Welcome to FT, ethan7279!

You should indeed read the stickies and the thread referenced above for further information. Travelling between Germany and Singapore means that you'll probably flying mostly on LH and SQ (going direct) so you'll want to check out those programs specifically. Generally (but not always) join the FF program of the airline you fly the most and/or that is based in the country you reside, is preferable because these will be more relevant for that particular airline, or offer other mileage accrual options such as credit cards.

However, 15,000 miles per year is really not very much and wouldn't get you even the lowest 'elite' tier of any FF programme worth joining. You'd need to fly something in excess of 35,000 to 50,000 miles to make it to a mid-tier elite level. These don't really get you any meaningful benefits, but have certain advantages (extra luggage, perhaps priority boarding or lounge access).

Your second point does not really exist in the real world. In the US it's easy to get miles from credit card usage, but elsewhere it's much more restricted to actual flying. And most airlines now award 50% or 25% (or even 0%) of miles flown on the cheapest economy tickets, so depending on what fares you buy, 50,000 miles of actual flying could result in as little as 12,500 accursed miles. Low redemption rates...no such luck, everyone is increasing the amount of points needed to fly pretty much anywhere.

Accursed miles. Nice! :D

As others have mentioned, you will need to fly about four roundtrips between SIN and Germany in order to qualify for a level of status with meaningful benefits in any major program. More when you fly on very cheap fares.

Mileage expiry will be an issue: all programs except BAs Exec club which follows the US model where account activity extends expiration of all miles in an account have hard expiry policies where miles expire after three years. This can be mitigated with co-branded credit cards: Both LH Miles and More as well as Airberlins topbonus' programs waive mileage expiry for certain co-branded credit card holders (M&M only for holders of a premium card with higher annual fee, topbonus only for medium- and top tier status holders)
Airberlins credit card also lets you earn status(!)-qualifying miles for cc spend and even cash advances, which is unique among European programs.
Also, all programs have greatly devalued their earnings for discount economy fares. Generally, one does not earn much anymore when just flying on the cheapest fares regardless of the program.

Personally, as you'll be living in Germany and fly less than 50k miles in discount economy, I`d focus on co-branded credit card activity for mileage accrual and status earning. The best programs for this are LH M&M and AB topbonus, with a nod towards topbonus because their cc lets you earn status miles - which will pretty much be your only chance to earn mid-tier elite status on a major alliance (oneworld).

Hi all,
Looking for the best program for me if anyone can assist...

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply: Upgrades followed by good redemption rates for long haul award flights. Lowish fees on award flights.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
>>> Reply: About 50,000 miles over 5-6 long haul trips (10-12 sectors maybe?)

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
>>> Reply: Normally Premium 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 pleasure so can choose airlines

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
>>> Reply: UK (LGW/LHR or occasionally MAN) to Florida (MCO/MIA/FLL/TPA) half the time, and UK (LGW/LHR) to Thailand (BKK or HKT usually)

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: Live halfway between LGW and LHR, so travel from either

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: No status but have 35,000 miles with Virgin Flying Club and 23,000 Amex rewards.
Also got something like 8,000 emirates points.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Not especially fussed

I have a Business class flight with AA booked for Dublin to Miami in March (from the recent deal DUB>LHR>MIA RT), as well as BA flights (economy on a low booking class) LGW>DUB>LHR. I'd like to know where I would be best to credit those miles! one of the considerations is a FFP where I can get upgrades, or business award flights to Thailand with one of the middle eastern carriers. I don't mind the idea of occasionally buying miles when there are offers on (like the current AA offer) to afford those award flights, recognising that I dont fly as much as a lot of members..!

thanks

Recommended Program
 

Hi all,
Looking for the best program for me if anyone can assist...

