Miles spread across AAdvantage, Asia Miles and Delta
 

AA over Marco Polo any day!

Well...

Perhaps not if you are based in HKG and don't fly to the USA all that much.

CX treats their Silvers quite well compared with other OW airlines.
And Diamonds rarely complain about the program. But each frequent flyer program has its "good" and "bad" points.

Like any competition if you want to "win the game" you have to understand all the rules.

Happy wandering

Fred

I'm moving this to the sticky thread regarding choosing a OW FFP.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I'm based in NY. And I fly to HK once a year for family visits. And travel to primarily Europe for vacation.

Why AA over Marco Polo?
Is there anyway to transfer Asia Miles to AA?

AA has a better earn/burn rate then Marco Polo. When you fly to HKG, are you on cheapest economy tickets, or do you fly economy+ or better. AA earns 0 on most CX economy flights, so you may want to with Marco Polo if you have few other flights.

There is no way to transfer AA to MP.

Removed
 

Moved to AA

I read all replies, but i dont now what to do.
Next year I will move to Ireland, I will fly to Brazil one or two times a year. The best rates are AA OW. Today I am *A Gold UA and ST Elite by Aerolineas. I need to focus on a program miles on OW just to have lounge access and extra baggage piece on flights. I dont care about ticket redemption. Travelers, any recommendations?
Thanks a lot!

LHR-MIA-GRU is a bit more than 8K miles each way. With this, AA Gold and the baggage benefits are pretty well guaranteed. You might consider the possibility of purchasing two AA 90-day AC memberships for your two trips, if you don't have enough other traveling to make it to AA PLT. DUB-ORD-MIA-GRU adds a few miles, but read through a few of the threads in the AA section for more creative routings.

Happy wandering

Fred

Two trips from Ireland to Brazil (DUB-LHR-DFW-GRU) will give you 40,000 status miles which will get you to AA Gold/BA Bronze/OW Ruby status.
That level does not grant you lounge access. For lounge access you'll need to fly 50,000 miles in any OW program to achieve Sapphire status.
Due to Brazilian regulations, all airlines (have to) give you 2x32kgs baggage allowance for free. You'll need top-tier status (OW Emerald) or fly premium cabins to receive more than that on AA or any other OW airline.

Focusing only on those Brazil journeys on AA and your Irish residence, I'd choose either AAdvantage or BAEC.
BAEC Bronze/AA Gold OW Ruby status will allow you to reserve exit rows in advance at no charge on AA flights, something you'll appreciate on those 22+hour flights.
Here again, the 50,000 mile status (Platinum/Silver/OW Sapphire) will give you the added benefit of free MCE seating, which amounts to a $250 saving per trip over Gold where you'll get just a 50% discount on the $128 price per segment from March 2014 onwards (it's free until the end of Feb. next year). MCE on AA is totally recommended on these flights - the 10-across standard economy cabin seating on the 77W that serve the LHR-DFW and DFW-GRU routes is rather cramped. MCE has nine-across seating and 38 inches of legroom instead of 31 which makes for way better flight experience.

The BA program is the only OW program that'll let you earn miles via credit card spending in Ireland. You can convert Irish Amex MR points to BA Avios, but not to AA miles.
Use those Avios to upgrade those longhauls to business class. And here is where AA differs from BA: AAdvantage lets you upgrade from most discount economy to business with miles and a $700 co-pay (one way) which is a good deal. With BA, you'd need to purchase an expensive economy fare bucket or a premium economy ticket in order to upgrade using Avios (no co-pay required). Doing this with "T" class heavily discounted premium economy tickets is also considered a very good deal and pretty much the best use of Avios IMHO.

Hate being the newbie, but feel like I have to ask now. I'm planning a LONE4 for 2014 and obviously want to get the most out of it, since it's a lot of money for my gf and I.
I feel like AAdvantage might be best for us, but maybe there's other options as well?
Question: My gf and I are both doing this trip. Can we collect all the miles on 1 account, or do we need a separate AAdvantage number? I.e.: can I steal her miles?

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

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply:<25K. Usually just the cheapest economy ticket for a trip to the USA.

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose, but always pick the cheapest. Pleasure.

