alphadraconis

Hallo all,

Will relocate in shanghai on saturday. Moving from Italy due to business.

Got a one way flight Pisa-Paris-shanghai with airfrance and would like to join the best ff program as to not lose any mile.

I will fly frequently from shanghai to Xiamen and from shanghai to Italy.
Will manage some trips from shanghai to USA and to other countries (turkey, Spain, south America...)

I got a look at both airfrance and delta mileage programs (please NOT NOT NOT Alitalia, flown 12 times with them in the last 3 months and, despite of what showed website, got only 4 of them as qm)
Seems delta is the one who gives the best qm for each flight (I'm considering china east and china south as they have in shanghai their hub, also AF for ITA-shanghai)

Can you confirm above?

Thank you much

cityflyer369

It also depends on your typical booking classes.

Dan Dare

Go with Delta you get miles even on deeply discounted Y fares when on KL etc

MSPeconomist

Look at the CZ program. There was a thread here where someone in that program mentioned additional lounge access in China.

What are you looking for? Award tickets? Upgrades? Lounges? Elite lines?

alphadraconis

Thank you for your replies.

Got a check to cz but mileage given for economy classes is a bit low (40% with some fares), delta seems to be quite better in mileage gaining.

I will mosty flight business for china internal flights and probably economy (some business?...I consider economy) for international flights.

I'm aiming to lounge access and priority check. Don't care much about baggage. Also upgrades should be a priority for international flights. Possibly the 2-3 economy trips I will do shanghai - genoa/pisa per year.
Award tickets are not a priority...will travel too much, wanna play Xbox when on holidays

Thanks guys

MSPeconomist

International upgrades can require very expensive fares, although as a general rule it's cheaper to upgrade under your own program's rules than using miles for a SkyTeam upgrade. What carriers and routings would you use for travel between Shanghai and Italy?

For lounge access within China, Priority Pass includes many mainland airports but not all of them--for example, Wuhan is missing from the list. These are not great lounges, but they are a comfortable place to wait for a flight, generally having coffee/tea, small snacks like cookies, Chinese newspapers, and lavatories in the lounges. The international airline lounges in major airports tend to be betteer, but they vary a lot IME. Priority Pass has a cheap membership where you pay about $130 for an annual membership and then about $30 for each lounge visit so that you can almost view it as an insurance policy; more expensive plans allow a number of free visits, a few free guests, or even unlimited use by the member.

alphadraconis

I will probably use AF or AZ for international flights to Italy.
The problem is that I get consistant less miles from FlyingBlue despite of SkyMiles.

For example, with AZ or AF, Y class gives me 100% miles with FlyingBlue.
With SkyMiles I get 150% MQM.

Same for some fares with CZ wich I will always fly a lot with.

Since the main aim is to reach Elite status with SkyTeam the soonest, SkyMiles seems to me to be the best option.

MSPeconomist

Then DL sounds like it would be best for you, but why do you plan to buy full Y tickets? Is the flexibility worth that much to you? Or will they be purchased at the last minute or for extremely short trips?

alphadraconis

Business trips.

The one I got was a one-way Y class, booked 1 week before departure...seems there was no option to get other fares.

For round-trips I will probably book on fares < Y, yet delta seems considerably better than af and az in mileage gaining.

Thank you

MSPeconomist

Remember than on DL, you get an extra 50% status and redeemable miles for not only full Y fares (and government YCA, etc.) but also B and M fare classes, just like FC and business class. This does not necessarily apply to the crediting to DL of miles from other SkyTeam or partner flights.

alphadraconis

Yes, tomorrow flight will be a M class (or something like that), not Y yet 150%.

I'm a bit feared of my 1st >10h flight !!!

alphadraconis

Fly airfrance they say...it is one of the best airlines they say...
Psa-cdg 20mins delay, ok
Cdg-PVg flight deleted
They had to change a wheel because of "a crash" and they didn't have a new one.
Got booked (I wish, don't have any seat or ticket as now) on the second flight next to this (previous flight had been deleted as well, don't know why, and they placed all the passenger on the next one)

Nice way to start flying!

MSPeconomist

Ouch, although at least you have the EU passenger protections.