I live in Yantai China and am flying back and forth to the US and back. Most flights from the here to the US leave either from ICN or PEK. I have mapped out my travel plans and found that I will be flying somewhere between 50k and 80k miles during 2010. I have never flown enough before to worry about elite status.

I am wondering which airline would be the best airline to put my miles into and qualify for elite status. I fly mainly coach and I am most interested in getting free upgrades. I was planning to stick to star alliance but I am opening to working only with skyteam if there is something better.

Thanks for all the help.

American Airlines has the best perks in the USA. They are no where near being the best in the world but I recommend you stay away from United, always late for departures.

Thanks,

Anthony

If you are free to choose airline you should try to stick to one of the larger programs such as Star Alliance or Flying Blue. Visit their web sites to check which airlines participates and how many miles each of them requires for elite status.

Rune

if you can fly aa across the water, you could be plt [mid tier] after 1 trip using the challenge [look in the aa forum stickies for info]....i think that other carriers have something similar.....good luck...

Which cities in the US would you be visiting (from ICN or PEK) and how often? Do you already know which airlines (US based or Asia based carriers) you are considering to fly with in 2010? Basically you want figure out what are the non-stop routes (if possible) across the pacific then determine the trade off between different options.

You stated below that you are most interested in free upgrades -- are you talking about upgrades for flights within the US or the long haul transpacific flights or potentially flights within Asia? For US domestic travel, as a mid-tier elite, you can have a varying degree of likelihood of free upgrade depending on the routes and timing (i.e., # of other elites who'd be traveling).

As a mid tier elite, you typically don't get "free" upgrade for long haul transpacific flights. Some airlines (e.g., UA) have instruments for upgrades for TPAC travel however only those with a higher elite status (100K+ EQM) are given the SWU and also there might be a fare class requirement for upgrades -- check the specific airline website for instrument based upgrade requirements for TPAC flights. Another *A airline, CO, does not have free upgrade for TPAC, but you can use "miles + cash co-pay" to upgrade any coach tickets.

One of the main benefit for reaching mid tier elite status is that you typically get 100% bonus miles (redeemable miles) of the actual miles flown. While you're choosing a FFP, consider how you'd want use the miles and whether the FFP would be a good fit for your redemption needs.

Lastly, not forget that one of the good things about UA is that it has E+, so if you are tall that would be a big factor in favor of UA for traveling in coach.

Best of luck.

My plans for 2010 have me flying from China to San Fransisco, Vegas, NY, Seattle and then maybe Mobile, or Atlanta. I do not know the airlines i will be flying yet I was planning to choose the airline based on which FFP I choose. It looks like the best flights are on Asian carriers.

I will look into ways to upgrade on Transpacifc Flights on the different carriers. Thank you for all your advice and pointing my research in the right direction.

UA is the only possibility I can think of that fits your travel pattern and has a relatively good international upgrade policy. However, since you won't be 1k (at least the first year), you'd need to trade for or purchase SWUs (miles upgrades aren't a very good deal; I should also add that purchasing SWUs is against the rules, so keep a low profile if you decide to go that route).

That having been said, KE looks like it might be a better overall fit for your travel needs because you'd get one stop access to all of the cities on your list, except for Mobile, of course.

I considered KE's FFP a few years ago and was most unimpressed. However, that was before DL came out with its crazy new award chart, so maybe KE is worth looking into. As a mid tier elite, you'd probably have a decent chance at getting an opup or two. What's more, I'm guessing they have some sort of mileage based upgrades.

If UA happens to run DEQM again next year, OP might have a good chance of reaching 1K I'm curious about OZ for these routes and also the elite benefits on OZ.

With KE, he/she can get to all of the listed destinations in the US, while OZ doesn't have LAS or ATL.

BTW, after posting, I checked out KE's program again and, as I recalled, it is pretty grim:

-no elite bonus
-need 500k miles to make mid tier (no time limit, but still a big hurdle)
-no upgrade certs and limit of 4 lounge visits in 2 years
-upgrades to/from US cost 30k each way (reasonable if you're earning 100% EQM; otherwise, not so attractive)

I think OZ is about the same.

Latest suggestion, go with UA (Mileage Plus) and fly on OZ until DEQM kicks in.

UA. Trade SWUs after you reach 100 posts in Coupon Connection here.

Or just sit in Y+ which really isn't that bad. I think you get it after 25k miles flown, which will be basically after your first transpac.