Maximus Koncept

Hi there, my family lives in Vancouver, Canada, and NYC, but I've recently graduated gone to work for a startup based in Nairobi, Kenya that services Chinese investors. So I will be making a lot of China-Africa flights in the future with the annual trip back to North America.

I had some miles accrued with United from school days but it seems like I should find something more convenient. We are bootstrapped for cash right now so most flights will be based on price, so I would love to go with an airline that grants miles based on distance and not cost of ticket.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Status, easy upgrades and lounge services, also redeemable flights

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: probably just over 50K, half a dozen flights per year

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy for personal

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: mostly pleasure for now, but will have more and more work related in the future

5. Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: Africa-China, occasional Vancouver and NYC

6. What is your home airport?
Reply: Nairobi (NBO), Beijing/Shanghai

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
Reply: Had UA Silver last year, most likely to hit gold thanks to long flights from Kenya to North America.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: Something with really good service and an excellent safety record, also can I say pretty stewardesses?

ed11ward

I've been reading up and researching about a award travel for several months now but I haven't been able to figure out which program(alliance/airline) I should be accumulating points to. So hoping I can get some direction here.

The goal is in about 2 years, to travel to china (Beijing(PEK)) from either PHL or JFK, and perhaps repeat trips every 1-2 years. Since its at least 16 hours of airtime I'm trying to work out a way to fly business or first class, either by getting the whole ticket on points or using points to upgrade an economy fair.

I have no planned air travel, and all award points would come from credit cards rewards.

Currently the only points I have are 50k Amex points, I plan to get a new credit card to contribute points every 3 months.

What airlines do you recommend I focus on collecting miles for?

Edit: since I put this in the wrong place and it was moved the questionaire:

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Reply: Buisness or 1st Class seats either fully funded with points up upgraded with points from economy cost

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: 0, 0

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Reply: economy, but see above.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: yes, no

5. Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: none

6. What is your home airport?
Reply: PHL, JFK

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
Reply: none

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: Larger Operators.

goingconcern

My situation has recently changed, so I wanted to update and solicit some more advice.

I was originally scheduled to be in Houston for the rest of the year (weekly LGA to IAH), but I will now only be here through May. Start in June, I will be seconded to London for the rest of the year.

My biggest priority now is to earn enough miles to fly my fiance out/myself home for visits on a somewhat regular basis. I have 14 weeks to maximize my flights to Houston to earn miles, and am open to any suggestions to do.

Thanks in advance!

[QUOTE=goingconcern;24308345]
1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: Award redemption (i.e. fly free for personal flights) and upgrades. Enough points/miles for monthly flights from NYC to London. Upgrades still desired, but not required.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: Roughly 2,800 each week. Guaranteed at least 40,000 and 28 segments by June. Likely to be some European travel from then on out.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply: Economy, but would buy business if upgrades were available for relatively the same price.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Travel for both work and pleasure. For work, able to choose airline and class is required economy/coach when domestic.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: Domestic. Transatlantic and intra-Europe starting in June.

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: NYC, in order of preference: LGA, JFK, HPN, EWR, SWF. London in starting in June, no preference yet.

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: No status achieved. About 10,000 on Delta and 55,000 on Jetblue. Will have 100k+ on American after accounts merge.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: American, as I now have the Barclays and Citi cards, Delta next. United is an absolute last resort.
QUOTE]

Doomhammer1212

Hey guys, hope I'm posting in the right spot.

What is the best airline elite program on to be able to change entire itineraries including destination airport for the lowest cost or no cost?

I'm an offshore worker and while I used to be able to ask the office to fly me to any airport in the US, they now enforce a policy where I must fly either to company headquarters in Boston or my "home of record" in Houston. I often don't want to fly to either of these places.

I'd like to be able to change my reservations directly with the airline either in advance or same day so that I can fly to destinations other than BOS or IAH. Any advice on which airlines will do this at low or no cost if I can get to one of their elite tiers? I'm unlikely to be able to get to top tier but "silver" and "gold" are within reason.

I see that some airlines offer free same day changes for elite members but unsure if this is only for time changes with the same origin and destination or not.

Thanks so much!

beckoa

Doomhammer1212, welcome to Flyertalk.

I know of one airline domestically that waives change fees for ticket changes made by mid and top tier elites, just need to pay any fare difference. Thats MVP Gold and MVP Gold 75K from Alaska Airlines (AS). However they have a restricted footprint that may not work for where you are flying, as they are based out of the Pacific Northwest.

xliioper

All airlines same day change policies require that the origin and destination be the same.

OMFG

Hello, I m new to this forum and as my main city where I lived in and also my travel routes changed maybe I can improve my bonus miles programs.


