Hey everyone,

New to the forum here, thank you for reading in advance! I would like to hear your thoughts on my situation as I will be flying around 4/5 times per year to Seoul and Tokyo from Amsterdam in Premium Economy (probably booking class G). I'm looking for the best FF to join and doubting about the right Alliance for me. My current situation:

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, Lounge Acces, 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: Around 20 flights per year (business and personal)

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Premium Economy for Business (around 12 flights per year) and Economy for Personal flights (around 8 flights per year)

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: I can usually pick the airline myself depending on the availability and travel time. I traveled to Tokyo and Seoul with both Lufthansa/ANA and KLM this year. For personal travel, I flew to Almaty with Turkish Airlines through Istanbul which I do 2 times per year on average.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: AMSTERDAM - SEOUL - TOKYO & AMSTERDAM - ISTANBUL - ALMATY.

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: AMSTERDAM (EHAM)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: Both accounts with Flying Blue (34 XP and 5300 miles, 4 flights) and Miles & More (10k status miles with 3 flights), no status yet.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: I liked ANA very much as well as KLM. Turkish Airlines is also quite nice, but the fact they don't have a premium economy class is a bit disappointing.

A couple of side notes here:

- I have been looking into Lufthansa's Miles & More, but I'm not sure if the new program change (01.01.2024) is beneficial for premium economy travelers as some German sources claimed there will be no difference in mileage accrual between economy and premium economy classes anymore starting in 2024. Does anyone have some more information on this?
- Flying Blue is also an option and seems a great option to reach a Gold status relatively fast (being able to buy XP through fuel compensation packages through KLM, for example) but I'm not sure about SkyTeam as an alliance and the fact that most of my destinations lie within the Star Alliance network with bigger hubs from my preferred airlines (Almaty, Istanbul, Tokyo, Seoul)
- ANA's Milage Club seems like a great option, given their price per mile (2.8 cents) but the price can get quite steep for a Premium Economy ticket if not booked in time (2/3 months before departure). Do you have any experience with the Milage Club?
- I also looked at One World's programs like British Airways and Japan Airlines but they can get quite expensive as well.
- I currently have an AMEX Gold Card so I'm saving up points to convert into miles, if needed.

I would love to know your thoughts and any tips and tricks are welcome!

Thank you in advance!

Welcome to FlyerTalk!

If Cathay Pacific's Premium Economy fares for AMS-TYO/SEL are competitive, I would look into flying Cathay, but crediting the flights to Iberia Plus. After just one Premium Economy roundtrip on Cathay, you would have low-tier, oneworld Ruby (Iberia Plus Plata) status). After just two such roundtrips, you would have mid-tier, oneworld Sapphire (Iberia Plus Oro) status, which would get you lounge access. (Edited to add: This is for roundtrip travel to TYO; for roundtrip travel to SEL, you would need 1.5 roundtrips and 2.5 roundtrips to achieve Iberia Plata and Iberia Oro, respectively.)

Flights credited to Iberia Plus earn Avios, which can be transferred to BA and QR, which also use Avios as their frequent-flyer "currency." (QR serves ALA and AMS from DOH.)

Hey guv1976! Thank you for your swift reply

Nice, I will check that option, heard good stories about oneworld as well. Regarding crediting the flight to Ibera: How does that work? Make the booking directly with Cathay and somehow register it in the ff program of Iberia? Or does it work differently?

Also; do you have any thoughts on the 3 alliances? Would you say Oneworld is the most advantageous for this route?

Thanks!

You're welcome!

Whenever you book with a carrier that is part of a global alliance, you should find a field for entering a frequent-flyer program and account number. So when booking a flight with Cathay Pacific, you would simply select Iberia Plus as the program, and enter your Iberia Plus number in that field. (Of course, you would first have to enroll in Iberia Plus to get an IB Plus number to enter in your Cathay bookings.)

Ordinarily, oneworld would probably be the last alliance to recommend for someone based in AMS, which is a Sky Team hub, and also has a lot of service from Star Alliance carriers. But if your goal is to achieve at least mid-tier status for lounge access, and if Cathay's Premium Economy fares for AMS-TYO/SEL remain competitive, then flying CX and crediting to IB would be a good combination.

One caveat: Iberia Plus's collection year for achieving status runs from April 1 to March 31, so you would need to fly sufficient qualifying flights during that period to attain Iberia Plus status.