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

(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: Nope

(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 upgrades/free tickets.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

burgernfries Welcome to the forum
You need seperate accounts. Some ffp's allow for family tranfers. Most ffp's allow some one else to use your miles (all subject to t&c's)

What is LONE4 route ? Start a new thread here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/oneworld-411/ to ask about you LONE4 if needed. A lot of experience & tips here

What other flights may you do in the future ?
Which airline or the airline with the cheapest flights ?

Freq flyer program's are for the long term. Not just 1 trip. But AA is good for infrequent flying. But as with all ffp's be carefull about expiring miles due to no activity (often 18 months)

When you're after pooling miles, there's only BA who offer household accounts and QR who have family accounts.

Seeing you're a rather infrequent traveler in comparison, I'd select a program that'll allow you to earn miles in other ways besides flying - namely spend on an affiliated credit card.

Qantas allows points transfers between elegible family members. But QF is a poor ffp compared to AA.

After several years with no vacation I plan to travel more again and I'm starting with a round the world trip. Considering a LONE4 as the best option as it's slightly more expensive than point to point but gives some flexibility. I'll be going Europe - South America - Australasia - Asia - Europe. And I hope to collect enough miles to do a trip from Europe to North and Central America next year using as much award miles as possible.

(1) What is your home airport?
SOF

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
<25K in L or lower

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

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

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

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
no

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Only interested in award redemption. I have lounge access via Diners and travel very light.

(8) Preferred Airlines
none

Thanks all of you for the help. Will post about my LONE4 when were closer to booking (mid December probably).

I am indeed a rather infrequent flyer (although one day I will find an 'international' job, hopefully). However living in Belgium, there's practically no way to save miles besides actually flying. A linked credit card just isn't an option here, which sucks.

I definitely don't plan on letting my miles expire after the world trip, so i'm definitely in it for the long haul (finding good deals/promos/coupons is somewhat a hobby of mine).

So you are planning to fly that RTW on a paid ticket, accumulate more miles with SOF-Germany flights and then redeem those for an award to North/Central America for as few miles as possible?
For that scenario, I'd say AA is the best choice. They have off-peak awards to North America (US, Mexico) for 40,000 miles return. Central America with a stopover in the US in any of their gateway cities (JFK, ORD, MIA, DFW, LAX, or any other with service to Europe like RDU or BOS) is 70,000 miles return, though.
Check the AAdvantage earning charts for the airlines you'll be using on your RTW trip and select carriers and qualifying fares that'll give you full miles.
The same applies for those SOF-Germany flights: You have the choice of AB and BA. BA will earn 100% mileage on all fares (even the cheapest ones) in the AAdvantage program, while AB's cheapest buckets will only earn 25% mileage.
You'll likely manage to get enough miles for a North American AA award with some mileage maximizing on that RTW and two flights to Germany via LHR.

I'm relocating to HKG for work and will be doing a lot of intra-Asia flying. My company doesn't have a preferred airline but most people seem to suggest CX. I have about 100k in AA's MM program, although no active miles at the moment (I haven't used AA much after 2010).

Questions

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

HKG, possibly SHA in a few years.

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

I anticipate 15-20 intra-Asia flights out of HKG for business, with 3-4 flights back to the States.

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

Economy for pleasure, business for work.

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

Yes, and yes. Most of my flying will be for work, I suspect, with some intra-Asia and return-to-US pleasure flights.

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

Intra-Asia, with a few Asia-US flights. Potentially 1-2 Asia-EU vacation flights a 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:

*G on A3.

(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, when possible, and lounge access. Redemption in J/F would be nice as well if there's an associated CC that I can use to charge work-expenses to get additional miles.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

CX, being based in HKG. Their transpacific service, I hear, is great. I really enjoy JAL as well (I used to fly JAL/QF a lot, as well as AA domestically).

Keep with AA, especially if HKG is only for a few years. Be careful about miles expiring:- 18 months ? Are your 100,000 AA miles still there ?
Have a close look at the AA plat challenge (but CX flights are not eligible IIRC) http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index...lenge_%28AA%29

If HKG is for a lifetime CX may be option.

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 eligible 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 airline's not based in the USA, upgrades work differently. Business & first is usally paid or with some upgrades. Business and first class is not "upgrade" class for everyone

And note AA is starting DFW-HKG service with the 773s starting in a few months.

