1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Priority services, award redemption, lounge access, upgrades

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 miles, ~20 flights. Mostly Transcon US, international flights. I may be doing more trips to the midwest though.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Economy, upgrade with points where possible.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly able to choose as most flights are personal/for pleasure. When flying for work, I can usually choose alliance.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
NYC-SFO, Usually one or two long haul international flights

6. What is your home airport?
NYC

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
United Silver. 50k United miles. I'll have 50k amex points and 50k chase sapphire preferred points which I can transfer to their airline partners.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
None though I have been flying united.

PHX based traveler - USAir or AA and SWA
 

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Upgrades

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?

just shy of 50K

>50

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

Economy and Premium Economy

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

Work; SWA and USAirways/AA

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often

Domestic - 90% / Intl - 10%

(6) What is your home airport?

PHX

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

Delta Silver / 140K
SWA - A-List
USAirways - 152K

(8) Preferred Airlines

I use SWA and US Airways since I am based in PHX. I think I stay with USAirways and get the Citi AA Platinum Credit card

-ABCD

Hi there! I'm new to the boards. Wondering which program (if any) I should join.

We're a family of three. We are interested in going to Hawaii this Summer or Fall. If we like it we might want to go every year or every other year. We are also interested in traveling to CA Central Coast, Denver, New Orleans, Tahoe, Costa Rica, Jamaica.


Here are my answers...

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

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Not many. We usually drive. I'm interested in adding one or two flights a year.

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?
pleasure

5. Which routes do you fly most often
US domestic

6. What is your home airport?
LAS (Las Vegas)
also willing to fly out of LAX & nearby

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

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
none

Hi all,
Really glad to have been told about this place, seems like something I've been looking for! I am trying to find a Frequent Flyer Program to join, so your help would be very much appreciated.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Miles that I can use for traveling, cheaper flights.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25,000-50,000, although 50k+ in the last 2 years

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, I can choose the airlines and the class of service. I travel for pleasure.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Transatlantic (Europe to Americas)

(6) What is your home airport?
London Heathrow

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Joined Delta's Skymiles (which I'm not happy with) where I've collected 17k miles on 7 flights so far, so not even a Silver status. (I also have 4 boarding passes to use from last month on round trip flights from the UK to Australia with Emirates and Quantas, 22,500 miles in total, so thought about joining the Emirates program, although haven't done it yet.)

(8) Preferred Airlines
None



Thank you all for your help!

Mikey_J Welcome to FT

Generally FFP's do not get you cheaper flights. A very few ffp have points/miles & pay option, to use points/miles instead of cash, but these are a very poor use of points/miles. The main use is award flights and upgrades (from eligible fares)

For your Aust trips were the flight numbers QF or EK? See post 2 of this thread for some retro credit information. For most ffp you need to be a member at the date of the flight. Only a very few ffp allow credit for flights before you sign up. QF & US Airways do. Cannot find on the BA web site if BA do or do not allow retro credits. You need to something about these now, or you risk losing 22,500 miles/points/avois, or a % depending on the booking class.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

Hey Mwenenzi,
Thanks for your help. I've seen some miles + cash deals that seemed pretty decent, so I thought that would be an option for me, but generally any rewards would work - I just feel I'm missing on something flying relatively much for the last few years and not taking any benefit of it.

Flights to AUS were Emirates, I guess in alliance with Qantas (both QF and EK on the boarding pass), flights back were Qantas (only QF on the boarding pass). Regarding the retro miles, the lady at the Emirates service desk in Dubai when I was flying to AUS told me that I can claim back miles from up to 6 months before and she created some Skywards Membership number for me - all I have to do is to activate it right now, if I choose to.

Thanks,
Mike

OK.
So all your flights were EK flight numbers (EK marketed) on EK & QF aircraft (operated)?
Or your flights were EK and QF flight numbers (EK & QF marketed) on EK & QF aircraft (operated) on different legs?
You may need look at the reservation when bought
With QF you can only claim up to 30 days before join date.
If EK given you 6 months retro claim before joining the EK ffp thats good.

