Mwenenzi

Your colleague must be flying enough to keep AA Gold. He may be flying on expensive tickets.

Earning status with any airline is hard. Especially on cheaper flights.
Three transatlantic trips and three domestic US trips may get you on the way to status. Will these flights be cheapies or more expensive/better class?
AA have a status challenge for a $ fee, but cost many be more than the benefit for an infrequent flyer.

With AA you have to have eligible activity in 18 months to stop ff miles expiry.
Delta ff miles do not expire.

With the change of most USA based ffp's to revenue based for flights on own airline, flying the airline with best fares and best schedule that matches your requirements now has merit. And then treating any ff miles as a bonus, which may or may not, be able to be used.

Voldoo

OP can still credit their AA flights to AS if he/she is referring to their frequent trips from NYC to Asia (or any other international flight).

denkmit

Hey guys, any help appreciated as I feel like I'm not getting the best I can be getting at the minute...

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades, redemption rates and especially lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
125,000 miles and 60 flights last year, all in economy (unless I get a good rate on premium economy)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Business traveller, I can choose my airline within reason but class needs to be cheapest available

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
European short haul

(6) What is your home airport?
London Heathrow or Gatwick

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
British Airways Executive Club Silver, with 131,000 Avios to spend

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
British Airways to both, and I'd quite like to keep flying with them if at all possible

WildGrip99

Hi, I've just started to fly more, mainly long haul to the Philippines. I expect this to increase in the coming year, and in a few years time with the addition of my girlfriend and 2 kids joining me on the flights.
The world of FFPs is way more complicated than I expected, so I would appreciate any advice you can give!
Tthank you in advance for the help!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Discounted fares, free/discounted upgrades, free/discounted lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
This year: 60k (mainly 2 return, economy flights to the Philippines)
2 years time: Ancticipated 230k - 340k (mainly 2 - 3 return, economy flights to the Philippines, but including myself, my gf, and 2 kids)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Cheapest, Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, I can choose. I usually fly Emirates or British Airways for long haul, and British Airways, EasyJet, or RyanAir for short-haul.
I travel for holidays/vacations.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
London > Dubai > Philippines (Manila or Cebu)
Philippines (Manila ir Cebu) > Dubai > London
(Dubai is optional)

European short-haul

(6) What is your home airport?
London Heathrow (Birmingham, Manchester, or any other London airport would be fine)

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
British Airways (Blue) - 2k Avios
Emirates Skywards (Blue) - 6k points

(8) Preferred Airlines
No real preference.

Mwenenzi

WildGrip99 Welcome to FT

Doubt if you will do any better. BA & EK (and there partners) seem to cover most of your flights.
QF has EK & BA as ff partners, but would not recommend the QF ffp.
EasyJet & RyanAir, being low cost carriers don't really do ffp's.

BA have family pooling, which would benefit you.

You cannot move the ff miles/avios you have now to another ffp.

Low cost fares are tending to earn few ff miles, especially if not on your ffp’s own airline, but it depends on the ffp. Some economy fares do not earn 100% on any airline ffp. They can earn nil ff miles, even if flown on the airline of your ffp.

https://www.wheretocredit.com/british-airways
https://www.wheretocredit.com/EK

Be mindful of expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

I would not chose flights on the basis of a ffp. Choosing on price & schedule is better IMHO.

WildGrip99

Thanks Mwenenzi, I appreciate the response. I'm currently trying to decipher BA's Executive Club/Avios/Oneworld puzzle. I think they should use people's understanding of FFP schemes instead of IQ tests...
I think I will have to come up with a crazy spreadsheet to work out if it's worthwhile or not, but I suspect you are right when you say to just choose flights based on price.

Explore SE Asia

If you are going to be flying with family, you might investigate credit cards that give lounge access. If you end up flying star alliance due to price, you might consider crediting to asiana. 2 years to qualify for gold 40k, family pooling of miles.

I am unfamiliar with prices from your location. However, I am relatively indifferent to flying into Bangkok, Manila or Singapore. I then use a LCC to fly around the area. (I would be careful with LCC if you are traveling with a lot of luggage.)

cbrmanf4

Trying to help my mom with the miles & points game. She normally flies to Hong Kong once every other year on Cathay Pacific (the only FF account she has thus far) but she's flying to Europe in a couple days on Air France (V fare), and a domestic Delta basic economy (E fare) flight. I was going to create and bank these miles to AS, but I read that they're ending their partnership with AF on Apr 30, 2018 so my mom won't be able to get miles credited on her return flight (in May).

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access, etc.
>>> Reply: Good award rates, miles that don't expire or have easy policies to extend expiration

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
>>> Reply: < 25,000 miles, 1 international roundtrip, 1-2 domestic roundtrip flights

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Yes, but she usually travels with friends on tour packages and they tend to choose the cheapest revenue ticket

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: transpacific

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: LAX

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: Cathay Pacific (I think around 40k miles)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Cathay Pacific

Voldoo

I'm admittedly not the most knowledgeable person when it comes to the points/miles game but I thought I'd chime in bc I was in the exact same boat last year trying to help out my grandparents. You mom likely doesn't fly (or spend) enough to earn status on any of the major US carriers including Alaska. If she does have 40,000 Asia Miles racked up, I'd focusing on finding ways to continue to increase that balance to be used towards future redemptions to HK.

