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

Upgrades or award tickets

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

25-30k, about 10 flights

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?

Can choose airline, work and pleasure

5. Which routes do you fly most often?

Either the US-Asia, or domestic US

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, about 25k miles on Lufthansa, and and 15k on AA

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?

Air India, ANA, Virgin

Based in CVG, is it worth switching from Delta?
 

Hi all,

I am new to flyertalk (long time reader, first time poster). I am hoping to get some advice from the community here.

I fly out of CVG which used to be a Delta hub. I have been Delta Platinum / Diamond for the past 4 years. I fly just over 100k miles annually (so with rollover, I am usually diamond every other year). These are all domestic miles. I recently moved some of my business to AA but the recent changes there have me rethinking that decision. I am considering a move to UA, and wanted to see what everyone thinks? I could status match to Platinum and would be 1k by the end of the year. Do you think it is worth it? The main things that I look for in the program are business class international awards (low level to take the family with me), upgrades here domestically, and good service, esp during IROPS.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you in advance

molden79 Welcome to posting on FT

There are several recent threads of ffp refugees looking/hoping for better with another airline after ffp changes have been announced.
But most do not change ffp’s, despite the rhetoric.
The airline you fly most is the best ffp for many people.
The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same.
Freq flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn. Nor are status benefits
Awards cost and status benefits/entitlements are reducing: this will continue with all ffps: such is life

The grass in not always greener on the other side

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

asiana vs. turkish
 

i am presently gold on asiana and considering shifting to turkish

1. is it true that turkish miles only valid for 3 years.
2. can anyone confirm my impression that it is easier and more beneficial to use miles with turkish.
3. is there any good reason to stay with asiana other than longer validity of miles, if that is the case?

thanks
Amgogo

Most flexible reward program?
 

Does anyone know the best way to take advantage of the fact that we will be taking lots of different flights (on different airlines though) and staying in hotels, etc. in 2016? This really isn't typical for us so I'm not sure how to collect any perks. We will be flying from Newark to New Zealand then Fiji then Australia then Bali and up thru SEA. Is there any way to take advantage and get points or privileges, upgrades, etc? We already have a Capital One Venture but it doesn't seem to do much for us. Maybe I'm not using it right? The points take so long to add up even though we charge and pay off all our monthly expenses on it each month.

Which airlines, which hotels, how did you book, etc.?

All airline ffp's have partner airlines. As above need details of your flights.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s. (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s)

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people.
The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same.
Freq flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn.

You will not fly enough to get status. Upgrades are helped by status.
Upgrades on non USA airlines are very different to USA airlines. With non USA airlines always expect to fly in the class you buy.

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

What are your objectives with a ffp?
Miles/points are not equal in different ffps

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-expire.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

moving, need advice on who to fly
 

Hi all:

in the next several weeks I will be relocating to Raleigh, NC. I've had a look at the RDU website and there are a number of direct flights from RDU to various locations on the major carriers (United, AA, Delta).

I'm trying to determine who I should give my business to. I was a big USAir fan as I always used to get upgrades when I lived in Philly, but now that everything has come together and I live in Tampa, I don't do quite as well with the upgrades under AA. I understand that anymore, the FFPs across the large have gotten huge, and benefits fewer and farther between.

I generally work from home, but when I have to travel, it's either out to my company's HQ in SF, or regionally in the southeastern US. I don't envision myself flying to Charlotte all that much - easier to just drive, so ATL is likely my main destination, although other smaller regional trips are possible.

I'm trying to figure out what makes the most sense. If upgrades are harder to come by, i'm not sure what metric to really measure things by. I thought about going to Southwest, but it doesn't seem like they offer too many flights back from SFO later in the day (or redeyes, which I usually end up on), and there are a limited number of flights to certain destinations given the layout of their system. Plus, it's my understanding that Terminal 2 where everyone else is at RDU is way nicer than Terminal 1, which houses Southwest and only Southwest.