Flights to AUS - QF & EK marketed / QF & EK flight numbers on EK aircraft
Flights from AUS - QF marketed / QF flight numbers on QF aircraft

Help picking best FF program for F upgrades and purchases
 

Hi -

I used to be a very frequent visitor and poster, particularly to the AA forum, but have forgotten just about everything I used to know, so please keep the flames to a modest burn. :D

The single most important factor for me in choosing a FF program is my ability to get upgrades (and in worst case scenario, purchase most affordable YUP tickets, etc.) When I started out focusing on this about 10 years ago, AA was the hands-down choice for me because at the time they flew about 300 S-80s, and what routes I cared about that didn't use them were always on full-sized planes (I can't even remember if there's a different term to describe non-RJ aircraft...). That was important to me b/c ALL of their non-RJ planes had at least 16 F seats. By contrast, a number of competitors I came across seemed to have as few as 8 F seats on each plane. Adding in the various tools that AA had at the time to obtain upgrades, and the fact that one of my main destinations is ORD (my home airport is MCI), it was an easy choice.

I don't love RJs, but can tolerate them IF they have single seat configurations on one side of the aircraft. Bottom line is that I'm a big guy, and if I'm traveling alone, I try desperately not to have to sit next to anyone else.

Here are my answers to the questionnaire:

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

AVAILABILITY OF F SEATS, UPGRADES, AND REASONABLY PRICED F SEATS

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

I USED TO FLY A LOT MORE, NOW MORE LIKE <25K PER YEAR AND MAYBE 20-40 SEGMENTS, BUT OFTEN PURCHASE REASONABLY PRICED F TICKETS

3. What fare class do you usually buy?

EITHER ECONOMY WITH AN UPGRADE OR REASONABLY PRICED F (OR CLOSE-TO-TRAVEL PURCHASED ECONOMY TICKETS ON RJs)

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

YES, I CAN CHOOSE AIRLINES, I USUALLY CHARGE MY COMPANY ECONOMY PRICE AND THEN I PAY THE DIFFERENCE NEEDED TO FLY IN F. I FLY MUCH MORE FOR WORK THAN FOR PLEASURE.

5. Which routes do you fly most often:

MCI-ORD
MCI-SNA
MCI-LAX
MCI-BOS
MCI-LGA

(Until now almost all on AA via ORD or DFW, but more recently some nonstops for MCI-LGA on DL.)

6. What is your home airport?

MCI

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

LIFETIME GOLD IN AA (IN PAST MULTI-YEAR AA PLATINUM; IT'S POSSIBLE I WILL RETURN TO FLYING SUFFICIENTLY TO GET THAT LEVEL OF BIS MILES ON THAT OR OTHER AIRLINES) I HAVEN'T SAVED HUGE SUMS OF MILES. I HAVE PERHAPS 80K IN AA, AND A SIMILAR NUMBER IN THE SPG PROGRAM, WHICH I HAVE HISTORICALLY TRANSFERRED 20K AT A TIME IN ORDER TO GET THEIR 5K TRANSFER BONUS.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

UNTIL NOW AA. LOOKING FOR BEST NEW RECOMMENDATIONS GIVEN THE ROUTES I FLY, AND MY GOAL OF CONTINUING TO FLY UP FRONT...

Thank you in advance for any flame-free help you can offer!

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

Reply: Priority services, priority boarding, "status perks," etc.

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

Reply: So far with my new work position, in 6 months I have 12,550 miles & 35 segments under my belt.

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: Able to choose airlines but not class of service. I travel for work.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?

Reply: US domestic

6. What is your home airport?

Reply: GSP (Greenville/Spartanburg)

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

Reply: Silver Status on Dividend Miles (US Airways) with 13,380 miles (bonuses included)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

Reply: No preference as of yet. As long as I get there on time and without incident, I'm happy.

I am basically wondering if there is a better program for me to join. I am not too concerned with free flights and whatnot because I will be getting them one way or another. Comfort and priority status are the most important aspects because I will be travelling a lot. I like getting on the plane early, getting my bag in the overhead bin, and getting situated without bothering my fellow passengers. ;) I also wouldn't mind having lounge access from being a FF. (Hooray for free scotch!)
:-:

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


Reply: Award redemption, Free airfare

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

Reply: >25,000; >25 flights

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: Yes; Work and pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often

Reply: U.S/Canada domestic

6. What is your home airport?

Reply: LGA/JFK

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: Absolutely none :)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: No preference, really. I'm a fan of Delta though.

