Hi all

I recently moved permanently to London from the US where I have been 1K on United and Gold on American for years. I am trying to figure out which FF program to join here and would love some expert advice! Here is an idea of my travel patterns:

For work:
Business class, mostly to NY/Boston/SF/Chicago: 6-8x annually
Economy class within Europe (!): 12-16x annually

For leisure:
Economy internationally: 10-12x annually

Having done some research, my best option seems to be a combination:
1. Virgin FC for my trips to the US (only 4 Business Class trips to Gold, great service, lounges, etc)
PLUS
2. BMI DC for destinations elsewhere (for Star Alliance accrual and easy redemption)?

Are my rationales for not keeping to one program correct?
1. Rationale for not joining BMI DC only
- BMI is not a great business class airline
- No other Star Alliance airline flies directly to the US from the UK

2. Rationale for not joining Virgin only
- Narrow range of accrural/redemption partners within Europe and few award seats

3. BA only would cover everything but is difficult to accrue miles/status (esp in economy) and redeem flights?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

Many thanks in advance.

Hi tsfca, welcome to the UK and to Flyertalk. Others will reply to your specific query in no time, I'm sure - I just wanted to add, are you *sure* you don't want to stay with your current programs (or programmes, as you'll be spelling them from now on)? There's a double whammy with intra-European travel in that no airline is particularly generous with upgrades, and even if it happens, you get the same seat as in coach (although a much nicer meal than you'd get in F in the US). So if I were in your shoes I'd seriously consider if you don't value your transatlantic upgrades as offered by UA and AA to their top-tier members, whether from C to F for your business travel or Y to C for your leisure travel, enough to stay right where you are and continue to requalify with UA and AA.

Drop United move 100% of everything to AA for EXP and the benefit of the 8 E-VIPs. This would mean most of your TATL Leisure Coach Class flights could be in Business Class. You would also have access to the wonderful BA Lounges in the T5 at LHR even when flying Coach/Economy and AC in USA when flying AA TATL even on the few occasions you might be also be in Coach. Read up on this site about the AA Platinum Challenge.

AAdvantage really is the Best Airline Programme in the world for Top Tier EXP Members. You should earn enough miles a year for a OneWorld RTW Business Ticket every 12 months even taking into account BA's low rates for Coach flights in Europe.

PS..Clearly you have never flown BMI Transatlantic Business Class IMHO its the Best Business Class across the pond.Unfortunately only to Manchester.

Many thanks for that quick reply! The quick reply to that quick reply is that I'm tired of the service and reliability of American-based airlines which I'm sure will only get worse with all the cutbacks that have been announced. So if I don't want to fly United/American anymore, then there's no point in sticking with those FF programs, is there?

The thing with US-based carriers, it seems to me, is that they are the worst in the class you've actually paid for (exempting Economy Plus on UA), but getting the class above at the same price by using upgrade coupons is a good deal. Plus, if you don't mind one-stop US connections, you could always go with Lufthansa and use your systemwides there. Or alternatively, if you fly enough to qualify for HON on Lufthansa to replace your 1K, that would be worth your while from what I hear.

You shouldn't have any worries on that account - 1500 TP will get you gold (the top award) with BA. Your six business TATL flights would net you 1440 of these.

A BA Amex card will get you a 2 for 1 voucher to use with your miles - you'll easily accrue enough to get a first class return to the USA each year (for two) with plenty left to MFU quite a few of your economy trips too. There's usually lots of availability with miles within Europe and to the USA, but other longhaul destinations can be a bit harder.

tsfca, your plan and reasoning sound pretty good to me. I stick with UA and AA because I'm US-based and value their free upgrades (by virtue of my elite status) for both domestic and international travel, but those reasons don't apply to your situation.

In addition to the factors you'd stated, there's also the possibility of UA and/or AA going bankrupt, which would probably impact the value of their miles or possibly even the existence of their programs. And as it is, they're already busy devaluing their miles in various ways.

If you think flying AA Business with Lounge Access and Fastrack at LHR is Worse than BA [4th Class]Coach and no Lounge Access plus Immigration Lines at LHR of up to an hour ..There's probably nothing anybody on this board can do to assist you.

BA Gold does not get you FREE Upgrades to Business from the lowest Coach Fares..Amex 2 for 1 vouchers are usless if you travel alone.

It's also worth remembering that in the UK you can still accrue AA miles quite easily:

AA eShopping just opened a UK portal: see
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...php?p=10185129

and Citibank UK offer a £ based credit card (albeit with 1mi/£ instead of 1mi/$ and a miserable 5k opening bonus, compared to the generous 25k bonuses they offer in the USA).

