can pool their mileage, a good thing if you travel a lot but other travel a little. Don't know if this applies in your case, but worth mentioning.

Oh, and AA recently changed the rules on the Plat challenge so that now you can use elite points (remember, it's 10K elite-qualifying points, not miles) gained on AA, BA or IB-designated flights, not just AA metal or codeshares.

One achieves BA status through the accumulation of "tier points" - so many points per flight according to class of service and distance flown. To achieve BA Silver (= Oneworld Sapphire = AA Plat) you need to accumulate 600 tier points. A return trip in J from JFK to LHR would earn 140 TP in each direction; a return trip in AA F from SAN to JFK would earn 210 each way, so with the one return trip you'd have earned 280 + 420 = 700 TP, bingo. (Note you also need 4 BA-metal flights to actually make Silver, so you'd need to buy a cheapo return from London to someplace close - Paris, Edinburgh, whatever - to fulfill that criteria.)

So practically speaking you could do one of your trips crediting to BA, make Silver, get your card and use the AA lounges, then do the Plat Challenge the next time and use AA as your main mileage earner going forward. Of course you'd want to credit some to BA (using your 100% bonus) to build up your mileage there for use with MFUs going forward.


OK, so now it's getting really scientific (I love it :) ). So if I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to to join both the BA and the AA program, and then use BA for access to lounges and upgrades on BA flights, while using AA on intra-US upgrades?


AA elites (Plat or EXP) also are not allowed to use AA lounges on intra-North American flights, while non-AA Sapphires and Emeralds are, so if you were a BA elite you could use Admiral's Clubs in North America regardless of destination or class of service flown. Partner elites also get priority boarding and other perks on AA flights.


Wow, this is very strange. Are you saying that AA discriminates its own premium members when it comes to lounge access and boarding priority?

OK, so now it's getting really scientific (I love it :) ). So if I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to to join both the BA and the AA program, and then use BA for access to lounges and upgrades on BA flights, while using AA on intra-US upgrades?Yes. And IMO AA's redemption scheme is generally much better than BA's, particularly for US west coast residents (gets technical re the details of Avios redemptions.)

Wow, this is very strange. Are you saying that AA discriminates its own premium members when it comes to lounge access and boarding priority?Yes, no. Other Oneworld Sapphires & Emeralds can use Admirals Clubs on domestic trips and AA (Plat) Sapphires and (EXP) Emeralds can't. Both get boarding priority.

Now if you're both and show the lounge gatekeeper a boarding pass that has your AAdvantage no. on it, and simultaneously show a BAEC Silver/Gold card, I don't know how that would play. At the discretion of the gatekeeper I suppose.

Yes. And IMO AA's redemption scheme is generally much better than BA's, particularly for US west coast residents (gets technical re the details of Avios redemptions.)


So let's say I book an Economy flight from SAN to LHR with BA, can I still use AA miles for an upgrade to Business? If so, I may just go with AA. There are very few flights within the US where I'd need lounge access.


Yes, no. Other Oneworld Sapphires & Emeralds can use Admirals Clubs on domestic trips and AA (Plat) Sapphires and (EXP) Emeralds can't. Both get boarding priority.


This still seems very odd. What is the rationale behind not giving your own best customers access to your lounge? Doesn't seem to make sense.

...This still seems very odd. What is the rationale behind not giving your own best customers access to your lounge? Doesn't seem to make sense.The way status is handed out to freq flyers in the USA it would mean standing room only (or less) in lounges if lounge access came with high status. And the revenue to the airlines with paid lounge membership

So let's say I book an Economy flight from SAN to LHR with BA, can I still use AA miles for an upgrade to Business? If so, I may just go with AA. There are very few flights within the US where I'd need lounge access.

From AA:

Q. Can I use my miles to upgrade from discount Economy fares?
A. You can use miles and a co-pay to upgrade from discount Economy fares on American Airlines flights. However, upgrades on itineraries that include British Airways and Iberia are valid from full fares only.So you'd have to book in Y or B, and your upgrade would only be to World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and not Club (business.) The cost of an AA Y economy ticket would undoubtedly be greater than just buying a business class ticket directly from BA.

This still seems very odd. What is the rationale behind not giving your own best customers access to your lounge? Doesn't seem to make sense.AA and other US airlines have a different philosophy on lounges from most other (European, Asian) airlines. You buy a membership to the clubs and then can visit them regardless of the class of service you're flying or your elite status. There are so many domestic routes flown by AA, and so many elites, that allowing free access to the clubs for elites (or for premium-cabin domestic travelers) would probably swamp the system, or so I suspect the thinking goes. Plus club memberships are another revenue stream.

From AA:

So you'd have to book in Y or B, and your upgrade would only be to World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and not Club (business.) The cost of an AA Y economy ticket would undoubtedly be greater than just buying a business class ticket directly from


That's very helpful, thanks so much. Will have to calculate if I have enough flights planned to get top status in both programs.

One more question if I may: which of the two programs is better for getting a free ticket to Europe with miles for myself and my family? Miles & More sucks in that regard... very few seats available, need to book like a year in advance and then have to pay about $400 per ticket in fees!

Is you stay in the USA permanent or temporary (years/months)?

One more question if I may: which of the two programs is better for getting a free ticket to Europe with miles for myself and my family? Miles & More sucks in that regard... very few seats available, need to book like a year in advance and then have to pay about $400 per ticket in fees!Nothing is free. BA have horrendous fees & fuel surcharges. And can have high UK government charges (a lot of $$ if business or first). Have a look on the AA forum for more on this. One of the reaason I suggest AA firts

Miles earning from credit card spend is useful for many

Is you stay in the USA permanent or temporary (years/months)?

Nothing is free. BA have horrendous fees & fuel surcharges. And can have high UK government charges (a lot of $$ if business or first). Have a look on the AA forum for more on this. One of the reaason I suggest AA firts

Miles earning from credit card spend is useful for many

I plan on staying permanently.

Getting a frequent flyer credit card is certainly worth a thought. My experience in the past was that they are a ripoff, but will look at them here in the USA.

Hi All. Help/advice would be appreciated. Have been demoted to BA silver after years of being gold and have moved from Europe to Singapore.

I am flying to HKG a lot from SIN and realised BA is only giving me 25% of the miles in cheap Economy whereas other programs such as CX seem to pay the full 100%. However, I don't know if I fancy paying to join a FFP! So is there any other Oneworld carrier I could join to earn miles on the SIN-HKG route in low fare economy (e.g. V class)?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: don't keep track to be honest as it varied, flew a lot of long haul but the move has changed that. From now on I will be doing:
1-2 times per month to HKG from SIN in low fare economy
1 per year to Europe (France) in Economy from SIN
2 + per year in J to Europe from SIN
Ad hoc personal travel
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply:
Business on long haul except for the home trip (1 per year) in Economy
Economy (restricted) on sort haul
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I travel for both. I can choose between SQ and CX on short haul and more or less have to go with the cheapest on the long haul be it in Business or Economy
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: most in Asia between SIN and HKG
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: BA Silver - should renew it soon so will have it until Q1 2014

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Lounge access though upgrades are handy. Baggage Allowance can be useful for personal travel but it is mostly about lounge access when traveling in Eco

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, CX, SQ

Thanks a million!!

I'm on a DONE4 and I'm flying SAP-MIA-SJO-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT-SIN-MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR-HEL within about a year. I'm OWE on BA and need to get 550TP before august 2013 to retain it until sept 2014.

So I'll probably get those 550TP first (SAP-MIA-SJO-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT), but any suggestions which FF program to use for the rest of the trip (NRT-SIN-MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR-HEL)? In addition to those flights, I'll most probably fly MH (if in OW at the time), CX and BA otherwise also within a year. Maybe also AA one or two flights.

Ok so here I go. It seems I screwed things up as I started to accumulate miles in Lan and AA, but within their own FFP memerships. I used to be Gold on AA but now I only have 18K Miles on each program (AAdvantage and LANPASS). So yes, fool of me. Even flew 16K miles on Delta this year (aaargh).

I also have a Visa Platinum accumulating on AAdvantage, that I use on a daily basis but being based in Argentina I do not get a huge amount of miles there (say 500 miles per month). All my travel related expenses go via Amex Corp.

So, question is, should I stay on AA or LAN FFP? Can I do anything to consolidate at least from Lan to AA or vice versa? I can anticipate traveling a lot on LAN across latam, so it seems the choice should be Lanpass. But the longest travels are to US (I can easily travel 10K miles on one trip, but they are yearly) so there I use AA.

The key would be to know if I would accumulate 100% bonus miles once I get to Plat/Comodoro, when I fly on the other airline.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: > 50K around Latin America plus 1 or 2 trips to US. Coach (or upgrade if available).

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, normally I tend to use LAN and AA

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Latin America / US.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Not yet, have 18K miles in AA and around 20,000km in LAN. Have 43K million miler on AA but expired.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LAN, AA

Ok so here I go. It seems I screwed things up as I started to accumulate miles in Lan and AA, but within their own FFP memerships. I used to be Gold on AA but now I only have 18K Miles on each program (AAdvantage and LANPASS). So yes, fool of me. Even flew 16K miles on Delta this year (aaargh).

< snip >

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LAN, AA

Welcome to the forum ^

Not many (none?) with detailed knowledge on LAN ffp post here. Hopefully others will offer an opinion

Collecting miles in one ffp would be best, but some low priced flights may not may not get miles in AA or LAN ffp if booked other as a flight with the other.

As a general rule upgrades are only available with airline miles on a flight number and operated by the airline with your freq flyer miles.

hello everyone!!

i am sure you heard similar questions countless times but I gather that each case is very much individual so decided to start new thread. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as i never posted anything on any forum in my life so behold:)

me and my gf have booked the following route to aus from london and wondering which ffp to join to get the most out of it during this specific trip as we may try to get some deals on hotels or car hire through our ffp whilst travelling. if it is not possible I think we are more into getting some reward flights. All flight booked through BA!!

