Well, flying Germany to DXB does reduce the mileage a bit. With BA's joint venture with AA, I have become rather more interested in BA as all fare classes will credit 100% EQM to AA (unlike QF) though in J/C/W it really doesn't matter. You might want to check prices with both BA and CX. They do sometimes have sales.

If the final destination in Australia is not SYD, there is always the ability to route via there and get a few extra miles.

And yes except for BA flights, I believe the add-on charges for award flights are the least with AA.

Happy wandering

Fred

Using oneworld intra-Europe will mean using:
BA (through LHR)
IB (through Spain)
AB/HG (through Germany/Switzerland)
AY (through HEL)

Going to/from Germany, AB (and HG) would provide many direct flight options, or the others going to their hubs.

With AA, any Europe-Europe flight (even with connections) will be 10k miles in economy and 20k miles in business each way.
For direct flights, BA or other distance based award programs *may* provide better value.

For long-haul redemption, and/or routes requiring connections, AAdvantage would be hard to beat.

Just something to consider.

Thank you very much for the warm welcome and these insights Mwenenzi! I'm planning on anywhere from a minimum of ~7 months to a year and was therefore also toying with the idea of AA. The MH flight won't count towards an AA challenge though I understand https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...iaairlines.jsp - so starting from scratch it is then?

Switch from Star Alliance Miles & More into One World / Air Berlin
 

Hey there
It is my first post on AB forum – apologies if you find any of my questions naïve or/and basic.

You might have heard that Miles & More have announced new milage accruals in economy which basically devastated whole program for me.
Lufthansa: Changes to the Miles&More program effective January 1st, 2014

I’ve been holding Gold (Senator) status for quite some years now, but given recent news I’m not planning to spend too much money (=0) with M&M team starting Jan ’14.

I’m looking for alternatives and being based in WAW OneWorld seems to be a quite nice one. May I ask you to have a look at below and advise if AB/1W might be a good option?

My flight patterns:
- I fly circa 110k-130k miles a year
- 4-5 longhaul (US / Asia)
- ~50 European connections
- Everything is booked in semi-flexible economy

I do not have HUGE expectations (I hope), but there are few small things I value when being FF (part of M&M gold status):
- Priority check-in / priority security check-in (where available)
- Two handbags allowance (computer bag + standard-sized luggage)
- Availability of exit rows where possible (I’m 190cm tall)
- Entry to the biz lounge (nothing fancy – a small bite and a glass of wine will do)
- Fair / reasonable availability of intercontinental premium cabin award seats (holiday booking once a year or so)

There are many nice to haves (two or three bags, blocked seat next to me, priority luggage, onboard recognition, operational upgrades) which I really do not care about too much and M&M wasn’t too great in those anyway.

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: WAW
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 100k+
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: 99% Eco, semi-flex
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: flexible on AI, class eco only. 90% of flights is work
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: 4-5 Asia/US, 50 Europe
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: *A Gold
(7) 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: See above
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Any that safely bring me to the destination within reasonable time

So, what do you think – is OneWorld a right choice? Which airline’s program should I start collecting miles to get most out of the system? With IB / BA / AB / S7 / Cathay in the alliance all my directions from WAW are nicely covered (maybe except MUC for now)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts – planning very busy January/February and I’m ready to start booking my TATL flights now

Thanks a ton folks!
mfk

Hi

I'm have a YUL-CMN roundtrip flight planned in Novemibly on AA+Iberia and looking to get OW status before the flight in order to benefit from lounge access & priority services.

I understand that I could also get free/cheap/trial elite status at a non-oneworld airline then request status match at the competing oneworld airline.


Any suggestions on how to get free/cheap/trial one world status before my flight (without flying)?

Thanks

Hi guys,

deciding if I should ditch CX and go for AA

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: YVR - Vancouver
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25k-50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy (most of the time) /Bus (<25%)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines. Travel for pleasure and work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic mostly, to Asia from North America once or twice per year.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: CX Gold, expiring soon as I haven't met the re-qualification requirements this year.
(7) 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, priority service when flying the airline, and able to earn miles on other carriers easily. (Just realized can't earn miles on my AA with a specific economy fare on CX...after booking and paid. grr)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX/AA/BA

I guess if I'm flying mostly US Domestic now AA is kind of a no brainer.

Thanks!

