BA Exec or Qantas or ????
 

Hi

I'm hoping you guys can help me out on which program to focus on.

I'm UK based and fly about once a year longhaul UK - Africa, South American or North America and maybe once a year within Europe.

I've only just got 1000 avios points and another few thousand on their way from the BA Amex credit card promotion and I have 20 tier points from 2 short flights in the BA exec club.

My next trip is outward Glasgow - London, London - Beijing, Beijing - Shanghai, Shanghai - Sydney
Inward - Sydney - Singapore, Singapore - London, London - Glasgow

I'll be flying on O booking class discount economy on a combination BA and Qantas metal with choice of BA or Qantas codes.

What I'm interested in is which program would be best to get some status most easily, even low level to let me choose seats ahead of the pack would be good but I'd like lounge access and possible upgrades at some stage if possible. Also interested in being able to use miles to possibly upgrade class on flights at some stage but not sure I'll earn enough miles for that.

If it makes any difference I have about 8000 miles already in Aegean and have Star Alliance Silver, 12000 miles short of Star Gold there.

Should also say while I'd consider paying £20-£30 pound extra to fly Star Alliance to get Gold status, I'm not willing to pay significant amounts to stick with one airline for status, just trying to maximise what I can get out of the trips I take which are normally the cheapest possible.

I guess I might be asking a lot but thought it worth checking.

Any advice welcome

Thanks

It depends on what you want to do/how you want to use the points/miles that you will earn.
If for upgrades, then maybe BA Avios would be a better option.
However, if you want to use them for award travel (esp. premium cabin) then there is no better program than AAdvantage.
See my post # 160 (and several post after) about this here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ntsguy-11.html
This is regardless of where the origin of your trip is (even from UK/EU, not just US).
Ps I do not know much about QF FF program but I believe the redemption are even more than with Avios.

Thanks for the advice.

Just wondering, do AAdvantage do family accounts to merge miles and also to earn elite status do I need to fly at least 4 flights on actual AA planes with AA flight codes?

Also does the fact I'd always be flying from to the UK make one of the programs a better option than others in terms of using points for flights?

Generally you can only get upgrades using miles/points on flights with the same airline & flight number
Example (not sure if true for BA ffp but sort of typical)
Using BA miles its possible to get an upgrade a BA flight on a BA aircraft
Using BA miles its not possible to get an upgrade a BA flight on a QF aircraft (code share)
Using BA miles its not possible to get an upgrade a QF flight on a QF aircraft

As common with freq flyer program (FFP) there are exceptions.
Need to read the FFP t&C carefully and read FT.

With QF you need 4 QF flight per year for status.
Have read AA have the same 4 flight rule, but do not enforce. [comments?]

Credit card spend is a good way to get miles/points for many people.
Indeed many frequent flyer programs are becoming frequent spender programs.

Thanks guys, I think I'm slowly getting there.

It looks like it's between AAdvantage and BAexec for me as I think they might be the only 2 that have point earning credit cards here in the uk to keep the account open in the years I'm not flying one world flights.

Do the miles earned on Aadvantage from credit card count towards elite status e.g. if I earn 10,000 miles on opening a credit card and then earn 15,000 from spending would that get me elite gold? (assuming they don't enforce the 4 flights rule)

Only miles earned through flying (on AA, AA codeshares or Oneworld partners) earn elite qualifying miles. This is true for pretty much any frequent *flying* programme :-) (few exceptions here and there)

Given the infrequent flying patterns you mentioned (one Long Haul/year), that probably nets you around 10-15k miles/year, I'd be sceptical for you to get any level of status (Aegan *G is probably your only bet).

If I were you I'd look at making good use of miles rather than pursuing status, and for a UK-based flyer I'd recommend looking at the new BA Exec Club, where you can get some good value redemptions (primarily on direct flights) and you have other means to topup your miles (through credit card spend, tesco vouchers, etc). Also BA has substentially improved redeeming miles on short haul (which may be useful if you find yourself with an insufficient amount of miles to redeem for long haul in club). Finally this was mentioned before, but BA miles are good value when it comes to upgrading from Premium Economy to Club (only good on BA metal).

thanks for the advice guys, I had to book flights today so opted to focus on the BA Exec club. I think it'll give me the best chance to store up a good few miles especially pooling the household miles with my wife.

Not overjoyed about paying a few hundred pounds in taxes for reward flights so will wait until I've got enough miles for a longhaul and blow them on that, I think.

Cheers