BA LHR-NRT
QF NRT-CNS
QF BNE-ADL
QF MEL-HOB
QF HOB-SYD
BA SYD-SIN
BA BKK-LHR

All BA flights are S and QF are M

We are also doing one leg short haul between WAW-LHR (BA) in mid September and with LOT one on WRO-WAW if it makes any difference

Plus I will be trying to get to Poland for Xmas this year which means one return LHR-DUS/FRA/MUC -WRO with LUFTHANSA

We will also need to book some flights between SIN and BKK but have no idea how many yet

as proposed/suggested here is info:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: > 25k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Normally BA/LUFTHANSA short haul flights within europe - economy

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: EU domestic plus if lucky once per year long haul flight. destination varies

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: not yet, i have currnelty 15k on M&M with peak of 27k

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LUFTHANSA, BA


hope i didn't forget about anything:confused:

Many thanks!!

Mikl9

hello everyone!!

i am sure you heard similar questions countless times but I gather that each case is very much individual so decided to start new thread. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as i never posted anything on any forum in my life so behold:)

me and my gf have booked the following route to aus from london and wondering which ffp to join to get the most out of it during this specific trip as we may try to get some deals on hotels or car hire through our ffp whilst travelling. if it is not possible I think we are more into getting some reward flights. All flight booked through BA!!

BA LHR-NRT
QF NRT-CNS
QF BNE-ADL
QF MEL-HOB
QF HOB-SYD
BA SYD-SIN
BA BKK-LHR

All BA flights are S and QF are M

We are also doing one leg short haul between WAW-LHR (BA) in mid September and with LOT one on WRO-WAW if it makes any difference

Plus I will be trying to get to Poland for Xmas this year which means one return LHR-DUS/FRA/MUC -WRO with LUFTHANSA

We will also need to book some flights between SIN and BKK but have no idea how many yet

as proposed/suggested here is info:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: > 25k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Normally BA/LUFTHANSA short haul flights within europe - economy

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: EU domestic plus if lucky once per year long haul flight. destination varies

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: not yet, i have currnelty 15k on M&M with peak of 27k

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LUFTHANSA, BA


hope i didn't forget about anything:confused:

Many thanks!!

Mikl9
This thread is being moved to the sticky thread covering FF options with Oneworld.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

hello everyone!!

me and my gf have booked the following route to aus from london and wondering which ffp to join to get the most out of it during this specific trip as we may try to get some deals on hotels or car hire through our ffp whilst travelling. if it is not possible I think we are more into getting some reward flights. All flight booked through BA!!

BA LHR-NRT
QF NRT-CNS
QF BNE-ADL
QF MEL-HOB
QF HOB-SYD
BA SYD-SIN
BA BKK-LHR

All BA flights are S and QF are M


Are all the flight numbers booked as you listed? Or do you have BA flight numbers for all flights even those operated by QF?

Is your NRT-CNS flight a JQ flight number? If Jetstar you will not earn any points, except if you pay for the bundle that includes earning QF points (and you won't earn any crediting to BA). Jetstar is a low cost airline and not part of OneWorld (although the parent company is Qantas).

I assume you realise you will need to travel between SIN and BKK on the return..

I would credit it to BA, as QF points will not be very useful to you in the UK. Although you will only earn 25% on QF flights in discount economy when credited to BA.

If you credited to QF, you would get 100% miles on BA on the kangaroo route (LHR-SIN/BKK, SIN/BKK-AUS), and 25% for all other BA flights.

But again, having BA avios will allow you to upgrade BA flights, book BA reward saver flights, etc.

Thanks for such a prompt response!! really appreciated it as our first leg is only few weeks ahead (end of Sept):S

Are all the flight numbers booked as you listed? Or do you have BA flight numbers for all flights even those operated by QF?

unfortunately the only BA codes are those: BA5 LHR-NRT BA16 SYD-SIG and BA10 on BKK-LHR. others are listed under QF flight no. And yes the CNS flight is operated by Jetstar.


what about car hire in AUS and TAS through FFP?? we will need to cover those somehow anyway as a part of our trip and maybe it is better to go for QF to save few quid on those (and lose on miles as such)? I read somewhere here that your residency doesn’t necessary mean you should go for the same continent based airline FFP

we are doing island hoping between SI and BKK so not sure how many flight (and what airlines) we have to choose from. Any general suggestions would be greatly appreciated too

btw all my flights were actually booked via trailfinder (travel agent) but appeared under "my booking" on BA website (not sure if it matters)

do you think we can double our points if we opt for household account or do they have to be separate flights?

just realised I may got the answer to one question but already managed to ask seven more..ooopss;)

what about car hire in AUS and TAS through FFP?? we will need to cover those somehow anyway as a part of our trip and maybe it is better to go for QF to save few quid on those (and lose on miles as such)?

Not quite sure I understand what you mean, do you mean you want to try and book your car hire with points/miles? Seeing as you won't have many posted (or any at all) by the time you land, this isn't a good idea. And it is a bad use of points/miles anyway.

Also Tasmania is part of Australia...

we are doing island hoping between SI and BKK so not sure how many flight (and what airlines) we have to choose from. Any general suggestions would be greatly appreciated too

You will not really have any OneWorld partner options for island hopping, I would just go with the budget SE Asia carriers like AirAsia.

do you think we can double our points if we opt for household account or do they have to be separate flights?

Err.. No. It will just combine your points. You will each need to be a FF member and put your own numbers down. Household Accounts are for BA only, QF doesn't have anything similar.

Really, your best option is to credit to BA. I have just moved to the UK from Australia and am switching to BA Executive Club as having Qantas FF points is not really any use unless flying on QF metal.

Unless you are thinking of coming back to Australia again and using Qantas points to book domestic airfares, you will end up with about ~32k Qantas points total from your trip combined (16k each). BA you will earn a fair bit more.

Not quite sure I understand what you mean, do you mean you want to try and book your car hire with points/miles? Seeing as you won't have many posted (or any at all) by the time you land, this isn't a good idea. And it is a bad use of points/miles anyway.

I was more thinking whilst booking if we quote QF FFP in TAS we may get better discount than if doing the same with BA Exec

Err.. No. It will just combine your points. You will each need to be a FF member and put your own numbers down. Household Accounts are for BA only, QF doesn't have anything similar.

Assuming we go for BA...is it beneficial for us to open household account assuming? just wonder if for example we will move up in BA hierarchy quicker (bronze, silver) if we both put our miles together against one rather than two cards, so we can both access lounges or get better deals on hotels/ car hire? is it too good to be true and there is no way we can achieve that using those flights:(

I was more thinking whilst booking if we quote QF FFP in TAS we may get better discount than if doing the same with BA Exec


You will not get any discount quoting a QFF number for any hire car companies.. Avis and Hertz can credit points to QF and BA as well, although its not many so if you can get a cheaper hire car from someone else thats what I'd do if I was paying out of my own pocket.

Assuming we go for BA...is it beneficial for us to open household account assuming? just wonder if for example we will move up in BA hierarchy quicker (bronze, silver) if we both put our miles together against one rather than two cards, so we can both access lounges or get better deals on hotels/ car hire? is it too good to be true and there is no way we can achieve that using those flights:(

Household Accounts only combine avios, not tier points which are used to determine status. So no. There are pros and cons about setting up a HHA, plenty of info on the BA forums. Good news is you can do it down the track when/if you want to combine your avios.

QF nor BA will get you better deals on hotels or car hire fyi, no matter what your status.

I soon will be moving to Australia from the US and am trying to decide on the best FFP for my travels (predominately business related).

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: GLT
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: >50K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Can choose airline, but am generally limited to economy, as travel is for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Majority of flights will be Transpacific, as well as, throughout Oceania.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: N/A
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Travel upgrades and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I assume this would be QA, given the location.

Thanks for any help!

I soon will be moving to Australia from the US and am trying to decide on the best FFP for my travels (predominately business related).

Will you been doing much travel within Australia or mainly international?
And will more of it be Oceania or Australia-USA?
And by Oceania do you mean within Asia or to actual Oceanic countries? (Pacific island countries).

If mainly domestic travel in Australia, your main choice is between Qantas and Virgin.
If mainly international travel, then you would need to work out what carriers fly to the main destinations you will be going to.

Can I ask what business you are going in to? Gladstone is mainly a mining town..

Welcome to the forum ^

I soon will be moving to Australia from the US and am trying to decide on the best FFP for my travels (predominately business related).

< snip >

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I assume this would be QA, given the location.
Is the relocation to Aust permanent or temporary ?
If temporary & USA is home American Airlines [AA] is a option
Qantas is QF

Can I ask what business you are going in to? Gladstone is mainly a mining town..No mining in Gladstone. Is a large coal port, some other large processing industries and several large gas terminals being built on Curtis Island, near Gladstone. Is a very industrial town.

No mining in Gladstone. Is a large coal port, some other large processing industries and several large gas terminals being built on Curtis Island, near Gladstone. Is a very industrial town.

Yes I have been there many times.. There is no mining in the town of Gladstone but it is the centre of mining in the region, so I and most people would call it a mining town.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25k-50k (closer to the 25k end)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Leisure. I usually choose the lowest price so always fly economy.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Most often is SIN to Europe, then SIN to US, then SIN to Japan
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: good award redemption rates. The rest are not as important.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No particular preference

I just used up all my miles on Qantas, so I was wondering if I should take the chance to switch to a different OW FFP because of the news that Qantas will no longer be flying SIN-FRA next year (please correct me if I'm wrong!).

Thanks a lot in advance!

Hi there, I hope frequent flyers will be able to help choose the best option:

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: BRU
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? Reply: 50k-100k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travelling for business I can choose the airline to a certain degree (not the most expensive)
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: per year: 2-4 trips to the US, 1 to Asia, 1 to Latin America and a 2-4 within Europe
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: BA Silver and a few miles with M&M
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrades on travel and hopefully free tickets (one can dream)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not Air France!

Many thanks for your help

I am new to OW. Based at YYZ and usually *A and got CX diamond from Amex. I do occasional AA or BA flight <10k a year. I want to use points for long distance flight to Asia or short haul in US, which is the best program (CX, BA or AA) to credit my occasional flight?(I can top up from SPG or MR transfer)

AA undoubtedly ...

I am new to OW. Based at YYZ and usually *A and got CX diamond from Amex. I do occasional AA or BA flight <10k a year. I want to use points for long distance flight to Asia or short haul in US, which is the best program (CX, BA or AA) to credit my occasional flight?(I can top up from SPG or MR transfer)

AA is unquestionably better long haul to Asia. Flying short haul to the U.S. is better on BA if you fly non-stop or are flying two short flights. For instance, YYZ-ORD and YYZ-JFK are only 4500 Avios each way. With connections things start to add up as you have to pay for each segment on BA--YYZ-ORD-XXX (w/i 649 miles) will run you 9000 Avios each way.

