Second frequent flyer programme recommendation
Mar 9, 2019, 6:57 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 6
Second frequent flyer programme recommendation
Apologies in advance for this newbie question. I am a member of the BA executive Club (Silver) and want to sign up to a second frequent flyer programme of another airline. Since I have no intention of aiming for BA executive Club Gold I would be grateful for any recommendations of a frequent flyer programme which has good redemption, and allows me to fly worldwide. I am a digital nomad and live full time in AirBnB, I currently take about 30 flights per year, half are long haul across the world, half are within Europe and I usually fly business class. Many of the frequent flyer programmes I have seen reviewed here seem to be quite difficult to find redemptions or have high fuel surcharges.
I already have 2 Amex cards to collect points, but am unsure of which programme to transfer them to also. Ideally i'd like an airline with a large global reach, like BA. Currently I book premium with BA and use Avios to upgrade to Club World.
Is there a programme with good redemption and lowish fuel charges?
thanks in advance and apologies if this has already been covered in previous posts.
I already have 2 Amex cards to collect points, but am unsure of which programme to transfer them to also. Ideally i'd like an airline with a large global reach, like BA. Currently I book premium with BA and use Avios to upgrade to Club World.
Is there a programme with good redemption and lowish fuel charges?
thanks in advance and apologies if this has already been covered in previous posts.
Mar 9, 2019, 7:03 am
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist, Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Somewhere between 0 and 13,000 metres high
Programs: AF/KL Life Plat, BA GGL+GfL, ALL Plat, Hilton Diam, Marriott Gold, blablablah, etc
Posts: 30,528
Welcome to FT, Eighty9ine and a very warm welcome to the BA forum! I hope you'll find yourself at ease here and even if you decide to slow down on the BA flying to feed another FFP will find the discussions here interesting and useful.
To be honest, your question is probably not best addressed here as it is really not relevant to BA. My recommendations would be that depending on the airlines that you tend to fly, you browse the fora for the main other FFPs in Europe (or your area if you are from somewhere else), so AF-KL, LH, TK, and the more unusual suspects like SK, A3, AZ, etc to see which ones correspond to your interests and flying patterns. Almost all fora will have some sort of dashboard/general information towards the top and you can then ask people in the relevant forum questions about their FFP if some things remain unclear.
Most of us have multiple FFP affiliations so you won't be alone in looking for a second card in your wallet, and you'll find many of us in the relevant other fora again!
To be honest, your question is probably not best addressed here as it is really not relevant to BA. My recommendations would be that depending on the airlines that you tend to fly, you browse the fora for the main other FFPs in Europe (or your area if you are from somewhere else), so AF-KL, LH, TK, and the more unusual suspects like SK, A3, AZ, etc to see which ones correspond to your interests and flying patterns. Almost all fora will have some sort of dashboard/general information towards the top and you can then ask people in the relevant forum questions about their FFP if some things remain unclear.
Most of us have multiple FFP affiliations so you won't be alone in looking for a second card in your wallet, and you'll find many of us in the relevant other fora again!
Mar 9, 2019, 7:49 am
#3
Join Date: Nov 2004
Programs: BA GGL, LH FTL
Posts: 3,578
Welcome Eighty9ine!
In addition to the excellent answer orbitmic has given, you might want to check out Miles & More. While the Lufthansa program itself is not particularly great, it has a large number of smaller European partner airlines that could work with the travel pattern you outlined. They also do credit cards that will stop your miles expiring.
In addition to the excellent answer orbitmic has given, you might want to check out Miles & More. While the Lufthansa program itself is not particularly great, it has a large number of smaller European partner airlines that could work with the travel pattern you outlined. They also do credit cards that will stop your miles expiring.
Mar 9, 2019, 8:06 am
#4
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
Join Date: Feb 2010
Programs: BA Lifetime Gold; Flying Blue Life Platinum; LH Sen.; Hilton Diamond; Kemal Kebabs Prized Customer
Posts: 63,804
And another welcome from me, Eighty9ine, welcome to the forum.
From what I can make out, having AA is an attractive option if that matches your travel schedule, my guess is that is a popular backup within oneworld but one needs to be wary of ending up with relatively small pools of airmiles within one alliance. The one oddball that comes up from time to time is AS (Alaska) since by all accounts they have a good set-up over there.
