EU-US

I need to pick a *A FFP to credit my upcoming trips to. I am reeling from trying to compare different *A programs with their complicated rules and poorly worded descriptions. Pretty much all the FFPs I checked so far had a deal breaker... is there any decent FFP left?

My upcoming trips (already booked but I didn't add FF numbers to any):

Dec 31-Jan 7 AMS-LAX in biz return, ticketed and flown on United (myself)
4 additional family members on the same flight, flying economy - all of them can be credited to family account (which I understand is a benefit of Aeroplan)

Jan 23-Feb 4 AMS-BOM biz on Etihad

I have more flights during 2022, this is just the beginning. I expect to fly at least 40-60k miles during 2022.

So given these flights, that I am based near AMS, and that I mostly fly EU-US and EU-Asia routes, can someone confirm or deny that crediting all of my flights to Aeroplan would be a good choice? If not, is there a better option?

My main goal with a FFP is to earn *A upgrades. The last program I checked (Asiana) looked great, until I learned that point upgrades are pretty much limited to upgrading from B/Y, which makes them pretty much useless. I hope that's not a general rule in *A and some programs are better.

Thank you!

YOWgary

Couple things to consider here.

- start by learning the difference between elite status conferring upgrade credits for that program's 'home' airline (in this case, eUpgrades for flights operated by Air Canada) and Star Alliance Upgrade Awards (SAUA), which are simply a use for award miles. You'll want to read [this whole thread], currently Aeroplan is not offering SAUA at all, and while there have been a few indications that it'll come back at some point, we don't have a timeline on this.

- most Star Alliance programs only permit SAUA from "full-fare" Y/B tickets, Asiana's not unique in that respect. In past, it's often been easy to get cheap "full-fare" tickets on one or two airlines, mainly EVA, but past performance is no guarantee of future results.

- in many cases a SAUA is only available if there's "partner award" space available on the flight. In other words, if you can't book the same exact flight in business, using miles, you probably can't use a SAUA.

- learn how much these upgrades "cost" before you pick a program. For example, if you flew 40-60K physical miles on Air Canada, you'd earn ~60-90,000 Aeroplan miles, which would be enough to upgrade a couple of long-haul flights, but again likely only from a full-fare ticket. You'd probably have better luck just using these miles to buy one of your long flights as an award ticket, for example AMS-BOM in business class would cost 60,000 Aeroplan miles one-way, while AMS-LAX in business would start at 70,000 miles and go up from there.

- If you fly 40-60,000 physical miles on Air Canada, including some business-class spending, you'll almost certainly qualify for some level of elite status with Air Canada. This won't get you any automatic upgrades, but you will earn some eUpgrade credits that could be used to upgrade you on flights operated by Air Canada, as well as a few perks like free checked baggage, and lounge access when flying Star Alliance airlines (assuming you reach 50K status or higher).

Long story short, I would encourage you not to rely on SAUA as a reliable method for upgrades. Based on your origin and flight pattern, I would guess you're probably better off as a "free agent", booking whatever the best business-class fare is on any airline.

craigthemif

*A upgrades are not a particularly good reason to be choosing a ffp. Particularly when you want to upgrade partner airlines.

The operating airline chooses the upgradable buckets AFAIK And in most cases that requires an expensive full fare.

In other cases, you might be able to upgrade any Economy fare, but you will pay nearly the same number of miles as a J reward would cost in the first place. (i.e. TK)

So, you really need to decide which airline you want to be upgraded on, and then look at that airline's ffp to see how they deal with upgrades. There isn't going to be a generic "best for upgrades" but there might be an airline or two that works for you.

I would worry a whole lot more about getting redeemable miles out of the family travel. AC is a good one. Egyptair also works. You can merge Aegean balances for a fee or if you get elite status with them. There are possibly a few others...

painintheuk

There is a specific *A thread for that here: Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here.

Adam Smith

Thanks, @painintheuk, and I think with that, we can close this thread.

Adam Smith
AC Forum Co-Moderator