Genouver

I suddenly find myself needing to fly Vancouver-Switzerland (GVA or ZRH) about three times a year, for the next two years (about 75k/miles/year). I’m looking for feedback on my strategy to take advantage of this travel. This post morphed into a mini-essay despite my attempts to be succinct but hopefully I provided enough information to answer my questions. Here are some details, followed by my plan...

Nationality/Residence: Canadian
Routes: YVR/SEA to GVA/ZRH
Preferred connections: YYZ or NYC or both
Annual Income: not an obstacle
Credit Score: 800
Monthly CC Spend: low, ~ $1000/mo
Annual mileage: ~ 75,000 miles/year (for 2014 and 2015)
Business travel: None. I pay for all my own flights with points or cash.
Current Points/Miles: 80,000 Avion points -- that’s it.
Additional Factor: I set my own schedule and can work remotely, so I’m able to take advantage of mileage runs.
Hotels: 10 to 20 nights/year in US and Europe.

ATTAIN ELITE STATUS WITH AA/OW
First, I am assuming my best strategy is to choose an alliance and get elite status, as my 75k miles/year is low enough that I need to make the most of it via elite bonus miles.

Assuming I’m right on that point, I then need to choose *A or OW. For a Canadian flying to Switzerland, the easy choice would be *A, as AC and LX have direct flights YVR-YYZ and YYZ-ZRH (YYZ is important as I have family there).
Advantage: AC/LX/*A

However, *A has two big hits: first, getting elite status is significantly harder -- I would need to fly 100k points in 2014 to starting earning 100% bonus miles as Super Elite. I only need to book another 50k BIS miles this year, so best case scenario would be 50% bonus miles as a 50k Elite. In contrast, I could achieve AA Elite at 50k by the end of 2014, and start earning 100% bonus miles starting first thing in 2015.
Advantage: AA/OW

In terms of paid-fare costs, I have not seen any information to suggest that flying via AA/OW will cost more than AC/LX/*A.
Advantage: AA/OW

Finally, AA awards miles go much further. On AC, a return flight YVR-YYZ-ZRH is 60k points + $615. In contrast, I’m about to fly YVR-SEA-JFK-ZRH on AA/OW for 40k + $140 (even in peak season, this would be 60k). Plus, I can take care of Toronto visits by flying LGA-YYZ BA on Avios points for a very reasonable sum, during my stopovers in NYC.
Advantage: AA/OW

Am I missing anything here?

SHOULD I FLY PAID FARES FOR THE REST OF MY FLIGHTS?
Initially my goal had been to minimize the hard costs of the flights in 2014 and 2015 by redeeming as many miles as possible. But now I’m leaning toward resisting that urge, and taking the opposite approach: flying on paid-fares for my remaining 5 flights to Switzerland, with the ultimate goal of miles accumulation through elite bonuses, rather than redemption. This would get me about 200k miles by the end of 2015. That’s enough for 8 RT trips in North America, or as much as 5 RTs to Europe.

This strikes me as a good use of money since you can book AA EQM flights in the cheapest far codes (deep discount), so I'm not paying a premium to accumulate those miles. Further, it doesn’t look like I’d be paying more for AA EQM flights, than I would for AC/LX/OW flights (i.e., paid fares are roughly equivalent).

I guess the weakness would be the availability of deep discount fares. Any tips on how to book the lowest fare-code? I’m wondering if a membership to EF might be worth the money. I’d also appreciate some tips/principles for maximizing miles on a given fare with routing rules.

CREDIT CARD CHURNING (AND HOTEL BENEFITS)
Given my low monthly spend and absence of employer-paid travel, I’d like to get into churning. I’m happy with the Avion card given the ability to transfer to AA/BA/CX, etc., but as far as I can tell, the FYF sign-up bonuses are pretty much “free money” as long as I keep my score about 760 (it's north of 800 now). I’ll probably be spending about 10 to 20 nights/year in hotels in the US and Europe for this and next year. Any advice on what cards I should be considering given my situation would be great.

Thanks to everyone who actually bothered to read all the way to the bottom, and double thanks for any responses.

G.

Mwenenzi

Are you paying for these flights personally or subject to a corporate travel policy?

