I will be mainly traveling from either ORD or JFK/EWR to India. I was looking at doing some personal trips to FRA. I expect to fly to India 2x a year in Y and was looking at what the best airline frequent flyer was. I will mainly be flying Y.

What would get low fuel surcharges for award flights to FRA or India?

thanks

2 trips to India in a year in Y will take you around 2+ years to score a oneway US/India ticket unless you’re buying very expensive Y tickets. FRA oneway will probably be possible in ~1.5 years.

So you should look at a credit card strategy to supplement your miles.

ORD/EWR are UA hubs and FRA is LHs hub. So it probably makes a little more sense to stick to *A and credit your miles to UA’s MP.

All the major US carriers have 0 YQ on their own and most of their partner flights (BA miles tickets on AA are a noteable exception). They only have a $5-6 security fee.

I have BA with 10k points left. I also have Jet with 14k miles. There is an old Air India account that i am trying to revive. I just signed up with Asiana because they give 2 years to get *A gold status so I was thinking that might be worthwhile.

Mainly that is the travel I am expecting. I may end up taking a few trips in the US but it won’t be regular.

Yes I was thinking to get a credit card to earn more/most of my miles. I didn’t realize UA had 0 YQ on LH. Thanks for mentioning that. I was thinking to credit to Asiana as they allow 2 years to get *A gold status and maybe get some free upgrades/lounge access. Then If I get *A gold I can credit to United until I have to requalify for Asiana. From what I can see Asiana doesn’t have fuel surcharge for United. So maybe I can just use Asiana and book a United award ticket to FRA?

Awardhacker lists Ewr to Del as 85k round trip in Y. I assume you mean J is one way?

You also have to see earning rates not just burning rates. Given your travel frequency you’re not going to be earning too many miles.

Check OZ & UA’s earning and burning charts for UA/LH/AI/SQ - the potential flights you can take between USA-FRA and USA-IND.

Also BA & 9W have the worst YQs. And 9W and AI have the worst redemption miles requirements. So go with UA unless you find OZ’s earning charts to be better.

No I meant in Y. How many miles do yo think you’ll earn per trip?

How much is YQ on a US-IND trip?

Wow on looking at UA earning rates if you book directly with them you will earn at 5x the ticket price. A $1k ticket would only get 5k miles! Also looking at the number of economy tiers it looks pretty sad for LH on UA.Deepest discount economy really? I was expecting to get 16k miles or so for each trip, but that’s assuming 100% earning which I guess is unlikely. UA earns 100% on OZ so I guess OZ seems reasonable to credit miles to.

Look at OZ's burn rates. Also look at AV. They have a pretty good earn rate for UA and a 40k threshold for reaching *G. Keep a couple a few things in mind...
1. Earn and burn rates and redemption availability is important
2. Make sure that wherever you're crediting you will be able to credit reward points too, or have a card that can outright buy tickets on the card's RP

Another FTer had posted recently they were charged 140ish miles + around 35k INR for a one-way J flight to Cancun. I think the flight EU-NA leg was on KLM or AF.

Wouldn’t other destinations in NA have similar YQ?