With only ~10K miles/year I would probably pick BA and use it for my SH flying. Picking AA for a long haul award you might be booking 5+ years in the future (or more for business class) seems pretty speculative in the fast changing world of airline FF programs.

Hi folks. Hoping for some help selecting a oneworld program. Currently a UA flyer but I'm relocating from SFOish to MELish, and *A seems to be fairly useless out of Melbourne (unless you really like going to Bangkok, Singapore and Auckland) so I'll probably be going for oneworld.

Right now I'm an AA platinum thanks to AA's overly-generous status-match offer from earlier but I haven't requalified for next year; not sure whether I'll be soft-landed to gold or not. I've been a QFF member long enough to have a six-digit membership number, but I've never managed to obtain any status and have a mere 575 lifetime status credits. I'd like to have some kind of oneworld sapphire status in the longer term.

Right now I fly ~50,000 miles a year, probably going to continue to do something similar but on a different continent. Let's say three longhaul return trips a year to the US and Europe, plus a bunch of domestic Australian flying, particularly MEL-SYD.

All my own travel is booked in cheapest-available economy, and while I don't know the details of my new employer's travel policy I think my work travel probably will be too :(. So I don't think Qantas Frequent Flyer is going to make any sense for me since status credit earning is seriously stingy for cheap fares.

AA seems like the obvious choice since it's a mile-based program, but as far as I can figure out from reading the rules it's pretty mysterious and opaque whether you earn miles or not on any given QF flight. Is there a best-practice for maximising your AA miles while flying on QF/CX/BA?

I'm not really familiar with any of the other oneworld programs, but is there one I should be looking at?

Other alternatives include (a) trying to figure out something weird involving flying DJ domestically and crediting to NZ/SQ/DL or (b) saying "bugger it", buying a Qantas Club membership to get most of the benefits of oneworld sapphire, and relaxing.

Hi folks. Hoping for some help selecting a oneworld program. Currently a UA flyer but I'm relocating from SFOish to MELish, and *A seems to be fairly useless out of Melbourne (unless you really like going to Bangkok, Singapore and Auckland) so I'll probably be going for oneworld..........

Welcome to being future MEL resident ^
Is the move permanent or for a defined period of time ?

/ off topic
As a Melbourne resident you need to select an Aussie rules football team (-afl.com.au) to support: this is compulsory :)
Today is AFL grand final day. Sadly my team is not playing
/on topic

As post 1 (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other-middle-east-africa-frequent-flyer-programs/1392242-gulf-air-falcon-gold.html) what are your expectations / requirements from a FFP ?
Upgrades / lounge access / rewards ?

MEL LAX 1 return = 15842
MEL LHR 1 return = 21006
MEL SYD 20 return = 17560
Total miles 54408 (http://gc.kls2.com/cgi-bin/gc?PATH=mel-lax%0D%0Amel-lhr%0D%0Amel-syd%0D%0A&RANGE=&PATH-COLOR=red&PATH-UNITS=mi&PATH-MINIMUM=&SPEED-GROUND=&SPEED-UNITS=kts&RANGE-STYLE=best&RANGE-COLOR=navy&MAP-STYLE=)

As you have AA status suggest put your QF flights to AA. But some low price fare buckets are non earning to AA [check carefully]. Put these to QF.

For short haul MEL-SYD will take many flights to get QF status. Will you do this every week ? If you are traveling long haul in business or first on OneWorld airlines its a different consideration. Then may be worth trying for QF status. Will you have choice of long haul airline ? The QF EK arrangement may benefit you if the destination is other than LHR.

Do you intend to put miles from credit card spend to a freq flyer program ?

Forget crediting DJ flights to NZ. NZ is a poor freq flyer program

Many business's have discounted QF club membership. Many companies pay for this for depending on your level in pecking order . Possibly same for DJ club access.

Thanks Mwenenzi! Actually I'm from Sydney originally but am a Geelong fan from way back.

I suppose my priorities are the ability to earn/burn miles for trips, and lounge access. Upgrades aren't so important for me. In the US I really enjoy the other perks of status (priority security/checkin/boarding) but now I come to think of it these things don't matter nearly as much in Australia where security, checkin and boarding seem to work more efficiently. Well, maybe not checkin.

I think my new employer does indeed have corporate rates for Qantas Club membership; I found some references to such a thing existing on the internet though not any of the details. I don't think I'd pay full price for Qantas Club membership, but for typical discounted rates I'd definitely do it. Qantas Club membership doesn't give all the perks of oneworld sapphire, but it probably gives enough of 'em to make flying bearable.

After thinking about it a bit more, I think what I might do is to fly Qantas domestically with QF Club membership but stick with *A for international and acquire membership in one of the "easy star gold" programs like Asiana, which requires only 40,000 miles every two years. It seems easier this way, and it'd be nice to have some degree of status whether I'm flying *A or oneworld.

Jorgen
For earn/burn AA is a lot better than QF, especially as you start with AA plat status (OW sapphire (http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/oneworld-benefits/) = QF gold) which helps in your QF earn. Just look at burning charts & co pay fees. But reward flights on QF are hard to find at times

For many pax here in Aust priority boarding means staying in the QF club and boarding last.

The Cats need another dedicated supporter (good you do not support the Swans)

Good points Mwenenzi. I'll credit my QF flights to AA by preference unless I wind up in a non-earning code in which case I'll credit them to QF. (Though my AA platinum ends very soon and I don't know whether they'll soft-land me to gold or not.) Meanwhile, I'll join OZ with a view towards crediting my future *A flights there and hopefully keep *G in my back pocket. Exact details can be figured out once I'm more familiar with my new employer's travel policies.

Thanks for your help! ^

Good points Mwenenzi. I'll credit my QF flights to AA by preference unless I wind up in a non-earning code in which case I'll credit them to QF. (Though my AA platinum ends very soon and I don't know whether they'll soft-land me to gold or not.) Meanwhile, I'll join OZ with a view towards crediting my future *A flights there and hopefully keep *G in my back pocket. Exact details can be figured out once I'm more familiar with my new employer's travel policies.

Thanks for your help! ^

AA will soft land you to gold.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)

CDG, Charles de Gaulle, Paris.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

>50k, economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)

Cheapest economy for holiday trips.
Flexible economy, economy+ tickets often bought or changed at last minute when travelling for work.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

Unfortunately economy only.
Intercontinental work trips, short European trips for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

2-3 times a year from Europe to Asia and within Asia (China, Japan, SEAP, perhaps also Australia in future) for work.

Frequently between Paris and Helsinki, Finland.

Many short holiday trips in Europe.


(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

-

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)

1. Good awards
2. Upgrades

(8) Preferred Airlines

I assume that AY and CX will be most frequent.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: TXL from Jan (or BER then)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 50k-100k, Eco
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travelling for business I can choose the airline
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: BER-LHR every second week, BER-EWR every quarter, BER-FRA frequently
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: Still Gold at LH; Silver at AB; Platinum at AF
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrades on travel and prio services
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not Air France!

Note: The obvious choice so far has been AB, but with the recent Etihad and AirFrance move I am starting to consider this. I could imagine it would be better to use AB as carrier, but with a BA FF card.

New to this business as I'm going to relocate from DUB to KIN in January for at least two years.

Think my decision is really between AA and BA. I'm expecting to have minimum one (possibly two) round trips KIN-DUB per year. In 2013 I hope to have a round trip to either MEL or SYD, and then a number of shorter hops to the likes of MIA or JFK.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Will be KIN, Kingston, Jamaica
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Expect to be 30k at least in 2013. Similar, maybe sightly lower in 2014.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy - Usually discount, occasional Y.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Should have free rein most of the time but will be booking economy in almost all cases. Some DUB trips (going on my first journey out there) may be booked by work - they seem to favour DUB-LGW-KIN routing with BA.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: As above, most long haul trips will be transatlantic, ultimate destination DUB. There will be short trips to US east coast a few times. Other long haul destinations (such as Aus 2013 are possible but won't be regularly repeating any of them)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No status. Very small time non-elite DL and UA member.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades most important (got a taste of DL International Business Class on an overbooked DUB-JFK flight once and want a repeat on long hauls!), chances to redeem miles for upgrades and/or flights next most important. Other perks are nice to haves.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Neutral - haven't flown AA or BA before.

Being located in FRA and flying mainly within (Northern) Europe I have been a loyal *A member for some time. Now I need to fly to XRY which *A doesn't serve very well, so I'm need some advice on which OW programme I should join.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: FRA
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: eco
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Within limits. I travel for work (and I don't consider it a pleasure). I can suggest connections, but my employer organises the tickets. Only Y.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: (Northern) Europe, occasionally TATL
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: None at OW, but an A3 *G
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Since I probably shall continue to fly *A and enjoy the perks there, my OW programme should offer good conversion possibilities to other programmes, e. g. HHonors, PriorityClub.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No preference.

Thanks in advance,

swedenabroad

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)

CDG, Charles de Gaulle, Paris.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

>50k, economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)

Cheapest economy for holiday trips.
Flexible economy, economy+ tickets often bought or changed at last minute when travelling for work.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

Unfortunately economy only.
Intercontinental work trips, short European trips for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

2-3 times a year from Europe to Asia and within Asia (China, Japan, SEAP, perhaps also Australia in future) for work.

Frequently between Paris and Helsinki, Finland.

Many short holiday trips in Europe.


(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

-

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)

1. Good awards
2. Upgrades

(8) Preferred Airlines

I assume that AY and CX will be most frequent.

Assuming that your longhaul tickets are all full fair economy or economy plus, and your shorthaul leisure trips are on AY/BA primarily, I would go with AA. My understanding is that they don't enforce a minimum AA metal requirement, and you will earn 100% EQM for all your flights, provided your CX flights are booked in flexible economy or premium economy. AA has a good earn/burn rate and 50K/year will get you AA Platinum = OW Saphire.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: TXL from Jan (or BER then)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 50k-100k, Eco
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travelling for business I can choose the airline
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: BER-LHR every second week, BER-EWR every quarter, BER-FRA frequently
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: Still Gold at LH; Silver at AB; Platinum at AF
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrades on travel and prio services
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not Air France!

