Thanks guys. I like flying WestJet, their service is always great, but of course they don't have a whole lot in the way of a FF program. Maybe I will just fly WJ a bunch and accumulate AA points.

akqjt
Alaska [AS] is a good suggestion: has a good FFP. CX are a partner.
For AA, AS & other FFP look at what miles are needed for rewards vs an upgrade on routes you may travel.
25K is not a lot of miles, especially on low fares. Will be hard to get status, which helps domestic upgrades

(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
40-60K

(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?
Yes I can choose airlines but I prefer economy. I travel for pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Transpacific

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No I do not have status

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority Services and Good Award redemption rates

(8) Preferred Airlines
CX, KE, UA, AC

Welcome to FT coolkidflyer!

If your flying is primarily on Economy fares and you do some travel within North America I'd suggest American for the redemption options over BA, for example. Don't know much else about the other programmes.

Is most of your travel long haul ?
So as above, Alaska a good option is as they as the partner with KE & CX
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners
But check if low $ economy fares are eligible for earning miles

Edit
On the other post for star alliance FFP state you are CX Marco Polo Silver

Great thread, it's exactly what I need right now. I'm about to book a DONE5 RTW ticket. It'll start with Qantas but the majority of the flights are on LAN (5) and AA (5), with 1 or 2 each of CX, Iberia, and Finnair thrown into the mix. I currently am a JAL member but have barely used it. That said, I can share miles between my family members because I have the JAL credit card, which would presumably come in handy. However I'm wondering if I should use a different mileage club for this ticket, considering none of it's on JAL.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Tokyo
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: ~40k, mostly in Economy, roughly a third of this on credit card miles
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy (this RTW ticket is the big exception)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mostly pleasure in which case I can choose, sometimes work in which case I normally can't.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Tokyo to the rest of the world, in particular Vancouver
(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, although I hope to get some kind of status out of this RTW
(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: Bonus on earning rates
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No particular preference - most of the Asian airlines are pretty good.

I mostly fly Transpacific, I rarely fly in North America. My CX Marco Polo Silver is expiring soon and I would like to change to another program.

Hello

Hope you can advise me which OW program might be best to join:

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

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 45-50,000 miles

(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: Travelling for work with a choice of airlines

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

(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: award redemption

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: QR, EK, CX, QF

Leaving AC due to grumpy FAs
 

I am *G with AC. I fly for business across the oceans in business, and domestically I largely fly PD from YTZ. For leisure, flights to the Sun or Ireland are typical for me, where I buy economy x 4. I'm tired of the grumpy old flight attendants on AC - I'd like to drive more of my business travel to CX, but am trying to decide between BA and CX for loyalty programs, given my main benefit is getting reward travel for four people from YYZ-Ireland...


(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
40-60K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
70% Business, 30% economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly work, and yes can choose airlines
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
1-3 TPACs per year (business)
1-3 TATL per year (business)
1-2 TATL per year (economy - personal)
1-2 Can-S. America/Caribbean

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades and rewards on personal travel - TATL generally, TPAC occasionally
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Only have flown CX

Other notes: have AMEX MP points ad infinitum and have an RBC Avion credit card.

As you mainly do TATL, then AA or BA would be the logical choice. AA has a better earn/burn rate, but BA may be better if you fly BA TATL and want to upgrade.

For clarity, I do many more miles with my TPACs than TATL (approx 60% of my miles come from trips to HKG/MNL.) Does the same guidance hold true? Ie choose based upon the carrier I'll be using when travelling leisure, assuming that J and benefits comes with work travel?

Sorry misread TPAC as TATL, but personally I think so.

Alright. Well, I'm 40 Tier Points and 878 Avios into my journey (whatever those amounts mean - time for research!)

If your TPAC travel is on CX in business, those flights will credit equally well to AA or BA. Remember 33.3K EQP credited to AA will get you PLT status and the 100% status bonus. With the joint venture with AA/BA, award seating TATL should be equally available to both and at the present AA awards will "cost" less. You would need more than 70K miles in Biz (90K economy) to get CX Gold. You will need to research the CX award cost tradeoffs there.

Happy wandering

Fred

You need 50K elite qualifying points (EQP) for Platinum. In premium economy classes and above, AA allots 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so 33.3K flown miles will earn 50K EQP.

With your flying patterns it might behoove you also to think about BA. It sounds like you could easily qualify for BA Silver (= AA Platinum = Oneworld Sapphire) which would get you mileage bonuses but also permit access to AA lounges even when traveling domestically on US or Canadian itineraries. You'd need 600 tier points (for example, one-way TPAC or TATL in J earns 120 tier points, 140 if on BA metal) for Silver, which certainly sounds doable. (You'd also need to fly 4 segments on BA metal during the year, which might or might not be an issue.) Look at the tier point tables that you can find on the BA board. Short-haul redemptions using BA Avios can be good value compared with AA redemptions (long haul not so much) but BA's upgrade options (MFUs) are way better than AA's.