Hi, I am currently trying to decide for a good *A FF scheme and I have narrowed my choices to UA or AV, but I am open to other suggestions:
(1) What is your home airport?
FRA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Discount Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
<25k in miles earned due to 50% earning rates
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present?
No
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Don't care about lounges and *G, but want good mileage earning rates (mainly UA, LH, LX, CA, maybe TK as well) and decent award ticket redemptions
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
EU-Asia, occasionally EU-US
(7) Preferred Airlines
CA, LX, LH, TK, UA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
I travel for leisure so will almost always book discount economy with 50% or 0% mileage credit.
I am an occasional flyer and am mainly looking at a FF to get award tickets (in Y or maybe C), not for status and not for cabin upgrades. My research has currently given me the picture that:
AV Lifemiles
Pros:
-Good miles&cash deal ($20-25 per 1k) on award tickets, no fuel surcharges
-Frequent miles sales
-Miles expire after 24 months of inactivity vs 18 on UA
Cons:
-No mileage earning for discount Y on LH, LX, TK
-Difficult to deal with call centre, restrictive award travel rules (no stopovers etc)
UA MP
Pros:
-Earns 50%+ mileage on discount Y at LH, LX, TK, CA
-Easy award travel booking with good search engine, no fuel surcharges and very flexible rules
-Possibly better credit card deals for EU based customers?
Cons:
-UA travel is revenue based, hurting discount Y, and *A partner rates have an uncertain future
-Fee for award booking 21 days before departure
-Purchased miles cost $37 per 1k
In summary, UA MP sounds like the better deal if I want to keep carrier flexibility and in general customer service should be easier to reach if needed. Flexible award routing rules are a pro, but that is partly evened out by both carriers not offering stopovers on one-way tickets. I am very worried about upcoming changes to MP, probably switching *A Partner rates to revenue based as well, which is why I am currently looking more favourably on AV, even though I will have to restrict myself to CA, UA and AC travel in the future.
What do you guys think?
P.S. I did not consider TK because of their difficult relationship with LH Group (still better than AV earning 0% though) and not OZ because I am not focused on gaining status and I believe OZ miles expire regardless of account activity.