Kevin6589 Welcome to FT
Effectively you cannot move freq flyer miles from 1 ffp to another.
EK miles have a hard expiry; no way to keep alive. If you do not used them in 3 years they expire.
With some other airline ffp's you need eligible actively every 12/18/24months (as the ffp t&c's) to keep miles for ever. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-expire.html

http://www.wheretocredit.com/emirates But QF is a partner of EK (web site has an error)
QF is a poor ffp. But has EK as partner, and all OneWorld airlines.
EK is a partner of AS. https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...ePlan-partners
AS is a good ffp, but has award flight limitations.

You do not fly enough (on low cost fares) to get status.
Upgrades are hard to get on non USA airlines

Hi all,
I recently started to post in this forum after reading in the 'darkness' and now want to have some advice about FFP. I posted in the Star Alliance FFP post but with the new year my *A status milles went to zero so maybe is worthy to start looking for other options, as also I can start to use a credit card to get extra miles.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Business check-in, fast lane, lounge access, upgrades
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
20-25k, 20-25 segments, but growing every year
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Discounted economy, but sometimes business if the price is good
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
50%/50% work/pleasure. For work I can choose but always economy. LH and SN airlines more flown, but I can move and start flying anothers.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Intra EU flights mostly, EU-Turkey and some EU-Asia EU-USA flights
(6) What is your home airport?
MAN
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
No status. 3000 miles in Miles and More (from the discounted economy tickets)
(8) Preferred Airlines
No preference

Did anyone have any thoughts on this? I think it's clearly going to be between AA and BA, AA because of the better award flight options, especially for premium cabins to SE Asia with Etihad & Qatar, with much lower fees etc... But perhaps BA is better overall for me as it's easier to earn Avios in the UK than AA miles and I can stick my Amex MR points straight into executive club?

Which FFP?
 

I'm thinking about a Gold challenge with AA or a Medallion match with Delta to kick off the year. Advice welcome!

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.
>>> Most important: priority service, upgrades, and companion upgrades.

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.
>>> In 2016, I expect to fly 25K miles over 20 flights.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> I usually buy 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 airlines. I mostly travel for business, but usually fly economy.

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

6. What is your home airport?
>>> PIT. Most travel to LGA / JFK / EWR and to BWI / DCA / IAD.

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> I have about 80K miles on United and on AA. I have Silver on United for 2016, and no status anywhere else.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> No strong preference.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Opinions on switching from AA to *Alliance
 

Some background first. I have been AA platinum for years with a couple EXP years when my travel was extra heavy or they offered double qualifying miles. I moved to Taipei a couple years ago and kept flying Oneworld/AA back to the States. I've been able to keep plat status this way. However, my travel also takes me to Singapore pretty frequently and China. For the former I use SG and the latter I use whatever is best from a schedule standpoint.

I think this year I will consider switching for two primary reasons. 1. I have to always take an extra connection on AA in HKG or NRT & 2. CX (my main Asia option in OW) doesn't seem to be a good partner in Oneworld in terms of earning and in some cases recognizing benefits.

I'll need to status match and that may make this moot, but still interested in hearing opinions. My options seem to be UA, EVA, or Singapore. All solve issue 1. EVA would be ideal, it goes everywhere I want. I've flown them before and the product seems ok, no idea on milage redemption, upgrades, etc. UA seems to be next best, very similar to AA and has a direct flight to Taipei. Singapore would be 3rd, but their redemption options seem best. I've signed up for the Chase Saphire card that allows me to transfer UA and Singapore miles, so perhaps this is moot.

I understand the UA status match process, it appears EVA does it but can be hit or miss, and Singapore doesn't offer it.

Any opinions on those three? I've filled out the form below for additional details about my preferences.

Questionnaire: Copy and paste into your post
Provide the requested information.

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: Lounge, Priority checkin and boarding, upgrades, primeseat selection

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: 60,000-90,000

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: both, I can book pretty much any major airline when doing business travel.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: International between Taiwan and the US 4-5 times a year, Intra-Asia 5-10 times per year, 5 times a year between TPE and SIN.