Hi guys,

I am deciding if I should ditch AA and go for CX -

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 125K+
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Restricted Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines. Travel for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic & Mexico 12 times a year - US to HKG 7+ times a year - US to SA 2 to 3 times per year
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: AA Exec Plat and CX Silver
(7) 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
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: AA & CX

I already enjoy all CX diamond benefits, its more that I dont get upgrades on the SF to HK route. If I switch to CX, will they upgrade me if I am in discounted economy?

If you're flying restricted economy, are your fares H class and above on CX? If you do get upgraded, it would only be to y+ as the class of service is normally 4 class.

Also, with CX you have to do A LOT of flying in one year to reach DM. Once you reach SL, which is 30k in one year, they reset the status. To reach GO, you need 60k. Once you achieve GO, it gets reset again and you need to fly 120k to reach DM.

If you and I were twins this would be an easy job - just switch cards. :D

Wrong post
 

Wrong post

posted in error

Question - Which oneworld FFP should I choose?
 

Hey!

I will be entering a university in the UK this October and will fly a lot from now on. Which is why I'm weighing all the possible FFPs.

Some say the FFP of AA is good while others recommend BA's or CX's.

I know the basic characteristics of each. Such as no fuel surcharges for AAdvantage, zone based system of BAEC and how it's good to use avios to upgrade or redeem short-haul flights and so on.

Right now I'm thinking about joining AAdvantage or BAEC but it would be great to get some advice from skilled flyers like you guys.

Of course, if you believe that other kinds of FFPs are better, please tell me.

Thank you so much for your time and effort.


1) What is your home airport?

Reply: LHR for 3 or 4 years. Then, I'll move to the states. Probably in the eastern area like Boston but might end up in California.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?

Reply: Around 40k miles. Mostly in premium economy.

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

Reply: Premium economy. Sometimes in economy or business.

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

Reply: Yes, I can. Um.... I'm a Korean student studying in the UK. Almost all of my flights are for visiting Korea during the vacations. So I suppose it's for "pleasure".

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?

Reply: Mostly between LHR and ICN (Usually in non-direct flights)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?

Reply: No

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Reply: Lounge access and priority service. Availability of lifetime status

(8) Preferred Airlines

Reply : Not really

AA and go for The Platinum Challange^

Moving this to the correct thread - the sticky one.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I'm trying my luck here as well - after the latest round of enhancements to the Lufthansa Miles&More Program I think it's about time to abandon Lufthansa and look for another airline to fly in 2014. As requested, here are the formal answers:

1) What is your home airport?

CGN and DUS - could also reasonably use FRA, BRU or AMS for long-hauls, but these two are my main ports of departure.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?

Including Lufthansa's 25% status-bonus (and considering the 50% only fare I got on some longhauls this year) my current tally stands at approximately 105000K as of today. These miles were collected on 92 Segments so far, almost all in Economy-class.

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

Lowest available Economy.

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

Choice of airlines is soley mine, class of service is Economy only.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?

Multi-weekly domestic Germany, plus 2-6 TATL per year. Add a few intra-Europe flights each year to that mix...

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?

No OW-status so far, once had AA Gold which I got on a simple West-Coast-Roundtrip when there was a double status miles promotion...

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Lounge access and using miles for family-vacation, preferably in Business Class or above. For mileage tickets no YQ would be a definite plus...but not a requirement.

(8) Preferred Airlines

Would prefer not to use AB or IB on long-haul flights, apart from that I am open to all OW airlines.


Any suggestion? I would not like to use AirBerlin (even if most flights will be with them) and currently wonder whether I should go with AA or BA. I would like to get a status-match by my future Oneworld airline so I would not need to start at the low-end of the food-chain...any suggestions considering my profile?

Greetings - Dirk

I have mileage pretty much everywhere and thinking of chosing one frequent flyer program for oneworld that suits me the best in terms of good award redemption, priority services (e.g., additional baggage check-in, priority boarding, lounge access although I already have priority pass from AMEX but their lounges are quite crappy).

(1) What is your home airport?

Singapore (SIN) in general, but Hong Kong (HKG) for 2 years at the moment due to work

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

<25k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)

Economy

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

Work (I can choose the airline I like) and pleasure (usually i'll pick the cheapest option)

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

Hong Kong - Singapore, Singapore - Perth (on a frequent basis to visit my sister), Hong Kong - Philippines, within the asia pacific region (e.g., thailand, indonesia) but will fly to US (California) once a year for work and to Europe (western Europe) once a year for vacation.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)

Qantas, Singapore krisflyer, Emirates - 20k miles , Qatar - 14k miles, Delta - 30k miles, UA - 4k miles

(7) 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.)