When booking travel in the future, try focusing more on finding CX partners that she can credit her future flights to. A helpful link can be found here:

https://www.asiamiles.com/en/earn-miles/airlines.html

As you can see, the list is quite extensive and regardless of where she is traveling, she can likely find flexible partner carries that fly that route. For example, when traveling within the US she should try and fly AA or AS and reference her Asia Miles number to fully consolidate her rewards earning.

Unfortunately you are correct regarding her upcoming travel with AF and Delta. Neither are Cathay Partners and the AF partnership with AS is ending while the Delta Partnership expired last year. At this point, you might want to create a FlyingBlue (Air France) account for her and credit both the Air France and Delta Flights to this account. I only recommend AirFrance FFP over Delta's because FlyingBlue is partners with various credit card issuers so the miles she earn can be consolidated with Credit Card Transfers from AMEX, Chase, City or SPG if she holds any of those.

endo_jackson

Really great of you to help your mom!

SB0000

I need to fly in the end of June from Oregon to Alaska. I have the circumstances to get accepted to most all cards. I need 2 tickets. I do not travel. (hate to do it). I think currently the alaska card, $30k, +companion +$100bonus, $1000/spend limit, will work the best for me to squeeze out a "one" time flight for the cheapest possible. my questions are does the flight ($350ish) if purchased soon, count towards the $1000 spend limit? or x 2 =$700, how does the companion pass kick in if things count towards the spending limit? i could not find these details anywhere, i do not know if they fall in to a basic knowledge question! (eventually ill get the 30k, just not in time)

Jimmyinoz

My circumstances have changed. I have gold with Virgin Australia just now, but will not have sufficient status to renew now I've retired and unlikely to have much business travel in Australia. I also have around 200k in Qantas FF points. I have 40K AMEX - 57K VA 40K with Delta, 80K with Avios and 40K Singapore Airlines. Just a few with AA and Alaska

I plan to travel and have recently booked an ATW trip using Qantas and Finnair. This is an (I) fare in business class. I also intend to visit the USA regularly - once maybe twice a year.
I have a 'complimentary offer' from AA - Gold status which needs to be consolidated with a flight in AA metal - which I have already booked. My question is whether I should add the miles from my ATW tip to AA or Alaska rather than Qantas. I'm looking for good reward future redemption rates to USA in Business class.
I prefer points to staus credits now.
I expect to fly ATW or once from Aus to USA return each year as a minimum. This would be in discount business ( I) I'll also have a trip to Asia from Australia each year - again in BC
Home airport Melbourne - Australia

Any thoughts would be welcomed.

tom911

Alaska-booked award travel between the U.S. and Australia on Qantas is much more valuable than AA award travel on AA/Qantas for two reasons: free stopovers and less miles required. I have a trip this month to Brisbane in business for 55,000 Alaska miles. AA wanted 80,000 for the identical Qantas flights. My return trip from Brisbane in business/first includes a free stopover in Sydney for 70,000 Alaska miles. AA does not allow free stopovers, so I'd have to pay 10,000 miles to fly BNE-SYD in coach, followed by 110,000 miles in F to fly SYD-SFO two days later, for a total of 120,000 miles. I'm saving 50,000 miles one-way by booking with Alaska miles compared to AA miles for this portion of the trip.

I've seen some reports of U.S. travelers connecting in Asia to get to Australia, but as it's something I wouldn't do myself, haven't paid a lot of attention to it. The Alaska web site says a Cathay routing from the U.S. to Australia would be 60K in business and 80K in first. I'm guessing that you'd get a free stopover in Hong Kong or somewhere in Asia with a routing like that, but just don't have the experience with the Asia routings to Australia, so that might be something worth pursuing on the Alaska forum.

Compare the redemption charts:

Alaska award chart: https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mileage-plan/use-miles/award-charts?lid=nav:mileage-charts&int=AS_NAV_MP_AwardCharts_-prodID:MileagePlan
AA award chart: https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...ward-chart.jsp

Mwenenzi

Jimmyinoz Welcome to FT

You have a big overlap of ffp's
QF, AA, AS & BA are ff partners of each other. Although the AA-AS ff partnership is very limited compared to last year.

VA is a ff partner of DL & SQ

Having multiple ffp’s with low balances is never a good idea. You may never get enough ff miles/points to be of use before they expire. Adding frequent miles in a ff program that you can use are worth more than ff miles in an orphan ffp that you will never use even if the earning rate is better.

You will need to be careful about expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

And QF ffp would be 96,000 QF points and ~Au$500 for business class one way. A comparison (but not up to date) in post 330

QF have now made it very hard to find the award cost in QF points. The simple basic calculator has gone. And the simple QF display of award flights available over a month when searching for an award flight is now well hidden/near impossible to find.

But as well as the burn need to look at the earn. And QF fails that test compared to others.

A guide for redeemable miles https://www.wheretocredit.com/ But the check the airline ffp web site. Is now harder with revenue based ffp's

tom911

If you are going to credit Qantas to Alaska, make sure you check the Qantas page on the Alaska website for the flight numbers that will accrue. I've not had a problem with U.S.-Australia flights accruing but that doesn't mean every Qantas flight is on the list. Look under the "details" heading.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...er-overview:QF