I have been a BA Silver member for years (was even BA Gold for a year).
With QR having undone their devaluation and removed lounge access from their cheapest business class fares, I have been wondering if it could make sense to switch.
I never earned a lot of Avios from flying. Avios, however, are easy to come by. They are sold through partners all the time (like The Economist) and basically all banks' points can be transferred to BA/IB.
I would usually use them on things like IB business class flights between MAD and the Americas or shorthaul flights, for example in Asia (HKG-PVG in CX J, stuff like that).
However, QR points are harder to come by. For example, in the US, they only partner with Citibank. And DXB-DOH-FRA is only 45k QMiles one way now...


(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Security fast track, lounge access, good award redemption rates.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Hard to estimate. When I used to live in Europe, I would have 1-2 long haul business class return flights (like OSL-BKK in QR R class, or Scandinavia-USA flights on BA/AA), plus a couple of BA/IB shorthaul flight in economy. Also a couple of error fares, if there were any. That was always enough to easily renew my status.
I also used to have a ton of shorthaul flights on Star Alliance (mostly SK and a little bit on LH).
I generally prefer Oneworld for longhaul flights.

In the meantime, there has been covid and I have moved to DXB. I have 5-10 return flights in business class between Dubai and Europe per year, I guess. But some of them could be on miles, I've flown EK on miles a lot.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy for short haul. Business for flights of over 4 hours.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose freely, I'm self-employed. It's mostly a mix of work and pleasure.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
FRA-DXB/FRA-DOH, something like that. I'm flexible otherwise. Preference for QR on longhaul.

(6) What is your home airport?
DXB

(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?
A3 Gold, still BA Silver.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
QR

Hi all, I'm pretty new to FT but grateful for all the incredible knowledge and opinions already.

I'm moving from London to CPH in May 2022, having lived in Australia before that. I'm about to start flying more for business (short and long haul) but the exact amount isn't clear to me yet, nor is the amount of choice I'll have in who I fly with for business (and will likely include flying SK). For business, I'll likely be in economy short-haul and business for long-haul. Business trips will likely be CPH-LON, CPH-USA, and CPH-NRT/HND.

In addition to my answers to questions below, my main flying for leisure would be CPH-LON, CPH-USA (East & West coasts), and CPH-MEL, where I will try to prioritise upgrades to premium cabins on points (I don't mind flying extra sectors here).

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?
Reply: lounge access, priority check-in and security, good award redemption rates or ability to use points to book award seats on partner airlines

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: Probably ~50k, but this is the biggest unknown in my equation as the amount of business flying will be unclear until I start the job.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Business, premium economy, economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Definitely for personal travel, but not sure about business travel as yet.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: At the moment, I fly mostly with BA in Europe and transatlantic. Business & personal travel routes once in CPH are likely to be as described above, with personal CPH-USA and CPH-MEL trips being 1-2x per year each.

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: LHR currently, CPH from May 2022.


(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:
FFP Status - QF Gold, OZ Diamond, BA Bronze (I was trying to build BA status as I thought I would be in London long term and wanted to use Exec Club benefits like advanced seat selection, etc; I recognise this may have been a mistake)
Banked miles - QF 99k, OZ 44k, BA 22k, Amex MR 81k

QF have said they are extending my QF Gold until January 2023 because of the pandemic.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:
Most common flown on at present is BA; QF or QR when I was based in Australia.
Within OW, I don't have a strong preference if in economy. For premium, my preferred are QR, QF, CX, AY, and new BA suite.

I think I might actually be asking: 1) stick with QF, 2) continue building with BA, or 3) switch to someone else?

Thank you so so much for the help! I really appreciate it.

For QF you need to fly 4 eligible QF or Jetstar flights to maintain status. So your QF Gold (OW Sapphire) status will be gone unless you get to AU (QF/JQ) or Asia(Jetstar) to get those 4 lights. So is very good you have OW Sapphire until Jan in 2023. Very useful for free seat selection on BA, including business class

OW does *not* has a cross airline upgrade scheme, But may happen (OW site press release), If like Star Alliance or the AA-BA-IB-AY upgrade scheme will require a high base fare. So totally useless for most people. Really need to fly the airline of your ffp to have a chance of an upgrade. But upgrades are not guaranteed and hard to get. Would not select a ffp based on the hope of a upgrade. Some airlines will only upgrade1 class. Like economy to premium economy or premium economy to business. So check the ffp's detailed rules for upgrades.