Yeah, after I figured out I wasn't flying much with AA after 2010, I burned through what miles I could, and donated the rest to RedCross. So, I have 100k in lifetime miles but no actual miles in AA (hence, the lack of any attachment). :)

Although maybe qualifying for AA plat is worth more than CX silver/gold? What is the difference (if any) of being a AA plat vs. CX silver, for someone based out of HK? (I don't plan on being in HK forever, though).

4 flights to the USA would yield more than 50K EQM. If the intra-Asia flights are mostly in the J cabin, they will credit to all FF programs. And within Asia and transPacific, CX certainly have the reputation of taking care of their elite members very well. Better than partner OneWorld Sapphires.

The issue I see is whether you can earn the initial mileage to reach CX Gold. As I understand it, 30K points will earn you CX Silver, then the date resets and you have one year to earn (and retain) CX Gold with 60K points (48K miles in J). Whereas AA needs 50K miles/points each calendar year.

While AA may have a slightly better earn/burn ration for awards, it is unclear at this point, how the upgrade possibilities on the new DFW-HKG flight will emerge. And the AA flights via NRT will take longer (but earn more miles).

If planning to be in Asia for more than two-three years, I would think about CX. Less, then AA. But after 50K to AA, I would examine whether I could earn (an additional) 30K with CX. 900K for LT Gold on AA is a now long call unless you can earn EXP in multiple years.

Last thought. PEY fares on CX are much less expensive exUSA. And should be valid for a year. Better conditions for flying than Y and earn better with both AA (1.5 EQP) and CX (at least 110%).

Happy wandering

Fred

Thanks for your thoughts. I agree that I was a bit concerned about hitting the miles/segment part for CX Gold (I figure it'd be easier to get AAEXP, actually, with the 100% bonus miles from being AA PLT, because I think I can nail the PLT challenge with a single J class flight out to HKG from the east coast). I was hoping that if I could get a status match to MPC SL, then try to hit 60k miles in a year (in theory, doable, I think, even with just intra-Asia flights).

I'm not quite sure whether or not bothering to try to hit CX Gold is worthwhile, but perhaps the service difference is worth it.

Finally, can you explain what you mean regarding PEY fares? What do you mean when you say they are valid for a year?

Caveat: Each program has different terms for crediting OneWorld partner flights.

AA PLT (except for the challenge which is a once off activity) requires 50K miles (EQM) or 50K points (EQP) each annual year. There is no EXP challenge ( I think the UA // DL activites have now completed), thus requiring 100K EQM or EQP each calendar year. Your travel description indicated segments are not really of interest. For AA travel in B Y (economy) and all W J and F classes earn 1.5 EQP per EQM credited. (with exceptions for mainly JL). Someone flying only these premium classes needs to fly 33.33K miles to earn AA PLT or 66.67K for EXP.

CX qualification is based on credited miles. In economy on CX, if it is V class or higher, one mile is credited. In premium Y (PEY) 110% is credited. J credits 125% and F 150%. So a CX Silver would need to earn 60K credited miles before the next anniversary date (ie one year from attaining Silver).
A CX someone flying only business classes would need to fly 48K miles to move from Silver to Gold (and retain it).

The trick in earning status is to purchase your flights where they are priced most competitively. Which is why many Flyer Talk people have spent the time to start their CX business flights from TPE rather than HKG. Or in my case, my flights are purchased in SEAsia rather than Australia. But that ordinarily means there is a long(er) gap between flights, which requires better planning and scheduling. Consider a trip every 3 months for a week's time. A->B (B->A->B repeated) rather than A->B->A repeated. In the case of flying economy Asia to/from the USA, it will be quickly noticed that CX fare classes starting from the USA are oriented to attract AA flyers in that H class (and PEY fares) are much more competitive (ie for the same $$). AA would be attractive to you mainly based on your business class flying in Asia. The normal CX economy fares will NOT credit to AA. Which is why I kept my original QF account. To earn at least some mileage on those CX Asia fares and QF domestic fares.

Read through the threads in the Cathay section to get a flavor of how CX elite FF members are treated better than their OW partner equivalents.

To repeat, if in Asia for more than a couple of years, CX may provide you a better deal. Before AA changed the million miler program and "soft landings" I might have offered different advice.

Happy wandering

Fred

Thank you in advance!
 

Hello, this is my first foray onto the AA board as a UA 1K almost 2MM. Sadly, I have become disillusioned with the series of latest changes at UA and feel that I must at last look at the 1W alternatives. I appreciate in advance all of your help and guidance and look forward to becoming a contributing member here as I have been on the UA forum.

