With the recent mostly bad changes to DL, UA and now AA programs, no one is hit harder than people who flew on the lowest fare they could buy to somewhere halfway around the world like SIN or BKK.

While you can still get status on the long routes based on miles flown, this is really about redeemable miles (RDMs), which take a major hit under the revenue-based systems.

Recently saw an $800-ish fare from the east side of the U.S. to SE Asia RT with 18,000 or so flown miles but only 4,500 RDMs . Under the old system it would get at least 18,000 RDMs and could get 36K or maybe more if you had gold or higher status.

Anyway, so much for loyalty to DL/UA/AA. THE FIELD IS NOW WIDE OPEN. Which carrier would you suggest is most rewarding if you want to fly U.S.-Asia on the lowest Y fare and get a freebie (IN Y) in exchange for taking the fewest such flights?

(I realize we have a lot of experts here in flying business and first, but really I'm looking for the best ratio of paid flights in deep-discount economy to get a free one in economy). At their peak the U.S. based carriers could be around 1.5 paid to 1 free to Asia if you played it all right (again, in deep discount Y, not J). I don't expect those days to return.

OTOH, it seems that if COMPETITION were actually alive with airlines then this would be a place for it to show up, since you're flying halfway around the world and it's theoretically possible on so many airlines (Finnair, Aeroflot, Gulf carriers, many European carriers, etc.).

I also realize it would take positioning flights to get to some carriers, but with the likes of NK and F9 going someplace like LAX cheaply and fares from there to Asia sometimes $500 less than out of ATL, it's do-able.

But I see carriers like China Eastern or Hainan or EVA, plus the Gulf airlines and sometimes a European one, and it's hard to figure out which one would work best for banking miles (even in their own programs) and getting the occasional freebie. Some people I knew were getting a free one for every 3-4 with EVA at one time, but that may have changed.

Thoughts? Am sure others out there are also looking at airlines they wouldn't have otherwise looked at were it not for the DL/UA/AA devaluations.