Because in my case (living in Europe) I have two good options for miles-collection, I wondered which program is the best to join for getting awards between Europe-US and Europe-New Zealand.

For milescollection there is no big difference for me, both programs give me -in my situation- over 100.000 miles a year, but not enough EQM for getting status. In both scenarios miles won't expire for me (M&M: creditcard - AA:every month transactions)

Besides this I collect FB-miles, so combinations may be possible (flying from Europe to Singapore with Skyteam, and with another alliance from Singapore to NZ is a possibility).

If you go AA, you will have status after 10 years.

Yes, I know

But I like to get some information about award availibilty, because that's what makes the programs better or worse for me. When this will be alike also, then I go for AA for that reason!

I've just booked an award ticket to the Olympics in Beijing with AA miles, and earlier this month was in Buenos Aires on miles. I'm pretty happy with the redemption side. One jewel in the AA program is One World awards which are mileage based. I have a trip to Asia/Australia next year with multiple stops in business (25,000 air miles for 150,000 AA miles). Just going to Australia in business from the U.S. would be 125,000 miles, so for 25,000 miles more I get nights in Hong Kong, Singapore, Sydney, Hobart, and Brisbane.

http://www.aa.com/apps/AAdvantage/Vi...artnersContent

I've used AA miles on Qantas to get to both New Zealand and Australia, but could not get business seats on my last trip in April and ended up in coach. There has been a lot of discussion in the last year about availability of business/first seats on Qantas.

Why not join BMI Diamond Club instead of M&M?

The thresholds for status are very low - 16k for Silver and 38k for Gold. Compare this to M&M, which needs 100k for Gold (135k for German residents).

BMI, unlike M&M, also has 'cash and miles' awards which let you use half the number of miles normally needed in return for a small cash payment. For eg, a flight to the US with BMI is 37,500 miles plus GBP 255 as co-pay (plus tax), or 75,000 for all-miles. With M&M, it would be 90,000 miles.

Reward availability is the same as you'd get with M&M. BMI miles also do not expire as far as I know.

In my experience *A is much better for awards between NZ/Oz and Europe than OW, especially in premium cabins, and with lots of routing options. That said, M&M awards are not cheap (in general AA awards require a fraction of the number of miles).

Yeah, I do like that too, but one of my main sources of miles will be a Visa or Mastercard. My flying pattern is mainly on Skyteam (KL/AF).
I do have bankaccounts in Germany, France and the Netherlands, so mainly creditcards based in one of these countries can do the trick.

I only know of these cards:
M&M Visa (Netherlands)
M&M Visa (Germany)
Citibank AARewards Visa (Germany)

I don't mind if the card is in EUR, USD or GBP, because my expenses are in all these currencies almost equally, so the exchange rates will always apply for 2/3 of my spending.

The BMI card is only available for UK residents, do that's no good for me.

The only other miles-earning card I Know of is the Swiss AirFrance-FB-Mastercard, but this one is in CHF, so that's not an option for me, even though I collect FB-miles. I do have several Amex-cards, Diners Club is not an option for my situation.

So two different opinions. I'd lilke to know more experiences before making up my mind, so please let me know, if you have some experience about this.

That was the case, however after the withdrawal of the OS connection VIE-KUL/SIN-SYD it�s pretty much a hassle to get out of southeast asia. Sure, you still can fly on LH to SIN, BKK, NRT but to get a connection on SQ,TG,NH

I dont want to push AAdvantage in heaven but everytime I tried to get an AAward down under I got one. Usually like FRA-SIN-SYD (QF) ; FRA-HKG-SYD (CX) ^

I also got a oneWorld award that I cancelled again: LAX-BNE(QF)-HKG(CX)-LAX (CX) in C for only 130K

@ OP:

Credit Cards are ok so far but always consider where you spend your money! If it�s out of the "Eurozone" you pay a fee for all transactions ! Plus the fact that the CC application bonus isnt something special. I would also go with a programm that allows you to reach status fast and has it�s advantages. A 100% bonus as AA PLT (50k per year) sounds much better than 25% bonus for LH SEN (100k per year & cheap booking classes earn only 50%).