From what I can make out, having AA is an attractive option if that matches your travel schedule, my guess is that is a popular backup within oneworld but one needs to be wary of ending up with relatively small pools of airmiles within one alliance. The one oddball that comes up from time to time is AS (Alaska) since by all accounts they have a good set-up over there.
Mar 9, 2019, 10:12 am
#5
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 6
Thanks very much for such a warm welcome and feedback
Firstly, apologies for posting in the wrong place, I read its against forum guidelines to repost elsewhere in the forum so I will keep the discussion here. Thanks so much for for both your feedback and such warm welcomes. I did not realise that most frequent flyers have multiple frequent flyer accounts, but it makes complete sense.
I've been reviewing the Miles & More recommended by LCY8737 and it seems good, especially because of the smaller airlines I can redeem on, and most of my clients being across Europe. I really appreciate your feedback and wish you all good weekends.
I've been reviewing the Miles & More recommended by LCY8737 and it seems good, especially because of the smaller airlines I can redeem on, and most of my clients being across Europe. I really appreciate your feedback and wish you all good weekends.
Mar 9, 2019, 11:05 am
#6
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: South East England
Programs: Status with BA Exec Club; KrisFlyer; Hilton Honors; IHG One; Marriott Bonvoy
Posts: 543
You might want to post this in the OneWorld forum, see what folk their find is the best non-OneWorld programme.
Im not currently collecting or crediting them, but Singapore has a large collection of partner airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and some Asian cheapies, and is in Star Alliance. Redemption rates seem OK.
Im not currently collecting or crediting them, but Singapore has a large collection of partner airlines, including Virgin Atlantic and some Asian cheapies, and is in Star Alliance. Redemption rates seem OK.
Mar 9, 2019, 11:29 am
#7
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 21,018
Eighty9ine Welcome to FT
What airlines do you fly?
For a second ffp you are better going for an airline on another alliance (Not oneworld)
This site gives a guide on ff partners for a particular airline --->https://www.wheretocredit.com/
As a guess you are wanting premium awards given what you fly now. As many airlines are in one of the 3 major alliance (oneworld, skyteam, star) so finding an award on the airline/partners can/is hard, even though very nominally awards are available to all ffp's. But in practise it does vary. Finding long haul business awards is often hard.
Not all ffp's have surcharges. For example AA does not have surcharges, unless the award is on BA.
Award guide AwardHacker
What airlines can you Amex points be transferred? Depends on the Amex country of issue. Awardhacker also cc partners
I am a member of the BA executive Club (Silver) and want to sign up to a second frequent flyer programme of another airline. Since I have no intention of aiming for BA executive Club Gold I would be grateful for any recommendations of a frequent flyer programme which has good redemption, and allows me to fly worldwide. I am a digital nomad and live full time in AirBnB, I currently take about 30 flights per year, half are long haul across the world, half are within Europe and I usually fly business class. Many of the frequent flyer programmes I have seen reviewed here seem to be quite difficult to find redemptions or have high fuel surcharges.
I already have 2 Amex cards to collect points, but am unsure of which programme to transfer them to also. Ideally I'd like an airline with a large global reach, like BA. Currently I book premium with BA and use Avios to upgrade to Club World.
Is there a programme with good redemption and lowish fuel charges?
I already have 2 Amex cards to collect points, but am unsure of which programme to transfer them to also. Ideally I'd like an airline with a large global reach, like BA. Currently I book premium with BA and use Avios to upgrade to Club World.
Is there a programme with good redemption and lowish fuel charges?
For a second ffp you are better going for an airline on another alliance (Not oneworld)
This site gives a guide on ff partners for a particular airline --->https://www.wheretocredit.com/
As a guess you are wanting premium awards given what you fly now. As many airlines are in one of the 3 major alliance (oneworld, skyteam, star) so finding an award on the airline/partners can/is hard, even though very nominally awards are available to all ffp's. But in practise it does vary. Finding long haul business awards is often hard.
Not all ffp's have surcharges. For example AA does not have surcharges, unless the award is on BA.