A lot of what you want come with mid level status. EU is small so getting status on short and/or cheap (long-short haul) flights is very hard.

If living in UK/EU BAEC would be considered by most to be a better ffp than QF. QF ffp is OK to a point if flying QF a lot (premium class's) and/or getting QF ff points from non flying activity (~living in AU). QF have a very high cost in QF points for upgrades. QF earn to burn is not that good compared to other ffp's. To me the time horizon for ffp's is 3 to 5 years at most. Earn to burn in ~2 years..

Be careful about ff miles/avios/points expiry:--> Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire
Many (to most?) ffp's are not extending ff miles expiry. Only status.

Edit
Blog (ExecTrav AU)--->Is BA Executive Club membership worth it for Australian travellers?

Great advice! Thanks very much again Mwenenzi! This may be a silly small print question, but is it possible to use my QF Gold on the BA website to access things like seat selection/lounge/etc while then crediting the points (avios & status) to BA? That seems like the sweet spot until 2023 for me.

Thanks again

Are threads on using 1 ffp status to get a benefit and then changing to another ffp number for earning ff miles/status. In OW the Finnair AY or Royal Jordan RJ web sites are often used. However the changing of the ffn does not always stick. People have reported getting a boarding pass with the "new" ff number, but flights still get credited to the old.. So a gamble

Sample threads

• https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...selection.html
• https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...advantage.html
• Crediting to AA and using BA lounge access
• AA FF# on BP; Flight Posted to Another FF Program Anyway - Any Fix?
• https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...ing-avios.html

For status, BA is fine. You'll easily make BA Silver (OW Sapphire).
If you have a chance to get 4 segments on Alaska in, I'd go for Mileage Plan. It's probably the best Oneworld program, and you can also redeem miles for flights on Singapore Airlines.

New to all this here looking for advice, and planning for several trips next year with a P2, centered around purchasing a business class flight (I) from Qatar with cash (KUL-SFO), and 2-3 more transpacific flights. I'm wondering what would be a good FPP and strategy moving forward. Have some miles scattered here and there before but nothing significant enough to be tied to.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Good award redemption rates, better award access, extra baggage allowance
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Next year is likely >50000 miles, 10-20 segments, with one business trip, but after that should be 25000-50000 miles per year in <10 trips.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy/Premium Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Personal pleasure
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
SFO-SIN/KUL, US Domestic, haven't stuck to any particular airline so far
(6) What is your home airport?
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?
None
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Considering centering future SFO-SIN/KUL travel redemption around Qatar Qsuites with P2, but no preference otherwise.

Spent a bit of time researching so far but a bit hard to pin down what information is recent and is outdated given all the changes since the pandemic. My general sense is that Alaska Airlines is probably the best overall in terms of award earn, and my idea of centering travel redemption around the QSuites for US to Asia could be not wise given that it seems tied to either CX asiamiles or QR, that have worse earn, and redemption availability could be limited. So I'm fine moving away from that idea. But maybe the Qatar family benefits is interesting enough to reconsider? I'm not sure.

QR ffp does have many fans outside of those who live in Qatar and/or fly QR a lot. Even then some detractor from people in Qatar,
Agree as you live in USA (SFO) AS would be a reasonable fit. But AS has a limited very prescriptive award chart
A guide (check the ffp web site)--->https://www.wheretocredit.com/qatar-airways/i
What other airlines do you have ff miles and/or fly? Any in Oneworld?

Premium awards hard to get with any ffp/airline. Would not select a ffp on the hope of particular airline for an award.

