Originally Posted by
b.eej
Hi all, I'm pretty new to FT but grateful for all the incredible knowledge and opinions already.
I'm moving from London to CPH in May 2022, having lived in Australia before that. I'm about to start flying more for business (short and long haul) but the exact amount isn't clear to me yet, nor is the amount of choice I'll have in who I fly with for business (and will likely include flying SK). For business, I'll likely be in economy short-haul and business for long-haul. Business trips will likely be CPH-LON, CPH-USA, and CPH-NRT/HND.
In addition to my answers to questions below, my main flying for leisure would be CPH-LON, CPH-USA (East & West coasts), and CPH-MEL, where I will try to prioritise upgrades to premium cabins on points (I don't mind flying extra sectors here).
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(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?
Reply:
FFP Status - QF Gold, OZ Diamond, BA Bronze (I was trying to build BA status as I thought I would be in London long term and wanted to use Exec Club benefits like advanced seat selection, etc; I recognise this may have been a mistake)
Banked miles - QF 99k, OZ 44k, BA 22k, Amex MR 81k
QF have said they are extending my QF Gold until January 2023 because of the pandemic.
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I think I might actually be asking: 1) stick with QF, 2) continue building with BA, or 3) switch to someone else?
For QF you need to fly 4 eligible QF or Jetstar flights to maintain status. So your QF Gold (OW Sapphire) status will be gone unless you get to AU (QF/JQ) or Asia(Jetstar) to get those 4 lights. So is v
ery good you have OW Sapphire until Jan in 2023. Very useful for free seat selection on BA, including business class
OW does *not* has a cross airline upgrade scheme, But may happen (OW site press release), If like Star Alliance or the AA-BA-IB-AY upgrade scheme will require a high base fare. So totally useless for most people. Really need to fly the airline of your ffp to have a
chance of an upgrade. But upgrades are not guaranteed and hard to get. Would not select a ffp based on the
hope of a upgrade. Some airlines will only upgrade1 class. Like economy to premium economy
or premium economy to business. So check the ffp's detailed rules for upgrades.
A lot of what you want come with mid level status. EU is small so getting status on short and/or cheap (long-short haul) flights is very hard.
If living in UK/EU BAEC would be considered by most to be a better ffp than QF. QF ffp is OK to a point if flying QF a lot (premium class's) and/or getting QF ff points from non flying activity (~living in AU). QF have a very high cost in QF points for upgrades. QF earn to burn is not that good compared to other ffp's. To me the time horizon for ffp's is 3 to 5 years at most. Earn to burn in ~2 years..
Be careful about ff miles/avios/points expiry:-->
Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire
Many (to most?) ffp's are not extending ff miles expiry. Only status.
Edit
Blog (ExecTrav AU)--->
Is BA Executive Club membership worth it for Australian travellers?