Priority services, free lounge access, good award redemption

(8) Preferred Airlines

Emirates, Singapore airline, Qantas, ANA

Thanks!!

jonalwy Welcome to the forum

Of the airlines you list in (6) & (8) only Qantas QF is OneWorld. QR Qatar will join OneWorld on 31 Oct 2013.
Priority services & free lounge access only come with status. Difficult to get flying less than 25K miles
"Good award redemption" eliminates QF (and BA to a point):- high cash YQ fuel surcharges
For mileage collection and low co pay award fees AA is good for many people.

However at this time, in my view, better to get enough miles in one program to get an award or miles upgrade, and then abandon that FFP: you have too many FFP for less than 25K flying miles per year. With small account balances you are at risk of losing the miles due to no activity. Best to stick with 1 OneWorld, 1 StarAlliance airline and/or 1 Skyteam. You can get miles credited to an airline FFP while flying another (partner) airline, subject to rules of your program. Espically the fare class/bucket

Thank you too. I have been updated with his flight details, which are basically as follows:

QF operated by EK
Germany to Oz via DXB on the outbound leg and via BKK and DXB on the return. Apparently at least one segment (BKK-DXB?) in Business.

Does this, or the fact that EK is the operating airline, change the conclusion that AA would be best for crediting?

Thanks again.

If crediting QF flights to AA, it is the flight number you purchased that controls the transaction. Note most of AA's OW partners require OW metal, however, QF flights do not.

That does not change the fact that QF is not very generous in posting to AA for the discount economy fare classes. Y+, J and F classes are not an issue.

Happy wandering

Fred

We really started collecting miles in January for BA as we knew we were going to be emigrating, we collected them through UK AMEX MR, BAPP, Tesco and ended up with a redemption flight from BHD-SIN in First using a BAPP 241 and 105,000 Avios. We then paid for a Qantas flight from SIN to PER which is now our base.

Looking to earn though flight but also credit cards, we will have a high household income

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: PER

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Unknown yet but will be flying back to the UK at least once per year, internal Australian flights for long weekends away, up into Asia for holidays.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Will be a combination of Economy and Business

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: See Q2

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: no real status on any airline to talk of, still have just over 70,000 Avios and 20,000 UK AMEX MR, I also have some Qatar miles from a trip from MAN-BKK

(7) 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: mainly looking for upgrades/redemptions for the return trip to the UK

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, possibly Emirates ( I know not oneworld but handy as can fly direct to either Dublin or Glasgow, short travel times to parents home from there), Qatar, any really

FromTheRail
Welcome to Aussie
Is Perth permanent or just for a few years ?

AA has lowish miles needed for redemptions compared to QF / BA, and very little in cash co pay (YQ fuel surcharge). But check cash co pay carefully
You can get miles credited to an airline FFP while flying another (partner) airline, subject to rules of your program. Same with redemptions. Can use partner airlines

For upgrades the general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your freq flyer programme (no codeshares). All subject to the t&c's of your FFP and your paid ticket. Low cost tickets are often not eligable for upgrades. However as is the way with FFP's there are some (expensive) upgrade exceptions with AA/BA/IB with higher priced economy fares.

QF upgrades are not confirmed until soon before the flight (a lottery).
How QR will do miles upgrades when it joins OneWorld later this month is a mystery to me

Welcome to PER FromTheRail

Given that AA no longer has a "soft landing" each person really does need to think about the available FF programs carefully. Also from PER it is important that pricing exSEAsia be considered as it possible to save substantial sums. Seats from PER to SIN-KUL-HKG (perhaps in Y) are less important than the price of premium seats from there to Europe.

AA still does have the best earn/burn ratio. And a trip to Europe from PER (even on two separate tickets) will likely qualify (using Y+ or J longhaul) for AA Gold. Will you have enough additional flying to reach PLT? Downside is reduced levels of credits from QF to AA. Upside is AA award tickets internal to Oz/NZ are huge bargains considering PER starts.

CX treats their members very well and Silver members get lounge access where CX lounges are found. 24K in J or 30K miles in Y are needed. Consider carefully where CX fares to Europe are purchased though.

There haven't been enough reports (IMO) from the MH members to know whether Enrich is useful for redeeming flights. Seems that regional flights are now mostly on 738s if you have a preference (or not) for widebodies. And MH airline charges vary greatly depending on the originating airport.

