I will be flying from Hyderabad (India) to SFO and maybe to Boston. I am a Marco Polo Club member and usually travel Cathay. But this time, I will be flying Lufthansa. Can someone suggest the best frequent flyer program that I should join so that I could start my account with the *A - Lufthansa / United / Some other. Thanks in advance.

Welcome to FT!

The answer to your question depends largely on variables you didn't state. What class of service will you be in? (Some programs reward high-priced travel, relative to lower fares, more than others.) What *A travel do you expect after this trip? (If you don't expect any, miles that don't expire for a long time may trump everything else.) What are your objectives: free travel, upgrades, elite status, other? Are you based in India, or is that just the point of origin of this trip? If the latter, where are you based?

I will be travelling economy most of the time; I guess I will be flying twice a year to US (from India) on *A. Want to have access to the lounges and also maybe get a few gifts (I am not aiming to get free flights with the amount of travel I have). I am based in India, in Hyderabad and it also is the origin of all my travel.

That's about 40K miles per year, give or take (you can work out more precise numbers based on your actual itineraries). I believe the only *A airline that will give you *Gold (which you need for lounge access) at that level is Air Canada, which starts its Elite level at 35K.

So if lounges are your top priority, take a look at AC's program.

Try US Airways - stellar program. Service should be flawless. You won't even have to enter your mileage Number - they'll greet you by your name since you'll be the only member after Jan 1.

Thanks for the inputs. I joined the AC ffp.

beware that AC is the a la carte of north american airlines

What do you mean by "a la carte of north american airlines?"

I hope I am not hijacking the OP's thread but I have a similar question.

I am based in BLR and I do about 4 business trips and 1 personal trip to LAX a year. All of them in business class. I do some regional travel within Asia, both West Asia and South East Asia.

The benefits that I primarily seek are upgrade opportunities for long haul personal trips and award opportunities for long haul trips (Europe, US). Lounge benefits not a priority as I fly business class most of the time.

SQ is probably the best airline I have flown but they dont have benefits similar to that of UA/AA in terms of 1K/ExPlt privileges. Booking SQ miles on UA doesnt work well as there is no concept of points and even with 4 trips I will not make it to 1K.

Cathay is decent and they have a pretty good partnership with AA. I can get points on AA and by 3 trips I will be pretty close to 100K points and ExecPlt. I dont like the award options from India to North america on OneWorld. I dont think you can use AA miles for booking BA in the transantlantic segments and I havent been successful in getting CX tickets using AA miles. System wide upgrades have to be used on AA metal only which is a bummer (atleast UA allows on Lufthansa).

My ideal preference would be to fly SQ and get to 1K (or equivalent in other carriers with system wide upgrades on long haul ...) with my 4 business trips. Any suggestions?

Thanks.

That should easily be 100K+ BIS miles; even with four business class trips and a 25% class-of-service bonus you should make it to 100K status miles.

Besides the options you mentioned, you might consider ANA, whose Diamond benefits look pretty good. Like SQ, it's in *A, which has pretty good coverage in most of Asia. And there are few cross-partner restrictions for awards (other than upgrade awards) within *A.

25% class of service bonus is not EQM / Status miles. So, even after 4 trips, I am stuck at about 80K miles, about 20K short of 1K status.

With ANA, you actually get 25% extra status miles for J, plus an extra 400 status miles per J (or full-fare Y) segment.

http://www.ana.co.jp/amc_e/plabro/premiunpoint.html

It might work for you, or it might not, but I think it's worth a look.

BD's Blue Diamond club gives you 100% status miles for J on most *A carriers, with SQ being a notable exception.

OZ's new rules go into effect on Oct. 1 and you only need 40K miles per 2 years, and status is good for 2 years. if you qualify early within the 2-year qualifying period you'll get that remaining time added onto the length of your status. For people not flying much it will probably one of the best programs to get gold status. Many say that their earn/burn rates aren't the greatest but if you're looking for status it's a pretty good program.

Right -- some of the Asian airlines have multi-year qualifying periods, and I forgot all about those. Is the 40K miles for the OZ Diamond program?