Which program for LHR-JFK ??
 

My girlfriend is going to be living in NY for a year, which means I will be doing a communte to JFK once every two weeks.

I am currently a member of the QF program, as well as UA and LH. I now tend to do all my business flying on BA, and will still credit this to the QF program as my flying is always on fully flexible tickets, and in at least WT+ for long haul.

The problem is that AA provides only 50% credit for flights in all but the most expensive economy classes, and BA only 25%. Therefore, QF is probably not the best program for me to use.

My LH membership is a couple of years old (just about the lose SEN) that I achieved when flying LH alot. I've not flown on UA since about May last year - I had a project on with a client where I had to fly United a number of times in just a few months - enough to achieve PremEx status.

I'm thinking of either:

- opening a new account with AA and flying with AA each fortnight;
- flying with UA.

The advantage I see with UA is that I am already PremEx, so get lounge access and also E+ searing. On AA, however, my QF status will allow me lounge access. I would have to make platinum though (perhaps through the challenge) before getting the 100% bonus on AA.

The place I tend to fly most often for leisure is Australia. AA do not fly there, so no chance of upgrades on a leisure trip.

What's the general consensus on the best program to go for here over the next year ? I'd appreciate any input.

First, don't forget about Newark if it's an option.

I like United, frequently get op upgrades on that route, which never hurt.

I would agree and suggst flying United. The E+ will be very helpful, you're lounge accesses on the other programs may not necessarily be in the right LHR terminal. Also 100% bonus points and you'll make 1K very quickly too so get 8 SWU vouchers.

Thanks for the help so far.

Newark's not really an option as my girlfriend will be living in Brooklyn ...

I don't see that I'll make 1K all that quickly doing around 7000 miles every two weeks - unless there is something here I'm not thinking about ??

Seems to me that your best option is to choose AA for your LHR-JFK commutes. First of all, there are beaucoup flights each day giving you plenty of options about when to arrive/depart (early AM to late PM in both directions). And also a potentially bigger availability of lower fare buckets. Secondly, AA offers MRTC which in my opinion is the single biggest reason for choosing AA for coach class travel. Thirdly, with the frequency of trips you have planned, you should sign up for an AAdvantage platinum challenge (see many threads about this in the AA forum). Basically, you get Plt status (ow sapphire) by flying 10K miles in 90 days. sapphire gets you oneworld lounge access on any international itinerary. Also, plt status on AA allows you to snag the coveted exit row seats.

So, AA seems like a no-brainer to me.

I would also vote for AA as the no-brainer. On top of the reasons mentioned above, if you don't get an E+ on united, you have to suffer for 6-7 hours.. On AA you have MRTC in the entire cabin.

Also, if you're doing this flight every 2 weeks (@14k butt in seat miles a month), you'll get EXP in about 7 months. That will get you 8 VIP upgrades that you can use on ANY pulblished fare to upgrade to business. If you end up doing any US travel, you'll get free domestic upgrades as well. You already have the lounge thing taken care of to start with your quantas status. So do the plat challenge, you'll be plat halfway through your second roundtrip for the 100% bonus.

AA, UA both good; AA probably better for op upgrades, UA for oz travel
 

What are your goals? Do you want to upgrade some of your trans atlantic flts or use the miles for free travel? If free travel is the primary motivator, do you prefer oz travel to other destinations?

If free travel to oz is the objective, UA may be a better choice than AA. I generally find award travel on UA to be easier to get than on QF (though QF's increased capacity may have changed this now). I prefer Econ+ on UA to AA's MRTC though personally I'd like to use the miles to upgrade to business.

On AA, with the mileage you'll rack up, even if you don't reach EXP you can still get plenty of mileage based upgrades. On international routes, AA these days release more R inventory than C inventory (EXP upgrade certs as opposed to mileage based available to all) but on NYC/JFK I see a lot of mileage upgrade inventory. UA is not too bad either and as others have said there are not infrequent opupgrades.

I echo the endorsements of AA. As noted AA has an excellent schedule LHR-JFK, and the Y-class service is very good. I have also found LHR staff to be very friendly and helpful, particularly towards AA elites (of any level). AA also has good options LON-ORD/DFW/LAX and beyond, should other US destinations become relevant. AA also has a reasonable network between NYC and LON via gateways, such that one can fly LGA/JFK-BOS-LHR if for example the lowest fare classes on the non-stops are sold out or construct an open jaw for LHR-JFK/BOS-LHR. I have even recently seen LHR-JFK-CDG-LHR routings (BA code-share CDG-LHR). While not necessarily optimal, this flexibility could be useful in relation to other travel plans and when low fare classes are sold out on non-stop flights.

dupity dupe

If you can readily make 1K, fly to your favorite leisure destination Australia several times a year, and do it from NYC instead of LHR, then United sounds really appealing. Wouldn't it be great to often fly such a long distance upgraded for free to business class? United also has had much better mileage promotions than AA lately in my opinion.

Otherwise, I'd pick AA for the reasons others have mentioned, but then I'm biased in favor of them. As mid/top tier, I did get to use the Qantas lounges on my recent trip around Australia, they sure were great.