Originally Posted by
Gino Troian
Hi Everyone! I'm moving to Cairo this February for work and am not sure if I should credit
everything to AA, who I've been quite loyal to, or to make a new Qatar Privilege account as
that will be my go-to carrier. I'm in Cairo til the end of year, so nothing long term.
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Tailored service and award miles.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
300K, split down the middle between AA and UA. Long hauls with UA (SFO based for now) and
AA for everything domestic.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy domestic (thank god for complimentary upgrades!) and business intl.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, and 90% of travel is for business.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
I fly US-Asia and Europe, along with domestic. Loyal to UA for intl. and AA for domestic.
(6) What is your home airport?
Currently SFO and SJC, but will move to CAI this February.
(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?
I have AA EXP and UA 1K. Most of my miles are banked with United, but am starting to grow AA.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
I will be flying a lot with Qatar until I move back stateside. Prefer this over BA and Royal Jordaian.
I would probably stick with AA since AA's elite qualification metrics are fairly decent when flying business class on partners like QR. You don't say how much of your travel might be on ME - North America routes while you're based in Cairo, but you might want to spend a few minutes (have some aspirin set aside) to figure out how many AA elite qualifying miles and EQ dollars you'd earn on a typical itinerary, including some mixed QR/AA itineraries that include domestic segments on AA metal. My hunch is that you'd end up better off building your mileage base with AA rather than starting a new one with QR, but it's not challenging math.