EK really isn't that exciting anymore anyway, given that they F award space is now basically only available through their own Skywards program.

Dear FlyerTalkers,

I am currently a Star Alliance Gold member and last year, matched to QR Platinum (Oneworld Emerald). However, due to the pandemic, I will not unfortunately not be able to retain the QR status within the allocated date (which they will sadly not extend, even due to the pandemic). Thus, I would really appreciate your help to see which OneWorld FFP would be best for me in the future.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- The possibility to keep both Star Alliance Gold (currently Asiana Club - i.e. need to earn 20,000 miles per year to retain) & Oneworld Sapphire.
- Most important for me is to have lounge access & extra luggage allowance.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
- Approximately 45,000-50,000 miles total per year, every second year up to 15,000-20,000 more.
- Usually 20,000-25,000 of those miles flown in paid Business, the rest in paid Economy (standard or flexi fares, not discounted).
- Often around 30 sectors, 8 long-haul and 22 inter-Europe or inter-Australia.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
- Business
- Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
- I can mostly choose my own airlines and class of service
- I travel for both work & pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
- Return FCO > SYD (at least 2 times per year)
- Return FCO > either Asia or USA (approx. 1 time per year)
- Return SYD > MEL or BRI (approx. 2 times per year)
- Return FCO > various european destinations (approx. 15 times per year)

(6) What is your home airport?
- FCO (primary) - resident
- SYD (secondary) - citizen

(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?
- OZ (Diamond Plus / Star Alliance Gold)
- SQ (Gold / Star Alliance Gold)
- QR (Platinum / Oneworld Emerald) [status matched last year from OZ & SQ), expiring shortly.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
- SQ
- EK
- EY
- CX
- QR
- LH
- AZ
- QF

I wish you all a wonderful day and many thanks for your guidance in advance!

Didn't they extend when you need to qualify by from June to Dec 2021?

As you probably know QF has a poor ffp compared to others. But has EK as a ffp. OW airlines Alaska(joins 31Mar) & JL also have EK as a ff partner.
AA has EY as a frequent flyer partner. While AA is mainly a revenue based frequent flyer programme, for flights on partner airlines is more of a distance based ffp (good for earning on business class long hauls)
QF AS & BA have a 4 own flights rule for status. Maybe other do as well. AA does not have a X own flights rule for status.'
I would consider AA: do more research on earnings from flights and credit cards. But AA status would not give lounge access on USA domestic-regional flights.

Having 2 ffp's with Star Alliance gold may not be worth the effort.

That's what I thought, however, upon speaking to them (and I have it also in writing), it's only "half" the story.

In short, yes, they will extend the status to Dec, however, the re-qualification date will not get extended with it. I found that rather sneaky.

Thus, if you have a re-qualification date this May and you don't make the re-qualification by that "original" date, then you will automatically lose the status on 31 December and need another 600 Qpoints in 12-months to get it back. I was quite shocked.

On top of this (and sorry that it's a little off topic from the question), even though it was a 50% off deal to re-qualify, it's not 50% off the re-qualification quota (i.e. 540 Qpoints / 50% = 270 Qpoints), but 50% of the "as new" quota (ie. 600 Qpoints / 50% = 300 Qpoints), which really is impossible in the current climate. I found that sneaky as well.

In fact, to give them credit where it's due, Asiana extended BOTH the status and re-qualification date to match, at their initiative and proactiveness.

Interesting indeed.

I would give strong consideration to BA, even with its 4 "own metal" flights requirement. You could do a couple of quick returns on BA to London every year, or one return trip to someplace like Edinburgh, with a plane change at LHR, to get those flights in, and the rest of your fights could be on OW members, earning BA tier points for status qualification. Couple hundred Euros and problem solved..

IB flights also count. From BA forum https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...1-edition.html

Hi - with AS joining Oneworld I need help choosing which program to make my primary one. I am leaning towards Alaska..

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades on travel, reward travel
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~120k miles a year, when flying domestically economy (40 segments a year) when flying international usually in paid business class (4 RTs a year)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Mostly economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can choose, most travel is for work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
US Domestic, AUS-SJC is most frequent route
(6) What is your home airport?
AUS
(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 Platinum Pro
AS MVP Gold
WN A-List
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Almost all travel is on one of 3 of AA, AS, WN

As AAdvantage and AS MileagePlan would have reciprocal benefits in the future, think about this.
Think about your lifetime miles and lifetime status. In AS MP, when you have 1M miles, you would be AS MVPG for life; AA has a gradual system for lifetime status.
If you have no other factor and if you fly both AS and AA equally, head towards AS as you wouldn't have any spending based requirement.

hombri Congratulations on you first post on FT (after ~7 years)

As above AA, for AA tickets, is a revenue based ffp. AS is a distance based ffp.

