daveybobby

Moving from YYC to SEA in the new year. Currently AC 50K Gold / Star Alliance Gold.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority services & complimentary upgrades. Lounge access a huge plus. Eventually hoping to use banked miles for European & Asia trips.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Typically ~40K miles, 50-55 segments.

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airlines, can't choose class of service. Currently fly mostly Air Canada, but I expect this to change in SEA. I travel mostly for work.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Currently, ~70% is SEA/YVR/YYC (4 segs round trip). I will mostly travel between SEA & YYC for work, once or twice a month. Otherwise it's Toronto a few times a year, and US domestic for miscellaneous trips.

(6) What is your home airport?
SEA will be my home airport.

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Air Canada Altitude 50K / Star Alliance Gold. About 200K miles banked.

(8) Preferred Airlines
TBD!

The_Bouncer

Hi. Hopefully someone can advise me. I have the following flights coming up and I am not sure where to credit them.

BHX-CDG AF (L)
CDG-NRT AF (V)
HND-SYD QF (S)
SYD-MEL QF (S)
MEL-DPS GA (T)
DPS-CGK GA (B)
CGK-ICN GA (T)
ICN-CDG KL (AF metal) (N)
CDG-AMS KL (N)
AMS-BHX KL (L)

A quick look at www.wheretocredit.com shows that the QF flights credit 100% to AS, so that's pretty much a no-brainer, but the others are a puzzle. The KL & AF flights only credit 25% to AS, but 50% to DL. The GA flights seem to credit 25% across the board.
I don't have a Skyteam program at the moment and only have a small balance on AS. I am not loyal to any airline or alliance and have no status anywhere. I just go where the cheapest fares are.
Is it worth opening a DL account and burning the miles on rental cars, or should I just tip all of the AF & KL flights into AS at 25%?

Mwenenzi

QF, AA & DL and some others in Skyteam are partners of AS. http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx

A small amount of miles (even at 100%) in an ffp are nil value if you do not get enough to use before they expire. [DL miles do not (currently) expire]
Miles at 25% earning are more value if they can be used.

QF is a poor ffp, with high miles/points & high cash award co payments
For example to me 2 QF points has less value than 1 AA mile. See post 330 in this thread

Miles/points are not equal to earn or burn

The_Bouncer

Thanks for this. I agree that QF is a poor program and I had more or less ditched it on favour of crediting OW miles to AA. However, AA only gives 50% credit for this fare, so I was thinking of sending these miles to AS at 100%. The problem is the ST sectors. Since AS credits only 25% for AF/KL, I am thinking of sending these to DL in the hope of getting at least something out of it.

milesfreak321

Hi, I am interested in how to get fastest gold for myself (currently FTL *A) and my wife (no status). For quicker results below my answers:

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
priority services], extra baggage allowance, lounge access, free flights (from miles accumulated)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Myself: 25k-50k miles and 25-50 flights
My wife: 15-30k mile and 15-30flights

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Most flights: London/Edinburgh (BA) and London -> Europe (mostly LH / *A)

(6) What is your home airport?
LHR / EDI

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
FTL *A, Blue BA

One more thing: this month we are flying London - Sydney with following legs:

LON-TOK (BA)
OSA - Seoul (Asiana, Economy)
Seoul - SYD (Economy)
SYD - Cairns (Virgin AU)
Cairns - Brisbane (Singa, operated by Virgin)
Brisbane - Singapore (Singa AIR, economy)
Singa - Dubai and Dubai - London (Quanas, operated by Emirates)

From all potential programmes, I have narrowed it down to Aegean, Turkish and Asiana.

Given above

- Which programme would give me quickest gold (myself and my wife)
and let us easiest renew our status?

- As for Aegean, we can easily book our holidays via Athens and get the required 2 or 4 flights with Aegean or Olympic

- Might be a stupid question, but not quite sure if this works: lets say I get gold or ftl with Aegean. Can I still get into the lounge when flying LH and not the carrier I got the status with, i.e. Aegean or Asiana?

- Can anyone please recommend a miles calculator that captures all programmes

Many thanks!
Peter

WesternCDN

From what I can see, at least one of each of your AF and KL flights will carry over to AS at the 50% rate, while some at the 25% rate. I'd certainly do the QF to AS since it's 100%. I'm partial to AS (as opposed to AA or DL), so I'm a little biased in this. I'd transfer all miles (asides from GA) to AS, as I've found AS is pretty good with mileage redemption availability.

As well, you can always accrue your AS miles and save up for the coveted F/J flights on Emirates

I'd suggest taking a look at the redemption charts for AS/DL/AA and see which ones would best suit your needs in terms of getting some "free" flights.

psrv

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
good award redemption rates for business class


2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles

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 travel from pleasure and mostly San Francisco to New Delhi

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
SFO-DEL

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?
Used to have miles in United but emptied it out to redeem business class tickets earlier this year. Looking to see if it is still worthwhile to stick with United or to switch to another FFP

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Any that fly SFO-DEL

Thanks for your help!!

Osm3um

Removed due to double post.

