nevillek

^ Regarding Alaska, I believe majority of their partners wouldn't even be flying the Toronto-Mumbai route? Or even if they do, they might be super expensive?

Regarding pooling miles, I thought you were allowed to transfer miles to another family members??

gingham

Similar situation here. I fly often from Toronto to HKG/PEK/NRT (refer to my questionnaire just a few posts up). And I've also looked into Alaska's program but many things--upgrades and other priority treatments--would be applicable if you don't actually fly with Alaska as often, correct?

Do you have any other programs that you recommend?

tom911

You can certainly do that with AA. It's not free, though. You'll pay a fee based on how many miles you're transferring. To transfer 25,000 miles, as an example, you'll be charged $312.50.

Now, if you're thinking of ticketing a family member from your account, that's entirely different. You can have award tickets issued to whoever you want.

It's not a route I follow. You don't think BA, Cathay or Emirates would work to get there?

tom911

That's the downside when you fly on partners and not on Alaska metal. Alaska is not my primary carrier, though I know someone here in the Bay Area that is a top tier flyer with them and makes the partners work.

AA does extend some perks to Alaska flyers (baggage, priority boarding) but nothing in terms of upgrades.

You could fly UA/Star Alliance, as an example, and get all your elite perks, but you're not going to see too many miles with a revenue based program like theirs if you're in discounted economy. You just have to decide what has the most value for you.

nevillek

Sorry, I'm new to this, but regarding awarding tickets to whoever I want, can I award a ticket with 50% miles and 50% cash if I don't have enough miles for the whole ticket?

BA, Cathay, Emirates do fly. I'll look into them. But would they give me 100% of miles travelled in Alaska's mileage program based on distance, etc.? Or would it be the same as UA and give me barely anything? What's really the advantage of Alaska over UA's program?

Mwenenzi

Generally no. A very few airlines offer miles/points & pay $ instead of all cash, but value tends to be poor.

Have a look here http://www.wheretocredit.com/alaska-airlines (but may not be accurate). An increasing number of low cost flights do not earn 100% miles/points/avios of the distance travelled.

Anyway miles between ffp are not equal. You do not get an award from AAA to BBB for M miles with every ffp. Some require, say 1.50xM (150%). And more so with those ffp that charge a surcharge on some or all awards.

FFP's are not equal

tom911

You need to take a look at the Alaska Airlines partner page where each partner fare class is spelled out. Some discounted fare classes, like the lower priced ones on BA, offer 25-50% flight miles which still may be more than what you'd get with a revenue based program like UA. I don't think we have anyone on this forum who regularly flies Alaska to go into that level of detail with you. I credit their flights to AA.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...-overview.aspx

John Shalewa

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: baggage allowance

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: approx 30,0000 miles

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 for pleasure

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

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: YEG Edmonton, Alberta, Canada

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, have approx 62,000 miles in bank

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Alaska Airlines

perfectionist

Hi guys,

Hope someone can give this newbie an advice
I moved around the planet a lot. Just landed in Dubai for what could be a few years stint and am looking for a program to stick to. My family stayed in Europe though. From little reading that I did around the site I realise that I am not very lucky when it comes to opportunities, or at least I wouldn't know what to do left to my own devices. My objective is to use family visits and business trips to amass miles for a nice vacation once in a while. Any feedback will be massively appreciated. Thanks y'all.

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

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:This varies a lot, I did 60k+ in some years but most years I do between 25 and 30 in maybe 6 to 8 flights.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Economy mostly, with an occasional business.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: A mixed bag> it will be mostly work but I am an expat and therefore I want to fly home to see my folks as often as I can.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: Middle East regional and ME to Europe. My wife is Russian so she does Europe to Moscow occasionally

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: DXB but I have close family in ZAG and MOW

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply:I had gold on Miles and More and on Skywards but I lost them so now am back to Blue level everywhere. I also have Aeroflot Bonus account. I have about 105k miles on Skywards but 75k is set to expire in September. Maybe 25k left on Aeroflot.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: EK, LH...

Lorana

Previously my job had a lot of domestic travel and I consolidated onto JetBlue, with around 200k points.

I have a new job based in Boston that will require travel to Chicago, Atlanta, London and Hyderabad on a regular basis. I want to find a FFP to allow me to maximize earnings for awards to international destinations, and maybe gain status to earn upgrades especially on the Boston to London route.

I have Chase Sapphire & Chase Freedom cards and consolidate earnings at present on UR points - about 285k saved so far.

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

Most important is to have good redemption opportunities, particularly to destinations I'm most interested in: Europe, South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania. I expect most redemptions to be economy, but good redemption value in Premium or Business is of interest.

