Mwenenzi

Just join AA now. QF is a poor frequent flyer program.

The chances of getting upgrades with QF are low (being optimistic). Upgrades are a lottery with QF, that you pay for with many QF points. They are not free like with many USA airline ffps. Look here post 330 for a comparison of QF and AA

For airlines based outside of USA always expect to fly in the class you purchase.

tmac100

Queensland And Northern Territory Air Service = QANTAS

og

Queensland And Northern Territory Aerial Services.

sannmann

Four segment requirement, yes; however, codeshares do count toward the four.

Gardyloo

I am combining this thread with the existing sticky thread regarding how to choose a FFP.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Ghentleman

Should anyone care: I went for AirBerlin Topbonus based on their status match to gold giving me OneWorld status (from TK Elite).
I'll fly them from time to time and try to keep status be going for OneWorld for my Transatlantic travel.
I can actually use the redemptions from AB, so that's another plus.

svein85

New job, and have to travel a bit. Trying to decide on a program.
Show me your wisdom Flyertalk!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Good award redemption rates and better award access, somewhat long expire date on miles
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: Not sure yet, but most likely 5+ in C or D
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Business only
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work, and can't choose myself
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: OSL - HEL - Asia (Hong Kong/Beijing) with AY
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: OSL
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Reply: No
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: AY for longhaul, a lot of different stuff for short inside Euro

djsteve

Hi all,
Some advice sought from esteemed members...

Background:
I have been a BA Gold on and off for several years, although not anywhere near lifetime Gold under the BA scheme.
I am now resident of New Zealand and hold my BA Gold via a UK address.
I have recently applied for and received QF Gold (via NZ gold card).
I am now contemplating in setting my sights on QF WP and quietly dropping my BA Gold status.
The main issue being having difficulty achieving the minimum 4 BA flights.

So, I have carefully crafted a truly epic status run to coincide with a trip back to the UK this July / August. This involves flying around Asia and India / middle east in three chunks (taking in QF, UL, MH, QR, BA, CX mostly in J). By the time I get back to NZ after my holiday, I will have achieved QF WP and attained the required 1400SC's and 4QF flights.

I just want to consult you all on whether I am doing the right thing and shouldn't direct my flights to another OW airline's FFP? I thought of an AA challenge and still would struggle with the min 4 AA flights (I cant see a way around this and travelling to the States just for the 4 flights is potentially excessive!)...I do however buy substantial AA miles to pay for premium travel for the whole family between SWP-Europe as this is currently excellent value.

Any thoughts or suggestions? Am I missing other FFP's? I figure that QF is the easiest to attain Emerald status with (after BA).

Questions

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Status and lounge access is the most important aspect for me. I am also keen on securing a good earn/burn ratio (thus torn on QF versus AA!).

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
between 40k and 75k miles every other year (if going to Europe), otherwise less than 25k.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
long haul mostly Discount Biz and short haul (trans-tasman in discount Y).

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly pleasure so can choose. Work policy (rare overseas trips are in short notice Y)

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Transtasman and NZ-UK every other year going forward.

(6) What is your home airport?
WLG

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
BA Gold (til Jun 2016), QF Gold, NZ Gold (expiring very shortly) AA Cardboard.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
QF and BA most common, Prefer CX

Mwenenzi

Is QF Plat (OW Emerald) so much more value to you compared to QF gold? QF gold gets lounge access.
As for good earn/burn AA awards are a long way ahead
Fly enough to get QF gold and then the rest to AA for earn/burn is an option.
On the AA challenge thread it is written no need to fly 4 AA flights. AA does not have status soft landings: you fall to the lowest level. QF has soft status landings.

djsteve

I really do like the QF First lounges at SYD and MEL!!!
I was also thinking about the soft landings. Especially if I am only able to make enough SC's (or miles) every two years, at least starting at OWE I will have some sort of status for two years with the soft landing to OWS...hence why I was looking to achieve a top tier status with a programme that has a soft landing policy.
I looked at MH and QR and even CX but to me it looked like it was much harder to attain OWE with these (my status run wouldn't achieve AA EXP for that matter).

Schedders

Dear Kind FlyerTalk folks,

My big question: Is it worth changing our family OW earn partner from BA to Cathay for three years?

<newbie disclaimer>: I’ve tried to find the answers to my questions for the last six weeks or so through this forum and the airline sites, but after reading numerous posts and threads here and on the FF sites I still can’t seem to reach a satisfactory conclusion. So, apologies in advance if this is obvious to anyone else. Many thanks for any help -- and hence this first post.

Background: My family of four is currently all members of BA because we alternate through periods where we travel quite often (25K miles a year for three years) and periods where we hardly travel (5k miles a year for the next three years). We almost always fly economy because we travel for pleasure/family visits and have small children (aged 5 and 7) -- Business gets pretty expensive when you’re buying four seats. We originally chose BA for two reasons. First, in our slow years we live in London and earn BA miles and maintain our accounts through the Amex BA Card. And second, their Household Account allows us to pool miles across accounts.

