Hello all,

It is likely that I will be relocating from Chicago to London this fall and wanted some advice on which airline to fly home and my overall strategy re FF programs. My goal is to maximize across a variety of dimensions: achieving status, upgrades, earn/burn efficiency for miles, quality of service/experience, schedule frequency, and affordable price.

A little about me: I'm 6'6" so legroom is really important. I normally try to zonk out with Ambien on flights and bring my own reading/entertainment, so service and entertainment is less important, but I do find AVOD fun on occasion. On shorter flights I don't necessarily care about upgrades, but I do like getting exit rows, etc.

I currently have 1K status on UA and Platinum on AA, although this year I'm flying a lot less so I'll probably have to reboot.

My expected travel profile per year:
-- 6-10 TATL flights to visit family in the states (economy, likely discount economy fare classes)

-- 12-15 economy trips within Europe for work (mostly Eastern Europe), some of which may be on unaffiliated national flag carriers (TAROM, etc)

-- 5 weekend leisure trips within Europe -- possibly on the likes of EasyJet, etc.

At first I was thinking that it would be simplest to go with BA for everything, but the prohibition on earning Tier Points for discount economy fares, which would be most of my personal travel and some of work travel, is a HUGE downer.

Then I thought, AA, but with them I can't earn EQMs on BA flights either within Europe unless it's an AA flight number, or any TATL. One plus for AA is I have a great track record of op-ups to business on the ORD-LHR route.

On the other hand, I like that Virgin's program earns me Tier Points for discount fare class economy trips, but there's only one flight a day to ORD and VS is useless within Europe. Although, with the ratios of business to economy on these planes, I wonder if upgrade probabilities are higher?

United probably seems the least logical, but it actually has its appeal. With three daily LHR-ORD flights, it's as frequent as BA. Although it lacks the amenities of other premium economy cabins, E+ is pretty good on legroom for me and relatively easy to get since you only need Premier. And since some of my travel to Eastern Europe may be on Star Alliance (LOT, Lufthansa, Austrian), I can get credit for these flights too. Also, bmi has good service LHR-DME, so it would be a good Star carrier for Moscow flights.

Basically, the main dilemma is getting selecting a program that works well for both my travel within Europe as well as TATL. Note that with AA and BA, I get limited credit for flights due to AA's EQM prohibition on BA or BA's limiting tier points to specific, expensive fare classes. All of this as well as E+ actually lead me to lean toward UA... I can fly UA TATL and Star within Europe when attractive, and not worry about the occasional flight on BA or whatever. An alternative strategy seems to be sticking with AA, foregoing EQMs within Europe but hopefully using Sapphire status for lounge access on BA.

For what it's worth, I have noticed that AA and UA tend to be about $100 cheaper on LHR-originating TATL flights -- a big plus. Is that because Brits hate US airlines? In any case, the cost may play a role for me...

I wonder if the BA/AA immunity comes through, whether that will make all of this more clear cut? What do you think? What is the probability of the approval going through?

Anything factors that I missed? Anything that doesn't seem to make sense? Advice please!


Thanks,
Brian

This will not fit your budget requirements, but you should seriously consider it.

With 6-10 TATL flights a year, the best option by far is get a Chase BA Visa signature card in the US for the 20K signup bonus, and then buy WT+ tickets which you can MFU to Club World for 25K per roundtrip. If you top up your BA miles from other sources (eg. SPG points) you will never have to fly economy (CW award availability is much better than UA business award availability) and you will easily get status with 150 Tier Points per roundtrip. The only question is are you willing to pay the difference between discount economy and WT+ fares, which run around �800 to ORD and less during the sales. Your wallet may not thank you, but the rest of your backside will

Umm, that's not exactly correct.

Read This

You'll earn EQPs based on the fare basis of the flight, which is not different from the BA scheme.

I read the above link as as saying you also earn EQMs, but I may be wrong, based on how it is interpreted..

I'd go with UA for a few reasons.

1-My interaction with UA's ground crew at LHR has always been outstanding. They have always been willing to rebook me onto non-stops, change me to earlier flights (not standby), etc and I have also received MANY op-ups from the LHR ground crew. You have a pretty decent network out of LHR to IAD, ORD, and SFO.

2--Economy + really makes all the difference in the world if you are flying economy.

3--You're a 1K

4--LHR has plenty of *A partners that fly all across Europe and Asia.

I'm biased as I am a *A guy.

Good luck!

Although I personally belong to the Oneworld-side , in your case it sounds as if your best option is UA.

From LHR you have many *A airline options and great connections to East Europe, however not always as direct flights.

One point that speaks in favour of BA flights: if you do not get upgrades, the Y service on BA is in my experience way above AA and UA.

i dont have extensive experience but agreed absolutely

My understanding (not being an AA member) is that you can get BA flights credited to your AA account, except for an Trans-atlantic flights on BA (because of the competition ruling).