AA and AS elites have special reciprocal benefits -- including potential upgrades -- which go beyond what the oneworld alliance requires. With top-tier (or even mid-tier) elite status in either program, you should be able to select extra-leg-room seats with either carrier free of charge at time of booking in most cases, so even if you don't get upgraded, you'll be more comfortable in Coach.

Hi everyone!
Doubting my choices, and it seems like I'm in a good spot for a change.
My home airport is SKG, and my destination of choice is Japan, which makes flying TK the only reasonable option. This allowed me to get TK*G, but after taking another look at redemption tables I realized that I'm unlikely to get enough miles to redeem my route of preference in J, especially since I apparently need to pay for connecting segment as well. I get a couple thousands miles on the side, mostly with Avis, but other than that I found no option to earn a worthy amount of miles.
So I thought about A3, which seems quite easy to get and maintain, gives additional benefits on own routes, and I could also earn using their new bonus visa. I have almost two years of *G from TK now, so I could still get lounge access.
But I would still want to redeem on the same TK flights to Japan, so I am unsure about award availability.
What is your opinion, should I change to A3, or maybe there is a missing earning option with TK that I don't see?

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

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
20-35k, 20-30 sectors

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly pleasure, in case of work I can choose airlines but not class

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
Intra-EU, transcontinental to Asia

6. What is your home airport?
SKG

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
TK*G

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
TK, A3

Central Europe (BUD / VIE) to SE Asia, USA & Middle East* (TLV, UAE )
 

Hi all, thanks for any possible info!
edit*: And for the answers so far.

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

Class & seat upgrades, mostly from Economy / PE to Business.
Easy status gain & maintenance.
Optional Status match with current LY Matmid gold,
and possible future status match options from New FFP to other FFP's if I decide to move .
Long term value for miles / points.

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

70000+ Miles, 30+ flights/sectors

3. What fare class do you usually buy?

Business Flex / PE Flex on long haul, economy on short haul

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

Yes. I choose my flights and airlines, can choose business on most long haul flights over 6 hours.

I travel mostly for work.
Some pleasure short haul flights & rail travel in Europe.
Will use rail & air tickets for the domestic leg of a long haul flight when possible.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?

5-6 Europe to SE Asia , varied, such as BKK, SIN, BLR, HKG, SZX Mostly Business class
1-2 Transatlantic Europe to East coast US - Boston / Washington DC Economy / PE
5-6 Central Europe to TLV : mostly BUD - TLV , Vienna - TLV. Low cost / Economy
1-2 Europe to UAE Business / Economy
1 TLV - UAE Low cost / Economy


6. What is your home airport?

BUD / VIE (Plus train)
I may relocate next year in central / western Europe, and will keep similar international routes.
Some options are: MXP, LIN, AMS, BRU, BCN, MAD

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How many miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?

LY Matmid Gold ~80000 points , ~2900 / 5200 diamonds.
Miles & More member 31,059 Miles 366 Points.
Small amounts of :
Emirates & Etihad points and old United & Delta miles.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

KLM, Swiss, Emirates, Etihad, Hainan.
EL AL to TLV

9.
I will travel with / through:
UAE (Emirates, Fly Dubai, Etihad) , Singapore, Azerbaijan, Morocco.

I Avoid traveling with / through:
Qatar Airlines & Doha airport, Iran, Lebanon, Kuwait, Tunisia, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Malesia, Indonesia.
Turkey & Turkish Airlines, Jordan, Egypt and Russia.

10.
I'm interested in matching credit card reward programs, can also be american based.

Thanks!

R D , welcome to FlyerTalk!

But for the fact that you prefer not to fly QR, I would say that AA's AAdvantage program would serve you well: AA miles are very valuable, and AA only collects carrier surcharges on award tickets involving BA or IB. In addition, one can earn AA miles -- but not status points -- when flying on EY, which serves VIE but not BUD.

AA might still be worthwhile if you were to relocate to Western Europe, where flying on oneworld carriers other than QR would not require as much backtracking when flying to Asia.

