If you're going to fly Lufthansa to/from Germany and United to/from San Francisco, I would join United's Mileage Plus frequent-flyer program, and credit both your LH and UA flights to UA. If you're going to fly BA to SFO and Germany, I would credit those flights to BA.

For only a few long haul flights would be selecting on schedule & price. With ff miles/avios/points a very minor consideration.
A wide choice of airlines UK EU. Are short cheap flights so would earn few ff miles/avios/points (if any) to any ffp.

UA ff miles have no expiry, So good for infrequent flyers. UA are in Star Alliance, so very many partners
BA avios can expire if no eligible activity. BA are in Oneworld Alliance, so have partners. Including AA for USA trips as well as BA to USA
By VA guess you mean VS Virgin Atlantic. VS are in Skyteam Alliance, so have partners. Including KLM/AF for those EU trips. [VA is Virgin Australia]

To me "priority services" is some what meaningless. Means different things to different people. You are but 1 of thousands flying.
Flying business class gets a better service. As does mid - top status with a ffp to some extent. But you have no hope of getting mid top status on a few low priced fares. For long haul flights consider paying extra for extra leg room seats (premium plus/MCE/what ever name used by the airline)

Mwenenzi Thank you.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades, lounge access, priority services, tie-ins with hotels.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: Projected for 2025 >100 flights, >100,000 miles
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Premium Economy in most cases
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Can choose any airline. PE usually but business occasionally
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: UK-USA transatlantic; USA domestic; occasional within South America
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: EDI & GLA but can easily also reach MAN.
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: No
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: United, Lufthansa

colinAMS , since you will be starting from EDI, GLA, or MAN, you'll probably best off going for status with oneworld (AA, BA, or IB, perhaps).

For choosing flights, EI might have been a good option, either via DUB which has US pre-clearance and TATL nonstops on both AA and EI, or on EI's MAN-JFK nonstop. But EI does not offer Premium Economy. (AA does.)

Status with AA would possibly get you upgraded on AA domestic flights, but not lounge access on a wholly domestic itinerary. Status on BA/IB would get you lounge access when flying AA on a wholly domestic itinerary, but usually no upgrades when flying AA domestically. Status on AA, BA, or IB would get you free Main Cabin Extra (extra-leg-room) seats and free checked baggage when flying in Economy on AA -- even on AA's cheapest "Basic Economy" fares.

AA miles are more valuable than Avios for many types of flight redemptions, but it sounds like you would not be using your miles for flights.

Which U.S. cities do you expect to be your most common TATL destinations? How many of them are served by BA from LHR, or by AA from DUB/LHR? (I note that AA also offers summer seasonal service on the EDI-PHL route.)

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reliability in cases of IRROPS

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Only leisure, so not many (maybe 50k max)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Whatever makes the most sense in terms of value. Willing to pay cash for J on a red eye, but willing to sit in E+ on a day flight if its only 8h.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly Pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Leisure travel, but basically everywhere

(6) What is your home airport?
Any NYC Local airport are all relatively okay, but prefer JFK and EWR over LGA

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
No

(8) Preferred Airlines
Prefer not to deal with Ultra Low Cost Carriers due to Irrops.

Probably thinking United is generally best for me, since Delta tends to charge a premium for intra-US flights, competes pretty closely against United for Trans-atlantic and Delta is non-existent for trans-pacific. United partners also tend to be better, so I can fly ANA/SQ when it makes sense. The only slight loss I take in flying united is not having VS/AF/KLM redemptions for trans-atl, but I'd rather redeem against ANA and can do some one-off VS redemptions anyway. Unless its a trans-pac direct flight from NYC to TYO or SIN, I dont really care about on board dining as I usually eat once a day anyway, and can fill up at the Polaris or D1 Lounge (or eat enough before I arrive at the airport). If I fly to TYO or SIN, both of my preferred carriers (ANA and SQ) are *A, so they can credit to UA.

The only reason I was thinking about loyalty at all is that I am generally a carry-on only kind of person, especially for intra-US travel, and Id like higher priority in boarding. United's Infinite Club basically gives me group 2 boarding on legs I'm not flying J and *A lounge access, plus I can pay it off with United mileage points. I already have an Amex Plat for when I need to use a Delta Lounge, or a Centurion Lounge, so I figure this gives me the best coverage.

soonasu1 , no interest in AA/AS/AY/BA/CX/IB/JL/QR from JFK, crediting to AA if you wanted a shot at domestic upgrades, or to a foreign FFP (like Iberia Plus) if you wanted lounge access when flying domestically? AA and AS both have some domestic service from EWR, and AA has a lot of short- and medium-haul domestic service from LGA.

I'd lean Oneworld too if I was in the OP's, but I wouldn't put a whole lot of effort into being loyal (i.e nonstops are better than connecting in Charlotte even when you have to sit in the back).

I want upgrades - Delta or United?
 

I am at a fork in the road and I need the advice of ye esteemed travelers.