Been reported that AA-AS will introduce a cross airline upgrade system (outside of the OW alliance).
Details slow being released. https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...-upgrades.html
But would expect any airline would favor upgrading its own freq flyers ahead of the other guys.

For award travel AS (currently) has a very prescriptive award chart. How that will/may change with AS now in OW alliance is unknown. AS awards can be very good value and the free stopover useful for some. But all ffp award charts have sweet spots. Depends on where you want to go with award flights.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...advantage-733/
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/alas...eage-plan-442/

Hello everyone! I would appreciate your help in deciding which FFP to settle on.
Notes:

• I was considering a move from CX/QR to AS because of great F redemption rates to Southeast Asia on CX & JL but am worried about potential devaluation from AS joining oneworld.
• I’m a student, so QR’s new student club program sounds pretty good, but redemption rates are not the best. Please let me know your opinions.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Good award redemption rates, better award access, priority services when flying the airline.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 in discount J. At least two BKK-SFO roundtrips yearly.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Discount J.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airlines and class of service, I travel to college in the US.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
BKK-SFO almost exclusively, often on QR, CX, and JL. BKK-HND for holidays every other year.
(6) What is your home airport?
BKK and SFO.
(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?
~200k miles in CX Asia Miles but am looking to switch for better redemption rates.
~90k miles in QR Privilege Club Gold (OW Sapphire).
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
QR, CX, and JL.

Thanks!

please delete

might be tricky since you only fly QR, CX, and JL , Any poossibility to try AA ?? Any other routes than BKK-SFO or BKK-HND ???

OW is done in such way that you dont always have full benefits granted by your status unless you fly with the airline who owns this FFP unlike skyteam , so unless you fly different routes on regular basis or change criteria , then your choice is limited

having two pools of miles in same alliance is not a good tactic , unless you have no choice

In general , unless you fly a lot , having two FFPs is not a good idea also

In my case my main focus is skyteam but i also have star alliance (A3) and i had oneworld (RIP AB) ... just in case of flights with airline of these alliances so i dont loose miles .... but i wont open an FFP with every airline i fly often with as its counter productive, so my main focus now is skyteam (soon it might change , thats why iam also here)

i would suggest to focus on one FFP only , and collect everything there . Up to you to check which one is the best between CX and QR

Redemption rates are going worse and worse every year , regardless of airline , so sitting on a giant pile of miles (assuming these 90k/200k are worth something) and not use them now or in the near future is just a waste due to constant devaluations

Since you only fly in J , then a status wont bring much difference , and as your flight patterns are limited , having a 3rd FFP wont change much

I can recommend you to restart your investigation about new FFPs across all 3 majors alliance once you finish your study and your life will change significantly (maybe more travel , maybe different routes , different home airports , etc .....)

Hi folks

iam looking for an FFP in OW , as ST doesnt fly to airports i will visit a lot after covid . First to collect miles just in case and later , depends on life changes (trips,location,job,projects,etc...) i could target a status (ruby or sapphire) if i get close .

My plans might be centered around 6 airlines

Three carriers i think i will use the most

BA = america + UAE
S7 = russia + CIS
RJ = middle east

The rest will depend on other factors (prices+destinations)

AA = north/central america
IB = central/south america
QR = africa / UAE

i checked and studied the FFP of BA ,S7 , AA , RJ and QR a bit ..... I can say that for me QR and AA are out of the game , so iam open to suggestions regarding BA vs S7 vs RJ or others .....

Unfortunately the benefits are not homogeneous across airlines as in skyteam , so to get the best out of it , i will probably need to target sapphire (if i fly OW a lot) and stick mainly to the airline of my FFP and use others as bonus (if i understood OW FFPs correctly)

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
free luggage , lounges , priority boarding/checkin ....

If possible a FFP who signed partnership with hotel chains like ALL or IHG , so i can either gain points or transfer miles to my hotel account in such way

ALL with A3 M&B = convert M&B miles into ALL points
AFKL FB = cash spent on tickets grants you ALL points

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
40k/60k miles per year , a mix of mid and long haul flights (between 40 and 60 segments)

Check my flightradar24 profile to get an idea

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Y , or J if no choice and its cheaper than Y

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Airlines = yes
class = not

work = 33% (short/mid haul)
private = 66% (mid/long haul)

its not static and work can fluctuate a lot

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Skyteam airlines (80%) + star alliance (20%)

some trips within europe
one yearly trip to UAE
from europe to south america

(6) What is your home airport?
WAW and BER

(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?
Skyteam FB platinum

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
S7,BA,QR,RJ for OW