Sorry
Bob

The_Bouncer

Thanks MattBC.
I have made the decision now. The QF and AF/KL flights are all going into AS, which is a recent addition to my arsenal. I wish I had discovered AS years ago, as it is an incredibly versatile program.
For the GA flights, I will open a DL account as a dumping ground for these and any future non-AS-able Skyteam flights. At least the miles don't expire (yet).
Basically the aim of points and miles for me is getting as much free stuff as possible, thereby keeping my own $, £ and € in my own back pocket. I am not a premium flyer, and usually book bargain bucket fares. I can also often be found parking a rented Hyundai Getz outside the latest Holiday Inn Express to offer a Points Break.
The one extravagance I allow myself is a Prestige membership of Priority Pass, which frees me from having to spend real money chasing status for lounge access (otherwise termed as "free beer", two of my favourite words).

treydawgmt

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

Ability to fly for cheap or free. Family of 4 (currently 3 paying fares) that is on a budget.

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

Currently once every other year at best, but looking to increase that a bit.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?

Cheapest

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

Travel for pleasure, so I'll be able to choose anything

5. Which routes do you fly most often?

Nothing specific, would like to go to east coast a decent amount, mainly NE type areas, down to Virginia

6. What is your home airport?

RFD, ORD, or MWI. RFD is super close, and free parking I think, but usually don't have the flights we need. I'd prefer RFD, but I'm going to bet that really limits the FFP.

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

My wife and I both have around 3500 points in Southwest Rapid Rewards. I'm in a few other FFP with no status or points.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

None, though something we won't get dinged hard on baggage.

Like I said, I'm a family of four right now, myself and wife, a 3 yr old, and a 3 month old. We travel a lot, currently in the car. We'd like to start maybe flying to places like Philly, DC, Maine, NYC, etc for our vacations. I'm a firefighter so I can easily get short vacations that we travel for 3-5 days on. I'm IHG Spire Elite through spending and a lot of nights, and so we'd stay at those properties usually to lower our vacation costs. In a few months I'd be willing to open a CC or two to help us also.

TIA for any thoughts or suggestions!

noobConsultant

Hi,

I am very confused which airline reward program to join. Also thinking about a hotel rewards program. I have SPG gold and HH Gold through my AMEX platinum card.
Please advice on below:

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

Reply: good award redemption rates, better award access

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

Reply: >50,000 miles, usually economy. I fly out of Seattle. Mainly around west/mid west

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

Reply: Economy, Cheapest

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

Reply: I usually fly AA or AS. I travel for almost always for work.

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

Reply: US Domestic. Accruing miles for reward flights to Asia

(6) What is your home airport?

Reply: SEA

(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: I have flights lined up in Dec-Jan to accrue lots of miles. Cant decide whether to put them in AA or AS accounts.

(8) Preferred Airlines

Reply: AA,AS

The_Bouncer

If you travel infrequently, and (like me) your goal is saving money, I would advise you not to try to stay loyal to any particular airline. Just continue to book the cheapest fares. All three major US carriers now have revenue-based programs, so you will like not get much out of them.
One program I would recommend is Alaska Airlines, even if you never fly with them. They have an impressive range of partners, and you can credit any AA or Delta flights to them. They are also partnered with many major rental car companies.

treydawgmt

That was, generally, my thoughts in the past. I am looking to become a slightly more frequent of a flyer. As in 2-4 times a year for sure. We take about 4-6 mini vacations a year, and I imagine 1/2 ish of them being flying. I'm trying to figure out if that will be enough to make being loyal worth it. I've looked at Alaska Airlines (am a rewards member there, since I took one flight years ago to Seattle or something) for that reason.

Generally, when I've looked for the few trips we've taken, American Airlines, Spirit, or Southwest are the cheapest flights. We've typically traveled Southwest, and done AA once. Doing something like American Airlines, Alaska Airlines or Avios seem most realistic, if I were to want to fly with AA and partners maybe? Southwest isn't bad, I go dining at least once a year to keep my dining rewards, and often go more often, which keep my RR points (that's the only way I still have those, flight was 4 years ago).

Or maybe I do just go for cheapest. Thoughts?

The_Bouncer

To be honest, the only time I think that choosing your airline based on anything other than price, is when someone else is paying for it. Sure, I would happily book expensive tickets to get more miles if a client or employer were picking up the check. But when it's on my own dime, I will take the hard cash savings. The only exception to this is if you really value the perks of high-level elite status, which is not a realistic prospect unless you are flying at least tens of thousands of miles each and every year.
My best advice to you is to keep buying on price - you seem to be making wise decisions already - and grab what miles are on offer for those cheap fares.

Osm3um

Started a job where I am traveling three out of every four weeks. I would like to get a better understanding on how to utilize and build my miles.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply: Upgrades to better seats is first. Second is best way to build mileage for vacations (possibly international like Japan).

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: 50,000+ miles per year, 36+ round trips per year

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Economy with MVP upgrades to premium

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: I can choose airline, get to keep the miles, hotel points and my Amex points.

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

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: Seatac, Seattle, Washington

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: 25,000 miles on Alaska (in four months), 3,000 on Delta, and 10,000 miles on Delta transferred from Amex.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Alaskan but am willing to changed based on recommendations from this site.

NOTE: I am currently booking any Delta flight using my Alaskan airlines number. This appears to increase my Alaskan miles, but not my Delta. I will/can change this is it is unwise.