I just got a job where I’ll be traveling from LAX to New York 6-7 times per year, and this seems like a good time to finally lean into one airline program - United or Delta. My goal is to be able to buy economy tickets with cash (reimbursed by my company) and upgrade with miles or points (e.g. Chase or Amex transfers) on these long haul flights and eventually earn status (to get more upgrades). Please help me choose: United or Delta. Details below!



1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?

>>> Reply:



Things that are most important:

• Chance of getting upgraded to a more comfortable seat, whether for free or by tendering miles. Ideally business class obviously, but “premium plus” (or whatever they’re calling the middle cabin these days) or even extra leg room is better than nothing.
• Travel experience between the NY airport (assuming Newark for United, JFK for Delta) and downtown Manhattan

Nice to haves:

• Lounge access
• Waived baggage fees: when I travel with my family of three a couple times a year, these can add up
• Good food
• Good customer service

Things that are not important to me:

• On-time statistics
• Priority boarding

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?

>>> Reply: This is super difficult to calculate since it’s based on dollars spent. Conservative estimate is 16 segments, $5k spend per year.



3. What fare class do you usually buy?

>>> Reply: Economy



4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?

>>> Reply: I primarily travel for work and I can choose my airline, but I must purchase economy tickets



5. Which routes do you fly most often?

>>> Reply: Transcontinental LAX - New York City

Additional consideration is that I fly to Houston (United hub) a couple times per year to visit family on either Southwest or United.



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: Nope



8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

>>> Reply: United or Delta (3rd choice JetBlue)

Kathamo , welcome to FlyerTalk!

I do not believe that Premium Economy is offered by any carrier flying between LAX and JFK/EWR. Each carrier does offer an extra-leg-room section which can be secured at time of booking with cash or miles. Passengers with status can get these seats for free, either at time of booking, or at check-in, depending on status level.

You will not get lounge access with status in U.S. frequent-flyer programs when flying domestically; if you were to obtain mid-tier or higher status with a foreign, oneworld FFP, you would get domestic lounge access when flying AA or AS, but it does not sound like you would be flying nearly enough to earn such status. AA, DL, and UA all offer high-end credit cards (through Citi, Amex, and Chase, respectively) which include lounge membership. Whether the high annual fee associated with those cards makes them worthwhile for you is something only you can decide.

I'm not sure why you are not considering AA, which flies LAX-JFK and LAX-IAH. (AA's oneworld partner, AS, flies LAX-EWR.) Status in AA's AAdvantage frequent-flyer program can be earned through a combination of flights, credit-card spend, hotel stays, car rentals, AAdvantage Dining, purchases made through the AA e-shopping mall, etc.

Without status, a free checked bag is often a benefit of holding the airline's co- branded credit card. But with AA, that benefit extends only to domestic flights.

Since most people do care about timeliness and JetBlue has an abysmal operational performance record, they try to excel in other areas to offset that. Just something to think about...

Thank you for the detailed reply! I can confirm that, at least on United on many LAX-EWR flights, there is a “premium plus” section between economy and business with wider seats and some additional amenities. I don’t know about Delta, but United treats this route essentially the same as a transatlantic route, with typically wide body planes, lie flat business cabin, etc.

you likely do not fly enough to qualify for status with any airlines, so you have to pay for the upgrade whether in cash or miles. by upgrading with cash, you can save your miles for award flights (maybe houston), which are generally better value than redeeming upgrades. if you are open to fulfilling credit card's SUB, you should be able to accumulate quite a bit of miles, so you dont really have to loyal to any airlines.

lounge access and waived baggage fees can easily be obtained with a credit card.

OK. Checking UA's schedule on a random day in January, I see that Premium Economy ("Premium Plus") is indeed offered on about half of UA's LAX-EWR nonstops. The other nonstops are operated with narrow-body aircraft. All flights also offer "Economy Plus" extra-leg-room seats.

For LAX-IAH travel, it looks like AA offers just a single nonstop per day, on a regional jet. UA offers much more service on that route.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: (1) Redemptions (2) Upgrades

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: Depends on the role (more below) next role will be 20% travel mix domestic and intl, work intl travel to Switzerland, Ireland, UK mainly

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

Reply: Business for transatlantic, domestic first > 4h and economy otherwise

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Both work and pleasure, mostly prefer for work = BA, Swiss, Lufthansa, pleasure = Turkish, Qatar and then Emirates for F redemptions

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: BOS, SFO, IAH, ZRH, GVA, FRA, MUC, DUB, ORK, LHR

(6) What is your home airport?

Reply: Company will relocate me to the US, I'm open to options work is remote with domestic and intl travel, currently would prefer BOS (can live in NH which will be tax efficient), someone would need to convince me but I would be open to living 30min-1hr drive from LAX, SFO as well (better weather), or near NYC (more cosmopolitan), I would be open to Florida as well because the weather is nice.

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?

Reply: BA Silver, have some transferred miles in Emirates waiting for a redemption opportunity

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, LH/LX for intl

Mostly interested in recommendation for new home hub airport, criteria:

1) LCOL / Low overall tax burden (property, sales, income)
2) Good weather (prefer 25-28C but I'm fine with few winter months)
3) Less than 1hr drive, I'm pretty airline agnostic
Willing to trade between 1/2 to an extent