Ok, looks like I'll go the QRPC route then. Thanks for the advice!

Wife and daughter will be flying on Cathay in business class from New Zealand to Europe return. They normally fly star lines and are unlikely to fly much one world again in the future. In other words come up I'm looking for a programme that will let them keep their miles for a long time without them expiring and that may let them redeem the points that they will earn on these flights for at least something so they don't go to waste.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
miles mot expiring soon
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
At this point only this upcoming flight as mentioned above. This may happen again in the future but it's not certain.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Business on longer hauls, Eco short haul
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for leisure, so have full freedom
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
New Zealand to Asia and your
(6) What is your home airport?
AKL

I am not aware of any OW ffp that does not expiry of ff miles/avios/points due to inactivity. Expiry varies from 18 to 36 months. Eligible activity to stop expiry can vary between ffp’s. With only random OW random flights earning status is not a consideration.

Qantas ffp may be a option. While the QF ffp is not highly ranked all ffp’s are devaluing.
One very good feature of the QF ffp is the ability to transfer points, at no cost, to eligible family members. So with a few clicks you could have 1 account to look after and stop expiry. That could be your ffp with the 2 family members balances or one of the CX flyers. QF can charge $ to join the fpp, but may ways to join at nil cost. Fliar post in--> Qantas launches bid to snare Air NZ’s Gold members as it pushes hard into Aotearoa

QF classic awards can be high priced in points and cash co-payments. Also have higher priced “classic award plus”, which should be called classic award minus. But many ffp’s are now going to dynamic awards . Airlines worldwide are printing ff miles/avios/points by the gazillion. More are morphing to frequent spender programs.

In NZ JQ Jetstar domestic only flight earn QF points. In AU and trans Tasman only JQ fares with certain bundles earn QF points.

In NZ are few ways to earn QF points, from non flying activities. But more ways in Australia. One simple one is linking QF to BP AU and buy some petrol or store items if in Australia. Only need to do once every 18 months.
Link to QF post ---> QF expiry – non flying activities

QF also has non Oneworld airline ff partners (EK, AF/KLM, LA, MU and others).
Some partner flights to QF ffp are poor earners. Check the details.
QF link ---> https://www.qantas.com/au/en/frequen...ry-tables.html

AA miles expire after 24 months of inactivity. Hotel stays and car rentals can earn AAdvantage miles. More importantly, any redemption of AA miles resets the clock, as does a (free) cancellation of an award and the redeposit of the associated miles.

This might be too outside the box for you, but one idea might be to use round-the-world (RTW) tickets that could cover both your annual travel to Indonesia but also intra-Asia supplemental travel AND your annual intra-Europe trip. It would go like this.

(Note Oneworld's RTW products, mainly the Oneworld Explorer, are the main topic of discussion on this board, so research on your part needn't be too complicated.)

It looks like typical economy fares in mid-summer from AMS to CGK return can run in the €1,200 - €1,500+ range, although you might have access to cheaper fares. An economy class Oneworld LONE3 RTW ticket with travel beginning and ending in the Euro countries has a base price of around €2,100. That would get you up to 16 flights through 3 continents (Europe, Asia, North or South America) over 12 months from the first flight.

However, the same ticket, but with travel beginning and ending in Norway, carries a base price of €1,490. You could probably get from AMS to OSL for way less than the €500 or €600 you'd save on the base ticket. (Note kids under 12 get a 25% discount.)

With that ticket, you could fly to CGK via Doha or Helsinki + Hong Kong, or various other routes served by Oneworld airlines. Visit your people or places in Indonesia, then maybe do a side trip to Japan or Malaysia or wherever, then when it's time to head home, you'd cross the Pacific, maybe to Vancouver, Dallas or San Francisco, then to AMS. You'd still have many months' validity for the ticket, so you could use the ticket for a trip to, say, the UK or Spain, or back to Doha, before ending back in Norway before the 12th month has ended.

