Morning all!

Firstly thanks for those that have answered questions I have posed in the A3 and TK forums. I have held status with OW (either AA or BA) solidly for the last 10 years. However, for various reasons, I am now looking to change and dive into unchartered (for me) *A waters.

I have narrowed it down to either A3 or TK.

My home airport is London (at this precise moment LHR is easier, but by mid-next year LGW will be easier, but honestly either are doable). I travel all over, and whether business or leisure the funds come out of my pocket.

I usually book a combination of discounted economy and sales fare business. When travelling straight north - south (UK to southern Africa - 3 times a year), I usually just take the cheapest shortest route. When travelling east-west I do try to get a flat bed. And throw in a few European hops during the year.

As far as I can tell, the advantage of A3 is they only require 12k miles to requalify for Gold after the initial qualification (if doing 4 sectors on A3) which is frankly ridiculously low, but I am not complaining. However, I do not know how easy award redemption is with them?

The benefits with TK are that the status lasts for 2 years, allowing for a year of no activity if necessary, or 25k in a year to requalify, which is still not bad at all. They also would early on lower-fare buckets than A3 on the SAA flights LHR-JNB. They have the advantage it seems of being able to upgrade on deeply discounted flights (TK awards only), and their award table seems to be the most competitive of all the *A carriers in terms of number of miles for pure mileage based tickets.

As someone who is new to the world of *A, any advice given as to which way to go from your past experience I would be most grateful.