Originally Posted by Thralni

Dear all,

Thanks for all your contributions! Some great points being raised here - I clearly came to the right place.

Before I posted, I already got the feeling that the main use of FB was going to be TATL redemptions. At the saver level, 50k points for one way business class seems like a great deal! However, beyond that FB doesn't seme to offer good value. And all your posts essentially confirm this for me. I was hoping I had missed something that might make FB more worthwhile for partner redemptions outside Europe, but it seems I probably haven't.

With regards to the loyalty, I usually don't pursue loyalty with any airline, because I don't really fly enough, and because I don't want to fly any of the airlines that would make sense to pursue loyalty with (DL, UA or AA)... Unfortunately I don't have particularly good experiences with any of them and I much prefer non-US airlines. The one US airlines I'd like to fly more often is Alaska Airlines, but their network is incredibly thin on the east coast, so also doesn't make much sense. So, instead, I collect points through credit cards that I can transfer to wherever I like (as mlin32 pointed out). The reason I started thinking more seriously about FB loyalty is because of the FB credit card, since it makes it a little easier: with the current welcome offer you can get 100XP just for completing the required spend (40 at approval + 60 for completion), and then you get 20XP every anniversary. If I then fly return business class to Europe once, I think that should get me an additional 60XP (AMS-NYC is ~3600 miles). I then thought that Delta flights around the US will fill up the rest - but it seem I was greatly mistaken. Points that I collect in FB will still be useful of course, given that I do fly KLM/AF typically once a year to go to Europe - it just means I may not go out of my way to fly SkyTeam airlines if there's a more comfortable connection or preferred airline (for example, I am planning to fly back from Milan through Frankfurt next year so we can fly SQ's business class to NYC - instead of flying AF or KLM).

I have some more thinking to do. I may still get the FB credit card given that the annual fee is not so high, but if I choose to pursue loyalty, it may be somewhere else. I had considered AC Aeroplan, given it's useful credit card and it's impressive list of partners, inside and outside StarAlliance.