Choosing Frequent Flyer Program based out of India
 

Aeroplan is the way to go. No other FFP in the world has so many airline partners to earn and/or burn, and there are lots of opportunities to earn miles from CCs and hotels, etc.

Other than the hours of hold time on the phone to get an agent to be able to book a ticket... yeah I agree. With the ME5 or ME6 (how did they manage that) or even more incredibly - SQ J! They're got a fantastic set of partners for sure.

Choosing Frequent Flyer Program based out of India
 

Hi, I'm based out of Delhi and my home airport is IGI, New Delhi. My travels include at least 2 return trips from Vancouver, around 5-10 domestic roundtrips and about 1-2 roundtrips to NYC and Hong Kong. I usually fly economy but do select business when there is a good fare available (for e.g. 4/12 of my last year-round trips were in business). I usually try to find cheap fares and do not really stick to airlines but for the past few years my travel has been predominantly been through Vistara, Qatar and Cathay. Which frequent flyer programme would you advice I should enroll in?

Thank you so much!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!
Answer: ALL - why do you want to leave your mileage earnings on the table?

Wrong answer. Flights on different airlines in the same alliance (CX and QR are both in oneworld) can be credited to a single FFP. As to which oneworld FFP the OP should credit those flights to, we really need to know more about what he wants out of an FFP. If redemptions are important, then on what routes and in what class of service?

Edited to add: Crediting all oneworld flights to a single FFP would increase the OP's chances of obtaining elite status in that program, which would provide benefits when flying on any oneworld carrier.

And I believe AC has stopped showing itineraries to/from India so one has to call them even more.

Yeah... do you know what happened there? It's not an airline specific problem... it's a country specific problem! I've never something this weird before.

The good thing is that nobody at MoCA has heard about award redemption... otherwise I think AC would be banned from flying into India. :D

I would assume you also have some credit cards that earn you miles. Look at the common denominator there as well because apart from status miles you also want to earn as much redeemable miles as you can.

From what you have said.. QR (Avios) and UK (CV points) would be most beneficial to you. UK will get merged into AI early next year... so CV points will become *A miles. If you're chasing status you might want to give SQ a look. However the problem with SQ will - no direct flights to HKG. SQ has a SIN-YVR flight but they are discontinuing/have discontinued it. So your options then would be through AC/AI and perhaps even LH/LX. But a qualitative downgrade from QR J. So there are significant downsides to SQ - the only upside being a single FFP which improves your odds of *G status.

If you don't want all that inconvenience for status - QR + UK would be the programs to focus on - along side a credit card. AS + UK could have been another very rewarding option that would also require you to fly a lot in AS.. which I can see you don't do.

It's been pointed out that travelers who fly long-haul Business Class on oneworld carriers might get status more quickly by crediting those flights to Iberia Plus:

https://insideflyer.co.uk/2019/03/qa...f-iberia-plus/

("WHY QATAR AIRWAYS BUSINESS CLASS REGULARS MIGHT BE BETTER OFF WITH IBERIA PLUS")

The OP would have to crunch the numbers to determine which oneworld FFP would be most advantageous for him, based on his anticipated Business Class and Economy Class flights.

Note that Iberia Plus Avios can now be transfered to BAEC and to Qatar Privilege Club.

Agree that OP should use wheretocredit to identify the best FFP.

I don't know much about QR vs IB FFPs to comment on this. However, the article itself comes with several stated riders and is written towards BAEC status chasers. It says that the only reason to do this is if you're going to hit IB Plus Plata. Is OP is doing that? Also, OP is flying 75% in Y. What happens then?

It appears that just two long-haul roundtrips in Business (on CX or QR, connecting in HKG or DOH) would get the OP Iberia Plus Oro status -- equivalent to oneworld Sapphire -- which would get him lounge access, priority check-in, preferred seating, priority boarding, and extra baggage allowance, even when flying in Economy on oneworld carriers.

Its best to pick an alliance & credit all your miles to a single program. Your domestic flights in India can only be credited to Star Alliance. UK is likely to be part of that soon. Also, they will soon be one & the same with AI, which is rapidly expanding its network with lots of new planes & routes.

If you have a lot of travel with CX & QR then One World is your next option. Pick a program within the alliance that works best for you & credit there.

Thank you so much for all of your responses. I have an Infinia credit card. United usually is quite cheap while flying to North America but no fares that I have checked qualify for miles+cash for me. UK seems like a sensible option to park miles. The problem with Air India is the present quality of flights and the exorbitant fares charged for it. For example, one-way DEL-YVR Y fare is usually about 2L + rupees, whereas, I can find a decent Cathay/ANA + United J fare for about 1.4L rupees and the other economy options usually hover around the 60-80k fare mark. In your opinion is the Air India program even that sensible in terms of value compared to other frequent flyer programs? For hotels, I have started sticking to Marriott and am 5 nights away from Platinum elite.

The advantage of these airlines is that you can earn and burn miles with the alliances/partners. So if you're thinking about *A - don't go to AI... look at SQ. SQ is good friends with AI & UK. UA would have been another option because UA is a AI, UK & Infinia partner. However, Infinia transfers points to UA at 2:1... so it's really bad value. Where as Infinia transfers to SQ at 1:1.

But if you prefer traveling by QR - I'm seeing little reason to change that - you should look at IB or something similar to collect your QR miles and UK for your domestic flights.

Come to think of it... yeah that's pretty much the same on most *A partners where you'd earn *G status with around 2 DEL-YVR J RTs.