LHR77W Welcome to downunder ^

Air NZ is very poor ffp (and that is being polite). On low cost fares you get few ANZ points and less again (or nil) with other Star Alliance airline ffp's.
If you want to get ff miles do not fly Air NZ:- air fare price vs rewards

With OneWorld airlines you are limited ex AKL to QF - CX -JL? flights. Can be credited to BA ffp (or AA ffp).
But low cost fares on CX earn little ff miles with any ffp (including CX)
For long haul awards AA is hard to beat. Low miles and nil/low surcharges (unless on BA)
BA is good for short haul awards
QF is a poor ffp (but better than AirNZ)

Sadly AKL is not the best place to be for earning freq flyer miles, even from long haul.

Thank you all for your incredible advice and support. I've been a long-time lurker but have recently begun to fly a lot so have decided it is time to nail down an FFP and get learning and sharing. Your help is hugely appreciated!

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

Reply:- Upgrades on travel, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access

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

Reply: 25000-50000 <25

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

Reply:Economy

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

Reply: Work and pleasure, can choose airline but not service. Most flown with ANA and Qatar.

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

Reply: Japan - Europe; Japan - Africa; Japan - America

(6) What is your home airport?

Reply: Tokyo NRT

(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: Emirates:20,000 Qatar:3500 ANA 10,000 SAA: 2000

(8) Preferred Airlines

Reply: Qatar. + Airlines with good in flight food and drink

Which loyalty program
 

Hi All,

My first post.

I currently have a BA Exec club silver. I really like having the card but my collection year ended on August 8th and my card expires end of 09/15. I didn't get enough point last year to continue.

I am flying Qatar Airways LHR-DOH-BKK in business on Sunday and returning on Sep 2nd.
I am flying AA one way Business LHR-JFK on September 3rd and then flying down to Charlotte with US Air in coach. I think these flights will bag me 700 tier points and instant silver status again for 2 years??

I'll be living near Charlotte for the foreseeable future so my question is.......

Which of the one world loyalty programmes will suit me better? Should I stick with the BA exec club of maybe try out AAdvantage or maybe Qatar Privilege? In fact does it matter as my tier is gonna be one world sapphire? AA and Advantage would be my leat favourite but could it have more benefits living in the US?

Thanks all,

Wirelessly posted (BlackBerry: BlackBerry8530/5.0.0.1030 Profile/MIDP-2.1 Configuration/CLDC-1.1 VendorID/417)

"AA and Advantage would be my leat favourite." Why?



What are your anticipated redemptions, and how much does each program charge for them, in terms of both miles and cash surcharges? AAdvantage does not assess surcharges on award tickets, except when traveling on BA or IB metal.



Sapphire status through AAdvantage will not get you lounge access (even when flying in First Class) on domestic flights within the U.S., except when connecting same-day to/from an overseas flight. Sapphire status through another oneworld FFP will give you lounge access on domestic U.S. flights.

Welcome to FT!

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

Qantas and American are somewhat unique in having paid lounge membership programmes, which trammels their flyers with rules that do not allow lounge access (even based on status) during domestic and mid-haul travel.

BAEC has already devalued their FFP; though I'm no prophet, I do predict AA will do so as well - perhaps to be announced toward the end of 2015, but more likely in 2016 (based on some public statements by USdbaAA management statements).

OTOH, AA certainly offers more ways to earn piles of miles if one lives in the U.S., but Avios are often the preferred and more economical award travel for U.S.A. and shorter or mid haul flights, whereas redemptions for awards on BA of any kind incur punitive YQ fees.

You could renew Silver if your calculations are spot on, but you could credit the 3,451 miles (5,176 EQ Points) plus other AA, U.S., BA and other JBV flights within three months to AA and complete a Platinum challenge, having Sapphire status as soon as you accrue 10,000 Points (not miles - flights accrue 100% miles, but from 0.5 to 1.5 Points, depending on fare class paid).

If you're going to be USA based for the foreseeable future, this might be your "ticket".

It would be useful to know where you live and what your general travel pattern looks like. That way we can we can better advise you on what is suited to you.

Living in USA (or UK) do not join QR. No point.
Stay with BA or join AA.
FFP's are for the long term. Not just a few flights

Look and post here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

After reading more than 100 of these threads, I honesty think the best way to pick a FF program is pick the airline whose logo who like the most. After all, think how often you will have to look at it. ;)

You need 4 eligible flights as well as 600 TP's for Silver. An eligible flight is either a BA operated, BA marketed or IB marketed/operated flight. So although you'll have enough TP's based on the above, you won't have Silver until your 4 eligible flights.

