Like many stuck in Hong Kong I'm starting to travel again for both work and leisure and wondering whether CX still makes sense. Was always a struggle to earn with CX so thought it would be worth exploring crediting other options like AA to earn and build status. The short-hauls in discount tend to make it a bit hard to earn with my flight patterns but any help much appreciated!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Redemption opportunities in APAC, upgrades esp for long-haul. OWS would be nice but have lounge access via amex plat so mostly for baggage/boarding

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy incl discount, occasional Premium for longer-haul

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes all routes both for work and pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?

HKG-SIN 2-4x/yr
HKG-NRT/HND 2-4x/yr
HKG-SYD 1-2x/yr
HKG-BKK 1-2x/yr
HKG-LHR 0-1x/yr
HKG-JFK 0-1x/yr

(6) What is your home airport?
HKG

(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?
100k asiamiles

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Historically fly CX, JL in OW. Occasional QF and BA

Because of a job I will be starting soon, I will be flying a-lot. Sometimes 3 times a day. This will include short and long-haul flights in Asia, Americas, Europe and the Middle east, rare visits to Africa. I've not flown more than 20 times in my life and I thought I'd ask for advice so thank you for taking the time to read this.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?

No matter the program I will end up at the highest tier so difficulty to reach the highest tier isn't a concern. It'd be fair to just compare highest reward tiers.

In general the most important things for me will be comfort in airports and flight e.g. extra legroom, upgrades, lounge access, priority bag collection and security

Benefits that decrease my expenditures while abroad will be immensely useful for helping with my savings. (I'm a contractor so free food and drinks will be useful as I cant expense them to a company, the only thing that gets payed for is hotel and travel).

I also really put value in earning miles and membership benefits that extend beyond my job. (British Airways EC gives me the ability to get lifetime gold membership; some airlines miles are worth more and come more frequently) airline miles with a long time too expire would be great so I can basically have my holidays booked for the next 10 years. I may not have this job in two years time so if I can get more out of it I will.

Partnerships with hotels will also help as I need to sign up to many hotel loyalty programs too.

2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~200 flights, economy, many long haul, most not.

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I have no choice, Its for work

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Not Applicable

(6) What is your home airport?
I will be flying from london and Madrid semi often but they will still only account for 5-10% of flights

(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?
Nope

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
No preferred or more common airlines


Thank you for taking your time to read this, my circumstances are different than most so im interested to hear any tips and information from FF's

Hi,

I used to be loyal to AA when it was relatively easy to earn status with them. I also did a couple of challenges with them and that earned me two intercontinental business trips.
The last years I haven't been loyal to any airline, I did no longer believe that being loyal would result in meaningful benefits. But I will again start doing more longhaul trips and I want to give it another try. Many things have changed over the last years and I think this means I will need to focus on another program.

(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: Benefits like seat selection, the occasional upgrade, early boarding, perks that come with elite status. (I've got a priority pass so the lounge access is more or less taken care off although many lounges don't accept the pass when it's busy)
(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: 25-50K (close to 30K) These are the miles I fly, because I fly discount economy I usually only earn 25% of this
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: I usually fly discount economy, sometimes premium economy. (maybe I will do this more into the future) I have never booked Biz, only used miles to fly Biz
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I choose the airline and class of service, all travel is pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Every year is different, I fly for pleasure and with the exception of Africa we like to explore all continents. Next year we are going to Ecuador, Japan, & probably also Vietnam. The year after it will be somewhere else.
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: BRU, but when fares from DUS or AMS are significantly cheaper I fly from these airports.
(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: Historically I still have some AA miles. I also have a whole pile of AmEx MR that I can convert into BA/IB of Finnair Miles. Then I also have a credit card where I earn Miles&More miles. (Star Alliance)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: None really. I sometimes think about switching to LH because of my credit card and because Brussels Airlines is part of the LH group. Then again, it is so damn hard to earn status in that program that I think I should focus on another airline. I've read that it is easier to earn status with BA. (with a status run every once in a while)