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply: Points to travel for free with family for vacation. First class is a nice perk as I find it way more "workable" in terms of room for a laptop etc.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
>>> Reply: About 7,000-20,000 miles a year. Often very short hops on the eastern US (out of NY) but the occassional west coast or midwest trip. Generally flying 1-2 times a month

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
>>> Reply: When the fare difference is not huge first class, otherwise economy.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Work but we have no restrictions as we are a small company

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
>>> Reply: Totally depends on client needs. We go wherever the project is so it varies

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: Long Island NY so LGA, JFK, ISP are all local for me

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: American Platinum (but that was a stretch this year and gold would be more expected) with about 90,000 miles banked. But I have miles with Delta, Jetblue, and southwest from previous travel as well.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Has been American but considering delta due to rollover miles and better upgrade potential (not sure if that is accurate at lower tier)

I am trying to decide if switching over to Delta would be a good move for me. Some observations:

1. Being a less frequently traveler rollover MQM’s seems like a HUGE benefit to me
2. Lack of mileage expiration is a good thing too
3. Upgrades solely on priority is probably beneficial although I am sure I will rarely get them (I earned 4 500 mile upgrades all of last year on American as this was my first year with status so I view them as pretty much worthless)
4. I am very concerned about the mileage value though. Everything I read says Delta’s miles are the most worthless in the industry
5. Giving up my status and 90,000+ miles on American. Of course I would try to use them via free flights so I don’t lose them but I did just earn platinum status for next year
6. Maybe just something I seem to notice but the Delta planes tend to be more recently upgraded and just feel more comfortable

Thoughts? I would just go the jetblue route but I do enjoy the first class room. So the real question is Delta vs American. Again the flight times and connections seem to be the real issue on American.

Thanks so much for the time to respond!

thanks

Hi All, looking for a program

I am based out of Washington DC area, so not sure if I should continue building on United or go to another airline.

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:
UPGRADES. I'd like to start having the ability to fly in a nicer class on trips. For international trips such as to South East Asia or Europe.

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:
Expecting to do less than 25k miles a year

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:

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

IAD-MCO, IAD-SFO, IAD-LAX


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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply:
United Airlines, 115k lifetime miles, 2k miles currently


8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply:
Virgin, but they dont really have all the routes I need.

Other airline suggestions? I'm pretty flexible on airlines.

I think you would be best served sticking with AA, at least for one more year. Delta's rollover MQMs only kick in above the first tier (25k MQMs for silver), so if you don't hit that, then you won't get any benefit from that. Additionally, if your top priority is traveling with the family for free, then right now AA's ffp is more valuable. They've already started shifting towards the DL/UA model with their changes for next year, and I wouldn't be surprised to see them continue to devalue going to 2017 onward, but for 2016, AA will still have a more valuable program than DL and UA. It'll be especially good for you next year, since you've managed to hit plat.

Another thing to note is that even if you hit silver on Delta, you will rarely be upgraded flying out of LGA/JFK. I've heard that some of the smaller, regional flights out of those airports aren't too bad on the upgrade list, but if you're flying somewhere like the west coast, Atlanta, or Chicago, then you have virtually no chance of being upgraded as silver. As painful as it is, your best upgrade shot is slowly accumulating 500 mile stickers with AA and then cashing them in.

As for your last point, I actually agree that Delta's hard product is better. Better planes, better operational service, etc. I'm just not sure that you travel enough to make that benefit counteract the decrease in frequent flyer rewards that you'll experience. If you think you'll have a significant uptick in travel in the future, then maybe you could consider preemptively swapping to Delta to start building lifetime rewards, but otherwise I would say enjoy your AA plat status in 2016 and revisit this question next year if/when AA announces big program changes for 2017 and your status drops back down.

Thanks, I really do appreciate the super detailed response and after thinking and reading a lot I basically came to the same conclusions. Result is I did have an early January trip to book and it is on American so hopefully I'll get enough in there to maintain status, although doubtful at the platinum level.

Hi all - new to this, but I'm glad this thread is here to help with our newbie questions! Here's my info, in case anyone wants to chime in. I suspect AA is my best bet, because they dominate my home airport, but I'm happy to learn more.