Be careful with ff miles expiry of the scattered ff miles.
Link-->Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire
QR ff miles have a hard expiry. Use them or lose them

Edit
AS does not offer QR for USA Asia award.
https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...s/award-charts
Map-->http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=c%3Ablu...=bm&PW=3&DU=mi

That circle map definitely puts some things in perspective, huh, thanks. Yeah, originally this started with me trying to figure out what are my best options for an premium award travel on KUL-SFO routes and whether I should plan my credit card strategy around it, and then realizing QSuites can only be reasonably redeemed through QR and CX I think. It's fine if I have to move away from the QSuites idea.

Good points. Among oneworld I think I just have 9k with Finnair but it's fine, being scattered and the upcoming travel plan is why I'm trying to figure out my strategy going forward so I'm not as wasteful on them.
You're right that I won't be earning any significant points through flights alone, so expiry is one big thing to consider. So it sounds like for me I probably should just focus on what I can get out of the business trip (wheretocredit shows it'll grant me 19k AS points while the Qcalculator shows me I'll get 22k on QR for one-way), balanced with what makes sense longer term, and what I can supplant with credit card program transfers (I'm 1/24 on credit cards right now). The last part is probably where the AS ffp plan falters a bit.

Not anymore:
https://mainlymiles.com/2020/07/29/q...with-activity/

Totakeke :
I�d write down some typical routes and fare classes, then calculate how many miles you�d earn in different programs, and then check what you�d get for those miles. E.g. if KUL-SFO is a typical route for you, how many KUL-SFO trips would you have to take, before you�d get one free?

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Emerald status benefits; upgrades; award redemption; access to exit row seating on domestic flights without charge.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~125,000; maybe 30 segments. Most flying is long-haul.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
80% in paid international business, the remainder on U.S. domestic flights in economy.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes and both.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
U.S. Transcon on AA; London on AA or BA; S.E. Asia on AA, CX, or JL.
(6) What is your home airport?
LAS, BKK, LHR
(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. Most miles in my AA account
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
CX, SQ, JL

Would like to make Emerald without the onerous spend and segment requirements coming on AA.

Can you get those 4 flights per year on AS metal in? Could be a good choice. I unfortunately don't know enough about the programs of CX and JL.

Based on your flying patterns, I don't think that you would have any trouble maintaining Emerald status with AA. Remember that under the new earning scheme, an AA Plat Pro gets an 80% Loyalty Points bonus on qualifying flights, and you also get a cabin bonus.

If you were willing to fly Finnair for just one JFK-BKK Business Class roundtrip, for example, I think that you would end up with more than 50,000 LPs.

If you'd rather obtain elite status in another oneworld program (which would give you Admirals Club access when flying AA domestically in Coach), I would look into BAEC (if you can satisfy BA's annual minimum BA-flight-segment requirement), or Iberia Plus which, unlike BA, does not require any flights on its own airline to attain status. Here's a recent Inside Flyer blog post about this:

https://insideflyer.com/2021/09/27/w...h-iberia-plus/

Since you're already Platinum Pro with AA, you might want to look at a status match with Alaska, which would give you immediate MVP Gold 75K (Oneworld Emerald) status with AS. https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...%3aMileagePlan. You could then decide whether to pursue long-term Emerald status with AS or with any other Oneworld program. I guess the main question is what benefits do you depend on that require Emerald status?

The Asian carrier programs tend to be pretty poor.

I've never flown AS. Doesn't mean I couldn't, but I don't seem to fly on their route structure.

AS is interesting, however, as I would keep domestic upgrades alive, which I would lose with any other oneworld carrier status.

Not sure how the math works on that. I thought it was flight distance on foreign carriers and the class of service bonus, e.g., 1,000 mile flight would be 1,800 Loyalty Points.

How does JFK-BKK get to 50,000?

I already have two QR business class tickets between LAX and BKK through DOH that I will be flying in the first quarter.

I had BA Gold a few years ago. Wasn't worth much.

The other problem with BA is that as you hit each lower tier, it resets to make the next level.

IB sounds very interesting with the two year status benefit.

I fly mostly international and enjoy the F lounges at LAX (QF), HND and HKG.

I also value domestic upgrades on AA.

I'd prefer to stay with AA, but the 30-segments to unlock Loyalty Rewards just isn't going to happen.

I'll take a look at AS.

Query: If I have IB Emerald status, can I reserve exit row seats on AA without charge?