To add to the info below, I have just received the Plat invitation (12k mile challenge and 20 free 500-mile certs).

(1) What is your home airport?
SMF

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
150-175k about 75% in paid coach and 25% in paid business

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Most convenient domestically (usually mid range economy fare classes) and W or better for international so as to have a chance of using my UA UGs)

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


(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
About 50% domestic/Caribbean and 50% international (mainly Australia/Europe)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
No, but have been offered the immediate PLAT trial with 1-year status if I fly 12K

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
In order of priority: UG certificates, mileage redemption, Elite status at airport/on telephone, lounge access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Currently UA but sadly that must change. (No 1W preference)

Thanks in advance


Lurker :)

I think AA is the clear choice, with or without the US merger. With your flying patterns it shouldn't be too hard for you to reach Executive Platinum, which will bring unlimited upgrades (space available) on domestic economy flights and automatic seating in Main Cabin Extra (= UA E+), 8 annual SWUs, admittance to Oneworld first class lounges on overseas trips (not Caribbean) as well as preferred seat selection on both AA and Oneworld partners, extra baggage allowance, blah blah. But best of all, it will get you the EXP desk at AA - the best airline CS agents I've ever encountered.

Of course flying out of SMF you'll spend a lot of time at DFW or LAX (or PHX if the merger goes through) but that's probably not too different from the status quo (sub DFW for DEN or ORD I guess.) Of course AA codeshares with AS up and down the west coast (some reciprocal elite perks) which also adds Alaska's network to the mix.

In my view Aadvantage is the superior product to United's FFP, and at least for the time being redemptions are still relatively cheap.

Many thanks Gardyloo,
that is exactly the expert summary I needed. Now it seems that I need to better investigate the UG opportunities to Australia for an AA EXP. I understand that the AA SWUs are not useful on that route. I assume that leaves me working out options on QF? Are questions about using my AA miles for QF UGs TPAC best addressed here or in the QF forum? I suppose I could also book QF Premium Economy, which I have heard on the grapevine is comfortable?

Thanks again for your help.

Lurker :)

Unfortunately AA status won't help much at all with QF. You can't use SWUs, and (I'm not sure on this - maybe the AA board) if it's similar to trying to upgrade on BA, you can only upgrade with AA miles on full fares, Y/J etc., so of no practical use. Also (taking a page from BA's FFP) it might be that you could only upgrade one cabin, i.e. economy to premium economy (which QF has on more and more flights) so going from Y to J would be out. Not sure, and I suspect upgrades on QF are not in the cards anyway.

If you have a stock of UA miles from your current life, you might want to conserve them for UGs on UA metal to Oz. Not sure if the upgrade requirements have been increased by UA along with everything else.

Maybe some of the QFF regulars on this board can chime in - I'm over my head on this one.

Unless you can find an award seat, AA miles on QF are not really very useful. And while it is not impossible to find business award seats transPacific, even QF elites are not always successful. Using a SWU into Japan (or extending to other Asian cities) and obtaining a seat on QF is normally more likely (but costs more $$ and/or miles). I don't believe QF Y+ is available as an award with AA.

Upgraded flights are not guaranteed even for the QF flyers. You apply and find out (usually) the day of the flight. Nothing available with AA miles that I am aware of.

Y+ is very comfortable (compared with Y) and pricewise is a much better deal exUSA than exAustralia. There is enough recline (and width) to feel like an arm chair for better sleeping and there is no dueling elbows during meals.

Happy wandering

Fred

Thank you both!

Lurker :)

I'll bite for some help :)
 

I'm a pretty much a complete newbie to the frequent flyer game. I just switched to a new job that is probably going to see me flying about with much much greater regularity than my last job of 13 years.

So I would really appreciate the help from all the old hands here :)

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: Singapore SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: likely 25k-50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes. Both Work and Pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Asia, Transpacific, Asia<>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: AAdvantage and JAL mileage bank, but if you mean like anything above just a basic membership then no.
(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, good award redemption rates.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I usually fly on Star Alliance airlines but probably for Oneworld: BA, Finnair, CX

I already have an AAdvantage and JAL membership, but I don't have any remaining miles on either and don't foresee using either very often anymore.