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.
>>> Mostly good award redemption rates. Flying is expensive and I like to travel, so saving money on flights is the main priority.

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.
>>> <25000 or 25000-50000, depending on the year.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Economy. First/business are nice if I have some extra miles, but getting to my destinations is the most important thing

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

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Transatlantic (to Europe) once or twice a year, and several domestic trips. When I'm in Europe I will fly a lot within the continent.

6. What is your home airport?
>>> PHL.

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Not yet.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> AA if only because I have a decent number (~70k) accumulated with them, and more on the way from the Plat Select and CitiGold offers, as well as because they have by far more flights from PHL than any other airline.

Thanks!

Hello-
Would very much appreciate thoughts regarding best ffp for my situation. Thank you in advance for any guidance.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Domestic upgrades, international business/first class award redemption or buying international economy and using miles to upgrade. Europe most frequent international destination

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
75k+ miles with strong potential of exceeding 100k in 2016. Approx. 50 flights. Likely spend $10k+ and will also get airline branded cc to meet spending thresholds.

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?
Able to choose. Travel for both work and pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
PDX - NYC, PDX - Europe

6. What is your home airport?
PDX

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
American Platinum. 300k miles with AA. Also Delta Gold but Delta status expires end of Jan. 2016

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Historically American, but that has now changed with recent changes to FFP and new need to fly from PDX to NYC 2+ times per month. UA and Delta have direct flights between PDX & NYC, AA does not.

Hi all, thanks in advance for your help.

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

upgrades, priority service

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:
Just started as a corporate traveller. Hit 100k on united last year w/ ~20k PQD

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply:
business, premium economy, economy. bought first once

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

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
mainly international. SYD, SIN, LHR

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?
United 1K in my first year in the program. ~180k redeemable miles

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
I'm a pretty flexible flyer. Try to fly United all the time since it's a SFO hub and *A and to build status, but I really enjoyed some flights on Virgin America.

Now that it's a new year I'm just trying to evaluate whether to stick with UA or try DL or AA. Seems like *A is the best for int'l travel, so I'm just making sure to stick with this. I think UA is fine but I hear how other airlines are so much nicer so I'm wondering what I'm missing out.

Thanks in advance for your help

AA and One World would certainly work from SFO, but bear in mind SFO is not a hub for AA, so you'll find more nonstop UA destinations from here than you would AA which serves just its hubs (LAX, DFW, MIA, JFK, ORD, and the former US hubs at PHX, CLT and PHL).

Qantas just restarted SFO-SYD the week before Christmas (747-400), though only five days a week to start. I know it's up to six days a week by at least May when I'm flying in business. They have other Australia flights from LAX (A380 and 747 service).

None of AA's partners fly nonstop SFO-SIN though you could probably find a route with Cathay or JAL via HKG/NRT/HND that works with the same one-stop you'd have on UA. Take a look at the One World timetable for ideas:
https://www.oneworld.com/

BA flies SFO-LHR. I was just on them two weeks ago coming home from Amsterdam. If you want to go on AA metal to LHR you'd have to jump down to LAX which operates the newish 777-300 (my favorite AA aircraft right now, used primarily on flights to SYD, SAO and LAX-JFK-LHR), or go via a different hub. Here's the business class seat on it:
https://tom911.smugmug.com/American-...P1140085-S.jpghttps://tom911.smugmug.com/American-...P1140084-S.jpg

Just a matter of how much you value nonstop flights versus connecting. I have photos of some of the Qantas and AA aircraft linked below.

One thing you'll need to look at is AA's frequent flyer program which is changing this year to see how those partner flights accrue in the new program. AA has been very good to me over the years with domestic upgrades averaging around 90% the last two years and only one missed international upgrade in 14 years (HKG-DFW last October). If you're not on AA metal for international, though, those systemwide upgrades won't be of any value to you.