Other than AA, I'd say that Iberia's program would be best for gaining status quickly with your travels to Asia, as long as you're willing to backtrack to LON, HEL, or possibly MAD.

I'm not as familiar with Star Alliance programs, one of which might be better in your situation.

ME = Middle East
DXB = Dubai, United Arab Emirates
DUB = Dublin, Ireland

Presumably you mean DXB, not DUB :)

Jó napot kívánok!

[DELETED]

aRcane305 , I think you need to figure out whether the status benefits you value would be available by achieving status in a partner airline in the same alliance, rather than by achieving status in the airline that you will actually fly. In some cases -- depending on your flight patterns -- it might be easier to achieve status with a partner. ;)

Another part is the use of miles, not just the use of status. So yes it may be easier for you to get status with a partner rather than your home airline, but you may find it is harder to redeem those miles in the future depending on location.

not familiar with amex au, but according to this website, QF is only a transfer partner for points earned with amex plat or centurion, so an explorer card wont be eligible. in addition, i have never heard of any airlines that count transferred points towards earning status. for QF, their status is earned based on status credits, which is a different currency from their miles, so the transfer ratio has no/less influence on your choice of FFP to earn status

1) my own view is VN has been good for you. i havent heard being upgraded 10/10 when purchasing the cheapest fare class. maybe it is because those flights are often not filled and they dont have that many elite members as their FFP isnt as popular. in any case, if you were to start flying more popular options like CX, i would expect the upgrade chances to decrease significantly as the planes will be more filled and there are a lot more elite members to compete for the same spots

2) based on your flying milage, you can likely only hit status with 1 FFP. if you are flying different alliances, you may not get status in either, which seems like what happened to you this year

Or, in some cases, you may find that the partner FFP's redemption rate is lower than the redemption rate offered by the FFP of the airline you actually want to fly.

Would appreciate input and feedback related to my situation...Living in San Francisco (SFO home airport), and which FFP is best suited to my travel patterns and needs. A snapshot of my profile:
- Just reached Million Miler Status with UAL (comes with lifetime Gold status)
- Am a member of Mileage Plus (Will be Platinum for calendar year 2026)
- Have historically flown UAL due to work requirements to use UAL
- Recently retired from full-time consulting, and am now doing part-time consulting (anticipate 20 weeks of annual work-related travel)
- New employer allows me the option to fly either UAL or Delta (which is the root of my question...Stay with using UAL exclusively, or consider moving over to Delta
now that I have lifetime Gold Status with UAL). My understanding is Delta status may be easy to obtain due to status match and then using AMEX Delta credit
cards to 'boost' me annually thereafter in keeping status.
- Hotel status: Lifetime Bonvoy Platinum, Hilton Diamond via credit card, Hyatt Globalist through annual stays.
- Do some international travel when not working

Best Frequent Flyer Program for you?

- What is your definition of best?
- Offers the best value and opportunities for travel.
- Do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
- At this point, I value miles/points, but would like to travel comfortably. I am thinking some type of 'mid-tier' status to hopefully get both miles as well as some ammenities
when flying.
- Do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
- Yes...
- What do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, whatever)?
- Whatever...A mixture of both award travel and upgrade. Most likely award travel.
- What sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
- Destination is priority, followed by class of service
- Which airline and where do you normally fly?
- Historically have flown UAL exclusively, but now have the option to consider Delta. All work-related travel is domestic...Vacation travel includes international travel
- Are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
- Primarily business/work-related...But likely shifting a little more to leisure.
- Where do you live?
- San Francisco, CA
- Do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
- UAL Quest credit card, AMEX Platinum, and recently dropped Southwest credit card

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for any insights. perspectives, or suggestions!
I have no real 'complaints' about UAL...Just wondering if it wise/advisable to consider shifting my travel to Delta from UAL, or stay the course with UAL. I know SFO is an UAL Hub which brings alot of flight scheduling options, while Delta is not. I am used to flying multiple segments so that is not a major issue for me if I were to consider Delta. Would upgrade be a given 'perk' since Delta has such a small SFO presence?