Award guide AwardHacker
What airlines can you Amex points be transferred? Depends on the Amex country of issue. Awardhacker also cc partners
Mar 9, 2019, 11:47 am
#8
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: North Yorkshire, UK / Pasadena CA
Programs: BA Silver
Posts: 1,311
It's certainly a good idea to have a second programme. I use VS interchangeably with BA. On the routes I use most frequently they complement each other fairly well in the sense that if there's no club world availability there are often redemptions in Upper Class, or vice versa. Star Alliance seems to have good global coverage but I have not explored the partner airlines for availability.
Mar 9, 2019, 1:57 pm
#9
Join Date: Mar 2018
Location: England - UK
Posts: 512
Hi Eighty9ine. I'm doing the same thing. I've decided to stick with amex travel partners for the time being so I always have a way of earning miles by card spend.
Was going to go with AAdvantage myself as the costs are astonishing compared to what we're used to paying out of the UK. There seems to be an issue with phantom award availability and that's turning me off a little although that may well be a noob knee jerk reaction and it isn't so bad. For UK based people the best bet seems to be transferring Marriott points over in batches of 60,000 for 25,000 miles as AA pulled their UK credit cards.
Was going to go with AAdvantage myself as the costs are astonishing compared to what we're used to paying out of the UK. There seems to be an issue with phantom award availability and that's turning me off a little although that may well be a noob knee jerk reaction and it isn't so bad. For UK based people the best bet seems to be transferring Marriott points over in batches of 60,000 for 25,000 miles as AA pulled their UK credit cards.
Mar 10, 2019, 7:48 am
#10
Join Date: Mar 2014
Location: San Francisco
Posts: 1,351
Alaska has a very generous programme, of course you need to be in their network. Since moving to San Francisco I use them a lot. I first I was just crediting to BA (and getting pitiful amounts of Avios) until I figured out that I could get status and reward flights very quickly.
Mar 10, 2019, 10:27 am
#14
Original Poster
Join Date: Mar 2019
Posts: 6
Eighty9ine Welcome to FT
What airlines do you fly?
For a second ffp you are better going for an airline on another alliance (Not oneworld)
This site gives a guide on ff partners for a particular airline --->https://www.wheretocredit.com/
As a guess you are wanting premium awards given what you fly now. As many airlines are in one of the 3 major alliance (oneworld, skyteam, star) so finding an award on the airline/partners can/is hard, even though very nominally awards are available to all ffp's. But in practise it does vary. Finding long haul business awards is often hard.
Not all ffp's have surcharges. For example AA does not have surcharges, unless the award is on BA.
Award guide AwardHacker
What airlines can you Amex points be transferred? Depends on the Amex country of issue. Awardhacker also cc partners
What airlines do you fly?
For a second ffp you are better going for an airline on another alliance (Not oneworld)
This site gives a guide on ff partners for a particular airline --->https://www.wheretocredit.com/
As a guess you are wanting premium awards given what you fly now. As many airlines are in one of the 3 major alliance (oneworld, skyteam, star) so finding an award on the airline/partners can/is hard, even though very nominally awards are available to all ffp's. But in practise it does vary. Finding long haul business awards is often hard.
Not all ffp's have surcharges. For example AA does not have surcharges, unless the award is on BA.
Award guide AwardHacker
What airlines can you Amex points be transferred? Depends on the Amex country of issue. Awardhacker also cc partners
Ideally what I wish to recreate is what I have with BA, where I can easily upgrade from premium to business on most flights and use their lounges. My Amex can transfer points to BA, Virgin, Alitalia, Asia Miles, Delta, Emirates, Etihad, Finnair, Air France/KLM, Iberia and KrisFlyer.
Which would you opt for?
Mar 10, 2019, 10:35 am
#15
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: ORD
Programs: US Air, UA BA LH AI DELTA MARRIOTT CHOICE SGP
Posts: 9,883
OP
FFPs change without much notice......devaluation is common.....availability may get squeezes if size of fleet does not rise faster....
So ultimately it is up to you, which airline and alliance will serve you during your "regular" flights and which alliance has a member / partner that will take you to places on your bucket places.
FFPs change without much notice......devaluation is common.....availability may get squeezes if size of fleet does not rise faster....
So ultimately it is up to you, which airline and alliance will serve you during your "regular" flights and which alliance has a member / partner that will take you to places on your bucket places.