1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
economy seat selection, upgrades


2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
around 100k miles at least, dont know about the segments


3. What fare class do you usually buy?
cheapest economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
sometimes I can choose, sometimes not. I often depart from PLS and only resonable connections is with AA from there. I mainly travel for pleasure

5. Which routes do you fly most often
PLS - Europe or YYZ - Europe followed by YYZ to Caribbean or Middle America

6. What is your home airport?
PLS but I also travel also from YYZ


7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
AA Platinum, LH Miles & More 2k status miles

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
the cheapest ones

-----
If I depart from PLS to somewhere I always have to use AA and go thorugh MIA as hub. It s the only airline with reasonable connections from there. As they credit miles in the AAdvantage program by distance I easily can keep status with Oneworld.

This Miles and More LH program with StarAlliance just credits 0.25% the miles actually travelled if I book cheap economy flights which are often AC flights from YYZ to Europe or to Caribbean destinations. Maybe some other StarAlliance bonus programm would be better? I decide to go with StarAlliance because it s most of the time cheaper and offers a lot more direct flights from YYZ at the same time than OneWorld

Kpbrown94

This is great, thanks in advance.

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

The occasional free/cheap award ticket. Extra baggage allowance and upgrades would be nice but not my main concern.

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

At 2, maybe 3, flights, round trip. At least once from Maui OGG to mainland (OKC mostly). Hoping to be doing more international travel in the next few years.

(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, I can. Mostly for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often

OGG to OKC and between Hawaiian islands.

(6) What is your home airport?

Currently XNA but will officially be OGG in May.

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?

No.

(8) Preferred Airlines

None, really. I usually just go for the cheapest.

bhomburg

All FFPs and hotel programs I know allow redeeming awards for other people than the account holder.

tellis0

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: Earning free airfare.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: 3500

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply: economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes/pleasure

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: US Domestic

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: SNA

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: No, I've never done this before.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any? None

sdsearch

From SNA, you may want to look into Southwest and Alaska. Southwest you can get at least one (maybe two) 50k cards from Chase, and those points should last you some time at only 3500 miles a year, if you can book reasonably in advance. Alaska you can get the 25k card from BofA multiple times a year, and you can use Alaska miles for Alaska, AA, and Delta domestically.

Since those cards are from different banks, you could do both, and then for each particular trip you want to do "free" you could evaluate whether Southwest points or Alaska miles (and the latter on which carrier) would give you the better value and the better connection. (From SNA, most of your flights, unless very local, are likely to involve connections.)

DeLorean731

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Good award redemption rates, better aware access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: 25000-50000, 20-25 flights ROUND TRIP, so 40-50 individual flights
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: First/Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, I can choose the airline and class of service, but my options from my location are limited. I travel for work, and most often fly SouthWest.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic: SMF <-> SEA
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SMF
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Alaska Airlines: MVP, Southwest: A-List, Hyatt: Diamond, National: Executive
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Airlines with more destinations, so Alaska Airlines isn't ideal although I think the only options with the flights I want are Southwest and Alaska Airlines.

Thanks for your time for reading and potentially giving feedback. Some further information, I fly SMF -> SEA every other week, stay three nights. Right now I'm doing Southwest, Hyatt ($250 nightly limit after taxes/fees/parking), and National Car Rental. I'm looking for getting the most reward out of my flight/hotel/rental so I can use them for vacations.

MTSullivan99

Hey Everyone,
Just looking for some input and figure this would be the best place to start. Im new to the mile game but am hooked already. Any input would be awesome! Thanks in advance

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: good award redemption rates

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: <25,000 and <25....however hoping to change this. Just about to graduate and have a new job so will have some money to travel.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply: economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I am able to choose my airline and class. Travel for pleasure and am about to start to for work.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: U.S. domestic but looking to get into more transatlantic.

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: KDFW

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: No status and about 55,000 Dividend miles on US.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: Usually dont care

2ndServeAce

I'm starting a career in consulting and wanted to get some feedback on how I can get the most out of it.
(1) 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 and lounge access.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: >50 flights, > 50,000
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply:Cheapest
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:Yes, Unknown for now, work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: San Diego to New York/Chicago
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply:SAN
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply:No
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Any

DrWhy

Hi.

I will be travelling at least 5 times a year; doing YUL-COO-BEY-YUL.

I only have the choice of travelling with AF and TK and BEL and ETH (which is a no no to me). I will be travelling coach as I am paying for my trips.

Kindly help me choose which program to join. Im hesitating between FlyingBlue, Miles&Smiles, and Miles&More.


Looking forward to hear your answers.