My parents are taking a big trip to South America in September/October and I was wondering if anyone could help suggest which FFP they might join. As a BA flyer, I know nothing about Sky Team, so any advice would be very gratefully received!

My parents travel profile
They are retired and all their travel is for leisure. They currently have no status with any programme. They don’t fly long haul much – maybe once every couple of years. They tend to fly U2 around Europe (they are very close to LTN), sometimes BA a few times a year. LH they would want to fly J if possible and would consider ex-EU to do so. They have only experienced BA J so far on a couple of US trips.

Where they are based:
Close to London. Nearest airport is LTN (hence using U2 a lot), but also easy access to LHR, LCY and LGW.

Their planned trip
LHR-ATL-UIO on VS and then DL, all in J
SCL-FCO-LCY on AZ J

What they’d value most
Miles to upgrade or short haul redemptions (they’re unlikely to earn enough to get LH ones). Given their travel pattern, I think it’s unlikely they will go out of their way to fly Sky Team a lot in the future. So it’s really about maximising what they can get from this trip to either use towards a future upgrade or get a SH redemption somewhere. If that’s possible with so little flying! Earning status is not really a priority.

Status on other airlines:
They will end up BA Bronze after this trip, due earning 280 tier points on SCL-IPC-SCL in J on LAN.

Their planned trip
LHR-ATL-UIO on VS and then DL J
SCL-FCO-LCY on AZ J

Thanks in advance. I’m happy to reciprocate if anyone has any BA/OW questions, I’ll have a go at answering them!