From the research I already did:

Pro LH :
- Earning miles with my credit card
- Meilensnapchen (discount mileage awards)
- Brussels Airlines at my home airport as part of the LH group

Negatives LH :
- Looks hard to get status

Pro BA :
- Usually relatively good connections worldwide with an easy and short flight BRU-LHR
- Together with AA, IB and Finnair a good worldwide coverage from BRU
- As for as my research goes not that hard to earn status (I should simulate what my flights next year earn)

Negatives BA
- Pay for seat selection

The avios ff currency can be moved between BA-IB-IE-Qatar, subject to t&c's. At times earning or burning or award availability can be better with one of those ffps' compared to others.
Look at BAEC & IB for status earning. Look at QR for long hauls, as well as the others.

With BA any Oneworld mid-top tier status will get free seat selection, including for business class. Closer to departure more seat options

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Getting Sapphire or Emerald for moderate total cost in 2023 (for 2024), and cheap/easy way to maintain status 2024+. Currently have AS MVPG75K, will renew for 2023, but want to move due to AS segment requirement, and deciding between AA, JL (for JGC...), or an Avois program. Value baggage allowance, lounge access, domestic first upgrades; like premium-cabin long-haul redemptions.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
200-300k. >50 flights. But split DL, AA domestic, and want to maintain TK, DL too.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Discount business class international (e.g. $2500 r/t US-Europe) with weird routings/stopovers, domestic "main cabin" econ.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Full flexibility, both.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
SJU-MIA/SRQ/TPA. SJU-NYC. SJU-AUS SJU-(somewhere)-LAS. SJU, MIA, NYC - Europe, Asia. I go to international conferences 1-3x/month, sometimes combine into the same trip.

(6) What is your home airport?
SJU, but often position to NYC, MIA, SRQ, TPA for long haul flights.

(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?
AS MVPG75K (maybe 100K for 2023, and about 800k miles.) TK Elite Plus (*G) and about 20k remaining miles. DL Platinum (Diamond after next flight), about 300k.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Most domestic travel in AA or DL. Favorite airlines JL, SQ.

Here's the dilemma: If you want lounge access when flying AA domestically, you will need oneworld Sapphire or Emerald status in a foreign FFP; if you want a chance of getting free upgrades when flying domestically, you will need status with AA (or AS). Which is more important to you?

If you plan to fly at least four segments on BA or IB within a qualifying period, you should be able to achieve at least OWS in BA's Executive Club program pretty easily with your international Business Class travel. If you do not expect to have those segments, then credit your long-haul oneworld Business Class flights to Iberia Plus, and you'll achieve at least OWS with them pretty quickly. See this helpful Inside Flyer article:

https://insideflyer.co.uk/2019/03/qa...f-iberia-plus/

(Although the article talks about crediting QR Business Class flights to Iberia Plus, the analysis applies equally well to trans-Atlantic Business Class flights.)

And the scariest thing about this Halloween was BA's news that they're changing to a revenue-based system for Avios...

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
In the case of OW: Emerald status, ease of mileage redemption opportunities in F, as well as being able to transfer from credit card points (I have Chase & Amex) in order to avoid orphan miles as much as possible.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~63 000 miles; mostly W TATL, Y intra-Europe, ~28 segments
Reply:
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Discount Premium Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes - up to W for budget reasons; I fly between my work country and my home country whenever I have a holiday
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
ESB - DTW; 5-6 times per year, roundtrip; ESB - BRU once or twice a year; usually 1 RT domestic USA
(6) What is your home airport?
DTW (home); ESB/IST (work)
(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?
AF/KLM Gold (about to become Platinum): 100k miles; I have the BoA Flying Blue credit card in the USA (20xp annually + 5k miles if spend >$50)
UA Silver (was Gold for 15+ years; changed to Skyteam recently and never looked back): 65k miles (never expire)
BA Bronze due to a single J flight I took during the pandemic (friend had an expiring voucher and couldn't use it, so I got it for free): 15k miles
Credit card points (if it matters in this case): 900k points; Chase & Amex
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
N/A - I prefer not to use TK internationally as I've had repeated negative experiences with them; otherwise, the FFP is more important to me than the actual operating carrier of the flight.