I know, but I don't travel much outside Skyteam, so I don't reach status at all (only at AA when reaching a million miles). And the transaction fee: I know this, but because the spending in GBP/EUR/USD will be for this card almost equally spread, so it doesn't make any difference which currency I use.

The problem with the GBP-part: I can't get any cards in this currency because I'm not a UK-resident.
The problem with the USD-part: The only dollarcard I know off is the American Express International Dollar Card, but in this case I'm looking for Visa/Mastercard and I don't know of any card which is possible for me, because I'm not a US-resident.
And unfortunately I don't know of any good bonuses for these cards. The US-cards have very good bonuses, American Express has them also sometimes in Europe, but Visa/Mastercard gives 10K at the most.

You may be able to get status with AA with just one flight on AA metal from Europe to the US via a Challenge, and if timed right it could last you a year and a half.

But if you don't travel much outside Skyteam, I doubt status is important to you until you being traveling (though if the only way you travel is on business awards with partners, even then I'm not sure how much status wiould get you that the business award ticket wouldn't already).

The other thing to keep in mind is that in many cases availability is simply cost! Most airlines have discount awards (which is the ones everyone wants to use, and the only kind often mentioned), and then non-discount awards, which are double. The double-miles-cost awards are almost always available. So are you saying that the discount awards on *A cost more, or are you just saying that you have to use the double-miles-cost awards on *A more? Because the double-miles-cost awards are available on AA too, and if you're willing to "pay" more miles, then most any award is available on AA too. (It's just that most people call an award only being available at double miles as "not avialable".)

The other thing to keep in mind is that availability (at other than double miles) is strongly related to various factors like your travel flexibility (schedule as well as routing) and the number of people traveling (experiences of someone who travels by themselves are not relevant to someone who wants to travel on awards as a family, or vice versa -- unless the reporting is based on ExpertFlyer counts rather than actual bookings).

Another thing to look at is off peak awards. AA offers a 40K off peak award to Europe and South America from the U.S. (in the case of Europe-U.S. the off-peak season runs from mid October to mid May). Do the other alliances you're looking at offer something like that?

Neither. Normal award availability on *A is better than normal award availability on OW, in my experience, between europe and NZ/OZ, especially in premium cabins.

If you're flying >100k but <200k then, and choosing between AA(OW) or MnM (*A), then AA is far better.
Lower mileage threshholds, easier elite status, better elite bonus miles, and a can-do/ capable customer service. Unless you're a Senator (I am) or HON (requires 600k in 24 months), MnM customer service is awfully Teutonically snooty. But if you clear 200k, then MnM cd be better. A subservient customer service, superb lounge access rules (UA just bow when you want to pop in, even not flying *A), and best change of OPs.
FB(ST) is a good earning option too, and in terms of comparison I'd say AA(OW) and AF(FB) are on a par, unless you're AF Club 2000 which is a different universe. But then you'd have to compare C2000 with HON. Car transfers to plane, etc etc.

In brief: AA - or AF

- Paul

I know this isn't exactly statistical, but on a recent quest for 2 J awards for my parents MEL-ARN..LHR-MEL I looked at both *A and OW. I could not find anything on *A for anywhere near the dates we needed (330 days out). On OW I found several options for several dates around those need. I ended up with a routing which qualified for the AAdv Partner SWP-EUR return award at 120k each (the other options were all OW130C awards at 130k each). MEL-SYD-BKK-HEL-ARN...LHR-NRT-SYD-MEL using QF/BA/AY/JL. Excellent value. Apparently a similar award using my LH miles would have been 280k each.

Exactly !

The oneWorld awards are a piece of its own and any *A/SkyTeam award is no competition for these. Even though they are not available in all OW programms.

However, the only valuable option with Miles & More is the Companion award in C/F, especially when living out of germany where no extra miles promotions exist (since this month even the BoA credit card is cancelled)... The "enhancements" of M&L hurt the programm and I will definetely use my miles for these awards as long as I have SEN status with LH.