Hello there,

I usually fly on *A carrier, however due to a a very low business-Class fare I will try out AY to BKK this sunday.

Since flying business class longhaul will earn quite a few miles, I thought it would be sad not to join any FFP from a OW-carrier to secure them.

However I'm not a OW frequent traveler at all. My travelling profile on OW would be:
-1 time only FRA-HEL-BKK-HEL-FRA on AY in I-Class
-Once a year with LA FRA-MAD-FRA in low Eco classes (O, Q and similar)
-Once a year with IB FRA-MAD-Spanish airport-MAD-FRA in low Eco classes (P, Q and similar).

And that's it. Therefore it's not important for me to get a status.
Which is important is to get the most possible miles on these kind of flights and to have a programm where the miles are kept rather a long time before they are deleted before they're unused.

And of course I would need a programme which would allow me to get sufficient miles maybe for lets say a intra-european-one way trip in approx 1-2 years with the above mentioned profile.

I wont earn any miles for Hotels, rental cars etc as well since I prefer earning them on *A.

I'm sorry for my English since I'm not a native speaker.

Any comment is very appreciated.

Thanks
Reifel

Lieber Reifel,

Your English is just fine! Very few of us are native speakers here on FT...

Earning miles on American Airlines is fairly easy, but where they shine is on award redemption, where tickets can be had without paying any fuel surcharges. BA, QF etc. collect the F/S on all award tickets. I have no experience of LA or CX, but you should sign up to a program where you can call an agent from your home base.

Hope this helps

Thank you for your reply.

I did some homeworks and compared all the OW programs.

This is the scenario:
Flight a: FRA-MAD-VLC-MAD-FRA with IB in Q class
Flight b: FRA-MAD-FRA with LA in Q class
Flight c: FRA-HEL-BKK-HEL-FRA in I class (Business)

Then it seems that LANPass is the most interesting:
Earned miles:
Flight a: 1023 kms (3410 kms x 0,3)
Flight b: 1768 kms -> is this correct that 100% kms are applies on this route although cheapest class is booked?
Flight c: 23542 kms (18834 kms x 1,25)
Plus 1000 kms for signing up online with LANPass

Makes a total of 27333 kms earned.

If I want to redeem on an Iberia FRA-MAD-FRA flight in Eco this would be only 24000 kms to spend for a return flight, even less if I wish i.e. to book a BA flight from FRA to LHR or a MA flight from FRA to BUD.

Furthermore 3 years time for redemption is fine for me.

I hope I got everything right. These are the hard facts and according to them LANPass would be a good choice!


But this is where I need your opinions:
-Are there any major trouble or details I should now when enrolling LANPass, any users here which have specific problems? Are miles credited correctly and not too late after the date of flight?
-Is redeeming kms on other airlines (IB/MA/AY) a big deal? I mean I would actually almost never redeem a flight on LA, but only on partner airlines (FRA-MAD-FRA is 40000 kms on LA and only 24000 kms on IB for redemption!).
-Do they charge a ticketing fee when redeeming mile? According to terms and condition they don't charge any fee if the award is redeemed on lan.com, however is it possible to book OW partner award flights through their website? If not, how high is the service fee?
-Do they apply fuel surcharge on reward flights? According to terms and conditions departure and local taxes must be paid, but does this include the fuel supplement?
-If I enroll in LANPass maybe I would even be able to still accrue miles for a flight FRA-MAD-FRA I made with LAN approx 4-5 months ago? (edit: Just found the deadline is flights no more than 2 months prior enrollment)

Thank you very much for your opinions.

By the way, it's amazing to see that almost every OW FFP grants 100% miles on the cheapest LA-Bookingclass on the FRA-MAD sectors. That's very nice since I love to fly them on this sector and since they're very cheap anyway. Iberia is usually a little higher (although just a few Euros) but their Bookingclasses just let you earn 30% or even 25% with most of the OW FFP's...

Hello, I read with interest your post and looked at both the QF program, which I am a member of, as well as the AAdvantage program, which is generally considered to be the most generous of the OW programs.

Based on a direct comparison against what you came up with LanPass, the QF scheme does not offer any better value. You'd earn approximately 18,382 miles based on the flights you listed, as QF earns 100% mileage on LA and IB in all classes, plus 125% mileage on your AY J class flights. Where QF falls down is in redemption. A FRA-MAD-FRA redemption on either IB or LA in Y is 24,000 miles.

I then looked at AAdvantage, and by my reckoning it may work better for you than LanPass. With AA, you'll earn 100% mileage on the LA flights, as they earn 100% of mileage on the deep discounted classes on international flights outside of South America. With IB, you earn 30% of mileage, and the AY flights will earn 125%. This would give you approximately 19,398 miles.

AA's strength is in the value of redemptions. On OW partners, a return European redemption in Y is 20,000 miles. So credit a hotel or two to your AA account, and you'll have enough to redeem two one-ways or a return within Europe.

My understanding is that AA don't add fuel surcharges to their award redemptions, which is another plus for the program.

Hope this helps.

That's not correct, you are quoting mileage requirements for a one-way award. A return European redemption on AA is 20k in Y and 40k in J.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/disclaimers/...rtnerChart.jsp

Oops, my apologies for that oversight � thanks marwanb for pointing that out.

Even at 20K in Y, the AAdvantage program probably still offers better value when compared to other OW programs IMHO.

Be careful with units, LA earns km QF earns miles. Both earn same distance, but you're right redemption is better on LA.
LA has a big problem that almost all call centers seem to be working in Chilean time. Besides that be careful on deeply discounted fares with less earning %. Besides LA I usually fly AA, CX & QF so it works fine for me.

LA has a habit of denying points even when on higher revenue codes when the flight is on another OW ticket stock. I was invol rerouted in paid F (F, not a discounted code) from BA to LA and LA denied points.

The safest and most predictable OW program seems to be AAdvantage, by all reports, and the absence of surcharges and ease of redemption seal the deal for me.