Section8

Hi FT, I'm not even sure if this is the right section of the forums, but forgive me as this is my first post.

I used to live in the US for the past 10 years and have recently moved to Australia. I've got a decent balance (about 70k) on what used to be Continental OnePass and is now United Mileage Plus. and about 10k miles on Delta. I fly quite often, but the majority of my flights have been with Singapore Airlines, Emirates, and Virgin Australia. I've on occasion flew Thai airways and Air New Zealand.

My current conundrum is that I've done a fair bit of research on Singapore KrisFlyer and everyone has said that its quite awful as far as reward travel and elite qualification. I don't care so much about free flights as I do access to airport lounges and/or upgrades to business class. I would normally keep United Mileage Plus but I have almost zero chance of obtaining elite status (even though I usually get the mileage for it) because I can't take the 4 flights per year required for it.

I know Emirates is it's own thing, but I was wondering what changes I should make to the programs and what people's recommendations were. I was thinking of waiting until I accumulated 80k miles with United and just buy a roundtrip award travel to the states around christmas to see family etc but I look and the entire month of december is unavailable, meaning I would have to go back in November which is disruptive to work etc. Following this I would switch over to Singapore KrisFlyer, just because I fly them much more often.

Help me please Take pitty on a poor soul!

meehgz

Welcome to Oz! I'm just finally moved here last year I've been flying back and forth quite regularly though, so unfortunately can't advise you on program strategy since I've thus been able to rack up plenty of UA flights and maintain status while still being here. But! I can advise as to what you said about looking at UA award flights back - I've had terrible luck with seeing UA saver awards too far ahead of time but have yet to not get a saver award fare (in all three classes of service) when needed when looking within the month or so of departure. That may be too long to feel uncertain for, but that's just how availability has seemed to work whenever I've looked/booked - and this includes an award booking the week before Christmas (so same time frame you were looking at).

IPG

Agree with meehgz. I've never had a problem getting any class of service, especially economy, to Oz. Give it some months and keep checking. The flood proverbial floodgates will open.

Section8

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, see, the trouble is, I actually really dislike flying UA compared to the rest of the airlines, and I don't go back to the states very often. IF I did go back, it would probably be either via Emirates via DXB or Air NZ via AKL, or Cathay via HKG. And Im in MEL instead of SYD so an extra connection for Qantas is always annoying...

joepakid

If you are willing to go through South East Asia, you can use your United miles to book Singapore Airlines, Asiana, ANA, Thai, or a combination of many others. Use the Multi-city feature on United website to search for individual segments. I had a bunch of options for travel in December using this method. Caveat is you may have to fly a bit longer than you want to and, if it gets too complicated, call in to book and pay the $25 fee.

joepakid

Also, Qantas flies MEL-LAX daily and Virgin as well 3x weekly, so you might not want to rule out either for program in the long run.

Section8

Yeah there are lots of routes to LAX, but I'm not really concerned about that since I will only be flying there once a year tops - ill mainly be flying to Asia. My main gripe is that I am getting enough miles to qualify for silver elite but not 4 UA flight segments. So I was considering switching to KrisFlyer, but I would rather just stay where I am and find a way around the 4 flight restriction. Any suggestions or do I just have to switch?

SeriouslyLost

It will no doubt be moved to the QFF forum shortly, but just to get you started, if you're flying throughout Asia a lot then I'd suggest taking a look at either Malaysian (who have literally just joined the OneWorld alliance) or American Airlines.

MH will get you around Asia reasonably and they have reasonable earn rates. AA may seem a peculiar choice but their earn & burn rates are excellent for what you describe. Virgin's programme might be worth a look too. Qantas (also OW) is a waste of time and space: if you're thinking of QF then forget it and just join AA and credit any QF flights to AA instead. QF are pretty much giving up on the Asia market anyway, so flying MH & crediting to them or AA might be the go.

Ocn Vw 1K

Section8, welcome to FlyerTalk!

First I deleted a post and your reply to it which advocated cross-posting your message to another forum. The site rules disallow this practice.

Your thread seems best in the MilesBuzz forum, as your focus is on picking the best frequent flyer program. With a more specific thread title edit, I'll move this thread to the MilesBuzz forum. Ocn Vw 1K, Moderator, TravelBuzz.

honu

Doesn't UA fly SIN-NRT and SIN-HKG? If you need 4 segments on UA metal, you might be able to get them that way. Alternatively, you could do a couple of cheap RTs when you get back Stateside in December. I agree with the assessment that AA or UA would serve you better as programs... Ozzie programs aren't that good and many Asian programs aren't much better.

Section8

Forgive me for saying this, but frankly I avoid taking UA if I can help it because compared to SQ or Air New Zealand, Cathay, or pretty much any other airline out here, its it's vastly overpriced and the service is horrible. And even if the service was available, and I would rather pay the extra $100 to fly any of the other airlines I mentioned rather than UA. The same goes 100 times over for AA. Their respective frequent flier programs are good, but I really dislike their service. Counting on taking 4 flights on UA IF I even return to the states at all seems a bit like a bad option. Is there any way to bypass the 4 flights minimum? Or should I just say sod it all and make the switch to SQ? Are there any other better options, specifically within One World and Star Alliance?

joepakid

In looking at your original post, you mentioned valuing Lounge Access over free flights. If this is the case, then for Star Alliance I would look at Aegean, or perhaps Asiana for a mileage program home. Even if you were able to stay with UA and get your 4 segments, you say that you will only achieve Silver status, which would not get you Lounge Access. The relatively low qualification levels of the two programs mentioned would get you *G for less miles than annual Silver on UA or SQ, giving you lounge access, extra baggage, etc.

Section8

Thank you very much!! I will look into it immediately!

Tiki

I'm a US/Aussie dual citizen so I can relate to your situation. Keep your US credit cards whatever you do. I address some of your issues on my blog but I am focused on redeemable miles, not status or lounge access. My strategy is to use credit cards to get enough miles to redeem on J class which gets us into the lounges. I also have Priority Pass from my Aussie Amex which also gets us into lounges.