Yet another Noob's FFP question... - Page 2

Mar 3, 2006 | 11:04 am

#16

Knaldskalle

Original Poster

Join Date: Feb 2006

Location: SFO/OAK/SJC (originally CPH)

Programs: [strike]AA[/strike], UA, DL

Posts: 28

Quote:

Originally Posted by LZ-HMI

I would suggest that, even though you don't fly much from Denmark at present, you are likely to fly much more once you have moved! Part of the cost of moving overseas (I'm sure you are realising it is not a cheap process) is setting aside money to buy airfares to return home from time to time. [...] You will want to explore your new home, too -- everyone in the US flies quite a lot it seems -- and you may even choose to pop over this way for a holiday.

Yes, I'm realizing how it expensive it is to move across the ocean... It's ridiculously expensive!

I get the impression that Americans fly as often as Europeans take the train, so yes, I perhaps have underestimated the miles I'll accrue in a year or so, but I thought it better to make a too low estimate and be pleasantly surprised rather than make a too high estimate and end up disappointed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LZ-HMI

This means that you will surely accumulate some miles from flying. And it is likely to mean that you will become quite used to the costs of flying and factor it into your budgets much more readily

I would go for upgrades rather than free economy flights. Firstly they tend to be more easily available, and more flexible. You may well find that you want to travel at peak holiday seasons (Xmas etc), when economy award tickets are hard to find.

I did figure that I'd end up with that (and Christmas is a likely time), but it's still a little mysterious to me how it works. I haven't really found any info anywhere on how the upgrade system works, but I guess that's just a matter of looking harder.

Quote:

Originally Posted by LZ-HMI

Secondly, remember that when you use miles for an upgrade, you still earn miles on the original economy fare that you paid. So you can still be accumulating miles towards next year's upgrade! With free economy flights, you won't (at least in my programme) earn miles on the flight, and you will miss out on quite a few thousand.

You're right! I hadn't thought of that. That's pretty cool, actually...

Quote:

Originally Posted by LZ-HMI

The thing you need to look at, and I'm afraid I don't know these details, is what class of economy ticket you have to buy in order to process the upgrade (i.e. do you have to buy a full fare economy ticket $$$$). I know that BA is quite restrictive about this, but you'll have to look into whether UA, LH, SAS do the same.

I'll probably not end up using SAS, since their program is so poor (but I might try to redeem some miles with them, if I choose another Star Alliance FFP).

Quote:

Originally Posted by LZ-HMI

And when you are used to flying, and doing lots of it, don't forget to look at RTW tickets as a nice way of flying home and also getting a holiday, and also earning miles and status!

I dream of showing my wife China someday (was there in '99, absolutely fantastic), might be fun to do someday. SFO-NYC-CPH-PEK-SFO...

Thanks!
Knaldskalle

Last edited by Knaldskalle; Mar 3, 2006 at 11:07 am Reason: edited for typographical reasons...

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