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Can 32,000 miles in (mostly) discounted Y be usefully used?

Can 32,000 miles in (mostly) discounted Y be usefully used?

Old Apr 11, 2015, 11:57 am
  #1  
Original Poster
 
Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 1,026
Can 32,000 miles in (mostly) discounted Y be usefully used?

When I lived in Europe *A was my preferred choice primarily due to my credit card at the time. Since moving to HK I had to shift my credit card to OW earn, though due to price and convenience have ended up flying EK on a number of long-haul trips. In terms of existing *A program, I have enough miles in my M&M account for a mileage bargain redemption, but that's about it.

Why am I posting here? I have a couple of TPAC trips coming up which will be flown on *A metal (mostly AC and NH). 32,000 miles will be flown. Initially I was going to have these credited to my M&M account though it wouldn't earn that much due to discounted Y booking class on some flights, and my M&M account is no longer topped up by credit card spending (though I still have that card so the miles wouldn't expire). Which got me thinking about whether these miles could somehow be leveraged into a new FF program for some kind of status. I read http://thepointsguy.com/2015/02/wher...ter-march-1st/ and naively trusted it. Seems it's got a number of programs quite wrong including Thai, Turkish, Singapore and Ethiopian which it wrongly claims each earn 100% even on discounted Y tickets. Turns out they are bucket dependent after all and don't earn 100% on those tickets.

Can these 32,000 miles flown be used in any useful way (whether for status and/or redemption), or should I just credit what pittance I can to M&M? *A Gold seems far out of reach if 100% earn is impossible on discounted Y seats, and from what I've read *A Silver seems a waste of time. Any thoughts greatly appreciated.

If helpful, I've answered the "which FF program should I join?" questions below:

(1) What is your home airport?
HKG

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Y

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
25k-50k.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
None.

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.)
Free lounge access is the main thing. If special check-in service can be used, would be a nice bonus. Upgrades would obviously be great.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
HKG-Europe, but usually not on *A.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Usually not *A due to credit card limitations in HK. A few BR flights a year usually in discounted Y.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Both. Airlines entirely my choice, always limited to Y.
go_around is offline  
Old Apr 11, 2015, 6:02 pm
  #2  
 
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Tasmania, Australia
Programs: M&M SEN, Amex Plat, Club Carlson, Marriott, HHonors & Accor Gold, Velocity Silver, Qantas Bronze
Posts: 3,767
Personally, I would not go for another *A program. All you would achieve would be few miles in your existing M&M and few miles in another program. If I am right 32,000 miles flown in discounted Y will not earn you Gold status anywhere anyway, so why not to increase your mileage numbers in M&M and get better reward there?
I am sure that there will be people suggesting various other options, including getting more credit cards, doing mileage runs etc, but honestly I don't see any benefit in that.
vbroucek is offline  
Old Apr 11, 2015, 9:36 pm
  #3  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NRT / HND
Programs: AA EXP, NH Plat, Former UA 1K
Posts: 5,497
Just as a point to your mention of credit card limitations in Hong Kong. I know there is a local United card, forget which bank but it's on the MileagePlus site. Also, how about more universal cards like Amex and Diners? Even in countries with relatively poor offerings, those should have transfer partners in at least 2 of the 3 alliances, usually much more than that though. The ones I have in Japan each offer approximately 15 transfer options.
dvs7310 is offline  
Old Apr 13, 2015, 12:34 am
  #4  
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Programs: BA Bronze
Posts: 1,026
Originally Posted by vbroucek
Personally, I would not go for another *A program. All you would achieve would be few miles in your existing M&M and few miles in another program. If I am right 32,000 miles flown in discounted Y will not earn you Gold status anywhere anyway, so why not to increase your mileage numbers in M&M and get better reward there?
I am sure that there will be people suggesting various other options, including getting more credit cards, doing mileage runs etc, but honestly I don't see any benefit in that.
You've confirmed my thoughts. Sometimes all the added effort of more CCs, MRs and all the rest of it is more hassle than it's worth.

Originally Posted by dvs7310
Just as a point to your mention of credit card limitations in Hong Kong. I know there is a local United card, forget which bank but it's on the MileagePlus site. Also, how about more universal cards like Amex and Diners? Even in countries with relatively poor offerings, those should have transfer partners in at least 2 of the 3 alliances, usually much more than that though. The ones I have in Japan each offer approximately 15 transfer options.
Wasn't aware of that - thanks for the heads up - the Dah Sing Mastercard. Am also not familiar with transfer options that you mention like Amex and Diners. Do you have a resource you could link me to on that?
go_around is offline  
Old Apr 13, 2015, 3:24 am
  #5  
 
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: NRT / HND
Programs: AA EXP, NH Plat, Former UA 1K
Posts: 5,497
Originally Posted by go_around
Wasn't aware of that - thanks for the heads up - the Dah Sing Mastercard. Am also not familiar with transfer options that you mention like Amex and Diners. Do you have a resource you could link me to on that?
What you want to look for is Amex Membership Rewards and Diners Club Global Mileage programs. They are different in each country, so the transfer partners from my Japan issued cards would be different from Hong Kong issued cards.

Here's the page you need for Amex, you're lucky, you get an English website in HK, in Japan it's Japanese only. Fairly few transfer options, VS and BA probably the best 2 with KrisFlyer & Skywards at a distant 3rd & 4th. Finair Plus and CI Dynasty Flyer redemption rates are an absolute joke, and it's been a while since I looked at Enrich but don't think it's much better:
http://catalogue.membershiprewards.c...orySearch=true


I can't make out what the Diners Club transfer partners are in HK, it's not very clear cut from the site, I'd ring them up and ask, it's administered by Citi there. However I can see that Citi has some regular cards that offer transfers to:
BA, EY, BR, GA, SQ, MH, QR, and TG, as well as Carlson Rezidor, Hilton, and IHG. Those are the same as Citi offers in Japan minus the Japanese airlines, but the earn for spend rate for the HK cards are MUCH better.
dvs7310 is offline  

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