Note: The obvious choice so far has been AB, but with the recent Etihad and AirFrance move I am starting to consider this. I could imagine it would be better to use AB as carrier, but with a BA FF card.

BA only awards 25% avios on most AB discount economy, so I would probably stick with AB unless you are flying in flexible econ. Additionally, BA status is awarded by Tier Points, not miles, so make sure that you have enough tier points coming to qualify for Silver (and that you will meet the minimum 4 BA operated or marketed sectors).

New to this business as I'm going to relocate from DUB to KIN in January for at least two years.

Think my decision is really between AA and BA. I'm expecting to have minimum one (possibly two) round trips KIN-DUB per year. In 2013 I hope to have a round trip to either MEL or SYD, and then a number of shorter hops to the likes of MIA or JFK.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Will be KIN, Kingston, Jamaica
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Expect to be 30k at least in 2013. Similar, maybe sightly lower in 2014.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy - Usually discount, occasional Y.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Should have free rein most of the time but will be booking economy in almost all cases. Some DUB trips (going on my first journey out there) may be booked by work - they seem to favour DUB-LGW-KIN routing with BA.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: As above, most long haul trips will be transatlantic, ultimate destination DUB. There will be short trips to US east coast a few times. Other long haul destinations (such as Aus 2013 are possible but won't be regularly repeating any of them)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No status. Very small time non-elite DL and UA member.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades most important (got a taste of DL International Business Class on an overbooked DUB-JFK flight once and want a repeat on long hauls!), chances to redeem miles for upgrades and/or flights next most important. Other perks are nice to haves.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Neutral - haven't flown AA or BA before.

I would definitely go with AA. 25k+ gets you AA Gold (OW Ruby). BA qualification is on Tier Points, and you would probably not get the 300 TP required for BA Bronze.

Thanks for this! Other big factor pushing me toward AA is ability to do a status challenge to either get gold immediately on my first flight to KIN, or get platinum if I wait until Summer 2013 and take in one or both of my Australian flights. Should also be able to earn AA miles on a Jamaica bank credit card.

Moving to Melbourne in January to take up an academic job. Unless something goes wrong the move is permanent.

Plans for 2013 include YVR-SAN return, YVR-MEL one way, MEL-YYC return, MEL-YYZ return, MEL-YUL return, and probably MEL==>US==>Europe==>TLV==>PEK==>MEL. Finally, perhaps 8 domestic flights in Australia (mostly short), All flights in economy, most or all in discounted economy. I can choose whichever airlines I want, but am limited to economy.

Priorities: lounge access, upgrades to business, being able to get exit seats when flying economy, priority in going through security

Would very much appreciate advice. Should I go for AA or QFF? Any point/chance to try and obtain status in *A? Any particular credit card that is worth getting after I move to Australia?

With TAM getting out of *A soon, i would like to know from the experts what would be my best bet for OW in south america? I am not much familiar with OW FFPrograms but I hear that LANPass is really bad. My home airport is POA but I use SaoPaulo-GRU very often. I fly 50k per year usually with *A carriers, normally economy.
Also, would any OW airline match my *G status?

Thanks a lot.

Hi there,
I'm wondering about whether to credit my upcoming CathayPac business NZ>LHR return miles to asia miles or QF ffp. I'm based in NZ, have NZ*G but looking at leaving *A and moving to OW.
I travel to asia 1-2x per year, either business or economy and up-grade to business and to europe once a year in business. Half paid for by work, rest by me.
I like the business traveller eperience, lounges, priority check-in.
I can usually choose my airline.
Any thoughts wouldbe greatly appreciated.
Thx

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: HKG
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: <25k on economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Can sit on any OW airlines. Pleasure (+ aircraft type :p)
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Asia
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: No, planning to have one.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Redemption rates and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Every OW carrier except CX

Thanks a lot :)

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: more than 175K (almost all in J)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Business, J
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: for work, planing to choose Cathay Pacific for 2013 trips.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: SFO to China
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: UA 1K
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Award travel (Asia, Europe and S America)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Currently *A (United) would like to try out Cathay Pacific

Hi

i don't know if this is the right place to post my question, so please accept my apologizes in advance if not

well, my sister never selected any FFP because she never cared

therefore she could have earned a lot of miles but never did

now that she is living in Canada and will be visiting us in Europe and also travelling across North America
i was wondering which FFP i would advise her to register to

she will soon fly from Canada to Vietnam with Cathay Pacific

should she select Asia Miles or another OW program and get her miles on this program from her Cathay flights ?

hesitating between Cathay, AA and British Airways

thanks

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: more than 175K (almost all in J)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Business, J
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: for work, planing to choose Cathay Pacific for 2013 trips.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: SFO to China
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: UA 1K
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Award travel (Asia, Europe and S America)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Currently *A (United) would like to try out Cathay Pacific

If award travel is most important and you are US bsaed then most probably AA is the best program for you. Also you are already booking J so the need for upgrades is less pressing compared to flying Y.
The only thing I would add is that IMHO in is advantages to have status with the airline you actually fly. So should you aim for status and you almost always fly CX, I would join their program even so earn/burn rate and fees might be worse than AA.

Hi

i don't know if this is the right place to post my question, so please accept my apologizes in advance if not

well, my sister never selected any FFP because she never cared

therefore she could have earned a lot of miles but never did

now that she is living in Canada and will be visiting us in Europe and also travelling across North America
i was wondering which FFP i would advise her to register to

she will soon fly from Canada to Vietnam with Cathay Pacific

should she select Asia Miles or another OW program and get her miles on this program from her Cathay flights ?

hesitating between Cathay, AA and British Airways

thanks

If most of her travel is TATL then I would not join the CX program. In fact, if she is mainly flying Y and not that often anyway, AA will (again) be the best program for her.

The first reply to naar keer
If award travel is most important and you are US bsaed then most probably AA is the best program for you. Also you are already booking J so the need for upgrades is less pressing compared to flying Y.
The only thing I would add is that IMHO in is advantages to have status with the airline you actually fly. So should you aim for status and you almost always fly CX, I would join their program even so earn/burn rate and fees might be worse than AA.

With 175k miles in J, I would seriously quality as EXP under AA and then Gold with Cathay MPC. CX does a quite reasonable job of tracking your flying even under other programs and have treated me well over the last 6-7 years as AA EXP/PLT. And remember that upgrades with MPC may be better bargains than awards under AA. And both airlines handle IRROPs better than others.

Happy wandering

Fred

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: HKG
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: <25k on economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Can sit on any OW airlines. Pleasure (+ aircraft type :p)
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Asia
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: No, planning to have one.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Redemption rates and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Every OW carrier except CX

Thanks a lot :)

is AA good for me if i base at HK?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: DEL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: >50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy most times, Business occasionally.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airline and class or service. Travel for both work/pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: 2 return trips from DEL - ORD in a year and some travel to Europe/Asia.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Delta Silver Medallion, Kingfisher Gold, British Airways Blue. These are all mine. My wife has Bronze on BA which will soon be Silver.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades on travel is most important.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: KLM/BA to USA and no specific ones in Asia

We are mostly looking for getting upgrades through miles and hence what would be the best program that allows us to do that?

is AA good for me if i base at HK?

That's actually a tough call because only H class or higher fares on CX credit to AA.
If you flew 30K miles/year CX would likely be a better choice. CX Sliver gets lounge access in HKG (I believe).

You may get better joy with MH or UL when they join OneWorld. Also read through the stickies on the JMB program.

Happy wandering

Fred

I got the PM from someone suggesting I might like to help out here. Popped in to have a nose around.

If anyone can put in 4 LAN segments per year then by all means send me a PM and I will chip in with LANPASS comparisons

Happy flying and greetings from South America

First of all, I appreciate everyone's willingness to help. It's a big reason I finally registered after years of merely lurking.

I'm currently Gold on A3/:-:A. And since it doesn't take much to maintain my A3 Gold, I wanted to find another program to dump my new miles into. I figured it would be smart to see if there was anything feasible for me with One World.

(1) What is your home airport?

In a few weeks it will officially be ICN for a while. When I'm stateside, it's PDX.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?

I'd say I average just over 25k in Economy per year.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)

Nearly always Economy.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

I'm almost always flying for personal vacations. And the few times it's specifically for work... I buy my ticket, but it has to be Economy.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often? (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

I'll probably only make 1 round trip back to North America per year and the rest of my flights will mostly be around E/SE Asia.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

Just :-:A: A3 Gold.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)

1. extra baggage allowance
2. low qualifications for maintaining status.
3. not having to worry about my miles expiring.

(8) Preferred Airlines

I really haven't experienced too many that have won me over (yet). In the states, I've probably had better experiences with Alaska Airlines more than most other ones.

I'd just like to have a OW option to add to my :-:A Gold status... something that would be useful in Asia and the US.

Thanks in advance for your help! :)

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: DEL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: >50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy most times, Business occasionally.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airline and class or service. Travel for both work/pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: 2 return trips from DEL - ORD in a year and some travel to Europe/Asia.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Delta Silver Medallion, Kingfisher Gold, British Airways Blue. These are all mine. My wife has Bronze on BA which will soon be Silver.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades on travel is most important.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: KLM/BA to USA and no specific ones in Asia

We are mostly looking for getting upgrades through miles and hence what would be the best program that allows us to do that?
Offhand, I'd probably investigate a household account with BA. Depending on the specifics of your longhaul travel, you (personally) might be able to attain status with BA on your own, playing the tier point game. But having a household account means you can pool your Avios with your wife or other family members, which might provide enough points to make MFU upgrades (one of the best aspects of the BA scheme) more practical. That would address your priority for "what's important" at no loss of your own ability to achieve status based on your personal tier point accumulation. (Remember tier points are still personal, even with a household BAEC account.)

http://www.britishairways.com/travel/household-account/public/en_gb
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/british-airways-executive-club/1362974-your-guide-executive-club-attaining-status-earning-avios.html

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LAX
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25K Coach
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work / pleasure. Always can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic, going to be doing a lot of Asia travel 1st quarter 2013
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: None. Have 60,000 BA avios, 75,000 Amex points, and 25,000 ultimate rewards points, but No Tier Points.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

Thanks so much for any help!