The deciding factor for you is likely to be where to and how often you fly into SE Asia and whether you fly QF domestically on the cheapest Y fares.

Happy wandering

Fred

FromTheRail
Is you get AA status, will you do enough flights to maintain AA status (without a challenge) ?
AA currently does not enforce the 4 AA flights to get/maintain status rule. QF & BA do enforce the 4 flight rule
CX miles earning is poor on low cost fares to all FFP's

We have come over on a 457 visa but plan to stay, currently looking into PR then onto citizenship.

I've already thought of the short hop over to SEA the get a nicer seat to Europe, we actually flew Y from SIN-PER after our First experience which was a bit of a shock to the system!!

I've been looking for a while for a new way to earn and spend miles but am currently lost and nothing is sticking out as a winner so far.

We would probably be looking at 2-3 trips up into SEA per year, and the same around AUS/NZ

Thank you!

Cheers for the replies, so far. The only thing that is putting me off AA is the lack of points earning potential in Australia via credit cards etc

On Oz:

40000 Amex MR = 20000 SPG
20000 SPG = 25000 AA

Off topic for this thread
Aust Amex to Starwood SPG to airlines works for some
http://catalogue.membershiprewards.c...orySearch=true
http://www.starwoodhotels.com/prefer...tner_list.html
1 AA mile is worth a lot more than 1 QF point

perfect, i didn't find that route, just a shame Amex isn't accepted everywhere

I assessed that with my flying patterns status with OW is out of reach. But let me cross check here.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: CPH, WAW
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: economy, about 100 segments intra Europe a year + 3-4 long hauls a year
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: low economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I travel for work, but most on my personal expense. I can choose airlines. So far I see no better way than to fly at least 50-60 segments in Europe with *A, based on my locations. But the rest I can consider reallocating (and this 50-60 segments gives me *G).
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: intra Europe.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: I am only *G and have access to Diners Club lounges.
(7) 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: lounge access > priority > upgrades matter. The rest does not matter for me at all.
(8) Preferred Airlines: from CPH/WAW I can use AY, BA, AB. On long-hauls to US I can use AA perhaps 1-2 times a year.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
LHR and LGW

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
No idea, regular trips to Europe (mainly Germany) starting up from December for work with 2-4 trips to Hong Kong. I always spend NYE in Dubai and I tend to go to Dubai for family gatherings.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
First and Business class.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can choose my airline that I fly on. Mainly pleasure but work requires trips to Europe now.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
I'll be flying London - Europe routes most by years end, Germany, Italy, Scandinavia and Russia. Until now it would be London - Dubai.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
None.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
I want a good all rounder really, status would be important I guess as well as ease of earning miles outside of flying.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Emirates, I know it's not part of an alliance but it's still my favourite :p

While I filled in the above, I was thinking about joining MPC as should I get the AMEX Plat it'll come with MPC Gold (apparently) which give BA benefits.

Dear all,

Thanks for your advise in advance.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: ZRH
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 60k, Business
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Star Alliance and One World are allowed, mostly work
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transatlantic East (min 2/year) and West Coast (min 2/ year)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: LH Frequent Traveller (02/14), A3 Gold, BA Blue
(7) 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: Free Lounge Access, Priority Services
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Swiss, Lufthansa, British Airways

I already use OW and have an idea of what is good, though I'm interested to hear a 3rd party's perspective. Thanks in advance!

Let me give this a go, just to see if I'm doing the right thing or shooting myself in the foot...

(1) home airport - AMS/LON
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? - 30k per year discount Y, 10k per year J.
(3) types of fares bought - mostly discount Y, but can go J if price is good.
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? BA AMS-LON (work), free choice for pleasure otherwise.
(5) routes flown most often - AMS-LON, AMS/LON-TPE, AMS-LAX
(6) current FFP status - TK Elite, KL Gold, AA Gold, CX Gold,
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? - good redemption rates, lounge access, good award space, duration of elite status. (In that order)
(8) Preferred Airlines - AMS-LON has to be in BA due to work, but free choice other than that.

Long time since I logged in! I'm getting very disillusioned with QFF, I'm giving up on crawling towards lifetime gold, and now I am based in London I think it's time for a change. Essentially, AA or BAEC?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LON
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 150-170K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Discount economy, lately W
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: BA is the only real choice for where I fly to. Mostly fly for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: LHR-HKG, LHR-NBO, LHR-JFK, LHR-SFO, LHR-BOM
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: QF Platinum
(7) 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, award redemption rates
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Not necessarily preferred, but BA most frequently, then CX and AA

Any advice would be much appreciated.

