(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)

PVG (Shanghai)

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

Mostly Y for trips inside China, medium-level economy for trips to Germany.

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

Between 15-25K on Star Alliance. Additionally, around 20K on MU.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)

No. Currently have about 30K miles with Miles & More.

(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.)

1. Lounge access, priority services (to make travelling more comfortable)
2. Free upgrades
3. Redeem miles for free flights

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)

Mostly China domestic. PVG-SIN and PVG-FRA about 1-3 times per year.

(7) Preferred Airlines

Not much choice in China ;-). CA, MU.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)

Mostly work, but can influence on choice of airline.


Unfortunately, I have to choose MU for many flights in China, so not that many flights with CA are left. Therefore, I hope to get the most value out of the *A flights. I am a Miles & More member (and use the credit card heavily), but I fear I might not make it to earn the 35K miles needed for FFP. Also, I feel that there is no benefit in using M&M while living in China - redemption of flights is probably as cumbersome with M&M as with any other *A FFP, except the CA Phoenix one. Is that true?

I'm eyeing on the BMI or Aegean FFPs. Would that be a better choice for my situation? Thanks for the help!