Originally Posted by
marsilius
Dear all,
Have just moved to Tokyo...and am going to be routed increasingly on JAL/FinnAir/BA...so, could do with advice?
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
ability to use miles or awards for upgrades when I fly with my family on our own travel.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors? and (3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
~100-150k per year (BIS). Mostly in C/J/Z (business to discount business). Some in premium economy if the boss is being difficult
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly travel for work. I have limited ability to choose, but some ability to influence.
:
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
#1 route is TYO - NYC. Followed closely by TYO-GVA.
(6) What is your home airport?
TYO
Reply:
(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?
United 1k. Used to be a BAEC gold, and have a few residual miles, but token amounts.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
I like BA Club world. But will end up flying JAL...because I'm here. And Finnair because of pricing, I suspect?
I'd like to statusmatch. I'm happy to do a challenge -- I have two business class trips in Feb/Mar (TYO-BUD-NYC-TYO and TYO-NYC-GVA-TYO) so meeting any challenge thresholds should not be a problem.
Thanks for advice!
I'm far from an expert on JAL's program, but my quick read of it is that it's fairly clunky for attaining high status. Frankly, with your travel patterns, I'd have to suggest AA. You could challenge to Platinum (OW Sapphire) easily, and flying as much as you'll do in premium cabins will undoubtedly get you to Executive Platinum (OW Emerald) quite rapidly. For he time being at least, AA's earn/burn numbers are hard to beat in Oneworld.
Look at the
AA Wiki for information about the challenges. You'd probably have to use AA flight numbers on TYO-NYC on JL, or else ride AA metal to the US then switch, but only until you've reached 10K elite qualifying points (6667 butt-in-seat miles in J) at which point you could fly on any Oneworld flight number and still build miles/points to EXP.