Just something to consider. Also remember that since you'll be travelling "internationally" on any OneWorld flight you take from the UK because it won't be in or originating from the USA, once you have AA PLT status (which you could get through a challenge in one TATL trip in business class), you'll be able to use the lounges and quick checkin when travelling BA, IB, AY, MA, RJ etc.

That said, if you're still set on a UK-based program, BMI seems the best one to my mind, but who knows when they'll be bought by LH and your miles will turn into Miles&Less?

I can't see why you wouldn't just be better with bmi.

Firstly, if you are going to Chicago, you might consider connecting in Manchester. The daily departure time out of LHR isn't too bad. It will only take two bmi trips to ORD in business plus a bit of additional European travel in economy to get *G and you'll get the bmi and lounge benefits on a higher percentage of your flights in economy than if you only make gold with Virgin.

When you have no alternative than to use Virgin (and I would need there to be no alternative before I'd use Virgin) then you can collect bmi mileage points anyway, just not status miles. Then at least all your miles are in one account, which makes for quicker and better redemptions.

Plus, whilst on your long-haul trips, any internal connecting flights with bmi are likely to be in first at no extra cost and earn three times as many *A points. So ORD to SFO would be a route worth considering.

If you travel on leisure with bmi chances are you can use up your existing miles on your UA card more efficiently too.

Finally, you might think you don't like bmi's service but have you tried it? MAN to LAS and ORD are excellent services in business and bmi has just been rated the top British longhaul airline and 5th in the world in a recent consumer survey of 20,000 travellers by the highly reputable UK consumer group Which?. Virgin Atlantic was well behind and so was British Airways. I haven't mentioned BA until now. There's a reason for that!

I'd split my response into two -

Best Airline for flying
It's British Airways, warts and all.
Best on board product in all classes and best lounges (In the UK)

Best Airline for redemption
That's somewhat different
BA is stingy and often poor availability even for Gold cards.
BMI is more generous and availability seems to be better. Redeeming BMI points on Virgin for example is fairly straightforward although by phone.

I wouldn't count on any BMI Regional-US services being maintained.

Hope that helps.

Welcome to the UK

If your experience base is mainly US legacy carriers, you might find these UK-centric ideas helpful

1 BA is a much better bet than you might expect if you get a BA Amex card which (on the right version) gives you a 2-4-1 voucher for a BA miles trip for only spending �8,000(?) on the card. Plus you can earn a stack of BA miles by shopping at Tesco (leading UK supermarket). And if you use Marriotts enough, the Travel Packages let you transfer from Marriott Rewards to BA Miles on pretty good terms. The bottom line for us is that we get 2 x BA First Class long haul each year while hardly ever flying paid BA. Longer term (but who knows really) BA and AA seem likley to integrate/merge their frequent flyer schemes more closely so the case for maintaining AA seems less.

2 There is such a strong network of LCC carriers serving almost everywhere in Europe at such stunningly low prices that I almost never fly legacy carriers in Europe these days. The cost savings are just to great to ignore. Plus LHR is such a congested airport that time savings along make Stansted, Luton etc worth considering, although this depends slighly where you live/work. And you can get paid lounge access is its really valuable

3 On the Star Alliance front, BMI's scheme is pretty interesting as it permits one way awards plus cash + points awards. I think its also possible to take a LCC trip to Europe and then pick up a free long haul premium class trip (on LH, for example) for lower mileage rates. Mind you, most people seem to assume BMI won't be independent for much longer, with LH seen as an obvious partner.

***
Finally, the various stickies on each of BA, BMI etc are very helpful

Good luck and good flying

The OP's info lists *wood as his hotel program, but Hilton currently gives 1000 BMI miles for every night stayed at ALL of their properties. This is huge compared to 500 miles PER STAY (regardless of # of nights) for most other airlines... and that drops to 100 miles PER STAY for Hampton Inns and Homewood Suites. I'm based in the US, my main airline program is Delta Skymiles (SkyTeam), and I haven't been to the UK in about 4 years, but all of my Hilton Double-Dip miles go to BMI for use elsewhere in *A... and my Hilton stays earn anywhere from 2x - 30x* what I would earn if I credited them to Delta or most other airline programs. 60 nights a year at Hilton properties = enough for 2 *A USA domestic coach round trips, 1 *A USA domestic business round trip, or 1 *A international coach round trip.

* 1 night Hilton = 500 Skymiles or 1000 BMI miles = 2x
* 3 night Hampton = 100 Skymiles or 3000 BMI miles = 30x

Wow - Interesting thread -

And just to throw a wrench into things, our friend Tim Winship makes a good point about Fuel Surcharges on European carriers' award tix on his Blog

Then 30 minutes later I read Mark Ashley's blog about UA eliminating free meals in Y on tatl flights, And I say GO FOR BA!