Originally Posted by
joakimu
Hello good people!
Just registered and need some help to choose which staralliance airline program to focus on. I just came home from Japan flying with AirChina back and forth from Stockholm, Arlanda and have some miles I haven't claimed yet. I'm guessing this would be about 10 k miles?
Anyway, I am sort of infrequent flyer and will absolutely mostly travel from Stockholm to Tokyo since I have extended family there. I have used Finnair and JAL in the past from OneWorld and also Emirates but this time AirChina.
To the questions:
(1) - Seat upgrades and free (discounted) flights. I that what you call award redemption? I am 1.90 cm tall and it's very uncomfortable usually for me.
(2) - I would guesstimate about 10 - 20 thousand per year. Basically 1 to 2 trips per year to Japan
(3) - Cheapest possible
(4) - Pleasure only. Yes I can choose airline. I've flown Finnar, Emirates, AirChina, JAL so far to Japan.
(5) - Stockholm to Tokyo. No direct flights so have to go through some other hub. I think Helsinki is the fastest.
(6) - Stockholm Arlanda, ARN
(7) - I have some points with Finnair, and some with Emirates but not a lot.
(8) - I would love to fly with JAL, Finnair, or others you might suggest? Maybe not AirChina again if I can avoid it
Thanks for your time and I hope to get some answer!
Cheers,
Joakim.
Hello
joakimu and welcome to FT!
First the bad news: not many programs allow crediting flights flown before you joined their program, so unless you already have some membership to a FFP of a *A airline your options are extremely limited. Do a search in the forum to see which programs allow this, in particular CA since you flew with them.
With the amount of flying you do, and with the fact that you fly the cheapest fare, if you really want to maximise the value of your miles you have to pick a carrier to fly
every time and join their FFP. The majority of FFPs do not give you many (if any) miles for deep discounted economy fares on other carriers, so again you are limited by the combination of fare class and best mileage earning.
I think you should write off these flights and stick to Finnair for the future, since they are normally on the cheaper side and as you say they have the most convenient schedule. I don't know whether their FFP is any good. I also wouldn't bother with CA, as connecting in China is less than a glamorous experience.