Hi everyone,

There is just an overwhelming amount of information posted on this forum, hard to get started. I think it's a valiant effort how all the information is organized.

I'd like to sign up for a new rewards program and apply for a rewards credit card. My credit was bad due to student loans till recently, I fixed it by consolidating loans and paying off them off. My credit score is around a 740, I recently was approved for a CapOne credit card and they raised my limit on another CapOne card. I appreciate any input you guys can provide, thanks!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: good award redemption rates, free/cheaper flights to Japan|Europe|California in that order, upgrades, priority services. Japan being the first priority at least for now.


2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: I've been traveling for work the past year and probably will have this job for at least another 6 months. I can't find on Delta.com how to display only mileage flown, my Skymiles account (includes a 1-2 hotel stays and car rental) is at 26,503 miles. Unfortunately, all my miles are on Delta I was not aware how terrible it was for award travel, it was the first flight for work I took and just stuck with it. I fly mostly to Knoxville, TN with a stop in Atlanta stay at a hotel and rent a car. I travel via Amtrak to NY and DC, where I stay at a hotel and buy train passes.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., 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, I am able to choose my airline but not my class of service. I travel for work mostly but want to start for pleasure as well.


5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: U.S. domestic PHL -> ATL -> TYS round trip, sometimes the stop over is in Detroit

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: PHL

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: Skymiles? I don't think I quite reached Silver, I was pretty close by the end of year though. 26,503 miles


8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: I actually like flying Delta other than their rewards program. I am open to other airlines although, I've had some bad experiences with United Airlines delays so not much of a fan.

Thanks again

Hello! I've been doing a lot of reading here, but I'm still a little confused about which FFP would be best for my needs.

So here goes! :)

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: Lounge access, priority boarding, better award access and rates, nice service

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply:
Usually <25000, hovering around that mark.
But the past few years have been 25 - 50k; future years may be a little less for me if the husband and I have a baby, but then maybe the baby could be a little FFP earner? ;)

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply: Premium economy, sometimes economy; leaning more towards getting J tickets out of pocket if needed.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Able to choose both - travel for pleasure (and seeing family, which sometimes can't be classed as a 'pleasure' :p )

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: Australia - Asia annually/biennially; Australia - Europe/USA annually/biennially

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: MEL

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply: A3 Gold (*G) - 35k miles; SQ Krisflyer loser - about 13k points

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: SQ.
No real preference otherwise, but I try to avoid budget carriers.
In Australia, I get a free Virgin flight annually via my credit card.

Moving from the UK to the US - current BA Silver
 

Hello FT community - my answers below. I'm currently BA Silver and matched by Delta, United (and considering to match AA). Most of my miles are travelling to Europe and back (mostly PMO, MIL and LON). Wanted to ask you guys what you recommend as I am based in the US now (this year I am struggling to keep BA Silver because I am missing 1/4 eligible flights). Thanks in advance for your help!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
(e.g., upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access)
Reply: upgrades, priority services, lounge

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
(e.g., <25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles and <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: 25000-50000

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., 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, pleasure US to LON/Italy / work US domestic to a lesser extent

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: transatlantic (MIL, PMO, LON)

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: NYC

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
(e.g., AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro)
Reply:
BA Silver (110k Avios)
Delta Gold Medallion (just matched)
United Premier Gold (just matched)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: British Airways

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Currently UA Silver, with more business travel than usual scheduled for the upcoming year. Will be flying NYC-Paris at least quarterly, and BA OpenSkies' JFK-ORY in Premium Economy looks very attractive. Also have one trip booked on EK for JFK-MXP.

Despite UA seemingly going down in quality, I have always preferred over AA, and I like the *A partners. Would like to try to maintain UA status while adding on another, possibly BA/OW. Looks like the EK miles may end up worthless unless someone has a good suggestion?

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Reply: priority services most important, better award access secondary

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: 25,000-50,000 miles; <25 flights

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Reply: premium economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 65% work 35% pleasure
Yes, am generally able to choose the airline, though not class of service.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: US-Europe, then US domestic

6. What is your home airport?
Reply: NYC (EWR/JFK/LGA)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
Reply: UA Silver with 400k+ miles

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: UA has been my go to, I wouldn't call it preferred ;)