Hi All

I have found a couple of old threads on this but thought I would kick off my membership with a new one. Basically I am going to be traveling from the UK to the US at least once a month from now on, and was wondering which FF programme to go for. Looking at the routes I have decided that star alliance is porbably the best fit (BA is impossible to get tier points and sky team just don't have the routes) so with this in mind I was hoping for some opinions on the best FF programme to join, i.e. best rewards and easiest to get through the tiers. I will be flying economy, most of the time inflexible.

Thanks

Since tiers is one of your issues, why not AA?

London has AA TATLs, you can reach mid-tier status with as little as 10K ecomomy miles flown. Put another way, one RT TATL to the US can get you Platinum Status, versus flying 4-5 RT TATLs with *A.
AA SWUs can be used with almost any priced fare and you will get 8 of them when your reach 100K EQMs/100SEGs/100K EQPs.

And living in England you will have no legal issues using AA miles on BA for flights to anywhere but the US, plus getting points from BA flights flown around the rest of the world, excluding the US. I am flying from FRA-LHR on BA in a couple of weeks, because of the nature of my ticket I will not get 1:1 miles, but I will get a few.

As far as Star Alliance, you would be good to check out BMI, CO and UA programs.

I am a bit confused...what does living in England have to do with the ability to redeem AA miles on BA flights that don't go to the USA? Anyone can redeem AA miles on BA flights that don't go to the USA.

The way this is written can be easily misunderstood.
Now this statement would have a lot of conditions wouldn't it? Don't you need to PAY to do the Plat challenge? Don't you need to buy a expensive fare class Y tickets to get enough points to meet that plat challenge with just one RT TATL? In subsequent years, doesn't one have to earn the plat the 'old fashion way' or pay to do the challenge again once has lost the plat status?

Morning

Very much depends on where in the States you are going...

United are great for all but the South East IMHO; CO should be able to fill that gap

Also consider which airport you intend to depart from...


All the best

He can't use them on awards to the States. He can use them elsewhere in the world. Living in england that would be interstinf to know for the OP..
Depends on your definition of "a lot." 10K points in 90 days, a fee, certain fare code. Nothing that is that hard to grasp. I did my PLT challenge in 2008 and it was a snap.

Yes. $200.

Depends of you definition of expensive. My DW and kiddos did a PLT challenge on a RT TATL for about $1000 each, including the fee.

How much would flying 50K miles of TATALs cost to earn status the traditional way? I suspect a bit more than $1K.



And how is PLT earned if you slog out 50K miles and don't qualify? OP seems to be set up to top tier status with which ever US based airline he chooses. Reaching mid-tier after only one TATL will make his life much easier.

UA for Economy Plus seating, and then 100% mileage bonus on UA flights.

If you are flying paid C or F, the BMI is a no brainer.

depending on your origin and destinations you may also want to consider VS rather than *A. I enjoyed my travel with them and they have a bunch of partners as well.

I've been asking myself the same question. bmi comp'd me to Silver, based on BA status (and I have no particular desire to head for Gold with them as I have OW lounge access now, and requalified for next year). However, I have discovered that only *A Gold get lounge access around the world with *A carriers...

So, I wondered whether there was any point to being in bmi, and could CO/UA or even M&M be better for my needs. I had not considered VA - are they really that connected to anyone other than ANZ and Singapore?

My primary concern is somewhere to park *A miles for the odd flights I take at best value without them expiring if I don't fly for a while, with the easiest route to *A Gold for lounge access being a secondary concern.

EDIT - or, is someone aware of any OW Emerald to *A Gold comp promotions at present? I realise now that bmi were taking the mikey comp'ing to *A Silver...