(1) What is your home airport? FRA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Varies a lot, but between 60-110k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? AA EXP

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Miles. Upgrades and Priority are also welcome. Lounges is not a big deal for now since I've a Amex Plat. Lifetime status is always a plus.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? I will be flying 1...2 times per year to South America, plus some travels to North America and Asia, and a few intra-Europe flights.

(7) Preferred Airlines? I like AA nowadays, but I'm moving to FRA and it's *A land, so I'm considering switching.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both


Currently I live in the US and like to fly AA in which I have EXP status (already achieved for next year), but I will be moving to Frankfurt and it's Star Alliance territory. What are my best options in your opinion? Keep flying mainly with OneWorld and try to get an easy Star Alliance Gold in Turkish or Aegean for the times that I need? Completely switch to *A?

Thanks!

(1) What is your home airport?
SYD

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Likely < 25k miles, but small chance of > 50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Y/B or J

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for work, QF domestically, but lots of choice int'l

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Domestic Australia, with some International

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
CX Gold; AC *SE (any hope of status matching anywhere to get Emerald?)

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Good award redemption rates, upgrades

(8) Preferred Airlines
Challenge is that I'm in QF for less than 2 years, have 350k in BA, and 15k in AA (I'll likely be going back to US/Canada).

YYCOllie
Welcome to Australia

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
CX Gold; AC *SE (any hope of status matching anywhere to get Emerald?)
< snip >
(8) Preferred Airlines
Challenge is that I'm in QF for less than 2 years, have 350k in BA, and 15k in AA (I'll likely be going back to US/Canada).
Guess "Challenge is that I'm in QF for less than 2 years" should be "Challenge is that I'm in Australia for less than 2 years"

So you have CX Gold (and some miles?), many BA miles & few AA miles

Being in 3 OW programs now, seems no use joining a 4th, if these miles will be orphaned in 2 years, unless you will use them now. BA do not accept Aussie members, so best not to change your address.

QF upgrade's with QF points can be problematic. International very hard tending to near impossible is you have no QF status and/or busy route. Domestic a little less so, especially if can get ODU in the QF club. AASA/JASA can be good value at times using your QF points and earning points/SC on the same flight.

If you are not a QF member and do want to join can do free on www.everydayrewards.com.au (Woolworth)

Will have miles earning potential from an Aussie credit card ?

For good redemption rates run away fast from QF. AA has better burn / earn

Many QF flights will credit to AA or BA or maybe CX. But check the fare bucket. Some low QF fares get zilch with AA. But I assume you need some activity with CX/AA/BA in these every 18 months(?) to keep these accounts alive.

If it was me would not be looking at QF but building up miles - status with BA or AA

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LAX
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25K Coach
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work / pleasure. Always can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic, going to be doing a lot of Asia travel 1st quarter 2013
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: None. Have 60,000 BA avios, 75,000 Amex points, and 25,000 ultimate rewards points, but No Tier Points.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

Thanks so much for any help!

Welcome to FT

I don't know enough about BAEC to really give you a full answer. If the flights you will be taking will credit to BA, perhaps remaining with that program will be in your long term advantage. Note though that with CX MPC Silver status (30K miles) will get you lounge access in HKG, something that is unlikely in any other OW program. I believe that there still is some cross fertilization between the BA and CX programs in terms of using miles in one program to upgrade the other's flights. Also AA is very generous in the mileage credit for their flights being credited to CX MPC/AsiaMiles.

Hope that helps.

Fred

(1) What is your home airport? FRA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Varies a lot, but between 60-110k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? AA EXP

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Miles. Upgrades and Priority are also welcome. Lounges is not a big deal for now since I've a Amex Plat. Lifetime status is always a plus.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? I will be flying 1...2 times per year to South America, plus some travels to North America and Asia, and a few intra-Europe flights.

(7) Preferred Airlines? I like AA nowadays, but I'm moving to FRA and it's *A land, so I'm considering switching.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both

Currently I live in the US and like to fly AA in which I have EXP status (already achieved for next year), but I will be moving to Frankfurt and it's Star Alliance territory. What are my best options in your opinion? Keep flying mainly with OneWorld and try to get an easy Star Alliance Gold in Turkish or Aegean for the times that I need? Completely switch to *A?

Thanks!

Because of the JointVenture agreement between BA and AA, almost all BA flights credit fully to AA. AY also credits well and covers quite a bit of China. Back to the USA, use BA for the east coast, and AA for middle and west. It may be a pain but connections in MIA for South America will work if there are no reasonable flights with BA/IB.
I acknowledge that life time status on AA is rather more challenging now, but I think I'd stay with AA.

Fred

YYCOllie
Welcome to Australia
...
So you have CX Gold (and some miles?), many BA miles & few AA miles
Being in 3 OW programs now, seems no use joining a 4th, if these miles will be orphaned in 2 years, unless you will use them now. BA do not accept Aussie members, so best not to change your address.

QF upgrade's with QF points can be problematic. International very hard tending to near impossible is you have no QF status and/or busy route. Domestic a little less so, especially if can get ODU in the QF club. AASA/JASA can be good value at times using your QF points and earning points/SC on the same flight.

If you are not a QF member and do want to join can do free on www.everydayrewards.com.au (Woolworth)

Will have miles earning potential from an Aussie credit card ?

For good redemption rates run away fast from QF. AA has better burn / earn

Many QF flights will credit to AA or BA or maybe CX. But check the fare bucket. Some low QF fares get zilch with AA. But I assume you need some activity with CX/AA/BA in these every 18 months(?) to keep these accounts alive.

If it was me would not be looking at QF but building up miles - status with BA or AA

Mostly agree. Except for "Some low QF fares get zilch with AA." QF currently markets domestic sale type fares so that no partner programs will easily collect mile credits (mostly E/N/Q classes). So you would need to book semi-flexible fares on-line or have access to a TA for Australian domestic flying. Note that QF fares in V class or higher will credit to AsiaMiles/MPC. The same applies for AA with the addition of O and S class. Though, if I were likely to be flying through HKG multiple times I'd stick with Cathay since even if downgraded to Silver you still get lounge access in HKG.

As always, YMMV

Fred

..Though, if I were likely to be flying through HKG multiple times I'd stick with Cathay since even if downgraded to Silver you still get lounge access in HKG.
Fred: thanks for replying. Good to get more opinions here
From another thread I note that YYCOllie received CX gold via an AMEX cc and not flying

Thanks everybody - I guess crediting to AA is the way to go. :)

Thanks!

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: YUL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 40-50k, mostly economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy & premium economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: yes. Mostly work, 1-2 times per year for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: mostly transatlantic (often YUL-LHR) and YUL-US transborder. I also fly YUL-MEX or thereabouts 1-2 times per year for family reasons.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: not in OW. Currently AC Elite, and will be A3 Gold in 2013.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: upgrades in TATL legs, priority services. Mile redemption will most often be to Mexico.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA

I am intending to switch to OW since my relatively frequent YUL-LHR legs a well served by BA, but I am trying to decide whether BA or AA should be where I credit to. It seems that AA makes sense due to the redemption criterion, but I prefer BA for transatlantic flights, and that is where I would appreciate upgrades the most. However, maintaining status will be a consideration and so I am interested in opinions concerning the best FFP strategy. Also, do either have a credit card in Canada? Many thanks!

My poor judgement should be warning to anyone located in Central Europe and deciding which Oneworld-programme to concentrate on:

In order to remain independent from LH, I have maintained my BA gold status (oneworld emerald) since over 10 years without interruption, parallel to LH Senator (Star Aliance gold), AF/KL gold (Skyteam gold, but not held it continuously) and additionally AB-Gold (now oneworld sapphire) for my econimy flights on business within Europe and my longhaul business class flights.
When AB joined oneworld I thought this would be relief for me, being able to concentrate on only one oneworld program and thus enabling me to get more consistence into my Skyteam status due to less necessary flights.
I opted for AB platinum (oneworld emerald), sacrificing BA gold after 10 years for the sake of priviledged parking at German airports and the additional possibility to collect on EY, also due to the poor customer service of BA Executive Club in Germany.
What a mistake!
In spite of actually flying more oneworld in 2012 (I did even book addition flights just for the reson of maintaining my emerald status), I never made it to AB Top Bonus platinum. BA has just sent me my silver card for 2013 (I am thankful, because I didn't even know they offer a soft landing). But it is sad to no longer have oneworld emerald from January 2013 inwards after over 10 years and my last visit to LHR T5 first lounge in December is also lost due to my BA flights having moved to T1.
The reason is very simple and I should have paid more attention to this before opting for AB top bonus:
Top Bonus gives more than fair credit for their own flights (shorthaul economy), but very poor credit for business and longhaul and absolutely no additional status points for status members on oneworld (and Etihad) flights!
A business class flight on BA from Germany to London can get less credit than an economy flight on AB within Europe. A longhaul flight in business class on BA or EY receives less credit than three shorthaul flights in AB in economy! Credit for a Finnair return flight in economy is a joke!
Had I continued to collect in BA executive club I would have maintained my emerald status by far. But AB top bonus is only interesting for customers who mainly fly on AB metal within Europe!

I am intending to switch to OW since my relatively frequent YUL-LHR legs a well served by BA, but I am trying to decide whether BA or AA should be where I credit to. It seems that AA makes sense due to the redemption criterion, but I prefer BA for transatlantic flights, and that is where I would appreciate upgrades the most. However, maintaining status will be a consideration and so I am interested in opinions concerning the best FFP strategy. Also, do either have a credit card in Canada? Many thanks!

Personally, I would use BA as the program if you fly them often. If you can get someone to book you into Y+ then upgrading to business is good value.

And yes, there is a BA credit card in Canada:

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/british-airways-credit-card.html

Of course you end up with the BA redemption fees for award flights but you win in other areas.

