Stay with UA or alternative?
 

In a previous job, I flew frequently and had UA and Alaska status. I haven't had status levels in a couple of years, but the new job will be traveling frequently (8-10 international, 10-15 domestic trips).

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Priority services, lounge access, baggage allowance - the things that make travel more comfortable
I'm less concerned with upgrades and award redemption.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
>50K, about 15-20 flights. On a rough estimate, I'm looking at about 150K miles this year.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply:
Domestic: Economy or Premium econ.
International: Business

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
I'll be traveling mostly for work, some pleasure. I make the flight arrangements myself, so if the cost is similar, I have flexibility on airline. Service class is based on domestic/international.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
Reply:
US domestic: PDX-SFO, PDX-AUS, PDX-LAS
International: Dusseldorf, Tokyo, and misc Europe and Asia.

6. What is your home airport?
Reply:
PDX - Portland OR

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:
No status currently. Have about 200K miles banked on UA.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply:
Company prefers UA, but mostly prefers less expensive. Lately the UA fares have been nearly 2X the price of other fares, so I haven't been flying UA as much. I nearly exclusively fly *A airlines. Recent flights have been on Air Canada, which have been quite nice in 787 business class.

Star Alliance ffp help!
 

Hi
I am looking for a program to credit *A flights in. Most of my travel is on discounted economy class international sectors on airlines based in Asia and Europe like SQ, TG, AI, LH & TK. I do not travel much, maybe 2 or 3 trips a year and hence if the program allows pooling miles with family members, it would be good, however, not necessary.

Main motive would be to redeem the miles for those expensive short haul one way tickets, especially within Europe or other small regions.

Any help on which program to credit miles in?
Thanks.

Unfortunately most discounted economy tickets earns very little or zero mileage to other FFPs. It's usually best to credit miles to the airline you usually fly mostly with.

BLR-SEA frequent flyer choices
 

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

Reply: Upgrades on travel. Tickets are usually purchased in economy.

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

Reply: 40K-60K miles, economy class. Typically 10-15 sectors

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

Reply: Cheapest

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

Reply: Travel for work. Somewhat limited choices of airlines: Delta/AirFranceKLM, Cathay, Emirates, BA

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

Reply: BLR->SEA. I have a limited choice of airlines (mentioned above)

(6) What is your home airport?

Reply: BLR

(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: Cathay Silver

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not really.

svijay Welcome to FT

What is wrong with Cathay? Alaska has many partners, including DL, EK, KLM

You objective on upgrades will not happen. Status matters. 10-15 economy segments is not going to get status with any airline. If over several airlines more so. Especially on the cheapest economy tickets. With non USA airlines always expect to fly in the class you buy. Even upgrades with miles/points/avios/whatever is hard. Have a read of post 2

Best *A program for India
 

Most important information to note is that I am located in India and my home airport is BOM (Mumbai, India) and after a lot of research I could not find anything relevant to Indian flyers and hence am posting here for some help.

I am looking for the "best" *A FF program to join based out of India. The three options that I am looking at at AI Maharaja Club, Turkish Miles and Smiles and Singapore KrisFlyer.

Also another thing to note is that there are no reasonable credit card programs to collect miles in India.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Reply: Lounge Access, longevity of miles, Extra baggage allowance, Upgrades, redemption of miles for award seats (in that order)

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: A little above 50K miles over 12 odd sectors, all long haul. And then some domestic sectors not amounting to much.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Reply: Premium Economy, Economy, Discounted Economy

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 work and pleasure. Work is sometimes in premium economy and sometimes in economy. Personal is always in economy or discounted economy. Complete flexibility in choosing airline. When travelling for work I can book any airline/class upto a certain budget depending on the distance and for personal travel I choose the cheapest available option.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: Fly mostly from India to US (LAX either TATL or TPAC depending on which flights are cheaper and IAH only TATL) and Europe (LHR and ZRH). It is typically 2-3 trips in a year in total to US and Europe and some (3-5) domestic trips in India to DEL and BLR.

6. What is your home airport?
Reply: BOM (Mumbai, India)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
Reply: BA Executive Club - Silver (OW Sapphire), about 85K+ Avios all of which were accumulated over the last one year. I have Silver status all the way up until May 2016 so don't need to bother for some time.
Emirates Blue (Was silver last year but did not re-qualify this year)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: BA and Cathay (for their premium economy option to LAX), Emirates for their overall service. Fly Air India domestically sometimes. Swiss for direct service from BOM-ZRH and Turkish because of the discounts available on economy from BOM to Europe.

I partially disagree on the upgrades. Recently a colleague of mine flying Cathay in Premium Economy was given a complimentary upgrade to Business (at no cost) while using her BA EC FF where she has Bronze status (OW Ruby). Might be an operational upgrade.

