Awesome thread - can't believe I didn't see it until now, and I don't think I've posted for over 3 years. PLEASE help me!
I'm going nuts now trying to figure out my accrual strategy and have been doing some stupid things lately.
Background: I'm a US citizen living and working in JNB and I return regularly every 4-5 months to JFK and/or SFO for personal travel usually in DDE or reward fares (and occasionally on business). I previously was working in a consulting job with only intra-SA travel and flew mostly discount carriers, and have now taken a new position where I have almost intra-African travel, predominantly on SA and KQ, with at least one trip a quarter to Europe or the US, predominantly on SA, LH, and DL. I haven't been smart about my accrual in the last few years - I burned down all my balances I built up in the past to visit the US on reward tix.
I used to fly mostly UA and AA in the USA and have (multiple) mileage CC's for both programs that I still hold and use; hold SPG Amex, Amex Plat, and a dozen or so other CCs (no other mileage earning I don't think at this point.)
Current notable balances in FF programs:
UA: 45k (some BIS; rest CC)
LH: 16k (all BIS; probably should have accrued on a partner airline but it was booked 3 hours before I flew and I forgot)
DL: 25k (all BIS and last minute travel; will be transferring 70k via Amex MR soon and planning on using for a JNB-SFO redemption; am indifferent to earning any more on DL after that)
SA: 20k (all BIS; was originally thinking to start accruing SA but am not sure)
SPG: 15k (1/2 CC; 1/2 stays)
Have 20-40k hotel points each in a bunch of different programs and have no real loyalty for business travel but prefer redeeming SPG points for W stays for personal travel so try to accrue SPG when travelling in the US or Europe (also many cities for work I end up staying in a non-major program hotel or Southern Sun brand hotels, though would probably prefer Radisson for my DKR trips as it's a lot nicer than the Le Meridien there)
Current booked travel (both work and personal):
1) JNB-FRA-JFK-FRA-JNB in early June (DDE L-class on LH with one segment on UA)
2) JNB-LHR-EWR-LHR-EWR in late June/early July (JNB-LHR on BD operated by SA; LHR-EWR on CO. Booked in S-class as per CO website; earns at least 100% on each leg and CO tells me that the JNB-LHR leg earns 150%; BD website tells me that the outbound legs are S and the return in W though)
3) JNB-MPM-JNB (SA) next week
4) JNB-HRE-JNB (SA) in mid-June
5) JNB-NRO-JNB (KQ) late May
6) JNB-GBE-JNB (SA) late June
(1) What is your home airport? JNB
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? usually DDE for personal travel; Y (full-fare economy or at least a 100% earning class) for work usually as most trips are relatively last-minute (7-10 days notice max; many are same-day or day before - no business or first for work as per global company policy)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 75k-100k it looks like at this point; could be more
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1st - Earning economy reward tix from JNB to SFO and JFK; 2nd is lounge access in LHR/FRA/CDG where I can sleep where the lounges via PP (Amex Plat card holder) are crappy and don't have sleep rooms; 3rd - free upgrades on travel for long-haul overnights ex-JNB to DKR, JFK, FRA (which is mostly SAA at this point)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? 1st - intra-African (JNB-HRE, JNB-NRO, JNB-DKR, JNB-CPT, JNB-LOS, JNB-MPM, JNB-GBE) 2nd - Africa-USA (JNB-NYC, JNB-SFO) 3rd - Africa-Europe (JNB-ARN, JNB-BCN, JNB-FRA mostly)
(7) Preferred Airlines? Depends on where, but for personal travel it's whatever's cheapest; for work it depends on who has more shoulder and leg room and better planes, but it's been SA pretty much every flight for the last month. I often don't have choice in work travel - I get booked on whatever's cheapest and not many airlines fly to some of the smaller airports in Africa.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both - I have a significant amount of work travel and I do a lot of personal travel.
Thank you in advance FTers!