Thanks in advance!

new to OW
 

Hello. I have been UA 1K and Lufthansa Senator for several years. I am thinking it would be better to have status in 2 different alliances rather than 2 statuses in the same alliance. I am an expert on Star, but not familiar with OW.
I was QR gold for a couple of years, but didn't not qualify for QR in 2013. Since QR has joined OW, I thought this would be a good time to consider getting OW status. I could easily change back some of my flying to QR. Even though I am based in HKG, I am not a fan of CX.

(1) What is your home airport?
HKG

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

150k to 200k per year, about 75% in biz and the rest in economy. Usually longhaul in Biz and flights around 3 hours or less in economy. For personal, I fly economy.

When paying my own ticket, I try to fly economy with an upgrade, usually to USA or within Asia, never to Europe.

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

discounted biz class, usually booked 2 to 10 days before travel and rarely make changes.

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

For my work, I can choose the airline and class as long as I stay within a given budget of the total amount spent per year. The budget is a percentage of sales so it is not a set amount. If I use up the budget, the rest of the year is in economy. So I shop for a reasonable priced biz class even with stopovers. CX is usually out of my budget.

For example, I often fly HKG to Europe by HKG-BKK on TG then BKK-Europe on MS with an open jaw in Europe. TG and MS on separate tickets. MS biz class is usually dirt cheap and surprisingly decent and I often stay a night or 2 in BKK in each direction time permitting.

For HKG-China, I generally need to use HX as we have a corporate agreement.


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

For work (% is mileage wise, not number of flights, so the small percentages could still be a lot more actual flights)
65% Asia to Europe
3% within Europe
10% HKG to China or China domestic
12% Asia to USA
10% within Asia

Often my trips to Europe have stops in several cities in Europe for biz and if using non EU airlines I usually have open jaw tickets with separate tickets for the EU cities. Many times I cannot confirm the Europe stops at the same time I buy the HKG-Europe ticket and sometimes buy the intra Europe flights after arriving at my first stop in Europe. When I leave HKG, only my return date back to HKG is firm.

Generally in Europe my work takes me between LHR, MXP, CDG and FLR. Occasionally MAD, AOI, FRA, ZRH and TXL. I take the train whenever reasonably possible.

For personal
50% HKG to USA
50% within Asia



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

No status for OW airlines. I was QR gold for a couple of years but did not qualify in 2013. Also CX green

UA 1k and million mile flyer
LH Senator
HX silver


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

In order of priority: Elite Status at airport/telephone, upgrades (mostly for intra Asia, intra Europe, domestic USA, domestic China - in that order), mileage redemption (mostly in Asia), lounge access.



(8) Preferred Airlines

UA (not likely to change from UA when UA is available on route)
QR
HX
LH

Thanks in advance for your suggestions!!!

(1) What is your home airport?

Reply: SEL (ICN or GMP)

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

Reply:Somewhat more than 50k (Edit: to clarify, these would be the miles that would mostly on One World, separate from my current personal and other business flights on *A, which are about another 40k, but that I would like to keep with *A unless One World completely blows me away)

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:Personally, I fly OZ whenever possible, but new work has me frequently flying with JAL in Y soon. My OW inquiry is exclusively related to travel for work, probably all in Y, and pretty much all JAL.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: I will almost exclusively be shuttling between GMP and HND. Should I personally fly with OW later on, there might be some ICN-FRA and ICN-SFO flights as well.

(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: None so far. In fact, I've never even flown an OW airline before. I've always been a Star Alliance guy and occasionally flown a Sky Team airline whenever they were offered the only reasonable routing/price.

(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: 1. Upgrades
2. Priority services and lounge access
3. Good award program (in terms of both access and redemption rates)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I will be flying pretty much exclusively JAL, though if I get enough miles on OW and am happy enough with the program I might occasionally fly AA or BA in the US and Europe, respectively and I've always wanted to try CX for intra-Asia or possibly also to the US.

My personal thoughts at the moment are that it's probably best to go with the JAL service as in my experience you get better treatment in the long run if you are a FFP member of the airline whose metal you are flying, but the earn/burn ratio looks quite bad, so there is a better option after all? Please keep in mind that I'd probably have issues with any requirements to accrue x miles on a specific airline other than JAL.

Thanks in advance for any input and suggestions!

