saving money does not require programs, and programs are not really about saving money
although some credit cards and prepaid air/hotel offer various kinds of discounts

sometimes you might compare buying miles/points with price, but that adds complexity

united and air canada are both star alliance, what do you fly between europe and asia?

It can be overwhelming, so I recommend starting simple, as follows.

United and Air Canada are part of the Star Alliance and have a reciprocal mileage agreement. Sign up for one of their programs - I personally recommend United - and then collect miles for flights on either one in your United program. That will get you started.

https://www.united.com/web/en-US/con...s/default.aspx

Once you have an account number, put it into to all of your United and Air Canada reservations. Your miles will add up quickly and you will begin to collect perks. Read the United forum on this website and over time, your knowledge and expertise of the program will increase. Also, read the section on Mileage Plus on the United website.

You should consider getting one of several credit cards that allows you to earn miles in United's program. There are two ways to go in this regard. There are several cards that are linked directly to the United Mileage Plus program and are described on the United website. They are offered by Chase. Chase also offers a number of cards that allow you to collect points and transfer them to United or several other airline and hotel programs. There is an entire forum on this website about Chase cards as well. These get rather complicated and I wouldn't worry too much about them at first. My personal recommendation would be to get one of the United Mileage Plus cards.

Just start simple - get credit for what you are flying and don't worry about "maximizing" your benefits at this point. Just get started. And build gradually from there. Most people here having been doing this for years. As you get involved, specific questions will come up and you are welcome to post those in the appropriate forum- probably the United one for the most part.

I believe OP lives in UK, so the credit card thing is going to be wasted on him. There's a co-branded United card by MBNA here but it's pretty rubbish. And from the UK forget about Aeroplan.

Points Tide-Up and New CC
 

Hey guys,

I am new to the game and I am just wondering if someone can help me out with the following situation. Really hard for me to understand which way to go. I am based in Australia.

Current points:
Qatar 12,000 - Krisflyer 15,000 – Quantas 5,000 – Velocity 7,000 – Ethiad Around 15,000 by the end on Jan 2017 (travelling to Europe for Christmas) – Flybuys 25,000

I usually travel once per year to Europe and my dream is to fly first class for once in my life (Wife and I).

First thing I need to do is try to tide up the situation with all the outstanding point and maybe focus on only one program.
Second I need to open a new credit card. The old one (IngDirect) doesn`t give cashback anymore. I will need two cards (Wife and I) and we usually spend around $2000/month.

I know the situation is really complicate but I really appreciate you help.
Cheers,

I think one place to start is http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html.

I fully agree you should consolidate your frequent flyer points if you want to secure awards, particularly in higher classes of cabin service.

Other things to consider: which airline and alliance serves you best at MEL and for your most common destinations, and which credit card earning "universal" points or miles is available in Godzone that will dovetail with thd chosen airline / alliance.

Qantas ("you put the 'u' in Qantas- they don't" ;)) points can be used on their partners including oneworld airlines.

Virgin Australia, as far as I can see, belongs to no alliance but has a number of partner airlines youncan book awards with.

What are your long term objectives with a ffp?
Is Australia home for a long time?
You have an overlap in

• Qantas QF & Qatar QR are both Onewworld alliance
• Virgin Aust VA Velocity has partnerships with Singapore SQ Krisflyer & Etihad EY. Both have shares in VA. You can move ff miles/points between SQ to VA and VA to SQ.

Subject to an eligible fare, you can earn QF points for QR flights and vice versa.
Subject to an eligible fare, you can earn VA points for SQ & EY flights and vice versa.
http://www.wheretocredit.com/qf
http://www.wheretocredit.com/qr
http://www.wheretocredit.com/va
http://www.wheretocredit.com/sq
http://www.wheretocredit.com/ey

You need to be careful about expiry. An incomplete list here (click the wiki) http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html
Note that both Qatar QR and Singapore SQ have a hard expiry. Use them or loose them. You can move those expiring SQ points to VA

While QF is a poor ffp and VA is little better, by world standards, both have the local advantage of being able to earn ff points by non flying activities. That is attractive to some people.

https://www.velocityfrequentflyer.co...line-partners/

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, 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: less than 25000 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: Travel for pleasure

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: Asia (mainly Japan, South Korea)

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

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Singapore Air

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: I'd rank (in order) lounge access/priority service, baggage allowance, and redemption / upgrades as being important.

I've held *G for about two years, and have yet to ever get upgraded, so I don't really see upgrades as being significant. Redemption costs on Aegean and Turkish are also high enough that I've never really considered award tickets a real benefit.


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:
I'll typically do ~14,500 miles annually in personal travel, plus another 20,000 in business travel. That's usually over four round trip itineraries, totaling ~16 segments. Direct routes could cut that down to eight long flights, but that's usually not cost effective. This amount may increase if I take more 10,000 mile trips through the year.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: For myself, I always buy economy. When flying for business, I can opt for premium economy on any segment over eight hours.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: I can choose airlines and economy/premium economy, and travel for both work and pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: I typically fly transatlantic (to East/West Coast). I don't count intra-europe flights because they're usually on budget carriers (or Lufthansa...) and don't accrue miles.

AMS=>(EWR, JFK, PHL) and AMS=>SFO

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

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

• Turkish Airlines Elite (*G): ~17k miles
  
• Aegean: I hold Silver status with them, expiring at the end of the year. I hold ~36k miles with them
  

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

• Consistently good experiences with Lufthansa, SAS, LOT
• Consistently poor experiences with US flagged carriers (United / US Airways), making me hesitant to try AA/Delta
• Most likely never again: Turkish Airlines. It's been three months since the coup led to my flight being cancelled, and I'm still fighting for my refund.