If would look at SriLankan (UL). They have lower status thresholds than most other OW programs (60k miles/60 segments for Emerald) but high UL-metal requirements (30 segments must be flown on them). The program also earns comparatively well in discount economy , even the cheapest fares earn at 60%. The also offer co-branded credti cards and partner with HSBC so mileage earning though non-flying activities work as well.
Using the miles to upgrade from Economy to Business is a good use of them, see their upgrade award chart:https://www.srilankan.com/flysmiles/...rade-chart.pdf
Biggest program disadvantage: Miles have a hard expiration date of three years. And UL is a small airline with a rather limited route network. I looked into them as I fly Europe-Asia a few times a year, but they have terminated all routes except FRA, CDG and LHR. But for flying mostly within APAC they should work well.

I would seek a program that is distance-based, offers segment-based status qualification and gets you lifetime status quickly (most people won't be doing this much travel for very long, and then it's definitely nice to have the benefits)
BAEC only offers Gold lifetime status, and that is that's very hard if not impossible to achieve if you don't fly a lot in premium cabins. For consultants whose clients reimburse J, that's the way to go, for those who only are allowed Y, not so much.
I`d be deciding between Iberia with its a two-tiered lifetime status program, where the mid-tier one is much more attainable for someone mostly flying economy. or Alaska. Alaska's program remains distance-based for the foreseeable future, has a lot of non-alliance partners to earn on and grants lifetime sapphire status after a million miles.

Hi everyone! Hope any experts here can help me with deciding on which OW FFP to commit to as I’m new to the miles and points world. I’m based in London now and am racking up BA avios points thru various means (amex, tesco, nectar etc) and has to travel frequently for work btwn LHR to Europe and US. I also have an MH Enrich account which I have been trying to work towards Enrich Bronze, and frequently travel to Asia using MH as I have family there. I’m in a dilemma now which FFP should I commit to. Avios makes more sense now as I’m based in London but looking to hear what people are suggesting!

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, lounge access
(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: 25-50
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy, premium economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: yes, both
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: transpacific, in Asia
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR, 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?
(AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: MH Blue, BAEC Blue
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: MH, BA

BAEC vs MH Enrich
 

Hi. I'm based in London having relocated from Malaysia and am trying to gain status towards a oneworld frequent flyer program. Problem is that I have MH Enrich and BAEC, both blue, and also am trying to rack up avios via different means (amex, nectar etc). I seldom fly BA previously but am doing so more due to work and use MH to fly to Asia to visit family. Which OW FFP should I commit to here? Should I continue with MH while holding some avios from credit card spendings, or commit entirely on BAEC? Appreciate any advice!

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, lounge
(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: 25-50
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: No. Work and pleasure
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transpacific, asia
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR, 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?
(AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: MH Enrich and BAEC
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: MH

Hi, I'm looking to book a specific business class flight with Finnair and need advice on where to credit / which oneworld program to join.

wheretocredit shows these 12 options:
https://www.wheretocredit.com/calcul...R/HEL-BKK-AY-R

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...816bf1b806.png



Finnair offers these 16 options:
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...20f291fd8d.png


(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Extra baggage allowance and generous carry-on allowance
Faster check-in and security
Flexibility in terms of combining and using the miles / points, points expiration

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Hard to predict as I am just starting to travel.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Planning to fly Business class especially on long flights
Will be looking for good value Premium Fare deals.
Occasional short flights in Economy possible.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes can choose freely, pleasure only. Happy to do mileage run itineraries to attain status and see new places when opportunities come up.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Asia domestic, Asia - Europe, Asia - North & Central America

(6) What is your home airport?
BKK, HKT

(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?
nothing at all yet

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Not enough experience to prefer any.
I hear Qatar is good.
I used Oman Air in business between Europe - Asia before and it was ok.
Malaysia appears to have the cheapest business class fares within Asia.
Looking at this Finnair Business class flight between Asia - Europe now.

