Originally Posted by
Smiley90
Alright everyone, I fly YVR-ZRH once a year because of family and don't wanna keep paying for it, so I'm starting off with the whole FF business. Given that I'm in Canada, Aeroplan is obviously the biggest earning possibility, but there's some more. BA works too, but sucks with fuel surcharges, so I've mostly set my eyes on AA&Aero, with maybe Alaska/Delta too. According to the award map, the following trips have little to no fuel surcharges with the FF programs:
Skyteam:
YVR/SEA - AMS/CDG/JFK - ZRH (with Delta and KLM/AF respectively)
*A/Aero: YVR/SEA - EWR/ORD/IAD/SFO - ZRH (with UA only or UA&Swiss)
AA/Oneworld:
YVR - JFK - ZRH (Cathay and AA)
SEA - JFK/PHL - ZRH (Alaska and/or AA)
am I missing anything? BA charges surcharges on UA flights, right? What's the availability like on those from your guys' experiences?
Just wanna make sure I'm not missing anything obvious
I fly somewhere else in NA just maybe once a year or so, so that's not as important to me as redeeming for Business/First (preferably) on YVR-ZRH
EDIT: YVR/SEA-GVA might be an alternative IF it's much better in terms of availability
Why not UA? Way more earning possibility than AC and no PQD. Plus you can use 15k award miles to get to a base with cheaper revenue flights. I hear UA can be pretty cheap out of SEA, and if you have a Canadian billing address you are exempt from their PQD spend. But yes it is UA (but free booze on international flights coming next month).
However you are correct in pointing out that yvrjfkzrh is a much better routing than going anywhere on UA or most of the "new" AC.
I do not think you can redeem UA via BA unless I am missing something (I'm also new to this)