Hi there,
This is my very first post on here. Also, the first-time ever in my life that I have decided to actively pursue acquisition of miles through a frequent flyer program offered by one of the three big alliances.

The main aim is to use the miles flown to my advantage as a traveller. Benefit in terms of redeeming free flights, extra baggage allowance, and access to restricted lounges where ever I travel across the globe sound an attractive proposition to me.

I have had only subscribed to one frequent flyer program, Emirates Skywards, in my lifetime. But didn't pursue it after just 2 sector trip to Europe. At the time, I thought all of this was worthless time-wasting gimmickry.

But now, I have come to realize that one can indeed draw travel benefits out of these programs. But having researched a lot on the world wide web about major alliances and several frequent flyer program e-brochures. I have failed to understand how the whole thing actually works. The mechanism seems very complex to me for the time being.

So, I am here to seek help from people who are entrenched into this system, and have valuable knowledge to share with newbies like us.

I am a leisure traveller, and take two major trips every year. In Dec/Jan to Far East/North Asia/South Asia and Oceania/Australia/New Zealand. And in June/July/August to Europe/North America.

I rarely do short segment trips internationally.

So, this time I will be travelling once again to Far East and Australia/New Zealand in one go. And the best choice right now is to travel with OneWorld all the way to New Zealand, and cover all the countries in between on a 6 segment air ticket.

The OneWorld ticket I will be purchasing soon include sectors with Srilankan UL, Cathay Pacific CX, Qantas QF, and Malaysian MH.

Using mileage calculator, I have found out that I will be acquiring well over 20,000 miles on this trip alone for flying with multiple airline partners of OneWorld alliance.

Only 2 OneWorld alliance airlines serve destinations in my home country directly.

1. Srilankan UL
2. Qatar Airways QR

Cathay Pacific CX used to fly direct but not any more. But do still issue CX airfares and tickets in collaboration with Srilankan UL.

Can you help me with choosing the most beneficial OW frequent flyer program, and also to figure out which will allow me to jump from one OneWord tier to another quickly and also easily considering I am not a business traveller.

Please also explain the difference between Tier miles and Normal miles, and in my position given above how many Tier Miles and Status Miles can I acquire with a 20,000 miles+ journey on OneWorld.

If you can explain it with a clear EXAMPLE, it would be easier for me to understand this frequent flyer conundrum.

Hope someone can help me figure this out.

Many thanks.