Originally Posted by
tingadingling
I'm relocating from Asia to Europe/Latin America so could really use some advice on which OW program to bank my miles in. Currently *G/PPS on SQ. Thanks!
1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Miles earnt and ease of redemption
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
60000-80000 miles, 24+ segments. Mainly flights to Europe/Latin Am and home trips to Singapore
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Airlines yes. Business for flights 4+ hours. I'll redeem mostly for Europe-Asia pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Europe - Latin America, Europe - Asia
(6) What is your home airport?
Amsterdam (sometimes Singapore)
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
None in OW. *G in Star Alliance / SQ
Small amount of miles in Qantas, Malaysian
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
SQ , Emirates. I go for good in-flight service and comfy seats
AMS doesn't get much love from OW; I hope you don't hate LHR as you'll need go through there a lot....
I'd go with AA. AAdvantage miles are easy to earn and redeem on a vast array of partners. And they do have a very good TATL premium cabin product on their
new 777-300 - the seats in J/F are arguably the best hard product out there for these routes right now. They fly those from LHR to their hubs in MIA and DFW from where it's easy to connect to their large South American network.
With your flight pattern you'll easily make top tier EXP (66,667 miles in a premium cabin will get you there) which will get you OW Emerald status (alliance-wide F lounge access!) and earn 8 systemwide upgrades annually which you can use to upgrade Europe-LatAm flights to F.
Only drawback: In order to use AA metal from Europe to South America you'd need to connect in the US which makes for longer flights and the dubious pleasure of US immigration which can be a real hassle without Global Entry (by all means, get that!).
If you want to avoid connecting in the US and prefer direct Europe-SouthAmerica flights, IB has new A330s and newly reconfigured A346s with a very comfortable 'business plus' cabin product (lie-flat, 1-2-1 staggered layout with all-aisle access) via MAD. Credited to AA, all business fares earn full mileage plus COS bonus.
Redeem those miles for premium cabin flights to Asia on CX, QR and MH (or BA if you don't mind paying heavy surcharges). Availability is good across those partners, and quality is on par with * offerings.