I've never bothered to try to get status with any airline because I don't fly all that much. Twice a year personal (non-work) flights to Tokyo. Once in a while trip to Germany. I want to see which airline I can make into my 'main' frequent flier program. The problem is that I travel with many different airlines and most of the time opt for the cheaper value fares which give no (or reduced mileage). My preference is ANA but they are quite restrictive. Maybe another airline from the Star Alliance would be a better choice?

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: good award redemption rates, better award access

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: less than 25000 miles on average. ( 2 RT flights, 2 person LAX - NRT each year)

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: economy and/or premium economy

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

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: LAX-NRT/HND and LAX-HAM (Europe but mainly Germany)

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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: No. Most mileage has expired. Below are my current miles:

Current miles:

Delta - 34,161
Korean Air - 32,983
KML - 4,155
ANA - 3,275
Singapore Airlines -500

I also have 120,000 American Express points that I can use.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: ANA for LAX-NRT and KLM or Lufthansa for LAX-Germany/Europe
I was considering getting an ANA credit card but it had terrible benefits. The only problem with ANA is that they have very restrictive expiration policies.

If having only a few flights a year going for value & schedule is the best way to go. FF miles, in any, are a bonus.

Delta KML & Korean Air are all Skyteam alliance
These 3 are also AS partners. AS is a good ffp for some people https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...ePlan-partners

ANA & Singapore Airlines are all Star alliance

Subject to flights earning miles, these could/may have gone to 2 ffp's.
25% miles in a ffp that can be used is better than 100% miles in a ffp that expire or never enough to use
Miles, for practical purposes, cannot be moved from 1 ffp to another ffp

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.

Newbie and first post
 

Hi all,

I have just started reading about frequent flyer programs about a week ago when I discovered the OneMileAtATime blog. I'm still doing a lot of research on my own but I thought I would ask about what is the best loyalty program for my needs.

Questions

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Upgrades on travel, lounge access and priority services

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: Up until now I didn't fly more than 25,000 miles per year and always in economy, but these next 2 years I want to up my number of travels

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: The cheapest, most direct and Economy

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often.
Reply: I mostly fly Hong Kong to Lyon and return on Emirates once a year

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: Home airport is Hong Kong

(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 the base status on the Flying Blue program and Emirates Skywards program

Flying Blue: 0 miles
Emirates Skywards: 14,700 miles

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Emirates


Now here are some more details on what my plans are and what I would like to achieve:

- I live in Hong Kong but my family lives in Lyon, France. Once a year at least I go back home with Emirates by doing HKG-DBX-LYS-DBX-HKG.
I've only started using the Skywards program last year and have done two return trips HKG-LYS which gave me the current 14,700 miles I have. I have until 31 May 2016 to reach 25,000 miles if I want to achieve Silver status.
I used to fly Air France, that's why I have a Flying Blue account but my miles have long expired.

- In 2016, I would like to go back to Lyon at least once. On top of that I want to visit a friend in San Francisco, another friend in New York City, and maybe go to Vietnam or Myanmar for a long weekend.

- My ultimate goal is to reach a point where I maintain a status where I always get access to lounges in airports, priority airport services and sometimes upgrades to business class for me and my girlfriend when I do international flights.

- From what I see and read, I feel like the Qantas frequent flyer program will fit my destinations (please let me know if I'm wrong), as it will allow me to use Emirates to go home to Lyon and Cathay Pacific to fly to the US. For local flights around Asia, I'm sure partner airlines of Qantas will be able to bring me there.

- I don't mind doing a milage run and going out of my way to add several cities to my trip before reaching a destination if that means I can keep a flyer status for a longer time. I still don't know yet how to find the best milage run so if someone can point me somewhere that'd be great.

- One last question, if I decide to change FFP what can I do with mu current miles on Emirates? Will I just lose them or can I transfer them to Qantas for instance?


There you go, I hope someone will be able to help me and I thank you all in advance for any future answers!