Originally Posted by
jayjayr
Let me try this out, I've always been confused about which program to go for!
(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.)
Reply: Upgrades and Priority Services
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: Usually <25000, mostly Economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Usually yes, although its Economy most if not all times. I travel for both work and pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Mainly Europe - between UK to Spain, and UK to Rest of Europe. Occasionally UK to Asia - China/India
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Mainly LHR/LGW as starting points, but consider MAD too.
(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: Not really, BA is my main one.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: BA, Iberia, Etihad, Norwegian Airlines, Lufthansa
Stick with BA/IB.
All other oneworld programs (except AA, but that program won't do you any good as it's going revenue-based for 2017 and beyond) have 'hard' mileage expiration dates of around three years. You simply do not fly enough to build up any significant balance in any program with fixed expiration dates - your miles will expire before you have enough to use them for a meaningful redemption.
As you live in the UK, get a BA credit card and explore all other means to earn Avios through spend (Tesco!)
Originally Posted by
kcaluwae
Just like JacobP post above I think AA will be no longer the ideal program for me because of their upcoming changes. I'm looking for some advice on what program would be right for me.
Questions
For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
In order of importance: 1. Redemptions for award travel or upgrades, 2. (status that comes with actual benefits like lounge access)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
+/- 25K miles
Usually I either just reach or miss the 25K benchmark for Gold status with AA. Class of travel is mostly Economy or Premium economy. Going forward I suppose class of travel will more often become premium economy.
Segments: 8-10. (of which 4 at least long-haul)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest economy and as stated above towards the future probably more premium economy.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can as most travel is leisure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Varies heavily and depends on the holiday destination.
(6) What is your home airport?
BRU is closest significant airport.
I often opt for AMS and DUS as well.
(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 PLT through challenge. Most miles in this account. (82K)
BA Executive club (no status, little miles). I use these for shorthaul rewards currently.
IB (no status, miles via groupon promo a few months ago 70K)
I can transfer miles to BA/IB from AmEx membership rewards.
The main reason I was loyal to AA were the challenges that offered access to status. The benefits most important to me as PLT member were 100% bonus redeemable miles and lounge access. Secondly I was loyal as the Aadvantage program used to offer:
- 100% redeemable miles of the actual flown distance on all fare classes when travelling AA (not anymore in the future with the changes coming)
- 100% redeemable miles of the actual flown distance on all fare classes when travelling BA (has already changed a while ago and is now 25% in deep-discount economy)
- 100% redeemable miles of the actual flown distance on all fare classes when travelling FY (this is still the case and FY is a good carrier for Asia routes)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Currently I most often fly BA,AA,FY,IB. Not necessarily in that order, all depends on holiday plans.
Some travel on SN as well for short-haul flight. Miles for travel on SN are collected in UA MileagePlus account.
Current year 21K EQM miles in AA.
Upcoming flights this year is a long-haul to Africa. (most probably on BA)
Start of next year a long-haul to S-America (could be on either BA or IB)
I look forward to your opinions.
I gather you mean AY (Finnair) and not FY (Firefly, Asian regional LCC)?
Here again, you don't really fly much and will run into issues with expiring miles in all programs except AA and BA/IB as these all have 'hard' expiration dates that let your miles expire - commonly three years after earning - regardless of account activity.
The AY program is not bad, actually and if you can live with the 36-month mileage expiration limits I`d give it a look. Just don't expect opportunities for mid-tier status.
In any case, wait until AA has clarified how they will handle EQD on partners on July 15. I suspect that should you buy premium economy longhaul tickets on any other ticket stock than AA, things won't be too bad.
Get a credit card for lounge access instead of chasing sapphire status - the fee for an AA challenge is about the same as what you'd have to pay for an AMEX plat after the airline statement credit...