Hallo all, nice to find this forum
I'm a new member, I live in Italy, will relocate in a few to Shanghai for business for something like 2-3 years.

My "hub" will be Shanghai, yet I'll travel really a lot to Xiamen (sha - xia - sha), will manage yearly a couple (or more) flies to Italy (sha - (milan or rome) - sha), and will probably have to go to Turkey, USA, Egypt, India, ... (everywhere marble is - dealing with marble import/export).

Now, since I'll be travelling a lot I'd like to get a good frequent flyer program, to be able to access to lounges as soon as possible.

I've heard Italy-China best companies to fly with are Lufthansa or Cathay.
I was temped of going Star Alliance for international routes, but I found that Shanghai - Xiamen is flown only by China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Xiamen Airlines...all others are via somewhere (CP via hkg, AC via khn or szx).

Do you have any suggestion? Is there any way I can get a Miles&More card or MarcoPolo and gain Lufthansa or Cathay status with internal sha-xia flights?

(I wouldnt like going with skyteam...)

Any suggestion is welcome

Thank you all!





Here a recap:
1) What is your home airport? (Shanghai it seems)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? No idea...economy/business in China, economy/business for international routes.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Again, no idea, above clarifications.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (lounge access, upgrades for international flights. Absolutely don't care of redemption)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (read above)
(7) Preferred Airlines (had been said Lufthansa or Cathay....NO ALITALIA)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (work, will be able to chose class)

CX's hub is HKG. It won't help you get from SHA to XMN.

For that, it looks like your choices are China Eastern, Shanghai Airlines, Spring Airlines, or Xiamen Airlines.

China Eastern, Shanghai, and Xiamen are all part of Skyteam. Not sure if you have much choice outside of this.

Where in Italy are you going to be flying to/from? China Eastern flies from PVG to FCO.

Thank you much!

For international flights Milan would be better, FCO is an option...

Seems there is no way to get out of Skyteam

I really prefere Star Alliance or Oneworld

Interesting, Air China has a direct flight from PVG to Milan MXP. So you could earn some of your long haul points on *A. I guess that's to your preference.

From PVG:
Turkey: You can get to Istanbul (IST) on Turkish Airlines, which is part of *A and also codeshares with Air China.

USA: ORD and LAX on AA (OneWorld), DTW on DL (Skyteam), ORD, LAX, EWR, SFO on UA.

Egypt: can't find direct flights.

India: Delhi and Mumbai on Air India, or Delhi on China Eastern. Not sure which kinds of miles you can earn on Air India that would be useful to you. Maybe Turkish Airlines miles so some of your trips to Istanbul could be award flights.

Hi!
Seems I will have a lot of star alliance options except on the Shanghai / Xiamen route

Being newbie in FFPs, do you suggest me going with *a for international routes and st for local ones? Or is it better to use my millemiglia card (with 3000 miles on it!!!!! ) for everything?
What I wouldn't like is being stuck with someone who doesn't offer a good service...seems for inland, air china is not the better option, while dragonair or china south / east are, but for international routes Cathay / British or Lufthansa / Asiana... Absolutely are.

More...in Italy the only option to fly with is Alitalia, or ryanair ...

I just hate Alitalia customer service, that's all

edit
Forgot...for international flyes I don't really care of direct or not routes, i love hanging in terminals

I would recommend for long haul flights to choose the TK - a great lounge in Istanbul, daily flights to many cities in Italy and Shanghai / Beijing / Guangzhou / Hong Kong. Also, TK intends to add more cities in China this year.
And many flights to Asia(India, Egypt, etc).
Status typed easily supported and maintained as well.
The use of miles, not bad(if make booking on TK flight).
Co-brand with the Italian banks haven`t.
Or Aegean - Gold for only 2 trip to China in the economy. Spend miles worse.
If the priority of using miles - it USA Star companies - US and UA.
At US you can buy more miles at good prices and in the UA to take a one way ticket.
Intra China - sometime I use Delta miles for one-way award flight(9000 miles+few dollars). Also, have many promo in year for buying, transfer miles.