Next is potentially to earn some status based on amount of business travel, particularly when flying internationally (Boston to London, Boston to Hyderabad). My company pays for business to Hyderabad but not to London, so opportunity to be upgraded there would be nice.

(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:

3-4x year, Boston to Chicago in economy
3-4x year, Boston to Atlanta in economy
2x year, Boston to London in economy
2x year, Boston to Hyderabad in business

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply:
Economy. See routes above.

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

Travel most often for business, and it's economy unless flying to Hyderabad.
For personal travel, we had focused heavily on JetBlue and occasionally on Southwest.

I can choose my airline, as long as the cost doesn't deviate too much from fares of our preferred airlines:
American
United
Delta
Virgin Atlantic
British Airways
Alitalia
KLM
Emirates
Air France

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:
US Domestic & Caribbean - JetBlue

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

(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:

Not presently. Had Mosaic status previously, and I have close to 200,000 miles on JetBlue. And I have 285,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:
Domestically I love JetBlue, but I'm more looking who to fly for my business trips that will offer me the best rewards internationally.

ymhd872t

I am taking a trip to London. I have one flight that I can book that would basically be able to apply the miles to either AA, Delta and Virgin.

I am on All 3 programs with one flight on Delta this year; 15K points on AA from last year and 2k on Virgin. No status on any of them and looking to start the year fresh. I will be doing at least quarterly trips to from NYC - LA. They all seem to have comparable flights for that segment.

Since this London trip would be a huge start to one of these programs, which one should I book it on?

Appreciate all the help.

Thanks,
Bo

tom911

All depends what the London ticket cost. UA and DL will award miles based on the ticket price less taxes (5 miles per dollar at UA). AA will award you actual flight miles. If you're starting on the west coast, and it's a discounted economy ticket, you might end up better off on AA right now in terms of miles. AA does expect to go revenue based sometime in the second half of the year but a specific date has not been announced.

Tom at JFK

jacobprince

Hi there, looking for some advice on my circumstances and the best programme for me!
I live in Edinburgh but my partner's family lives in Cape Town, and I know I will be making consistent journeys once or twice a year for the foreseeable future. I am a student at the moment and so price will usually be the defining factor for me, but I am interested in building up points to redeem on travel. I monitor flight prices quite often, and over the past year Qatar has been consitently cheap along with Turkish Airlines. I travelled with Qatar recently and thought the product was great (it was also only one stop), but I'm looking for some advice as to whether I should be investing my money in another alliance. BA, KLM and Air France offer the most convenient itineraries but are often expensive, whilst QR can be £400 return off-peak. I can be quite flexible with connections, flight times etc if the price and eventual reward is attractive!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
In order of importance: good award redemption rates (free flights with low taxes is of utmost importance), extra baggage, lounge access, upgrades on travel.
(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: <25000 - <25
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: 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 choose, travel for pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Recently it has been around europe with BA or Easyjet, in the future I will have consistent flights to South Africa from UK (once or twice a year).
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: EDI, possibly changing to London or Amsterdam in the future
(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: BA: Blue (11,000 and no tier points) QR: Burgundy (8,500 and 85 tier points, so over half way to silver) UA: no status (9,500 and no tier points)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:Recently travelled on QR EDI-CPT, it was an excellent experience in economy I thought, even better than BA.

Thanks very much everyone!

Mwenenzi

Qatar is not an alliance. QR & BA are both in the Oneworld alliance. Subject to an eligible fare, you can earn ff miles/avios/points in one airline ffp when flying the other airline. That is fly QR and get BA avios. Earnings to a ffp can vary. Having multiple ffp’s with low balances is never a good idea. You never get enough miles to be of use before they expire. FFP’s are for the long term.

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

Decide on one Oneworld Alliance ffp and keep UA for Star Alliance airline flights.

Real taxes are the same for all airlines. Some airlines, like BA, charges surcharges (= airline profit) on some awards.

jacobprince

Thanks Mwenenzi, all great information. Sorry about my mishap with confusing alliance and ffp!

Sorry to bother you further but could you explain a little your choice of BA over QR as the ffp I should choose? As BA charge surcharges of around £400 on a return ticket to CPT, which equals the cost of a Qatar ticket paid in cash, it would seem like I'd be burning avios for no purpose. Additionally, I know that to book a QR reward ticket (with much less extra fees) through BA rewards is 100,000 avios which seems a bit steep, and not great value for my avios. Don't mean to question you on it, just looking to learn your thought process!

Thanks again.