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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: AA Plat, about 100k banked miles

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: I like Singapore and Japan Airlines (lounge in NRT)

Already qualified for A3*G. What now?
 

Having already met qualifying criteria to hold onto A3*G until 11/2017, I'm tempted to credit this year's miles flown to another *A FFP.

I'm primarily after easier award redemption, but better upgrade chance and credit rates for carriers i fly with are certainly a bonus.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Lounge access - for all these hours spent at airports while connecting (showers, food, etc.)
Priority during IROPS - recently had an AZ flight cancelled, had to wait for 24h for my flight home
Good award redemption rates - anything better than A3 M+B out there in that regard?
Better award access - the primary reason for this post. Compared to M+B, MileagePlus is light years ahead wrt ease of redeeming miles

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
The stats for the year that just passed:
71k actual miles flown, 32 segments. Only 24 segments were with *A carriers, and they netted me about 31k miles at A3 M+B.
It's interesting that 9 segments and 26k miles were flown with UA.
For the year ahead i'm looking at similar numbers, maybe a little lower.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Mostly economy, but since i usually book only 2-3 weeks in advance, sometimes i'm lucky and only PE is left :)

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
It's mostly business travel and i can choose the airline, provided there isn't a much cheaper alternative.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
TATL
Being based in Greece (and not ATH at that!) this usually means a lot of connections.
However my vicinity to IST (about 7-8 hours by bus) allows for flights from there.

6. What is your home airport?
KVA, AXD, SKG, IST

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
None.
OW - Have banked some Avios.
ST - Could not enroll at Delta (their enrollment website form requires a US zip code!) and FlyingBlue seems a waste of time.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Aegean, Turkish

For anyone in my shoes out there: where do you prefer to bank miles with redemption in mind, after having achieved status?

Hi. I'm new to the forum, and this is my first post. I just moved to Australia from the UK and am trying to decide which program to target for earning miles on my work travel over the next year. I've pasted the questions below with answers.

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. I would like to earn miles for taking my family of five back to the US to visit extended family there.

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: In the next year I should take at least 5 trips from Australia to the US and Europe, maybe more. Assuming each of those is at least 20k miles, then I assume I'll be around 100k miles at least in the next 12 months.

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: I travel for work and am free to choose the airline but not the class of service. I'll have to go with whatever class is cheapest or near the cheapest.

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

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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: UA Premier Silver, 122k miles; Delta 137k miles, no status

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Since I already have status and miles with UA I initially thought about sticking with them, but when I started searching for UA or Star Alliance flights from Oz to Europe I kept getting either no available flights or really expensive ones (maybe I'm doing something wrong here?). E.g., United kept routing me back through the US to get to Europe, on a really expensive ticket. As a result I've thought about switching to AA, since they're partners with Qantas and have credit cards with great sign-up bonuses (I've already run through the United Chase cards which is partly how I've built up my UA miles). On my trips back to the US I can fly Qantas and AA code-share flights, so that isn't a problem, but AA has just changed their rules for other Qantas flights, which is what I would presumably be taking to Europe. To get 100% of miles flown and 1.0 EQMs per mile flown now requires a full fare economy ticket, I believe, which I may not be able to do if it costs much more than a discounted economy ticket. So I wonder if I'm stuck building up Qantas miles, even though Qantas reward tickets cost more than either AA or UA.

FenleyG3 Welcome FT & MEL

How long will you be living in Australia? A few years or for ever?

For the Star flights Au Eu is this for cash or award flights? Au to Eu is a very comptetive route with a lot of airlines:- Asian, ME3 (EK QR EY), BA, QF and other airlines. Also Eithad EY is a partner of AA.

For awards QF is a very poor ffp. Look at post 330.To me 1 AA mile is worth 2 QF points. They are not 1 to 1. QF has high cash co pay on awards, even if some cash co pays were reduced yesterday.

AA now flys LAX-SYD, so no need to fly QF or a AA codeshare. Anyway a AA codeshare on QF may cost more. Many to most QF economy flights do not earn 100% QF points. They get 100% QF status credits.

If you are not flying QF domestic much to me far better to go with AA. QF status (Gold-Plat) does have lounge entry in Aust & USA (although there are on going doubts with USA AA lounge entry) and other benefits. AA status does not get you AA domestic lounge access.