As far as getting status with 10-15 long haul sectors between BLR and SEA is concerned, maybe one can look at Turkish Miles and Smiles to bank the miles and get the required status for lounge access. But I am a newbie so I am pretty sure others can throw more light on which is the best FFP for him.

You cannot relies on no cost complimentary operational upgrades.

I agree.. which is why I said I *partially* disagree :):)

Yes this is correct but there is no particular airline in *A that I travel mostly on. If any, it would be AI domestically and SQ internationally. Programs of both these airlines don't give much miles on discounted economy but Redemptions are very poor for short economy flights as they charge YQ. I understand United MP gives more miles for discounted AI flights than AI program. And redemption using MP miles is much better.

Any suggestions considering this fact?

New to FFPs and FlyerTalk!
 

Hi there,

New to FlyerTalk. Looking for advice on a good starting FFP. Very grateful for any help you can provide!

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)

The single most important thing to me is accumulating miles to exchange for plane tickets. I don't care about upgrades or other luxuries as much as I can care about being able to save on airfare.

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 take 2-3 international flights a year. Traveling is my hobby. I fly from west coast USA to different regions around the world - South America, Middle East, Southeast Asia. I also take about 3-4 domestic flights a year, usually across the country.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)

Economy. The cheapest flight is all I am interested in.

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

I travel for pleasure. Sometimes I travel for work, but it is 1x a year.

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

International, transatlantic or pacific.

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

PDX (Portland, Oregon)

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)

I have nothing!

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

I have none! I care less about comfort than I do price, to be honest.

brittq Welcome to FT
What airlines have you flown recently (say in the last 6 months)? You may be able to retro claim some ff miles.
If you fly a range of airlines may as well join airlines in 2 of the alliance- US/AA & UA.
Or maybe only Alaska due to many partners http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Need help to choose *A program
 

Dear knowledgeable frequent flyers,

I have been reading tonnes of threads and websites to figure out which program would be best for me. After weeks of reading pros and cons, I am probably more confused now than I was in the beginning.

A lot of people say ANA's program is the best (low milage needed for award flights, possibility to have stops on the way to your destination, and great search engine), but I'm not happy with the YQ they charge on their tickets.

They do offer award flights with Vanilla Air without YQ, but these tickets are fairly cheap and the award flight availability is bad.

Are there any better options for me, living in Japan?
I am collecting ANA miles through my credit card as well (approx 10,000 miles per year)



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: Cheap award tickets, flights to remote countries/cities I wouldn't normally travel to, and status if possible.

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: 50000 miles, 10 sectors

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
(e.g., first, business, premium economy, economy)
Reply: Cheapest ticket available

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I travel for work and book tickets myself. However, I think my company wants me to book the cheapest option.

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

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

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:
Aegean Airlines (Miles & Bonus) - 1000 miles
All Nippon Airways (ANA Mileage Club) - 9380 miles
Finnair Plus - 4280 miles
Qatar Airways (Qmiles) - 8016 miles
Scandinavian Airlines System (EuroBonus) - 325 miles
Virgin Atlantic (Flying Club) - 12440 miles

I also have 2 flights with unregistered points that I have to bank somewhere.
Oct 2014, NRT-PDX on UA (economy class)
Jan 2015, NRT-IST on Turkish Airlines (economy class)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Reply: No preference

Help decide
 

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: Award Redemption Availability, Upgrades, Lounge Access (in that order)

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: 25-50

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. Both.

5. Which routes do you fly most often
(e.g., U.S. domestic, transatlantic, intra-Asia)
Reply: MCI->LA, MCI->SBA, MCI->NRT, MCI->ARN

6. What is your home airport?
(e.g., SFO, LHR, HKG)
Reply: MCI right now, could change soon as we may have to move.

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: Had companion pass via SW last year. Now I have no status anywhere. 60,000 ish miles in Chase Rewards (transferable 1:1 to United/SWA) and 75,000 in American Express Open

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

Best airline/program for DCA home airport
 

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

1) priority services (check in, boarding, help desk), 2) upgrades, 3) lounge access. Don't care much about award redemption.

My main goal is to get priority services even if it costs extra money to do so.

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

Not a lot. Maybe 10-20 flights a year, of which 2-6 are international

3. What fare class do you usually buy?

Typically economy but I don't mind paying a few hundred extra for business/first on a domestic flight

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

almost always travel for pleasure

5. Which routes do you fly most often

US domestic mostly, to Florida, New York, California, Raleigh-Durham, Chicago, Minneapolis. For international destinations, primarily Paris, London, elsewhere in Europe.

6. What is your home airport?
DCA Washington Reagan

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in a FFP, if any?
No status but ~30k in each of American, US Air and Delta

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
No major preferences. Anything but Spirit.

Thank you in advance for your responses!