Originally Posted by
stallion114
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?
(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: Award redemption (most miles), and then upgrades
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UA has a bad schedule for my most common flight so been considering AA, DL, or AS.
Not opposed to any foreign partners as my program either.
The grass in not always
greener on the other side
USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recent changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the useful benefits are somewhat limited. Low cost fares are tending to earn few ff miles, but depend on the ffp. Earning miles from non flying activities is easier with an airline ffp of your home country.
But with the change of most USA based ffp's to revenue based for flights on own airline, flying the airline with best fares and best schedule that matches your requirements now has merit. And then treating any ff miles as a bonus, which may or may not, be able to be used.
Some AA flyers are now moving to AS, as it is not (yer) a revenue based ffp.