9. Upcoming Flights:
>>> Reply:

• Upcoming booked RT-flight, 11,000 miles going to Turkish.
• One or two RT-flights, likely to be ~7000 miles each.

Options I'm considering:

• Attempt to reach the 37.5k 2 year requalification threshold with TK. (I don't think I'm eligible for 25k in one year since I didn't do that last year). This has the advantage of not leaving good miles stuck with Turkish, but the disadvantage of keeping me in an alliance that is pretty bad for my home airport. Additionally, it seems that so many flights have less than 50% earning, it doesn't feel very worthwhile.
• * Do a Delta Status-Match challenge, and fly to the east coast twice in the next 90 days. If there are any important "gotchas", those would be good to know
• Start from scratch and suffer a year without status, putting my miles into a good Skyteam/Oneworld program

TL;DR: I want to leave Turkish Airlines Elite for a good program in Skyteam or Oneworld. Should I go with Delta's Medallion program, or should I pick a different program with KLM/BA/other?

Which Frequent Flyer Program to Join
 

Hi,

Could you please recommend frequent flyer program to join for me?

Questionnaire

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 rate and 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 25,000 miles and around 4-6 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: Yes, I usually travel for pleasure or visit family/friends

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: sorted by most frequently first:
Australia-Asia (SYD-BKK, SYD-NRT/HND)
Australia - Europe (SYD-DUB, SYD-GOT, SYD-MUC, SYD-BRU)
Australia-US/Canada (SYD-YVR, SYD-PDX, SYD-SFO)
intra-Oceania (SYD-AKL, SYD-WLG, SYD-CHC)
intra-Asia (BKK-NRT/HND)

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: sorted by most frequently first: Sydney (SYD), Bangkok (BKK)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: Qantas Bronze 2600 points, Lufthansa 500 miles. However, I'm willing to switch if there is better program in long term investment.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: No preference as long as it's safe and doesn't have many accidents or crashes

Thank you.

Help with finding the right FFP for me
 

Hi guys,

I would love some advice on which airline is the best to pledge allegiance to. Here are my answers to the questionnaire:

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.
>>> Accumulate points to go back to Australia for vacation (i.e. affiliation with an airline that flies from the USA to Australia). Otherwise, traveling mostly for work, so availability of lounges, upgrades and # of flights

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: Unsure yet, but will be flying at least once a month. Key locations include Baltimore, San Diego and Madison WI (among others)

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 self-purchase tickets using corporate card. May be some limitations on class of service.

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

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: BOS (Boston Logan)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: None :(

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Do not have loyalty with any airline at the moment

Thank you!

AKarenina

Questions
For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Discounted/free travel with award miles,
upgrades,
priority services,
extra baggage
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
<25 flight, 20-25
Reply:
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy
Reply:
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Personal
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Europe -> Asia, Asia, Europe -> North America, Europe
(6) What is your home airport?
MAN/HKG
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
I have some miles in Emirates but not enough an upgraded tier
(8) Preferred Airlines
None

I am flying from SHA to SEL in the next two weeks.

Is it worth me even considering FFP?

What airliine SHA SEL?
What fare booking class? (Not Y cabin)
www.wheretocredit.com

Time to get with it
 

I'd never thought about how to make the most of mileage programmes until last year, when Delta took an almighty dump on their customers. I just accepted miles on whatever carrier I was flying on. As a result, I've lost a ton of mileage over the years... but better late than never, right?

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply: Upgrades to Business Class. I live for roomy seats and no waiting in line.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
>>> Reply: Usually less than 25,000/year spread out over 6-8 legs

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
>>> Reply: Business Class fare if it’s deeply discounted — e.g. LAX-MAD for $2000. Otherwise, I buy Economy and figure out an upgrade.

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 pleasure. My choice of airlines and service class are a function of a limited budget.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
>>> Reply: LAX-MAD, LAX-ZRH, LAX-CDG

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: LAX, MAD, and ZRH

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. ~$36K Skymiles, ~15K Alaska, ~15K AAdvantage

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: Air France, but I’m looking into other European carriers.

The only reason I have Skymiles is because Delta credited my Air France points to their own programme even though I made it crystal clear that I wanted my points to go to Flying Blue. I’ve had terrible experiences with Delta but I keep overlapping with them because of their partnership with Air France. That said, I’ve never flown United and I haven't flown American since I was 12, so I don’t really know how they all compare.

Time for a change?
 

Hi all, total newb here. I appreciate any advice you can give me--I've been loyal to AA since I lived in Dallas, but since the merger, I haven't had one flight this year that didn't have problems. I'm thinking about switching (and signing up for an Airline CC), but I wanted to get your thoughts on what FFP was best for me--i.e. should I stay or should I go?

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

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: 18 segments, less than 25k in 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: I am able to choose airlines, but am usually limited to discount economy (cheapest ticket available, with some allowance for airline choice). Travel 50/50 work and pleasure.

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

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

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, AAdvantage 51k miles

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply:None anymore. AA has really gone down the crapper, but I've always hated United and it sounds like Delta is just as bad.

orthofootsurgeon Welcome to FT

With the majority of ffp's benefits are reducing and ff mile award/upgrade costs are going up. Upgrades are now harder to get. The halcyon days of frequent flyer programs a decade ago are gone: just accept reality.

Taking the flight that best suits your budget & schedule and treating any ff miles as bonus that may or may not be able to used is now a solid alternative to staying with a single alliance/airline.

The grass in not always greener on the other side