For upgrades the general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your freq flyer programme (no codeshares). All subject to the t&c's of your FFP and your paid ticket. Low cost tickets are often not eligable for upgrades. However as is the way with FFP's there are some (expensive) upgrade exceptions with AA/BA/IB with higher priced economy fares.

For long haul award redemption rates AA wins by a big margin. BA is OK for short haul, but beware the YQ

AA plat challege may interest you

Thanks. Do we have a feel for how much BAEC members are better treated by BA on their own flights, vs others like QFF and AA? I had 74 BA flights in a row without an upgrade, for example, even as QFF-P/OW-E. I had BAEC-B people literally sitting next to me being upgraded!

Generally BA upgrade only for operational reasons, e.g. overbooking with seats available in a higher cabin, or very occasionally for service recovery.

Experience seems to be that BA will upgrade their own elites before anyone in the same tier, and occasionally will upgrade blue and bronze members before gold and silver - other factors may apply here such as frequency of travel/booking and the passenger's CIV score, or it may be a case of late-processed upgrades not going to the correct person.

An a non-BA elite travelling on BA you'd be less likely to receive an op-up than a BA elite, and possibly might sometimes be trumped by a BA blue, but you would be more likely to receive an op-up than a non-member.

Thanks very much. So in summary, I could move to AA and get treated much the same as I am now but with much better miles redemption, or move to BAEC to get treated somewhat better but have relatively poor miles redemption?

With that much flying, and if in W (World Traveller Plus) I'd be inclined to split my accrual between AA and BA. Here's why:

AA allows you to achieve Executive Platinum (Oneworld Emerald) either by flying 100,000 elite-qualifying miles (1 EQM = 1 butt-in-seat mile) OR by accruing 100,000 elite-qualifying points (EQP). Top economy fare classes, including Y and B, and all World Traveller Plus, business and first class buckets earn 1.5 EQP/Mile, hence it "only" takes 66,667 BIS miles in WT+ (such as your W flights) to get to EXP. That gets you access to first class lounges everywhere, unlimited upgrades on domestic AA flights in the US, and eight one-way SWUs annually on AA metal. Flights in BA WT+ also earn a 10% mileage bonus on top of the 100% bonus on BIS miles that comes to AA Platinum (OW Sapphire) and above, so, for example, if you flew the minimum 66,667 miles in WT+ to accrue AA EXP, you'd also accrue 140,000 spendable AA miles. (Class of service bonuses are 25% for business class and 50% on first class.)

But 66,667 miles allocated to AA leaves a lot of your miles on the table. Depending on the number of segments flown in your travels to NBO, HKG et al, you might very well be able to achieve BA Gold (OW Emerald) in addition to AA EXP. (On BA it would depend on the total number of tier points earned.)

In the course of that, you'd also be accruing quite a lot of BA miles. Without a doubt, one of the best uses of BA miles is for upgrades on BA metal. By buying W fares, your upgrades on BA would be to Club. For example, upgrading to NBO or HKG would require 25,000 Avios, a bargain compared to a straight redemption.

In terms of mileage redemptions, AA is, for the most part, more generous than BA, but there are notable exceptions, particularly in business class redemptions on certain short-haul routes, and also some routes not originating in the UK. But as mentioned, the big difference is BA's inclusion of its punishing fuel surcharges on redemption tickets - often nearly as much as the cost of a basic economy ticket - in addition to the "cost" in Avios. For example, charging US$1000 in fuel fines (YQ) as well as 100,000 Avios for a Club return trip to, say, San Francisco, reduces the value of the points considerably. AA, by comparison, won't charge you the YQ for flights on its own metal, so the 100,000 AA miles you'd use for the same trip are, in essence, way more valuable.

So the upshot would be that having a supply of both AA miles - for straight redemptions, and BA Avios - for MFUs, might be the way to go. Certainly it seems that you'd be flying enough for that to make sense.

Miles spread across AAdvantage, Asia Miles and Delta
 

I had some unexpected long haul flights this year and I went about it without any FF strategy ever since I gave up my status on United. :(

I have 18k on Delta and 35k on Asia Air. In Dec, I'm flying JFK-LHR-ZRH roundtrip on British Air business class. (not sure what the accrual is)

What FF program should I go with? Marco Polo or AAdvantage?

Should I attempt to transfer my 18k Delta miles to whatever account I end up selecting?

Totally lost. Any advice appreciated.