Hello all. My first post.

My wife and I have decided to change from EK Skywards to a *A FFP because of anticipated travel patterns over the next few years. We are Skywards silver but EK seems to be getting fewer and fewer partners and we don't want to have to fly through DXB all the time to get anywhere. The only partners they seem to have which we could utilise out of Oz are JAL and Korean, but we don't particularly like their business class product. We feel that a *A FFP would be more useful and beneficial for us due to its larger variety of routes and partners. We usually take one big trip o/s each year, normally in F or BC, with maybe a little domestic.

We have booked a SYD-LHR return in F on TG in August and am planning to do a BKK-YVR return via either HKG or ICN in mixed First and Business next year, using our EK miles to get to and from BKK. Also we intend to do a RTW in 2013 in business so we can incorporate some touring through the US, and hopefully do a few more o/s trips after that, including through Asia, the Pacific and probably back to Europe. We do not travel Econ except domestically and do not want to book economy tickets in the hope that we may get an upgrade at the last moment.

Status attainment is not of great importance with respect to lounge access as we generally get it anyway on the tickets we normally purchase, but would be useful if it can get us mileage accrual bonuses. We would be more interested in a FFP which we can use to accumulate miles for international flight awards and/or upgrades and which preferably have reasonably long mileage expiry dates. A FFP to which I can convert my SPG points if needed would be useful. Our travel is purely for pleasure since our retirement

My home airport is either SYD or MEL. I've flown TG, EK, CO (many years ago), NH, JAL, SAA, KLM in the past, so I don't really have a preferred airline, although I don't really want QF.

I have looked at quite a few FFP's but the more I look the more I find it harder to make a decision. I would much appreciate any thoughts or opinions from more experienced frequent travellers on what would be considered the most suitable *A FFP's for us given our anticipated travelling patterns.

Many thanks in anticipation.