Originally Posted by rednaxela

Hi, I came to discover the wealth of information on FT relatively late, but it's been tremendous help since. I apologize if this question has been answered previously, since after some homework reading on the site I have not really found answers to my question.

I'm based in HKG, and my travels are HKG-JFK once a year, HKG-SIN and HKG-NRT once every quarter, with around 2-3 HKG-PEK/SHA every year all on Y-class. On the side, I fly to PEK 5-6 times a year, usually just getting the cheapest tickets (thus often times discount economy).

Basically, I'm trying to decide/maximize my miles between BA/CX MPC/AA (no status at any one of them now). My first priority would be good accrual and reward table so that I can save money on flights to PEK or leisure travel within Asia. Elite status would be a second factor: lounge access and perks such as additional bags would be good when I travel for business.

I was gonna have BA as my primary program for its very good short-haul redemptions (others also mentioned LAN to me, but don't know whether it'll be convenient). For that, I planned to get a local BA co-branded CC.

But I don't think I'd ever make BA elite status for its 4 BA metals requisite. Same seems to apply for AA (although I read that rule is ignored by AA)? Since it sounds a waste for me to put all the miles where I'll never make elite, and given the 4 flights rule by BA and AA, CX MPC seems to be the only bet to elite? Originally I was thinking to accumulate AsiaMiles only when using the miles credit card.

Currently I do have a complimentary MPC membership with my AMEX card, but not sure if it's worthwhile to put the miles just for the status. Or how should I split between MPC and the other two? CX reward tables seem to be very stringent when compared to BA and AA.

I'm trying to figure out what's the best way to do this or are there some other ways/combinations that I could explore? Thanks in advance!