Originally Posted by
briana
We live in Tel Aviv and until now we have not flown much on OW planes. As it turns out we will be flying to MAD for a weekend in May - cheapest fare possible and on IB business to JFK in July. We are members of LY Matmid (mainly credit card points), LH M&M and United Mileage Plus and KLM flying blue. What do you think is the best bet for future bonus tickets.
1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Point redemption for bonus flights. I would love to upgrade but I don't want to pay full Y fare to be eligible.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
It's hard to say that there is a "usual" as we fly to attend professional conferences and mix in vacations. I would say 3-4 flights a year. Last year we did TLV-LAX (KLM C) and TLV-JFK (Bonus LY + points for economy plus). This year we have scheduled TLV-MAD, TLV-JFK and TLV-MEL.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Since my wife has a research fund that covers C I will splurge if we can find a good business price on any carrier. Otherwise I'll go LY "cattle class" and use points for economy plus or pay to upgrade to C
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
All open. As I said we mix business with pleasure or pleasure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
TLV-USA, Europe, Far East, Australia
(6) What is your home airport?
Tel Aviv
(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?
No status. We are members of LY Matmid (mainly credit card points), LH M&M (credit card bonus) and United Mileage Plus (left overs from Continental) and KLM flying blue.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
LY for the direct long haul flights and Turkish for the price.
I would definitely say AA, especially now that the merger with US Airways means you'll have nonstop service from TLV to PHL. AA's "earn/burn" numbers are superior to other airlines', and while TLV has been a difficult place for eastward travel on Oneworld, it's less an issue now that Royal Jordanian is in the alliance, with easy connections through AMM to SE Asia, thence Oz. AAdvantage membership will get you decent mileage earning on Oneworld routes with all carriers, and okay earning on LY flights (or full miles on AA codeshares with LY)
http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...lines/elAl.jsp
One other thing, maybe significant, maybe not... For the time being Israel is one of the "cheaper" origin points for Oneworld round-the-world (RTW) tickets. Don't know if you could coordinate some of your trips to the US and to Oz to take place sequentially, but if so you might find that the RTW products can save a lot of money, particularly in business class.
If you haven't, read some of the "sticky" threads in this forum regarding the Oneworld Explorer RTW product and have a look at the RTW ticketing tool on the Oneworld website, just to see the possibilities and limitations. AA's general sales agent in Israel, Tal Aviation, is a seriously competent group who can handle a lot of problems that would send other travel agents screaming; if you get addicted to the RTW game (which is easy to do) you'd have a great resource just across town.