Of course, if you wanted to linger in North America, which includes Central America and the Caribbean, you could do that on the way back to Holland. Here's an imaginary map showing a possible "minimal" RTW route:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...7a4e006242.png

And here's one that includes places like Vancouver BC, Los Angeles, Miami and Aruba.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...2ad1b7baea.png

The point being, with a "master plan" you might be able to leverage considerably more travel out of your out-of-pocket Euros. Maybe worth some research and "what if" speculation.

Hello everyone,

I travel intercontinental business quite often for work and until now have been pretty consistent with SkyTeam - currently Flying Blue gold but will hit platinum by the summer. Used to use Miles & More but the combination of the lackluster Lufthansa business class and the restrictive new status system had me jump ship. I have a reasonable amount of flexibility with choosing my own flights but justifying the SkyTeam route can sometimes be a bit of a stretch - this, plus the fairly disappointing miles redemption rates, has me shopping around to see if any other programmes might make sense. I'm curious to see what you all suggest in terms of OW, thanks!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Redemption rates, status for priority services (seat selection, baggage etc). As I usually fly business anyway the lounge access is a little redundant but nice to have when travelling for leisure
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
>50000 miles, 8-10 intercontinental return trips plus a couple of returns within Europe
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, mostly for work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
From Europe mostly to North America (US, Canada, Mexico but also a trip every year or two to AU+NZ with a short stopover in East Asia
(6) What is your home airport?
Milan (LIN+MXP)
(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?
Flying Blue Gold (soon to be Platinum), also Frequent Traveller + some miles banked with Miles and More. Nothing on OW.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
No preference, Air France/KLM/Delta until now just for for sake of Flying Blue

This is super helpful, thank you so much!

Fliar , you might be interested in AA's redemption rates starting from New Zealand. Note the special rates for travel between New Zealand and Australia, as well as those for travel wholly within Australia. AA does not collect any carrier surcharges on awards flown on QF metal.


https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...c9455711ee.png

And this seems like a pretty good deal for Business Class from AKL to PER:


https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...432c798b88.png

Have AA status but flying JetBlue/alaska tix Qatar metal
 

I could use help thinking through the best options this year for status/mileage redemption option in the future. I currently am AA platinum pro, and often use AA miles domestically in US.

for work I will be flying several long distance international business trips to Asia either on Alaska/jet blue issued tix and Qatar metal. I learned last year that you can no longer earn AA miles/status on either of these tix.

Qatar does not seem to have good domestic redemptions and would not be my long term preference to have status on, but seems better than getting less status on JetBlue and Alaska.

however if I get Qatar one world status this year would I be locked back into earning Qatar miles if I wanted to use my status next year but fly American?

are there any other creative solutions to maximize status but also domestic redemptions.

I would double-check this. I think you can still earn AA miles and receive status benefits on QR-operated flights -- regardless of who issues the ticket -- as long as your AAdvantage number is in the reservation record. However, if the flights are booked with JetBlue codeshare flight numbers, rather than with AS or QR codes, then that's a different story.

From aa.com:

"You can earn AAdvantage® miles when you fly on Alaska Airlines marketed and operated flights and Alaska Airlines codeshare flights operated by Horizon Air or other oneworld® carriers." (Emphasis added.)

I find redeeming AS miles on AA domestically to be a good use of AS miles. Starting this year, you earn EQMs for flying award tickets booked through AS, making it easier to achieve/maintain status.

If you are going to be flying a lot of AA domestic, and booking through Alaska's website, go with AS status.

On AA, as a OWE, you are able to select Comfort Class seats on AA when booking cash or mileage tickets as well.

unfortunately you can’t, fought this for about 6 months last year as I thought so too. It only works for “eligible routes” which was domestic and some Caribbean ones if I remember correctly.

Hmmm. Is AA then being deceptive by claiming that you can earn miles on AS-coded flights operated by oneworld carriers other than AA? Except for a handful of BA Fifth Freedom Caribbean routes, it seems that no other oneworld carriers' flights would qualify.

Might be worth a DOT complaint against AA for "unfair and deceptive practices," to see what AA has to say (and whether AA will modify its language about earning on AS-coded flights).

I can look into this, I kept asking them to change their website last year as I found it very deceptive….

im sure they will argue that it is not deceptive because they stated eligible routes on their website. the problem is i cant find any info on what is an eligible route