Other things to note
I will fly with a family member so combining the points / miles of two accounts into one (head of family account) might be a factor.
Since I don't know whether or not I will fly enough to even get status or use points, flexible usage of the points / miles as in transferring them to other people outside of the family or to another program would also be good.
Long expiration times of the points.
I do not reside in the US and do not hold any credit cards that would allow me to earn extra points / miles.

Emirates points are worthless. Need to switch
 

Hello everyone. I am an American based in Riyadh, KSA. Me and my family (5 total) fly round trip from Riyadh to Houston at least twice a year on business class, so between the credit card spend and the flights themselves, we have an opportunity to earn a good chunk of miles. For the last year we have been flying Emirates, and I have achieved platinum status. We like Emirates because the experience is always great, the flight is comfortable, the Dubai airport is nice and the lounge is nice. However, I have found it nearly impossible to use my Skywards points because of low award flight availability and even when I do find a flight, the fuel surcharges make it almost not worth using the points. It's important to me to be able to use my points to get free/low cost award flights for me and my family's annual holidays.

Using websites like point.me, I see lots of availability of low-cost award flights from Riyadh to good vacation destinations using AAdvantage miles, so I've thought about switching to earning AAdvantage miles either by booking directly through AA or flying Qatar or BA and crediting points to AA. Or could stick with United since we are based in Houston, but we would have to fly home via Lufthansa or Turkish, which are not as good of an option as Qatar Airways. I do earn miles with my Chase card so can always transfer to United. Maybe a split scenario when I earn some Chase points and some AA points makes sense? A bit of a complicated scenario, Would appreciate the help. There's just so many options I don't know what's best.

I do most of my daily spend on Chase Sapphire Preferred card and have a bunch of Ultimate Reward Points. Also have the Venture X card and have a couple hundred thousand points there. I have booked travel through their portals before to get the 5x points, but I find that making flight changes when I do this is a huge pain. Have thought about Amex Platinum to ge the 5x points when booking direct, but not sure if their transfer partners are the best for me. Not opposed to getting another credit card but am too busy these days to watch every dollar I spend and am kind of over the churning thing. Just want to manage 1 or 2 cards at most.

Questions
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Ability to use points for award flights or upgrades with low fuel surcharges. My company pays for our flights from Riyadh to Houston, so I'd like to use the points I earn for other trips throughout the year to interesting locations in Europe and Asia for little to no cash. Lounge access also important, but we have Priority Pass so we usually get some sort of lounge access even when flying economy and will get lounge access regardless when flying business.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: At least twice per year RUH-IAH which is about 32,000 miles in J class per year per person. Then a few other trips per year in Economy class. When in the USA we go to Denver and Orlando frequently.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Business class for long haul and economy for shorter trips. Would fly business more if award availability made sense.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, I can choose. Usually traveling for pleasure.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: RUH-IAH, IAH-DEN (frontier because it's cheap, but am brand agnostic), IAH-MCO (united, but am brand agnostic)

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: RUH, IAH

(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: Emirates Platinum. Have lots of Chase Ultimate Rewards and Capital One points saved up. Some miles in Untied as well.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Like the idea of Qatar Airways for our long trips to the states since their business class looks nice. Need to be on a good Business class product for those two flights home since those flights are very stressful with three small children and I like that experience to be good for my family. Enjoy our Emirates flights, but like I said the points are worthless. I do NOT want to fly Saudia.

Thanks for the help. Please let me know if flying Qatar and crediting points to AA makes sense or if there's a better option.

The only program that combines generous expiration policies (account activity keeps all points alive) with family pooling option is BAEC. Join them, set up a household account to pool your avios, and just make sure you'll have some account activity in any three-year period to keep the points from expiring. https://www.britishairways.com/en-ch...e-whole-family

AFAIK, all other programs who offer point pooling have fixed expiration policies around three years ,so not really attractive for infrequent travellers.