Because of a job I will be starting soon, I will be flying a-lot. Sometimes 3 times a day. This will include short and long-haul flights in Asia, Americas, Europe and the Middle east, rare visits to Africa. I've not flown more than 20 times in my life and I thought I'd ask for advice so thank you for taking the time to read this.
1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
No matter the program I will end up at the highest tier so difficulty to reach the highest tier isn't a concern. It'd be fair to just compare highest reward tiers.
In general the most important things for me will be comfort in airports and flight e.g. extra legroom, upgrades, lounge access, priority bag collection and security
Benefits that decrease my expenditures while abroad will be immensely useful for helping with my savings. (I'm a contractor so free food and drinks will be useful as I cant expense them to a company, the only thing that gets payed for is hotel and travel).
I also really put value in earning miles and membership benefits that extend beyond my job. (British Airways EC gives me the ability to get lifetime gold membership; some airlines miles are worth more and come more frequently) airline miles with a long time too expire would be great so I can basically have my holidays booked for the next 10 years. I may not have this job in two years time so if I can get more out of it I will.
Partnerships with hotels will also help as I need to sign up to many hotel loyalty programs too.
2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~200 flights, economy, many long haul, most not.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Only Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I have no choice, Its for work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Not Applicable
(6) What is your home airport?
I will be flying from london and Madrid semi often but they will still only account for 5-10% of flights
(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?
Nope
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
No preferred or more common airlines
Thank you for taking your time to read this, my circumstances are different than most so im interested to hear any tips and information from FF's
I would seek a program that is distance-based, offers segment-based status qualification and gets you lifetime status quickly (most people won't be doing this much travel for very long, and then it's definitely nice to have the benefits)
BAEC only offers Gold lifetime status, and that is that's very hard if not impossible to achieve if you don't fly a lot in premium cabins. For consultants whose clients reimburse J, that's the way to go, for those who only are allowed Y, not so much.
I`d be deciding between Iberia with its a two-tiered lifetime status program, where the mid-tier one is much more attainable for someone mostly flying economy. or Alaska. Alaska's program remains distance-based for the foreseeable future, has a lot of non-alliance partners to earn on and grants lifetime sapphire status after a million miles.