My wife and I are moving to London this summer. I joined the British Airways program because it seemed like 10,000 miles for a round trip within Europe on BA was a pretty good deal, and that it would likely be the most efficient way to travel, considering that London is their hub. We tend to travel coach/discount and use our miles to fly coach because it seems to be like it is the best value.

With the changes to the BA program effective July 1st, I am not sure if that is still the case. We will be travelling within Europe monthly, and will likely take several trips to the USA per year.

However, we are in no way the high level business travelers that some others are.

What is the best program for me? Does any other airline do everything I want, and have other rewards programs (credit cards, AMEX, etc.)? I had figured based on the economy and the limited number of flights that pretty much all american airlines were out. Should I switch to AA or UA? What about Virgin Atlantic?

There is so much volume on this board that I have tried to peak in as best as possible, but in light of all of the changes going on, I would love some insight from you all.
--Alex

Hi,

I personnally find Virgin Atlantic FC to be good. You earn full miles and tier points on virtually all fares ( apart from the super mega cheap ones) and you can earn miles on several European carriers such as bmi british, midland, SAS, Austrian airlines.
Where in the US would you be flying to/from as VS has a relatively limited number of US gateways.
VS also teams up with Amex and the (BAA worldcard visa and the Virgin Mastercard-for UK residents only i think).

Hope this helps

Regards

TBS

United or Lufthansa are excellent. United has connections to most US destinations, and Lufthansa to the rest of the world. You can also fly on SAS or British Midland.

The only drawback with UA, is you don't get elite bonuses on SA airlines. (You may get them on Lufthansa, but if so this is new.)

If you are going to be in the UK for many years, you might also consider British Midland. They serve most European locations and you can get credit for other Star Alliance flights. Plus, you get the elite bonuses and upgrades when you fly on them.

On the BA thing, another option is to go with American. You get credit for all BA flights except the transatlantic one. For these, you need to fly american to get credit. I also think you get elite bonus miles for flying BA and using AA points.

Remember that flights are usually very short in Europe, and they don't have "American" first class. Their first class is basically a better meal and assigned seating. When flying economy in Europe you are crammed into the back of the bus. So the real bang for your points is the transatlantic travel.

When I lived in London I collected points on United and flew them almost exclusively on trips to the US. I then flew SAS, Lufthansa and bmi quite a bit to the continent for business. I also flew BA a bit, but only when I had to. For pleasure travel, I flew mostly on discount carriers like Buzz, Virgin, and RyanAir.

Good luck.

How about KLM FD.

Earn miles on all fares, 25k for silver, 50k for gold and 75k for platinum.

Awards to the US are reasonable and you can upgrade any fare depending on availability.

They don't fly out of STN so it would have to be LHR though.

pmcg

You have a lot of options. From here you should also consider the QUALITY of the flying experience. Check what others have said about their experiences on these airlines and with their programs.

First, of course, search the Flyertalk Trip Reports part of this site.

You may wish to see what the ratings are and specific comments are at http://www.epinions.com, also for a quick search on specific airlines go to http://www.airlinequality.com/Airlines/quick_search.htm (but poke around the home page for the entire site at http://www.airlinequality.com/index.htm.

Good luck. Let us know what you decide. :-)

------------------
AA Platinum,
former CO Platinum as of 3/1/2003

From what you describe, it would seem that BA is definately NOT the programme for you.

Best options would be one of the following:

1) Do not get into the FF thing for your European trips and stay with Easyjet, Ryanair etc for your short jaunts.

2) Use either one of the US big four (DL, UA, AA or NW) Keeping in mind that UA and AA are in pretty bad shape right now. If status isn't your thing Dl is okay for you although their main Euro partner is AF, AZ isn't so hot either.

3) KLM may be your best option.

Assuming you proceed with the BA program, be aware that the program is different for US residents than for UK residents. The UK program can be more flexible i.e. one-way awards, but the US program can be better value i.e. cheaper awards. Consider carefully what perks are more important to you. As you are coming from the US, I assume you will have a US address you can use to retain status as a US resident with BA. It's all based on the mailing address of your EC account.


------------------
- Bob

Building on hfly's ideas, consider also CO. CO codeshares with Virgin on many routes to the U.S. To get miles/status credit you need to buy the ticket with the CO flight number. Off the top of my head, they codeshare with Virgin LHR-JFK/EWR/IAD/LAX/SFO and LGW-MIA, possibly more.

Then, you could also earn miles flying KL, Flybe and Air Europa within Europe as well as CO/NW/KL transatlantic.

Note that while CO is a partner with NW/KL and has reciprocal mileage earning benefits, members of NW/KL cannot earn miles flying the Virgin codeshares. Only CO members can earn miles on the CO-coded Virgin flights.

Hoboken, the one of the reasons he's asking is BECAUSE of the BA changes which invalidate much of what you're saying. Come check out the BA board.

I appreciate all of your thoughts thus far.. We will be maintaining a valid U.S. mailing address, although I will likely try to open a U.K. British Airways card to get more bonus miles.. and, depending on what I want to do, I will also consider opening one or more other U.S. cards to try to "double dip" on bonus miles as much as is possible.

Correct me if I'm wrong on my assessment of your suggestions thus far..

It is likely that we will try to exclusively fly from Heathrow just because of its location and convenience for us. RyanAir and EasyJet are two airlines that I have just heard about (we just got back from London, and I saw ads while on the tube)..

We will most likely fly from Heathrow to Boston Logan Airport almost exclusively, because my wife's family is not too far away and it will afford us travel flexibility as well.. I know that British Airways does this flight (of course, instead of getting around 3,000 miles, we would get 750 for flying discount coach).. not sure who else does it offhand.

I haven't checked if Virgin Atlantic flies to Boston, but I don't quite think they do.
To date, I have not enjoyed flying on Continental.. it seems that they are very uncomfortable and the seats are poorly padded.. (however, a Newark hub may be convenient).

Although I have had a Northwest account, KLM has their hub in Amsterdam, and I don't know how many direct flights they have that leave from London throughout Europe.. (also, transatlantic flights would likely go through Detroit, which would suck).

Air France seems the same way, with a hub in Paris and many flights going through Atlanta..

I guess I need to do a bit more research..

Does this web site have any sort of side by side comparison or guide to all of the different programs available? I suppose it would be a large and monumental task, but it would be pretty useful..

Thanks.
--Alex

http://www.webflyer.com/programs/head2head/

Just a follow-up to my own post.. yes, Virgin Atlantic does fly Heathrow to Boston.

Also, a look at some of the suggested web sites show that pretty much all of the airlines we have been discussing have been 4*.. as far as service, etc., goes..
--Alex

Hi ayb1,

Virgin Atlantic do fly from LHR - BOS ( 1 flight daily)
LHR 14:30 or so arr BOS 16:30 approx

BOS 19:25 approx arr LHR 0655 approx.

There has been talk of a LGW-BOS flight operating 5 times a week starting in the summer but will need to see if this happens.

You will get full mileage (6500 miles rtn plus 4 tier points on virtually all economy fares)
4 rtns will get you Virgin Silver ( Premium Economy check in- a good benefit)

Regards
TBS

PS - Ooops!! I must have been typing while ayb1 had posted the latest message- sorry



[This message has been edited by The _Banking_Scot (edited 03-15-2003).]

Don't forget to have a look at the Qantas scheme. You get credit for all paid travel on BA and most paid travel on AA. Rewards are at the same rate whether you get them on AA, BA or QF itself. See if this might work for you. www.qantasfrequentflyer.com.au