Happy New Year to All!

Hi everyone!

Happy new year! Which means I've been looking into which FFP program to go with from now on, and to clean the slate and take my miles more seriously (compared to doing whichever alliance was cheapest).

Copenhagen-based, which means that the only credit card I believe is available here, are the SAS EuroBonus credit cards (which give 20-25 points per 100 DKK spent, and you have to get the Premium card to get level points).
I believe to have heard that BA Executive Club and Finnair Plus have some decent lifetime point schemes, and that Miles&More is less optimal now? I also wonder when EuroBonus will merge with Flying Blue - basically, just trying to wrap my head around which Alliance (and program) it would make sense to go with.


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: Lounge access, baggage allowance, seat reservations - the passive things that make flying more enjoyable. I believe that having steady progress would be great, like lifetime points to keep status, compared to "x consecutive years", which can be tough if you fail to keep status for a single year.

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: Around 25.000 miles, 15 flights (~4 long-haul), but slowly starting to fly more.

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

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Travel for both, and I can choose airlines and class of service myself (mostly).

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: Mostly short-haul within Europe, with a few long-hauls each year for vacation/work/conferences (US, Asia)

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: CPH, Denmark

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: Currently no status in any FFP, was putting miles into different programs, and as such was 88 XP away from Silver on Flying Blue last year (with 7.990 miles). Had 40 QP on Miles&More (160 lifetime QP), and 0 tier points on BA (472 lifetime tier points) with 1.805 Avios.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: SAS, KLM, BRU

ItsHero Welcome to FT
With about 10~12 short (cheap?) intra EU flights and 4 long hauls you will struggle to get meaningful status, even if all the flights with 1 airline(alliance). More ffp's are tending to revenue based programs. (~frequent spender programs)

A little off topic from your preferred airlines, but in the oneworld alliance QR, BA, IB IE & AY all use avios as the ff currency. Subject to t&c's (fine print) avios, but not status earnings, can be moved between these ffp's. To get status need to have a ff number in the reservation so all avios & status earning go one ffp (e.g. only BAC)

Lifetime status. Your lifetime or the the life of the ffp as it now is? The ffp rules will change. IMHO unless you can obtain life status in say 5 years, not worth considering when selecting a ffp. FFP's are not for the long term (they change too often).

Be careful about expiry
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...-t-expire.html
BA https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...-points-6.html

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply: I'm wondering if there is a FFP that will work out to OW Emerald status for me, for the first-class lounge access. If there are multiple, I prefer if I can get complimentary upgrades, but I know this is pretty rare in the first place.

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: I will usually fly Singapore-New York once a year (business), and Singapore-London twice a year (business), plus leisure within Asia (economy). Due to the dates, it usually results in 20-30k USD spend on business flights per year, which I believe can be an easier way to reach status than mileage for me.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Business and Economy, see above

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: I can pick airlines, and pick between business or economy

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: intra-asia, and between Singapore and London/New York

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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: SQ PPS, which does not grand first class lounge access

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: If I limit myself to OW, then the convenient options for my flights are pretty much Qater, BA and Quantas, depending on the flight. Maybe also finnair or etihad. But the FFP can be any OW FFP, the only preference is that if it's all the same, then benefits for the flights I actually take would be great.

alerys , assuming that your pre-tax airfares total ~$22K USD, you should be able to achieve OWE status by crediting all flights within an elite-earning year to AAdvantage if all of your flights are on BA. The AAdvantage program credits miles/Loyalty Points for travel on BA based on pre-tax fare. Travel on Cathay, Finnair, Qantas, and Qatar, on the other hand, credit based on distance and fare class, with some Business Class fares earning more than others.

Though it's not a oneworld member, flights on Etihad do earn redeemable miles and Loyalty Points if credited to AAdvantage. But again, credit would be based on flown mileage and fare class, not on pre-tax fares.