Look at links in post 9
AA has the Plat/gold challenge to acheive elite status faster. But AA now does not status soft landing.
You mention BA Avois. Do you now have avois?
Also Alaska is a good ffp for many.

roastpuff

I would do two things: get *A Gold using the A3 (Aegean) method, which is 20k of flying only and good for 3 years, and then concentrate on getting OW status through flying with AA. Aegean is very easy to keep active, it looks like, and you enjoy most *A Gold benefits such as lounge access and extra baggage with most carriers.

Link for Aegean here: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/aegea...need-know.html

Genouver

Personally.

No, but I can easily transfer my RBC Avion to Avios (at a 1:1.5 bonus depending on time of year).

Yes, I'm flying AA/AS codeshares YVR-NYC in and outbound.

Genouver

RoastPuff: Thanks for this, I had briefly looked into this before. I guess my concern is flying for the sake of racking up miles/points only, and end up spending money that otherwise would have been saved on "manufactured" travel. There are A3 flights GVA-ATH which are 2k miles roundtrip, but I could only see myself taking a max 2 of those per year - nowhere close to 20k. Also, if I'm planning to fly on AA/OW, what advantage would there be in *A status?

Thanks.

dukerau

There would be no advantage. If you go with *A though (AC/LX/LH/UA), it would obviously be beneficial. And you don't have to fly on A3 to earn A3 miles. You can credit your flight miles to A3 from any *A carrier. So 2 RT of your YVR-GVA/ZRH would get you to 20K miles. Careful though - with discount economy tickets only some fare classes credit at 100% to A3. see this for reference: http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonu...on/earn-miles/

Mwenenzi

To what airline ffp are you putting the flights to?

Nor do you have to redeem only on A3. This is what partner airlines & global alliances are all about

jbeckett

I'd go with AA/OW. You'll earn more miles because you get to the 100% bonus, and award redemptions to Europe are cheaper offseason. However, be aware that the award redemption cost or availability can change arbitrarily at the airline's whim- those 200k points might only be worth 2 trips to Europe by 2016.

If you like to stay in the hotels of any particular chain (i.e. Hilton), look into a credit card associated with that chain. The credit card may provide status at the hotel, and may earn more points for money spent at the hotel.

Genouver

Newbie question. Could I use AP points (eg through a cc sign up bonus), fly on any *A airline, then credit miles flown to A3? Or must I fly the 20k on A3 to get A3 Gold? I'm thinking the latter but...
Thx.

Genouver

Is this more of a concern with AA/OW than AC/*A?

atsak

No, you can't credit reward tickets for status (except the kind you get from your Avion card, those are usually tickets Avion buys for you so are bought tickets).

You can fly the 20K on any *A airline (AC, UA etc) and credit to A3 and get Star Gold. Then continue crediting there, or to Aeroplan (do not like aeroplan myself but to each their own), or do a Plat challenge on AA and switch to OW. That way you can also try out both products and see which one you like better. Maybe you will discover the direct flight is nicer or you prefer the service on AA over AC, etc.

Mwenenzi

As you are paying personally be carefull not to spend more $$ on a flights just to get some ff miles and/or status that you may or may not use, and will likely devalue over time. Be careful about cash surcharges on award flights that you must pay.

benzemalyonnais

Isn't YVR-GVA about 12,000 miles RT (via YYZ)? 3 times a year=36k

I would initially look at the pricing on this route, as you are paying yourself. If Delta is $750 and AC is $1300, it makes no sense to fly AC, even if their miles are easier to use than DL's. You'll find yourself going out of your way just to chase loyalty and have a shiny tag to put on your bag.

I wouldn't even think to put credit card churning and elite status in the same boat. The miles accrued from sign-up bonuses are always greater than those earned from flying - unless the flying is really significant. One can always just go churn a couple of cards if they have a specific award on their mind.

If you can reach the 50k/year mark and value miles the most, I would look at the programs that offer a 100% bonus for this. Delta and AA do, and those 50k miles would become 100k miles when you have that status. UA and US don't have a 50% bonus at this level.

I'm a little curious why others have suggested AA considering their lack of routes from YVR and to GVA. It seems to me that you'd be flying BA all the time. I feel like a *A program would make sense because the three options (AC/UA/LH) are better than one (BA) pricewise

Seems to me that loyalty doesn't really have much benefit here.....

vasantn

Yes, I'm not sure how the OP gets to 75K miles a year.

makos

Also with BA/Avios you can get lifetime status. If you fly coach or premium economy I would stick to BA.