Virgin Australia is a partner of Delta

Thanks for the useful thread!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: good award redemption rates
(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: Around 40k, <25 flights
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
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: Mostly pleasure. For work, Etihad.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: AUH/DXB <-> HKG, and occasionally AUH/DXB <-> India / North Africa
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: AUH/DXB
(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:
1. Etihad: a) 1.25x miles corp program b) Gold if I complete 2 return flights. Credit card: 1 USD / 4 miles
2. Emirates: Credit card: 1 USD / 1 mile
3. Qatar: Silver, can use AMEX credit card: 1 USD / 1 mile
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None. Mostly with Qatar these days.

Deleted - duplicated

Thanks for the info. We just got permanent residency so I expect we'll be here 2-3 years at least, maybe forever if all goes well.

I was looking for Star flights from Au to Eu using cash, and was going through Google Flights, but kept getting no results or very expensive ones (maybe this is a limitation of Google Flights?). If there are other Star options I should consider, please let me know.

As of 1 January AA changed the way they handle partner flights, including Qantas, so that most economy seats now only get 25%-50% reward miles. I checked with a travel agent who said that the full fare economy seats that get 100% miles are typically ~$2k more, which would be out of my range. However, I went on Qantas and tried to book a mock reward ticket from MEL to MEM (the itinerary I'll need for the family trip back home). I had a terrible time finding available dates and when I finally did, it was going to take 110k miles (it didn't say what the taxes/fees would be). Whereas with AA and UA I can do MEL to MEM for 80k RT, and presumably cheaper taxes/fees. So maybe only earning .25-.5 AA reward miles per mile flown on QF is still a better bet than trying to build up QF miles, or at least nearly even. Do I understand that correctly? I just applied for the AMEX Qantas card with the 80k sign-up bonus, so I'll at least have some QF miles that way.

Thanks again!

What is best FFP for me?
 

I really haven't traveled much at all. My wife and I will be empty nesters next year and plan to start traveling a bit. We probably only travel 3-4 times per year right now all in domestic US.


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: ability to fly for a little as possible cost

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; 2-3 flights

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: can choose airline and class; travel for pleasure

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

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: Raleigh/Durham

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

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: don't have preferred; would like one with many direct flights from RDU

- what is your definition of best?
whatever would give me the most points/miles.

- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
I value points more.

- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
I don't think so. I only take a few a year because I'm new to this.

- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
I would like to spend it on whatever really!

- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
Destination would be preferred.

- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
No

- which airline and where do you normally fly?
Quantas/ Southwest. I don't have an account set up through them. (I'm VERY new to this)

- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
Leisure

- where do you live?
Cleveland, Ohio

- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
No but I am willing!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
upgrades on travel, good award redemption rates, better award access, more flights

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Less than 10 a year. Less than 5000 miles, business class.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
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 am able to choose. I fly Quantas and Southwest the most. Pleasure trips.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Reply: US Domestic, QUantas

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

(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: Just recently signed up for Delta, and AA. Have no miles in either.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Any !

maggietravel Welcomne toi FT and the world of freq flyer miles

With few flights I suggest having a good look at Alaska. QF, AA & DL are all frequent flyer partners of Alaska. You don't need to fly AS, but you collect miles in the AS ffp.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...-overview.aspx
Having several ffps' with low balance is never a good idea, as you often never get enough miles to be used before they expire. But DL sky pesos’ (miles) do not (currently) expire.

Selecting flights based on price and shedule and take ff miles, if any, as bonus that may or may not be able to be used, is the best way to go.

Note: Qantas does not have a u

Thank you so much for your response and the warm welcome :)! I see you're from Melbourne.. I plan on moving there after I get my degree!
I agree with everything you just said! I do have one more question if you don't mind, I just signed up for Alaskan air and they have a credit card for 25k bonus miles. Since you suggested to buy pesos' through DL, would you recommend the DL card, since they have 30k pts for their sign up? Or should I try to get an Alaskan card since that would be the company with my points? I also realized that Alaskan does't run through Cleveland.. bummer
(Still trying to get the hang of things)