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Hi everyone! Newcomer to the forum here and would appreciate your kind advice! I'm currently an international student in Canada but will be graduating and starting work this coming summer in HKG.

Current situation: Currently I have 22k miles in Aeroplan, 20k in BA, and 105 points (new system) in Marco Polo. However as I am leaving Canada for HKG for work post-graduation, I don't think Aeroplan is the way forward.

Future (June onwards): I will be mostly flying CX from HKG on business trips around Asia. I'll also be flying HKG-YYZ once or twice a year (airline uncertain). For personal travel, sometimes I go for the cheapest tickets (e.g. budget flights in Asia).

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
in order of priority: upgrades on travel, good award redemption rates, better award access, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, etc...

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
For now I'm still a student so I've been getting the cheapest tickets thus probably the lowest class. When I start working, I think I'll fly around 25000-50000 in a year (VERY rough estimate)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
cheapest for personal, business for business trips

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
On business trips it'll most likely be Cathay. On personal trips, I choose the best value for money (i.e. I'd pay 100-200 more for a better airline) and also seek out deals with budget airlines around Asia.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Uncertain as of now, though I see myself flying HKG-YYZ, HKG-SIN, HKG-PEK more frequently. Other ad-hoc personal travels can be anywhere in the world

(6) What is your home airport?
It will be HKG when I start work, but other important airports are SIN and YYZ (Toronto)

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
I have around 20k miles in BA as my parents signed me up on that a long time ago. I have 105 points in Marco Polo/Airmiles as I got it through my office. I also have around 22k miles on Aeroplan. I'm all over the place, I know, that's why I need help... :(

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Don't really have a preference, or rather this isn't my main concern. Prefer Cathay, JAL, Singapore Airlines, ANA. Hate Air Canada and United but had to take these more frequently because I'm still a student for now!

Thanks in advance!

Are you planning on getting a credit card? If so, toss a coin and choose between BA or CX. As Aeroplan points don't really expire, you can keep it for the odd *A flights.

Yes I'm planning on getting a credit card, any recommendations for credit cards in Hong Kong?

This may be of use:

http://hktravelblog.com/asia-miles/t...edit-cards-hk/

So I'm trying to work out which of the options to go with for Star Alliance and SkyTeam FF options. Who should I join? I'm already BA for One world.

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: Lounges and Priority services

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: Over 100,000 and 30+ flights

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Prem Economy when avail and international, Business for longer when not available, Econ for shorter when not available

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Mainly work, ocassional pleasure. I have full choice - I make the bookings.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: YYZ - LHR, DXB, KUL, HKG, and several cross border to US with maybe a couple inside Canada,

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

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: BA Exec - Silver Status Aeroplan just a handful of miles 4000 ish on account at the moment.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: BA, Cathay, Emirates, Etihad and Lufthansa,

Recommendations welcome.

You will not get lounge access unless you have status or by class of travel outside of USA.
For USA domestic travel UA status will not get you lounge access
Alaska has BA, CX, AA, DL, KLM/AF and others as ff partners. https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...ePlan-partners
Etihad EY is a ffp partner of AA.
There is a long thread on alternatives to Aeroplan ffp.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit cards/promotions) 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. Generally however you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, ability to upgrade and opups.
The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same.

Firstly I have just joined flyer talk and find it very informative, also joined BA Executive Club one month ago through BA Amex came back last week, after a BA flight London Heathrow to San Francisco, stayed there a few days then took an internal flight with Virgin America to Las Vegas for a further few days, another internal flight with Virgin america to New York stayed another few days, and finally took a BA flight back to London, where we were given an upgrade to Businesses Class, I've accumulated over 20,000 avious points over the last month so happy so far with BA and their points system, we have another 6 flights booked from now until Christmas so hoping to upgrade again on these in the very near future.

Welcome :)

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades, priority services, cost
>>> Reply: delays, upgrades, priority services, cost (i travel mostly for work, but want to piggyback some trips for my wife and stay vacation, so as i appreciate status to get economy plus, for comfortable, it's nice to purchase my wife's ticket out of pocket that isn't way pricer than other airlines.

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: last year i hit 25000 on United for the silver status. which is overall what i mainly wanted to board and get econ plus seating.

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: Yes, i am able to choose but also dependings on pricing. Most likely will be between the major US airlines, (AA, DL & UA) Mostly work, want to do a bit more for pleasure with my wife.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: domestic out of LAX or ONT. kind of random where i been going but it looks like this year i'll be hitting East coast a bit more often.

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: ONT ontario is my favorite, easy in and out but since it is so small i often go to LAX as well.

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 Silver, i'm currently around 33k

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply:No preferred airlines, but from what i read and heard i'm looking to go away from UA, and toward either AA or DL.

icyx Welcome to FT

If you look at post 3 there many UA vs xx threads.
With the majority of ffp's benefits are reducing and ff mile costs are going up.
The halcyon days of frequent flyer programs a decade ago are gone: just accept reality.
What airline flys most from you airport to your destinations?

As a UA silver you are just one of the multitudes when it comes to delays.

The grass in not always greener on the other side.

You're probably not going to see many upgrades at the 25K level at any of the three big domestic carriers. AA is the only one of those that still provides full flight miles based on distance, though that is going away sometime in the second half of the year with a date not announced yet. The one advantage AA has over UA and DL is that they do not have spending minimums at any of their elite tiers.

Take a look at Alaska. You indicate you want to fly both AA and DL, and right now they both partner with Alaska. They're not my primary carrier so I can't explain all the details of their mileage program, but check out the Alaska forum or the airline website. Might get lucky and have an Alaska flyer stop by this forum and explain their program in detail for a flyer that does 25K.

thanks for the feedback and responses. i'll have to do a bit more research to see which airline has a bigger hub.

ribtickle

Join Date: Sep 2008

Programs: aeroplan, BA

Posts: 2

Wow, long time lurker I see. :)

Hey guys. Just started a new job, trying to make some plans to book a year's travel, and i desperately need some help trying to decide who to go with! First flight of the new job will be a LHR to Melbourne return trip heading in 5 days!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Upgrades and lounge 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.
40+ flights and 75000+ 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?
Travelling for work but have a fair bit of leeway in picking my own airline as long as it's not prohibitively expensive

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
Mainly European, but three or four trips to Asia, two to Australia and two or three Transatlantic.

6. What is your home airport?
LHR, but also close to Gatwick and Stansted

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
36,000 miles with BAEC and 480 tier points (just shy of silver)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
BA, because I can go direct from LHR to most places, and because I can bank miles and points flying European routes