My poor judgement should be warning to anyone located in Central Europe and deciding which Oneworld-programme to concentrate on:

In order to remain independent from LH, I have maintained my BA gold status (oneworld emerald) since over 10 years without interruption, parallel to LH Senator (Star Aliance gold), AF/KL gold (Skyteam gold, but not held it continuously) and additionally AB-Gold (now oneworld sapphire) for my econimy flights on business within Europe and my longhaul business class flights.
When AB joined oneworld I thought this would be relief for me, being able to concentrate on only one oneworld program and thus enabling me to get more consistence into my Skyteam status due to less necessary flights.
I opted for AB platinum (oneworld emerald), sacrificing BA gold after 10 years for the sake of priviledged parking at German airports and the additional possibility to collect on EY, also due to the poor customer service of BA Executive Club in Germany.
What a mistake!
In spite of actually flying more oneworld in 2012 (I did even book addition flights just for the reson of maintaining my emerald status), I never made it to AB Top Bonus platinum. BA has just sent me my silver card for 2013 (I am thankful, because I didn't even know they offer a soft landing). But it is sad to no longer have oneworld emerald from January 2013 inwards after over 10 years and my last visit to LHR T5 first lounge in December is also lost due to my BA flights having moved to T1.
The reason is very simple and I should have paid more attention to this before opting for AB top bonus:
Top Bonus gives more than fair credit for their own flights (shorthaul economy), but very poor credit for business and longhaul and absolutely no additional status points for status members on oneworld (and Etihad) flights!
A business class flight on BA from Germany to London can get less credit than an economy flight on AB within Europe. A longhaul flight in business class on BA or EY receives less credit than three shorthaul flights in AB in economy! Credit for a Finnair return flight in economy is a joke!
Had I continued to collect in BA executive club I would have maintained my emerald status by far. But AB top bonus is only interesting for customers who mainly fly on AB metal within Europe!

I am sorry to hear that you haven't made your goal. AB is very generous with their own flights, similar to LH used to be. Mainly due to the high minimum miles. Earnings for other airlines are actually average, nothing particularly bad. You are aware that BA has gotten rid of the European exception therefore it is now much harder to maintain BA gold than it was in the past? Most probably it is harder to maintain it than getting AB Platinum. You need to fly significantly more now than in the past to get BA Gold.

I am sorry to hear that you haven't made your goal. AB is very generous with their own flights, similar to LH used to be. Mainly due to the high minimum miles. Earnings for other airlines are actually average, nothing particularly bad. You are aware that BA has gotten rid of the European exception therefore it is now much harder to maintain BA gold than it was in the past? Most probably it is harder to maintain it than getting AB Platinum. You need to fly significantly more now than in the past to get BA Gold.

Thanks, yes, I am aware of this, but even with the exemption I would have enjoyed as existing gold member at BA for another while I would have made gold there with 26 legs, including some business and four longhauls.

Personally, I would use BA as the program if you fly them often. If you can get someone to book you into Y+ then upgrading to business is good value.

And yes, there is a BA credit card in Canada:

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/credit-cards/travel-credit-cards/british-airways-credit-card.html

Of course you end up with the BA redemption fees for award flights but you win in other areas.

Many thanks for this. I will stick to BA, as I do prefer them over AA anyway.

This is an awesome thread! I'm currently in the midst of changing jobs, changing home airports, and indeed changing alliances (because Air Canada's plan sucks now).

(1) What is your home airport?

Starting in January it will be LAS.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

<25k but close. I could probably top up over 25k.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)


Reply: Typically economy but will go business if long-haul and it's reasonable.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

Reply: I can choose my airlines and class of service. Travel is a mix of both.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

Reply: I will be flying LAS-YVR regularly in the coming year, I will probably take one big transpacific trip (likely LAS-HKG) for vacation and a handful of other US-domestic trips.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

Reply: I am Air Canada Elite (Star Alliance Gold) but nothing on OW.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)

Reply: Upgrades! Especially on long-haul. Not much else matters to me. Lounges are nice.

(8) Preferred Airlines

Reply: Doesn't matter. Whomever I can get to upgrade me will be my favourite.

TIA for the responses!

This is an awesome thread! I'm currently in the midst of changing jobs, changing home airports, and indeed changing alliances (because Air Canada's plan sucks now).
<snip>
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades! Especially on long-haul. Not much else matters to me. Lounges are nice.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Doesn't matter. Whomever I can get to upgrade me will be my favorite.
Which airlines fly LAS-YVR at a price/schedule that suits you ?
LAS-(LAX/SFO)-HKG on OW is Cathay metal

As a general rule upgrades are only available with your FFP airline miles on a flight marketed (your airline flight number) and operated by your airline. In general you cannot upgrade codeshares. But look carefully at the AA/BA/IB arrangement

AA Plat challenge may interest you

Unfortunately, no Oneworld members operate LAS-YVR, or anything close to it. AA codeshares on Westjet metal nonstop, or on Alaska via SEA, but north/south Oneworld service in the western US is basically nonexistent, except for AA services between LAX and SFO, LAX and LAS, etc.

In your case I'd probably look hard at Alaska's program. AS is not a Oneworld member, but they partner with most OW airlines, as well as a number of SkyTeam members, so it gives you more flexibility on earning and redemptions. Upgrades on AS metal are also a possibility, again via SEA.

Thanks guys. I like flying WestJet, their service is always great, but of course they don't have a whole lot in the way of a FF program. Maybe I will just fly WJ a bunch and accumulate AA points.

akqjt
Alaska [AS] is a good suggestion: has a good FFP. CX are a partner.
For AA, AS & other FFP look at what miles are needed for rewards vs an upgrade on routes you may travel.
25K is not a lot of miles, especially on low fares. Will be hard to get status, which helps domestic upgrades

(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
40-60K

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can choose airlines but I prefer economy. I travel for pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Transpacific

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No I do not have status

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority Services and Good Award redemption rates

(8) Preferred Airlines
CX, KE, UA, AC

Welcome to FT coolkidflyer!

If your flying is primarily on Economy fares and you do some travel within North America I'd suggest American for the redemption options over BA, for example. Don't know much else about the other programmes.

..
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No I do not have status
'....
(8) Preferred Airlines
CX, KE, UA, AC..In your case I'd probably look hard at Alaska's program. AS is not a Oneworld member, but they partner with most OW airlines, as well as a number of SkyTeam members, so it gives you more flexibility on earning and redemptions. Upgrades on AS metal are also a possibility, again via SEA.
Is most of your travel long haul ?
So as above, Alaska a good option is as they as the partner with KE & CX
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/partners/partner-overview.aspx?lid=nav:mileagePlan-partners
But check if low $ economy fares are eligible for earning miles

Edit
On the other post for star alliance FFP (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/19832383-post1037.html) state you are CX Marco Polo Silver
...
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
CX Marco Polo Silver...

Great thread, it's exactly what I need right now. I'm about to book a DONE5 RTW ticket. It'll start with Qantas but the majority of the flights are on LAN (5) and AA (5), with 1 or 2 each of CX, Iberia, and Finnair thrown into the mix. I currently am a JAL member but have barely used it. That said, I can share miles between my family members because I have the JAL credit card, which would presumably come in handy. However I'm wondering if I should use a different mileage club for this ticket, considering none of it's on JAL.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Tokyo
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: ~40k, mostly in Economy, roughly a third of this on credit card miles
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy (this RTW ticket is the big exception)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mostly pleasure in which case I can choose, sometimes work in which case I normally can't.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Tokyo to the rest of the world, in particular Vancouver
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: no, although I hope to get some kind of status out of this RTW
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Bonus on earning rates
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No particular preference - most of the Asian airlines are pretty good.

I mostly fly Transpacific, I rarely fly in North America. My CX Marco Polo Silver is expiring soon and I would like to change to another program.

Hello

Hope you can advise me which OW program might be best to join:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: BCN

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 45-50,000 miles

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Business

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travelling for work with a choice of airlines

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: BCN-XXX-RUH

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: award redemption

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: QR, EK, CX, QF

I am *G with AC. I fly for business across the oceans in business, and domestically I largely fly PD from YTZ. For leisure, flights to the Sun or Ireland are typical for me, where I buy economy x 4. I'm tired of the grumpy old flight attendants on AC - I'd like to drive more of my business travel to CX, but am trying to decide between BA and CX for loyalty programs, given my main benefit is getting reward travel for four people from YYZ-Ireland...


(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
40-60K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
70% Business, 30% economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly work, and yes can choose airlines
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
1-3 TPACs per year (business)
1-3 TATL per year (business)
1-2 TATL per year (economy - personal)
1-2 Can-S. America/Caribbean

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades and rewards on personal travel - TATL generally, TPAC occasionally
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Only have flown CX

Other notes: have AMEX MP points ad infinitum and have an RBC Avion credit card.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades and rewards on personal travel - TATL generally, TPAC occasionally
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Only have flown CX


As you mainly do TATL, then AA or BA would be the logical choice. AA has a better earn/burn rate, but BA may be better if you fly BA TATL and want to upgrade.

As you mainly do TATL, then AA or BA would be the logical choice. AA has a better earn/burn rate, but BA may be better if you fly BA TATL and want to upgrade.

For clarity, I do many more miles with my TPACs than TATL (approx 60% of my miles come from trips to HKG/MNL.) Does the same guidance hold true? Ie choose based upon the carrier I'll be using when travelling leisure, assuming that J and benefits comes with work travel?

For clarity, I do many more miles with my TPACs than TATL (approx 60% of my miles come from trips to HKG/MNL.) Does the same guidance hold true? Ie choose based upon the carrier I'll be using when travelling leisure, assuming that J and benefits comes with work travel?

Sorry misread TPAC as TATL, but personally I think so.

Alright. Well, I'm 40 Tier Points and 878 Avios into my journey (whatever those amounts mean - time for research!)

For clarity, I do many more miles with my TPACs than TATL (approx 60% of my miles come from trips to HKG/MNL.) Does the same guidance hold true? Ie choose based upon the carrier I'll be using when travelling leisure, assuming that J and benefits comes with work travel?

If your TPAC travel is on CX in business, those flights will credit equally well to AA or BA. Remember 33.3K EQP credited to AA will get you PLT status and the 100% status bonus. With the joint venture with AA/BA, award seating TATL should be equally available to both and at the present AA awards will "cost" less. You would need more than 70K miles in Biz (90K economy) to get CX Gold. You will need to research the CX award cost tradeoffs there.

Happy wandering

Fred

Remember 33.3K EQP credited to AA will get you PLT status and the 100% status bonus.