The problem we recently encountered was with Cathay acknowledging any BA history. My husband flew Cathay economy on his own, and even though he had flown 20K miles on Cathay in the prior few months, mileage was earned with his BA FF number. We assumed OW shared information about FFs across carriers, but the check-in counter clerk said to him, “I would love to upgrade you since there is a lot of room in Business, but you clearly never fly Cathay.”

This has made us reevaluate our FF plans with OW. For the next three years, we are going to fly from Asia (Hong Kong has excellent connections for us), and to fly about 25K+ miles a year, which should earn us the first level of benefits. But who to earn with?

My questions, oh wise ones:
A. Is it worth changing to Cathay’s Asia Miles to earn/try to gain status, so that they see we are FFs? Even though we will then have miles across two OW programs?

B. Can I join Asia Miles but not pay $400 to join Marco Polo? Can I earn any status with Asia Miles or does that only come with Marco Polo?

C.I read that you may be able to get around paying the Marco Polo Club fee by either
- earning 25K miles in a year (does this really work?), or
- earning status in another program and then swapping into Marco Polo. But if we stick with earning on BA, we won’t technically get Ruby status (since we don’t fly BA-labeled segments).

D. Is there another OW partner with whom I can actually earn the first level/Ruby status without ever flying on their metal?

Below are also the questions that the sticky on the start of this forum pose.
Many thanks!
KT

Questions
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
In order of importance,
1. upgrades on travel
2. lounge access
3. good award redemption rates
4. extra baggage allowance
5. priority services when flying the airline

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
This year we will fly about 25K+ miles on 9 flights, and possibly some other small trips. It will be:
4 short regional hops to Hong Kong
5 long haul segments (HK-LHR-HK, HK-LHR-LAX-HK)
So: 25000-50000 miles on <25 segments

(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?
We can chose airline, but can only usually afford economy. We travel for pleasure 90% of the time.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Asia to London and Asia to US, which we have been doing on Cathay/Dragon Air.

(6) What is your home airport?
Currently Phnom Penh, so decent OW hub at Hong Kong – for the next years. After that likely London will be our home airport again.

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
No current earned status.
We have a decent number of Avios, but also have some AA miles, and some on Virgin. We move around so find ourselves in different optimal earning situations every three years or so.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Dragon Air/Cathay have great HK connection to LAX and LHR, where our families are

The_Bouncer

Hi.

I am seriously considering switching from BAEC to AAdvantage, and I was hoping someone could either confirm that my choice is right, or suggest an alternative.

I fly a mixed bag of airlines, on the cheapest possible tickets (i.e. discount economy fare classes). Up until now, I have been using my Avios for RFS redemptions between MUC or ZRH and MAN, via LHR. Now that the free domestic connections are no more, these flight now cost double the number of Avios. My earnings potential on cheap fares has reduced from 100% to 25% miles. Therefore, with BAEC I now need to fly 8 times as much to get the same redemptions (an 87.5% devaluation).

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

Good points-earning potential on very cheap fares. Good earn/burn ratio. Economy class redemptions. I'm not bothered about status (not brand-loyal enough) and I don't value upgrades anywhere near as highly as most on FT.

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

3 or 4 flights within Europe. 1 or 2 flights from Europe to either USA or Asia. Europe to Australia every 2 or 3 years.

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

Cheapest possible economy. Often "special offers" (intentional or otherwise, if you catch my drift).

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

Pure pleasure. Total freedom of choice.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?

A real mixed bag. Whoever offers the best deal. I am fortunate enough not to have to work for half the year, and I am very flexible about which destinations I visit. The aim is to see as many different places, as cheaply as possible. Quite often, I just spot a cheap deal and go for it.

(6) What is your home airport?

FDH/MUC/STR/ZRH in the summer. Usually BHX/MAN/EMA in the winter. I am also happy to fly from other European airports and use points or LCCs for positioning.

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

About 30k Avios, picked up from flying and credit card spend. I am trying to figure out some meaningful way of burning these, now that MUC/ZRH-LHR-MAN costs 18k. Domestic flights in the USA or Australia maybe?

About 20k in LH M&M, which are about to expire, and pretty much useless for the kind of flying I do (I will probably burn them on a hotel gift card).

7,400 Icelandair Saga Club miles. God alone knows what I will do with these!

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?

Cheapest deal. No brand loyalty whatsoever.

My own thought are that AAdvantage is probably the best OW program, given the 100% earnings on cheap fares with several airlines (if it lasts). Any other ideas?

Another FT member kindly suggested AS as a back-up, due to the high number of partner airlines.

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

intermagix

Hi, I have an upcoming business class flight with Sri Lanka airline. Which OW should I credit the flight to?

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority services when flying the airline and free lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
<25000

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

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Asia (couple times a year) and Asia to Europe/US (once or twice a year)

(6) What is your home airport?
SIN

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
No elite status. Some miles banked with Asia Miles.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
None.


Thanks in advance for your help.

Mwenenzi

Add to your Cathay Asia Miles account. Check the earning, but business class should earn.
It is not worth having multiple ffp's with low balances that are never enough for an award and may/will expire.

Mwenenzi

There are several recent BA vs AA in the linked threads in post 3