Best way to earn points on travel to Asia
Jan 24, 2017, 7:55 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Sep 2014
Posts: 7
Best way to earn points on travel to Asia
I have been a member here for a few years now but haven't posted in a while. I will be traveling to Asia soon and probably will be staying there for about six months. I have some frequent flyer points with both United and American and want to earn as many points with either of them that I can.
I realize that many airlines now use money spent rather than miles flown when they award points. Does anyone here know of any Asian carrier that still awards points based on actual miles? Ideally, I would like to accumulate fifteen to twenty thousand points roundtrip by using an Asian airline and then transferring them back to either United or American, which nowadays will only give me five or six thousand based on the price of my ticket.
I also have heard of the AirAsiaPass. Does anyone know if it flies into Australia and/or New Zealand? I would appreciate any of your help.
I realize that many airlines now use money spent rather than miles flown when they award points. Does anyone here know of any Asian carrier that still awards points based on actual miles? Ideally, I would like to accumulate fifteen to twenty thousand points roundtrip by using an Asian airline and then transferring them back to either United or American, which nowadays will only give me five or six thousand based on the price of my ticket.
I also have heard of the AirAsiaPass. Does anyone know if it flies into Australia and/or New Zealand? I would appreciate any of your help.
Jan 24, 2017, 8:22 am
#2
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: New York, NY
Programs: AA Gold. UA Silver, Marriott Gold, Hilton Diamond, Hyatt (Lifetime Diamond downgraded to Explorist)
Posts: 6,776
You can't transfer them back. Once earned under 1 FFP they stay there. (Unless you want to take the time to convert via other programs that usually lead to a high loss of miles) When flying on partner airlines you earn by distance multiplied by a factor based on Fare code. Read up on the UA and AA programs for partner flights.
Air Asia is an LLC that and it's Air Asia Asean Pass is for travel within close proximity Asian countries.
Air Asia is an LLC that and it's Air Asia Asean Pass is for travel within close proximity Asian countries.
Jan 24, 2017, 8:37 am
#3
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2002
Location: Canada, USA, Europe
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 31,452
More details about where in Asia you plan to travel would be helpful to advise you which programme UA/AA you should collect with. I suspect you'll be best off sticking with one alliance (Star Alliance or OneWorld) and collecting accordingly. As Yoshi says, you cannot transfer from some Asian FFP into UA/AA so you should collect directly with one or both of them. The respective websites tell you exactly how many miles (% of distance flown) you will receive for different fare categories (yes, some will be extremely low). As for how much money you have spent, this is relevant, for UA for example, only as to how much money you have given UA. Flying partners doesn't count, so even if you could transfer miles into UA (which you can't) you wouldn't get credit for the cost of the ticket paid to Singapore Airlines.