You need 50K elite qualifying points (EQP) for Platinum. In premium economy classes and above, AA allots 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so 33.3K flown miles will earn 50K EQP.

With your flying patterns it might behoove you also to think about BA. It sounds like you could easily qualify for BA Silver (= AA Platinum = Oneworld Sapphire) which would get you mileage bonuses but also permit access to AA lounges even when traveling domestically on US or Canadian itineraries. You'd need 600 tier points (for example, one-way TPAC or TATL in J earns 120 tier points, 140 if on BA metal) for Silver, which certainly sounds doable. (You'd also need to fly 4 segments on BA metal during the year, which might or might not be an issue.) Look at the tier point tables that you can find on the BA board. Short-haul redemptions using BA Avios can be good value compared with AA redemptions (long haul not so much) but BA's upgrade options (MFUs) are way better than AA's.

I have a Priority Pass which gets me access to lounges in most airports also, so that's not a necessary perk.

My primary reason for switching is I've grown tired of AC's mean old FAs in J class, and the crap around their FFP. What I want from benefit is the upgrades on purchased economy for the family vacations TATL, or ability to reasonably redeem for business class TATL.

The big hole in my plan, of course, is what to do with domestic longhaul (ie YYZ-YYC/YVR). Seems like AC remains my only option with J, though I'd fly WS if I could credit their points to OW.

My thought had been CX vs. BA, but seems like AA may be worth considering.

The big hole in my plan, of course, is what to do with domestic longhaul (ie YYZ-YYC/YVR). Seems like AC remains my only option with J, though I'd fly WS if I could credit their points to OW.
WS miles can be credited to an AA account; no redemptions yet but expected. Miles are not elite qualifying. https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/travel/airlines/westjet.jsp

WS miles can be credited to an AA account; no redemptions yet but expected. Miles are not elite qualifying. https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/travel/airlines/westjet.jsp

If I could credit them yet to BA, it would be an easy decision. Still - it's only 1-2 flts per year.

You need 50K elite qualifying points (EQP) for Platinum. In premium economy classes and above, AA allots 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so 33.3K flown miles will earn 50K EQP.


Apologies, I did mean to say 33.3K miles in Business (yielding 50K EQP)
AA's qualification year is fixed calendar. I believe BA/CX would have a "floating" year based on anniversary/qualifying. That might make a difference.


Fred

I'm based in MEX and KUL so I fly between the two regularly. I used to have Sapphire status with MX but since it went bankrupt on 2012 I switched to fly mainly *A and ST of which I have status.

Now that MH is joining OW in Feb should I maintain my Gold or is AA a better option?

I'm based in MEX and KUL so I fly between the two regularly. I used to have Sapphire status with MX but since it went bankrupt on 2012 I switched to fly mainly *A and ST of which I have status.

Now that MH is joining OW in Feb should I maintain my Gold or is AA a better option?

I did take a quick look at the MH program through their website, and I DO NOT claim to be an expert. My conclusion was that I would re-read the details after they have officially joined and all of the cross crediting arrangements are known.

My guess from the look was that only MH flights were used to determine status. If true, not very useful.

Happy wandering

Fred

Hi all,

Probably this question has been asked before, but I wanted to get your insight on this conundrum.

Currently I have Aadvantage gold status and residing in Ecuador. In the near future I will most probably be transfered to Lima, Perú. From there I will most travel (how frequently I don't know) between Perú and Ecuador, flying LAN, with the ocassional escapade to the US, in that case probably either flying AA or LAN.

Should I switch between programs or stick to AAdvantage?

My current thinking is that since I already have status with AA I should continue using it, since -at least- I'll get to use the business counters at the airports and get bonus mileage when flying LAN, plus the possibility of keep on profiting priority access and seating when flying American.

What's your take on this?

Thanks,
Fernando

Hi all,

Probably this question has been asked before, but I wanted to get your insight on this conundrum.

Currently I have Aadvantage gold status and residing in Ecuador. In the near future I will most probably be transfered to Lima, Perú. From there I will most travel (how frequently I don't know) between Perú and Ecuador, flying LAN, with the ocassional escapade to the US, in that case probably either flying AA or LAN.

Should I switch between programs or stick to AAdvantage?

My current thinking is that since I already have status with AA I should continue using it, since -at least- I'll get to use the business counters at the airports and get bonus mileage when flying LAN, plus the possibility of keep on profiting priority access and seating when flying American.

What's your take on this?

Thanks,
Fernando

Not too familiar with LANs program but another option to keep in min would be British Airways BAEC. If redeeming your miles are important to you, BA Avios are distance based and would require less points if you were to redeem
from Lima to Ecuador for instance.

I'm moving this thread to the sticky regarding Oneworld FFPs.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

..

My guess from the look was that only MH flights were used to determine status. If true, not very useful.
...I would posit that that may change with entry into oneworld.

Aside from a few with minimum 'home airline' segment rules, there are no oneworld airline FF programs that prevent the attaining of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald levels without being able to earn part of the qualifying status on oneworld parters.

Compliments of the season, OW sticky,

I'm not sure whether or not I should start earning miles with a OW carrier, for the following reason:

Of all the airlines in this alliance, the only one that would prove useful to me is LA. I'd like to get to a few places in South America - Caracas, Merida (Venezuela), Iguazu, maybe Easter Island, maybe Stanley, Brasilia, and Puerto Montt- and it seems Lan flies to most of those. I currently have zero miles in the entire OW alliance; is it worth it to buy a LA explorer pass, and if so, what is the best itinerary? Or should I just start earning with one of the OW carriers, and get some open-jaw segments in the continent?

Thanks,
BmB

I am a QANTAS Lifetime Gold FF currently based in SYD and will be moving to New York mid year until at least mid 2014. While my flying will slow down to one or two domestic trips per month and 2 or 3 international trips per year (Mostly all in Economy, discount economy at that!)

I currently have 110,000 QFF Points and am trying to work out if I should switch my mile earning to AA or keep my points going to QF. I will obviously use my QF card for lounge access and just switch the account number on the booking once in the lounge.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I am a QANTAS Lifetime Gold FF currently based in SYD and will be moving to New York mid year until at least mid 2014. While my flying will slow down to one or two domestic trips per month and 2 or 3 international trips per year (Mostly all in Economy, discount economy at that!)

I currently have 110,000 QFF Points and am trying to work out if I should switch my mile earning to AA or keep my points going to QF. I will obviously use my QF card for lounge access and just switch the account number on the booking once in the lounge.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to move this to the existing sticky thread regarding choosing a Oneworld FFP.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I'm going to move this to the existing sticky thread regarding choosing a Oneworld FFP.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Thanks,
It is less about choosing a program than choosing if I should credit AA flights to an AA or QF account. I am sure I will get a helpful answer here though.

Thanks,
It is less about choosing a program than choosing if I should credit AA flights to an AA or QF account. I am sure I will get a helpful answer here though.

Flying AA discount economy and accruing to AA with no status you will earn 1 RDM (redeemable miles) per mile flown

Flying AA discount economy and accruing to QF with gold status you will earn 0.875 QFF points per mile flown (discount economy on AA (http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/partners/airline/american-airlines) earns 0.5 points per mile, and your Gold status gives you a 75% bonus on that – 0.5*1.75 = 0.875)

AA is recognised as having a better earn/burn ratio than QF (though there are circumstances where QF is better – for example short haul flights in the US for only 8K points)

So accruing to AA will give you a slightly better earn rate, which combined with AA’s better burn rate means you’ll be better off accruing to AA

You should consider doing the AA Challenge (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/967395-help-desk-aadvantage-elite-status-challenge-gold-platinum.html) to get yourself AA Platinum status – then you’ll get 100% bonus RDM, making AA even better for you

Your QF Gold status will give you AAdmiral’s Club access, even when flying domestic US – something which AAdvantage status doesn’t give. I don't think you need to be accruing to QF in order to use your QF status to get into the lounge, but I'm not certain on this point.

Flying AA discount economy and accruing to AA with no status you will earn 1 RDM (redeemable miles) per mile flown

Flying AA discount economy and accruing to QF with gold status you will earn 0.875 QFF points per mile flown (discount economy on AA (http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/partners/airline/american-airlines) earns 0.5 points per mile, and your Gold status gives you a 75% bonus on that – 0.5*1.75 = 0.875)

.....

Your QF Gold status will give you AAdmiral’s Club access, even when flying domestic US – something which AAdvantage status doesn’t give. I don't think you need to be accruing to QF in order to use your QF status to get into the lounge, but I'm not certain on this point.

Thanks! With QF Gold I have a minimum points earn of 500 on AA flights which is nice for short haul. For example my recent BOS-JFK which should earn less than 150 points got me 500.

As for AC access with QF status but an AA number in the booking; I understand it is possible.

As for AC access with QF status but an AA number in the booking; I understand it is possible.

If nothing else show the card at the door.

Unless you can justify QF Plat, credit to AA.

But I'm biased @ 98% AA LTG.

Fred

Thanks! With QF Gold I have a minimum points earn of 500 on AA flights which is nice for short haul. For example my recent BOS-JFK which should earn less than 150 points got me 500.

As for AC access with QF status but an AA number in the booking; I understand it is possible.

To get access to the lounge, just show the QF card ; does not have to be in the booking

If you are going to be doing enough travel to get 10k points in 3 months, then I would also agree that doing the Platinum Challenge will be good. Once platinum , BOS-JFK would earn you a min of 1000 credited to AA vs 500 to QF

I'm relocating to Singapore and am already *A (SK EBG) and OW Sapphire (Airberlin Gold). Before I used to do mostly Scandinavia <> London, Scandinavia <> Singapore, London <> Singapore, but my travel patterns will now change: I will be based in Singapore and travel frequently to:

Sydney - 12 R/T year
London - 8 R/T year
Delhi - 6 R/T year
Various intra-Asian flights - Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Jakarta - let's say about 20 R/T year
SFO - 6 R/T year (either from SIN or LON)

FWIW I think this is a conservative estimate.

Unfortunately I will be flying mostly economy/premium economy.

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: >100k (economy/premium economy)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Economy, Premium Economy, occasionally Business (1/month)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work. No C or F
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: See above.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: *A SK EBG, OW Sapphire Airberlin Topbonus
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Priority check-in, extra cabin baggage allowance, upgrades
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: SAS (!), Singapore Airlines (I have most experience with these...)

