frequent-flyer program for me ?
 

Hi,

I am an international student in Canada, and I am from Tunisia.
I am planning on taking two round trip flights from Toronto to Tunis-Carthage each year. That's around 20,000 miles a year.
Should I look for a frequent-flyer program ? if yes, which one would suit me ?

Welcome! What airline do you want to fly?

Depends as much on what passport you hold as which airline(s) you intend to fly. With the downgrading of FF programs overall, circumstances may dictate a program that routes you through various transit airports in countries that may have visa restrictions. As well, the fare paid will determine what you can expect to earn in the way of miles you can redeem for flights in the future, or if you can even attain a tier of elite status in the course of a single year to receive benefits on future flights.

KLM/Air France may afford a better option than either Aeroplan's partners (AC, Egyptair, LH) or Avios' (BA, AA, IB). Those are the airlines that would have the most flights into northern Africa. 20K flight miles might only translate into 10K redeemable or elite status miles on discount fares depending upon the airline and the FF program you join. Also, would your time and financial resources permit traveling around Canada during your time here, and can you get a visa to visit the USA so you might have some flights down there?

What airline(s) have you flown in the past? To get to Toronto? If you provide more details, I am sure you can get some reliable advice that suits your needs and gives you a 2-3 years strategy to maximize your investment while studying over here.

Thanks.
I only tried Royal Air Maroc for my first flight.
It was a one-way flight from Tunis to Montreal. I booked very late as I had to wait for my permit and flying to Montreal via Casablanca was much cheaper than the other options in that time, but henceforth, all of my flights should be Toronto-Tunis-Toronto. So I technically haven't tried any airlines yet and therefore have no idea which one should I choose. I think Air France has more flights to Montreal. So I am considering Air Canada, Alitalia, Lufthansa, Turkish Airlines and British Airways.

I only have a Tunisian passport (with a Canadian study permit). I need a visa for Western Europe and USA. There are few countries that I don't need a visa for such as Turkey, Morocco, Algeria ...

A visa to visit the USA might require a lot of time. I might go to the US during my 4-month internships (I have 6 work terms), but that depends on whether I would be hired by a company in SF, so it's not an option currently.

As I mentioned earlier, I had to fly to Montreal from Tunis with Royal Air Maroc (and I had a layover of 4 hours in Casablanca), then I went to Toronto by Train.

As this is more a general FFP topic and less of an Air Canada or Aeroplan FFP one it's been relocated to the Information Desk for more input on all the FFP options.

tcook052
Air Canada Forum Moderator

Welcome to FlyerTalk… please take a look at the http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html sticky thread. There is a questionnaire that you can copy and paste into a reply to that thread. Be sure to answer all the questions, and one of our helpful members will try to give you some advice.

Good luck, and safe travels!

I have this card called everydays where i just shop for food and just present my card. Collect points every 1 dollar. And it goes towards my qantas everydays rewards card. But it is a very slow progress because it immaculate just 1 point for every 1 dollar.

From your further details, I would suggest SkyTeam is the alliance for you if those flights home will continue to be on Royal Air Morocco since that's the alliance it is a member of. That would include AF/KLM which could also be an option since these two carriers have been offering very low fares to Africa on a regular basis. And if you do fly into the US at some point, DL would be the airline to take so you can earn mileage on those flights.'

It doesn't appear that you will be doing much, if any, domestic flights within Canada so this doesn't really become a factor -- other than perhaps getting to YUL for your overseas flight.

The issue becomes which airline's FF program to sign up for, since you can choose from several SkyTeam members. I'm not familiar with those programs, so suggest you might pursue your query in the SkyTeam forum.

Thanks for your helpful response.

However, I should mention that I really don't want to fly from YUL anymore. I only did that once because the difference was significant. The cheapest flight I found to YYZ at that time was twice the price of the one to YUL. I guess the difference was that important because I booked the flight a week before departure (due to visa issues) and YYZ is more in demand than YUL. Now that I will be booking before 2 months, there isn't really much difference between YUL and YYZ, plus it would cost me $150 to get to Montreal (+ possibly a night in a hotel) yet not more than $12 to get to YYZ. And as Royal Air Maroc apparently doesn't have flights to YYZ, I don't think I would be flying on Royal Air anymore. Also, most of Air France's flights are from YUL. What about Alitalia or Air Canada ? They seem to have good deals.

Um Royal Air Maroc is not a member of Skyteam. There is a rumor it will join Star Alliance.

Being a partner of KLM/Air France is not the same as being in Skyteam.

Mea culpa...checked the AM site and thought I saw the SkyTeam logo. However, I would still go with that alliance and fly AF/KL from YYZ since it has the best routes into Northern Africa via CDG or AMS and generally low fares.

Alitalia is a SkyTeam member, but their FF program seems to me to be run inefficiently and has some funny features: apparently it mmust dissolve about every five years, with all remaining miles being wiped out at that time, regardless of continued activity or how recently the miles were earned.

If you're going to be flying AF/KLM into Africa, then the obvious FF program choices are either FlyingBlue (AF/KLM) or Delta.