Originally Posted by Peachy6 (Post 30477706)

hi there, I need some help regarding choosing a one world frequent flyer membership program.
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
( Lounge Access,upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free, etc.)
Reply:
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: not sure about miles but 10 to 15 flights a year is my average, sometimes I fly more.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy, cheapest business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Pleasure
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: Asia, Africa and Middle east, MH, UL (rarely) and QR
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: MYY, KUL
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Reply: QR burgundy and MH blue lol lowest possible
8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Doesn't matter whatever can help me change tier's in a year.

Originally Posted by Santander (Post 30733103)

Looking for a OW program to accrue to when I take advantage of cheap OW J fares for leisure travel. Leaning towards BA, because of Amex and relative ease of making status on premium fares.
Alternative suggestions would be appreciated!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority services, lounge access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~150k miles/100 segments, mostly domestic Y for business, paid J for international business and leisure
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Close-to-lowest Y for most business travel, discount J for leisure
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Both, some flexibility
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Most flights on UA/AC, mostly short-haul segments in the eastern half of North America
(6) What is your home airport?
YYZ/EWR
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
UA 1K, no OW status, ~100k AA miles as a consequence of being a former US Preferred
8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
N/A

Originally Posted by hugotam0 (Post 30393513)

MPC members have also helped me out: https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cath...y-program.html

Lifelong CX program participant, but the changes for the past few years caused many troubles. I recently relocated to Buffalo, NY for work. For about 9 more months here. I will be in the US at least for the next 2-3 years. Debating whether or not to switch from CX program to AA. With the amount of air traveling, I am at least a Sapphire in other programs, but CX has been especially tough. Now that I have fewer opportunities to enjoy the HKG lounges now, I'm unsure is it a good idea to switch up? I also banked a lot of credit card points from Amex Plat, so looking to utilize that with the right reward redemption program.

General travel picture:
1-2 Roundtrip flights from US - HKG per year (Econ/Prem)
1-2 major vacation flights, combine with some mileage runs.
5-10 domestic flights for work/pleasure per year

I will manage to become CX Gold before the annual cycle. But should I spend my efforts building Exec Plat instead? Should I keep my Amex Plat card with limited Centurion Lounges around me? Should I stay in for at least another cycle with all miles savings? Should I stay to focus on the upgrades for HKG flights with CX?

A newcomer in the forum here, thanks for all the help so far!

Questions
For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply: Upgrades on travel, award redemption rates, lounges
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply: >50,000miles
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Econ/ Prem Econ
c(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes. Mostly for pleasure, minor flight trips.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Mostly long hauls, CX: North America (ORD/YYZ/NYC) -> HKG, AA with all my domestic flights
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Base in BUF/ YYZ
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: CX SIlver, 415 points away from Gold. Debating to move up to Gold or not. Or Participate AA Status Challenge.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Preferred CX. Most common AA, CX, then BA

Cheers,

Hugo

Originally Posted by flyercity (Post 30429055)

Best OW program for status only

Wanted to share some thoughts for those looking for a OW program for status only and are not bothered about spending miles, expiring miles, upgrades etc.

I searched on the basis that all flights credited would be discount economy with no particular preference for any one airline.

Researched all OW member sites and found that many do not credit discount economy fares (e.g. MH), give very little credit (BA, IB, CX, QF etc) or have a money component (AA). So, e.g. with BA or IB you'd need to fly about 5-6 long haul discount economy return flights for Ruby and about 12-14 for Sapphire.

From what I found, AY is probably the best option for those who want to gain status via discount economy travel. Ruby with about 2-3 long haul discount economy return flights and Sapphire with about 6-7.

QR looks promising in terms of their tier thresholds but unfortunately their mileage/elite points calculator does not work, so it is not known if they are a better option than AY.

Originally Posted by iahphx (Post 30799874)

Thanks for your analysis. I am looking for more information on this topic. I find OW Ruby to be useful on AA to get me decent seat assignments and last-minute extra legroom seats. I could probably make the mileage component on AA for Ruby, but I don't spend $3000/year (most of my paid AA flying is on junk fares). I have cheap-fare-class long haul flights booked on Qantas and BA. Is crediting to Finnair my best shot for getting Ruby? Would it make any sense to do this, and is there any other viable alternative?

Originally Posted by Mwenenzi (Post 30799881)

Note some airlines require X flights on own aircraft and/or flight number for status. [Precise rules vary] For example BA has a 2/4 & QF a 4 flight rule for status. No idea if AY has a similar requirement.
BA ffp is used by some USA residents.

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Originally Posted by Gobber (Post 30838740)

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Availability of upgrades and redemptions with lower taxes/charges, priority security&boarding, lounge access (although have PP via Amex Plat), increased bag. allow.

<snip>
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(LH FreqTrav (Silver) 40k MilesMore, QR Silver (almost Gold) 200k QRMiles, AY Blue 20k miles, BAEC 2flights&1k Avios :)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
ShortHaul: *A: (LH&LOT), some AY
LongHaul: QR (interested in AY)

Thoughts.
No direct flight NCE-TLL or NCE-HEL during offseason (OCT-APR). So commuting with 1 stop off-season on LH/LOT get me into lounges, but spending those miles on long-hauls - not really. Could of switched to AY under OW during season (April-October) and thus earning and spending within OW (would be ideal) but the problem is a direct flight from NCE-TLL on *A (LOT) which is more convenient, i.e. 2-2.5 hrs instead of 4-6+hrs.

Even if I need to keep flying *A, what would be the best OW FPP for my case? I tend to switch to BAEC vs AY+ with better availability of OW redemptions/upgrades inside Asia but may be put wrong and AY+ is better? I haven't done spreadsheets/math, which could probably provide the answers, but brainstorming at this stage.

Originally Posted by NZ_Flyer (Post 30841145)

Originally Posted by Mwenenzi (Post 30839648)

Upgrades are normally only on the airline of you ffp.
But AA-BA-IB have a cross airline upgrade system, but with heavy t&c's so little use for most people.
And upgrades are hard to get.

For short flights time & cost benefits will be better than earning a few ff miles.

Having 3 OW ffp's QR, AY & BA is not very efficient. It may have been possible to credit flights to 1 ffp
The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit flights to does not need to be the same.

QR points have a hard expiry (3 ~ 3.5 years) so would be considering using those :- expiry thread Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.