Based on my travel pattern, I am fairly confident I'll reach top tier in all alliances if I want to, but I am looking to see if I am missing something in terms of airlines who would frequently or easily allow me to upgrade with miles at gate, cash at gate or super-elite status.

Thanks in advance!

To get access to the lounge, just show the QF card ; does not have to be in the booking

If you are going to be doing enough travel to get 10k points in 3 months, then I would also agree that doing the Platinum Challenge will be good. Once platinum , BOS-JFK would earn you a min of 1000 credited to AA vs 500 to QF

Thanks, how are 10k points earned/calculated? What cost would that be if milage running it?

Thanks, how are 10k points earned/calculated? What cost would that be if milage running it?

See the thread in the AA forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage/967395-help-desk-aadvantage-elite-status-challenge-gold-platinum.html

Here's my question list:


(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: NGO, MNL
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: < 25k , not that frequent flyer, but I have future plans of travelling domestic in Japan with JL if the prices are right
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travel for pleasure.Any OW Airline on Y Class. For my annual vacation in MNL, I am thinking whether I fly JL or CX.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Intra-Asia as of this time
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: JMB Base, PR Mabuhay Miles Base
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades on travel, good award redemption rates, long miles expiration date
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: JL, CX

Hello OW forum. I'm a regular on the AC and Asia forums and I'm looking for a bit of help deciding on a OW FFP for the upcoming year and beyond.

(1) What is your home airport?
YYC and EWR
Moving to either ITH or RDU in August
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
75k in 2012, looking to do ~50-75k in 2013
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Discount Y within North America, discount C international
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose the airline when flying domestically to a reasonable extent but cannot fly. Current international travel is mainly for business within the US + YYC but also int'l flights for leisure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
SFO/LAX-NYC and YYC-US are my most frequent flights but my flying is truly a mixed bag.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
AC Super Elite exp 2/2013, UA Silver exp 1/2013
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Intl upgrades, priority check-in/boarding, lounge access (already have Amex Plat for AC access), TPAC C award redemptions
(8) Preferred Airlines
OZ, NH, CX, but willing to chase cheap C fares on any carrier. Do not like flying on WS.
(9) Other
Easy requalification for flying international C

I have 2 months of *G left and although I'm considering doing a US challenge to quickly get *G before the end of February, I'm drawn by the often cheap C fares NYC-Europe on AY and YVR-Asia on JL. I used to be CX Gold but I feel that MPC is not at all suited to my current flying. One thing which is important for me is to get some kind of status as soon as possible for as little cost as possible. I know I can do an AA challenge and get 10k EQP for ~$1k before the end of January but I don't feel AA is particularly generous towards people who fly international premium classes although I like AAdvantage overall. BA and IB are all quite generous for Tier/Elite Points for flying C but I'm not sure how easy it would be to meet their own-metal requirements considering I don't fly BA or IB that much. RJ seems to be very easy to requalify, does anyone have experience with their FFP?

Let me just check that my understanding is correct on this one, because I'm pretty sure people are going to tell me to switch to earn and burn points to/with AA rather than the current QF.

Questions
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: STL, aka Stop laughing. :)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Greater than 50k, although it bounces around a fair bit. This year was actually close to 100k, but that was unusual.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Discount economy or economy if I can get the exact seat I want, otherwise PE or business. It's running about 8:1 at the moment.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work & pleasure. I can choose whichever airline I want, although it's tended to be OW simply because I joined that first...quite a while ago.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transpacific. Usually US-NZ (& I don't care if it transits Oz or Fiji or wherever so long as it's <16 hours) 2-3 times a year, but regular US-China 2-3 and US-UK 1-2 times a year. Travel within the US 10-15 times a year for work tends to be on SW (occasional AA or Alaska) and almost always to one of the coasts simply because they happen to go where I need to and I like them.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: QF Gold. Also SW and NZ *A. AA AC membership just for reliable lounge access.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: In order, upgrades, lounge access, and check in.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Absolute preferences, if I had to say, would be QF, NZ, and, within the US, SW. AA business class is ok, but Y is awful.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: QF Gold. Also SW and NZ *A. AA AC membership just for reliable lounge access.


Why do you need AC membership if you have QF Gold. QF Gold will give you AC access even on domestic FLTs.

Hello OW forum. I'm a regular on the AC and Asia forums and I'm looking for a bit of help deciding on a OW FFP for the upcoming year and beyond.
< snip>
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Intl upgrades, priority check-in/boarding, lounge access (already have Amex Plat for AC access), TPAC C award redemptions
< snip>


As a general rule upgrades are only available with your FFP airline miles on a flight marketed (your airline flight number) and operated by your airline. In general you cannot upgrade codeshares. Depending on the airline some low$ fares are not upgradeable. Is different for the AA/BA/IB arrangement. Have read where MPC Asiamiles can upgrade BA flights, but not 100% sure
Also worth looking as Alaska : a good ffp

Let me just check that my understanding is correct on this one, because I'm pretty sure people are going to tell me to switch to earn and burn points to/with AA rather than the current QFYes. Why would someone living in the USA credit to QF? One reason is QF gold give you club access, as post 236 above. But after QF gold credit to AA. The QF points needed for award/upgrades on QF flights are poor value compared to AA, especially if earning with discount economy or economy flights. What AA status would you get with AA with your current flying pattern?

Also look at Alaska: a good program

Why do you need AC membership if you have QF Gold. QF Gold will give you AC access even on domestic FLTs.


Originally it was simply accidental they overlapped, but I've actually found that I get refused entry to places with one or the other and so I've just kept it in place ever since so I know I can get into the complete range I want. Besides, the AC membership is tax deductible for me so it takes care of the problem at no (effective) cost. :)

Yes. Why would someone living in the USA credit to QF?

Historical, and it hadn't occurred to me to switch. :)


What AA status would you get with AA with your current flying pattern? Also looking at Alaska: a good program

I just looked at my numbers for 2012 and I would be PLT easily with AA. Dammit :rolleyes: :)

I now realize I should have switched the crediting back in 2011. Opps. Thanks for the comments & confirmation of what I'd (belatedly) realized, ppls - much appreciated. :D

I now realize I should have switched the crediting back in 2011. Opps. Thanks for the comments & confirmation of what I'd (belatedly) realized, ppls - much appreciated. :DGlad we have helped. :)

Worth looking at the AA forum sticky to check if AA Plat challenge is of use to you.
AA program is by calender year but QF is 12 months from your joining date, so the overlap (if any) may be useful
Remember if you have no activity (earn-burn) in 18 months with QF your points go to zero. You need 4 QF flights to retain Gold or have silver (if downgraded)

hi all,

I've been CX member for 2 years and collected around 500k miles along with Diamond status. I am HK based and likely will continue to be.

I am considering continuing to flying with CX but instead crediting miles to either JAL, Qantas, AA, or BA. Does anyone else have a view on this?

Considering all sorts of things: mileage value, ease of flights, discounting miles, etc.

Thanks

Analyze the earn/burn rates for the routes/classes you fly to earn and what you want to redeem. Cost and availabiility are dramatically different between FF programs and the latter might be the most important consideration. Diamond used to be worth its weight in gold :) with many informal benefits not stated in the plan. Has this stopped being the case? When I checked years ago the BA/QF/LA/AA equiv. status was significantly less valuable than Diamond because of this, but of course only applies on CX. AA has seductive earn/burn rate, but you have to wonder about the future of AA, with "merger" with USAir quite likely which could severely devalue Aadvantage.

This is a general OW topic. I am moving it over to the OW forum.

cxfan1960
CX Mod

Look here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1335378-deciding-oneworld-frequent-flyer-program-help-here.html

hi all,

I've been CX member for 2 years and collected around 500k miles along with Diamond status. I am HK based and likely will continue to be.

I am considering continuing to flying with CX but instead crediting miles to either JAL, Qantas, AA, or BA. Does anyone else have a view on this?

Considering all sorts of things: mileage value, ease of flights, discounting miles, etc.

Thanks

If your travel is mainly on CX economy class, and the guaranteed seat confirmation means something to you then stay with MPC.

However, if your travel is mainly in Business or First Class on various airlines, then I'd recommend you join AA.

One of the main disadvantages of the MPC programme is the lack of bonus miles for elite members. AAdvantage Elite members earn 25% , & 100% bonus as Gold (OWRuby), Platinum & Exec Platinum (OW Sapphire & Emerald) on most qualifying Oneworld partner flights.

AAdvantage also has lower award requirements. A round trip F between Asia and North America is just 135K and around $50 tax with no fuel surcharge. But having said that, no wait listing or upgrading on CX flights using miles is possible. AAdvantage miles also do not expire as long as you have activity very 18 months.

You do need however 4 flights on AA per year to retain status. Further information can be had over at the AA forum.

Look here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld/1335378-deciding-oneworld-frequent-flyer-program-help-here.html
Which is where I'm merging this thread.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

You do need however 4 flights on AA per year to retain status

While it is in the AAdvantage program rules, I believe this requirement is not enforced

And I hope that is the case, because I have an upcoming RTW trip which will reap me enough points to re-qualify for Platinum, but there are no AA flights on the itinerary

Hi everyone love this thread as i was just about to decide which program to take:

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: TXL, SXF, BER (at some point hopefully). BOS when im in the US
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: only when neccessary, so I always fly cheapest
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: transatlantic, some US domestic, German
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: free benefits
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: AA, BA

Im currently on BA's EC because I heard good things about Avios

Hi,

Currently i'm based in Sydney. However my home is Singapore which i travel back every now and then.

I fly about 25k-50k a year and usually on Economy.

I'm usually on Singapore Airlines for comfort and better timing, and even using them so i can transit back home before traveling outbound to other destinations for work and pleasure. (Achieved *G)

As I'm based in Sydney, i will be doing some domestic travels for work and leisure but I've no status here and its annoying to get stucked in the same route trying to attain status again.

I'm a TK Gold and A3 Gold now.

It is important to me is Lounge and extra baggages. Redemption is difficult at times thus usually i buy a flex fare tix to match my travel pattern.

I would prefer Qantas as they have wider selection of flights from Sydney.

Kindly please advise what should i do?