SQPPS

(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.

ShootingStar123

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 :/

zkzkz

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.

evanderm

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.

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.

fgadler

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.

1010101

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

nitrobass24

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

avneeshj

(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

deepakbhatia

[B](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
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:None

FS_FRA

(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...

berlinflyer83

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.

evanderm

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.

ARJ85

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.

berlinflyer83

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

evanderm

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