Right Program - Right Card?
 

Guys - I recently left the airline business and branched out in my own busniess so we finally have to start buying tickets.

I live in NYC and will have the need to visit asia (mainly China, Malaysia) and possibly Austrailia about once a month. So, given CX, QF, BA and now JL. Oneworld seems an good bet. I expect to be flying CX mostly and would love some advice on what would be the best individual program to join. I'd want to get a small business cc also. I'm thinking about the AA citi small biz card but that would't get me bonus points for purchases on CX right? Only AA? But if I buy AA codeshare do I get the double points that come with flight purchases? I can then use AA points for UG's on CX?

Sorry if this is somewhere else I did a search but couldn't see anything.

Not to be a traitor to Oneworld (since I'm a BAEC member) but if you are buying tickets with your own $, *Alliance might be a better option, at least for some trips, because there are several carriers with premium economy products on the trans-Pacific route, while Oneworld has no PE routes across the Pacific (someone correct me if I'm wrong about that). With *Alliance, you've got at least Air NZ and Thai, and also possibly Singapore Airlines and ANA. (I think there are a few BA flights from Sydney to Singapore and Hong Kong, as part of Oneworld.)

On the other hand, if you can organise your trips so that you make stops in several countries, a business class circle pacific ticket in Oneworld might be a decent value.

Kate - thanks. So if I was going to go *, which might well make sense as the non-stop EWR-SIN is great to get to KUL, should I get a UA small bix card for all my purchases? I don't think UA codeshare on SQ EWR-SIN so I wouldn't get the usual double miles when purchasing SQ tickets?

No. AA miles can't be used for CX upgrade.

Take a look of the CXleverage program which usually give 20% discount on CX flight.

Thanks - just did. Looks good. There's no CX credit card in the US right? So no way of earning points into Asia Miles from cc spend?

The closest thing is get a SPG AMEX card, which you earn one SPG point per dollar with 1:1 transfer into asiamiles account and 5000 miles bonus per 20000points transfer.