Hello, I recently purchased a Qatar airways ticket to India from Chicago and was planning to sign up for one of the OneWorld programs. I wasn't sure if I should sign up for American Airlines (I live in the US), British Airways (trying to get a free ticket to Europe), Qatar (booked through them so not sure if I would get the most points through them), Asia Airways (I was emailed that they are offering a promotion for double points for Qatar flights)

(1) What is your home airport?
CAK/CLE but for big trips go out to ORD, JFK, EWR

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

<10,000 3-4 flights per year within the US and possibly 1 international flight per year. Always in economy.

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

Economy

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

Travel for pleasure and I have the ability to choose my own airlines.

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

US Domestic

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

No status.

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

Upgrades or award flight

(8) Preferred Airlines

American Airlines for domestic, British Airways to Europe, Qatar to Asia.

As a USA resident AA for sure. You can use AA miles for award flights with AA, BA & QR. With AA you get miles from other sources

Do you know what QR fare class you bought (a letter from A to Z)? Low cost fares can have nil or low miles earning.

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 eligible 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 airline's not based in the USA, upgrades work differently. Business & First is usually paid or with some occasional upgrade opportunity. Business and First class is not "upgrade" class for everyone who is a FFP.

I am about to have my family relocate to Australia while I stay in the middle east for a few more years. As such I will be effectively commuting and would like to make the most of all the flying.
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: Dubai
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: I expect 50k+
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: yes/yes pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Dubai- Sydney
(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
(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:No real preference. Whoever is offering the best deal at the time. I have used CX, MH and QF in the past.

Thanks in advance.

Welcome to FT & Australia

Have a look at Qatar, a new OW airline. But no idea about QR upgrades
Qantas upgrade method-policy is poor: a lottery. And expensive in QF points
Flying Dubai Aust with a Emirates EK flight number will get QF points, but not QF status credits.
AA has good miles earn to burn ratio. Indeed at times an AA award (with AA miles) can be less than a QF upgrade (with QF points) on the same route

Welcome
Extra questions.
Where to in Australia? Qatar flies to Perth/Melbourne and Sydney is planned.
Are you willing to pay more than the minimum fares to earn points/miles/status and ticketing flexibility?
Where is original home? If trips there are factored in, a different choice might emerge.

Happy wandering

Fred

I am a LH FTL using mostly LH, OS, 4U but now I am not really satisfied anymore due to the last "program enhancements". Will renew my FTL in 2013 for another two years. Qualification as a rule by legs not by miles since M&M awards in particular "long" instead of frequent flyers.

Starting from 2014 I expect increased travel activity from Europe to the Gulf region (most probably DXB). Recently I booked a trip in 2014 from Germany to Australia with QR (ECO Q) and would use this opportunity to start with an OW FFP.
From time to time I use to fly with AB (Germany domestic) and S7 (Russia/ CIS domestic).



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

CGN/FRA, MSQ

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

status miles
<25K in Economy (but approximately 40-50 legs)
<25K in Business

Expecting an increase starting from 2014 to >50K easily

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

85% Economy (restricted)
15% Business (discounted)


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

airlines: yes, free choice
class of service: when travelling for work starting from four hours flight time Business, otherwise Economy
when travelling private: 95% in Economy

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

within Europe (Germany, Switzerland), Europe-CIS, in the future: Europe- Gulf Region

(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)

LH FTL


(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.)

status validity for a long period (not only one year), priority services, lounge access, award redemption rates/ availability

(8) Preferred Airlines

none in OW

Congratulations on your first post (after 5 years on FT) ^
Not aware of any OW airline that has a very long status period. With QF for example if you get status within your year you keep it until the end on the next. That is if you qualify for example, in month 1 or month 12, it will expire at the end of month 24 (1 year after your aniversary)

With some OW FFP's you only drop 1 level per year if you do not requalify. Others your can drop 2 or 3 levels :( (as AA's recent change)
http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/member-airline-programmes
http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-oneworld-tier-status/
http://www.hotels-and-travel.de/ffp/ (may not be up to date)
Lounge access is by status:- http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access/
www.oneworld.com/ffp/my-oneworld-tier-status/

Often you get better service with the airline of your FFP, when you are flying with them. You are always 2nd with other airlines.

AA is the best for many people. Even with QR's recent joining of OW, there has been little comparison of QR with other FFP's.

Thanks - I am not a person of too many words )