It looks to me like United or Delta would be the best options, if I'll be driving when I need to go to Charlotte (otherwise, I'd still with AA). United, because they offer a non-stop to SFO from RDU. there's only one ( or maybe 2 seasonally, it seems) a day, but at least it's an option. But there's only 4 other non-stop options. Delta has 21 non stop flights, and ATL is one of them, but not SFO. I guess I'm leaning toward United, as I'd probably rather have comfort on the long haul flights than the short ones, and direct to SFO is better than having to one hop to ATL, even if i do that more often.

However, if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it, as I'm currently struggling to make a decision. I'm hoping someone will match my AA Platinum status when I make the switch..

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: upgrades, but any tangible benefit really (pick exit row seats at booking, priority boarding - anything that makes day of travel experience better)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: i'm at 77 segments and 67k miles this year. i'd expect to be somewhere in the same vicinity in the coming year

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: el cheapo

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: work travel, some ability to pick airline

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: us domestic - to SFO and back, and then regionally in the southeastern us

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: RDU (Raleigh Durham)

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: AA Platinum

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

In terms of upgrades, you'd only make the 50K tier at UA, and would have the 75K and 100K tier above you, as well as the high revenue Global Services tier. There is a minimum spend that comes along with that 50K level that you would also need to meet ($6,000). Would you have met that this year on cheap fares? If not, you'd drop to the 25K tier which requires a minimum $3,000 spend.

If you're looking for upgrades, you risk that your elite status will not be high enough, even though all elites are added to the upgrade list at no cost. I'd pop into the UA forum and ask how those based in RDU at the Gold/50K level are doing on upgrades. You're probably not going to get that level of input in the Information Desk forum.

Just this week there was a 100,000 mile flyer that posted he cleared upgrades on only 4 UA domestic flights this year. If they're not clearing at that level, I'd be concerned about how you'd do at the 50K level as a UA flyer.

Does UA have much of a Southeast presence? I always thought they relied on US for that, and then when US realigned with AA those flights were lost.

good insights!
 

Thanks. Pretty crazy to hear about the 100k UA flyer that only cleared 4 upgrades. I'll definitely head over to the individual program forums and see how those folks are doing out of RDU. Hadn't thought of that.

Also a good point about losing some of their southeast routes when US left *A. Hadn't considered that either.

Much appreciated!

Any recommendations for a FF program for 2016? Currently have no status (used to be elite on AA, UA, DL). Flew ~ 50k in 2015 mainly NYC - SEA and NYC - PDX. 2016 will fly ~100-125k mainly NYC- SEA / NYC - PDX, 2-3x NYC - Asia and 1-2x NYC - Europe. Normally fly economy. Have a platinum exec card for AA so lounge access. Home airport is NYC (JFK/LGA).

Flying US-China in Jan so want to kick start the year.

Main focus is on legroom (I'm 6'3"), lounges, skipping long security lines, and direct flights. Thinking Alaska, UA/Star Alliance (Asiana?/Aegean?) or sticking w AA through the coming devaluation. Thanks.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Upgrades/legroom, lounges, priority security access


2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
50k in 2015 100-125k in 2016. 25-30 segments for 2016

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?
mainly business

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
domestic use - nyc / sea, nyc /pdx, transpacific nyc/pvg

6. What is your home airport?
nyc (jfk/lga)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
No current status. 180k AA 50k UA 20k DL

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Non-US generally for service. In US, no real preference

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s. (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s)

As for upgrades with airlines based out of the USA always, expect to fly in the class you buy. It is only USA based airlines that give out upgrades like confetti for free (by status or upgrade instruments), or with miles and/or cash co pay (for less than the full fare). There is an expectation by many USA frequent flyers they deserve a (free) upgrade.

Thanks Mwenenzi. I see you're based in Oz but any thoughts on Alaska vs UA vs AA?

Which airline's frequent flyer program is the best for me?
 

I am a frequent flyer flying around 15K miles a year or so in economy class from Singapore and will be migrating to Germany. I would have a travel pattern of going from Europe to Asia next year. I am looking for a FFP program that is suitable for my needs and fit the criterias below:

1. Has many airline and hotels (booking sites as well) partners and or belong to an airline alliance
2. Have high accrual rate on partners and low redemption rate for award flights
3. If possible, have easy chance of being an elite member or have a lifetime status programme
4. Have award mile expiry of more than 5 years

Thank you very much and Merry Christmas/Happy Boxing Day