For AAdvantage this is true. For QFF this is completely incorrect.

Although Qantas offers a paid lounge access program (Qantas Club), if you are Qantas Gold (oneworld Sapphire) or higher you have lounge access as per oneworld rules for all travel whether it is domestic, international, shorthaul or longhaul.

http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access

Exception 1 of the above only relates to Qantas Club members (and AA/US Admirals Club members), not to passengers with Qantas status.

Exception 2 only applies to AA/US status passengers which prohibits lounge access for domestic/midhaul flights. This does not apply to QF status passengers.

Exception 3 is redundant and potentially misleading and does not mean Qantas Gold's do not have lounge access on domestic flights. The Qantas Domestic Business Lounges are for paid J and Emerald status passengers. There is always a Qantas Club (Sapphire status) lounge available.
The exception is redundant as it applies to all Sapphire's not just QFF, and is already listed higher up on the page: "Sapphire tier frequent flyers are welcome in Business Class* or frequent flyer lounges. (*does not include Qantas Domestic Business Lounges)"

Good point. I am from London, I am living in Ireland for 2 more days and then I am emigrating permanently to North Carolina. I'll probably be doing a lot of flights out to Sunnyvale CA and maybe twice a year back to London. Thanks

Fantastic advice. I never thought of that

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.
Upgrades, Priority Service, redemption rates (although less important)

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.
Unknown at the moment. I would imagine it would definitely be greater than 25k, probably closer to 50k-75k (new job, so a little unknown)

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
Economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airlines (for the most part unless there's a large price differential), but not the class of service. I travel for work and pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
Most likely domestic USA, although it will be a lot of long domestic routes

6. What is your home airport?
SFO

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
No status. About 40k miles in Delta and 9k in United

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
I have a strong personal preference for Delta, although I understand that SFO and DCA (an airport I believe I will be flying to frequently for the next couple months) are more United friendly. I'm torn between Delta and United

Seeking Guidance
 

Hey all, I'm anticipating an uptick in the amount of travel I'll be doing for a new job and am seeking to get the most out of the miles by finally figuring out an alliance/points plan that works best for me.

Questions

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades! I'm not sure if these come as the result of status, or generating points to spend on upgrades.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
I will be flying coach just shy of 50,000 miles a year over around 10 trips in coach (hence the desire for upgrades)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Company provides economy, will probably self-finance upgrades to economy plus seats for 10k+ mile trips

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Airline yes, class no. Have flown Virgin exclusively the past few years but all of my travel was on the west coast of the US, this is changing

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
US Domestic, as well as to DUB and SIN

(6) What is your home airport?
SFO

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Virgin Elevate Silver for a year, burned all my Elevate points on a trip recently

(8) Preferred Airlines
You tell me! For domestic I like Virgin when available, but realize I'll have to switch my allegiance to a larger carrier to get points on int'l travel.

Advice for SFO
 

My questionaire is bellow. I have some a real noob questions:

I'm considering getting a points credit card but don't understand the basics - do I link a FFP to the card or is that separate? For instance, If I get a united miles card from chase do I also separately sign up for a miles program?

I am interested in both Credit Card and FFP recommendations.

My main goal is to earn tickets to help with family travel to SFO <--> Germany that I do every other year or so. I travel occasionally for business (6times/year) and this includes international travel SFO to Asia and Europe.

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: Redemption for international travel SFO <--> Germany

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: 6-10 flights. 50k

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: Mostly work. I have control of travel. Must be economy

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

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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: No

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
None. But United out of SFO is frequently most convenient.

Thanks!

China Southern layover and ffp
 

Hello,

My first post here.

I am planning this trip from San Francisco to Thailand on China Southern airlines with layovers in Wuhan and Guangzhou. The itinerary is like below. Would I get free accommodation at both places - Wuhan and Guangzhou?

Depart SFO : Thursday
Arrive Wuhan: Friday 7pm
Depart Wuhan: Saturday 8am
Arrive Guangzhou: Saturday 9:40am
Depart Guangzhou: Sunday 8:50am
Arrive Bangkok: Sunday 10:50am

The cost of the ticket is $650rt.

Also which frequent flyer program I should sign up to maximize rewards for this booking? I haven't travelled much in the past but planning to do so regularly now. I am based in San Francisco/ San Jose. China southern is a member of skyteam.

Welcome to FlyerTalk.

1) Know that no airline I know of will provide free accommodation on those with discounted tickets.

2) Check which airlines credit you miles when you fly them (as CZ is a SkyTeam Alliance member, research other members, such as Delta - see http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_.../airlines.html), realizing some may accrue few or even no miles on highly discounted fares on partners.