And AA challenge worth considering. Have not calculated if worth it. Depends on how many AA or OW flights after this adventure.
Great circle distance 20219 miles x 0.5 = 10102 EQP. Need to check more, but this may get AA status as below. http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-onewo...-platinum#tier

Wiki AA Challenge: -"An AA Challenge is based on flying sufficiently to earn 5,000 (AAdvantage Gold) or 10,000 (AAdvantage Platinum) Elite Qualifying Points (EQP) in a three month period". Note this is not an AA site
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html

What are the dates of the trip ?

Thank you - this is most complex!

So, if I have this straight, AA I would earn 50%, Alaskan I would earn 100% and LAN I would earn 100%.

Redemption value may vary. If I use AA or Alaskan on their own or a One World flight (e.g. a BA flight) would I be required to pay fuel surcharge (understand from above I would not with LAN)?

AA charges 12,500 each way for flights within the US / Canada, thus 25,000 round trip. I would accrue ~ 10,000 miles (at 0.5 in N), so would not have enough to redeem for any flight without further activity.

Alaskan charges the same miles as AA for reward flights within US / Canada, but I would earn 100% in N, for ~20,000 miles, which I could use for a one way (no return trip without further earning)

LAN is on a milage (km) basis, with e.g. 8,000km being needed each way to fly up to 750km (e.g. YYZ - JFK) (no one way awards). I would earn 100% in N, ~32,000km, allowing 2 x sub 750km round trips.

Based on this (and tell me if I am going horribly wrong here), the only way I could redeem within N. America for a return flight without any other point earning, would be to go with LAN. I *may* be able to use AA for an intra Europe (10,000 each way) depending on additional fees which may make it not worth doing? Alaska's Europe partners seem to start at 15,000 each way intra-Europe, so would not be double without additional earning.


LAN miles (km) expire after 3 years unless you have some sort of activity flying LAN itself

AA miles expire after 18 months BUT there are lots of cheap ways (e.g. buying an itunes song) to have an account activity to renew them ad infinitum.

Alaskan miles expire after 2 years - do they offer similar to the AA in terms of keeping the account qctive easily without flying?


AA or AF would be easier to deal with customer service wise.

Am I on the right track here?

I am going to look at the challenge info now! Thank you!

(dates of trip, start Dec 18th, finish Jan 3rd)

Intra-Europe flights are generally best bought by cash as you have noticed elsewhere. On a CPH-HAJ itinerary, the train cost almost equals the taxes on the award. Time-wise also there isn't much difference, as the flights involve a connection.

There is one specific flight I was considering, which may or may not happen based on a few factors - but yes, I tend to agree, cash often is best (I did use a couple of awards for UK - Italy a few years ago, because for whatever reason, the prices were incredibly high (IIRC it may have been around Easter to Rome). To / from the UK you are somewhat more limited on options - the tunnel can work, but you don't have as many options as you do on the mainland continent.

If there is some way for your transfer miles to AS then AS would be a better choice. With AS you would get enough for a one-way without even a transfer. Do either of them have a Canadian CC card?

Will take a look - no cc immediately comes to mind.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alask...astercard.html

Emma69 is looking for a home for miles from 1 Canada-Aussie (return) trip. Not a transfer.

Does AS offer one way awards ?
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan.aspx

AS & AA are both generally considered as good ffp's.
Freq flyer programs are for the long term (frequent) and not just 1 trip.

Thanks both - I have some more reading to do!

It would be good to have a one world membership going forward - I have / had BA and AA in the past (both defunct now as I haven't used them) as * alliance don't always fly everywhere I want to go!

BA & AA have never been in Star. They are with 1W

I know, but she might not have enough for one full trip with either of those miles, so I suggested ways that she get some additional miles.

Yup, understood - what I meant was that I had them waaaay back when (when I lived in Europe), and because I started choosing * alliance this side of the atlantic, they (BA and AA) became expired / defunct. I still use them occasionally when * alliance don't fly where I want them do.

AFAIK, the prog w/ the fastest* way to elite is Air France/KLM Flying Blue. 15 Skyteam segs hits Silver, 30 hits Gold, and so on. You also earn RDM, but not EQM, on Alaska tix.

https://www.klm.com/travel/us_en/fly...olds/index.htm

*fastest via flown segs

Watch out for YQ, although it has to be noted that they did reduce this amount quite a bit recently.

Alaska FFP redeems Europe using AA metal mostly, and also follows AA's off-peak supersaver of 20K OW (Oct to May) on some busy gateways such as LHR, CDG, MAD etc. Plus it doesn't charge a $75 close-in.

I love love love Alaska.