Originally Posted by
valuepac
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
--Upgrades, good award redemption, good award access, lounge access
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(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?
(AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Exp American (moved to Tokyo last yr)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Qantas to SYD and AUS travel, JAL to Sin, TPE, ICN, AA or JAL to the US
Also looking at move to Star (but understand there is no star partner in Australia)
How long will you be living in Japan for?
Upgrades on non USA airlines operate very differently to upgrades on USA airlines. For upgrades with airlines based out of the USA always expect to fly in the class you buy.
I would stay with AA, but you need 4 AA marketed flights to keep status.
USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit cards/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s)
The grass in not always
greener on the other side
There is no domestic airline in Australia in the Star alliance (RIP Ansett 2001)