Thank you very much! Looks like I'll be going with AA, I checked TAM's point per flight system and it looks like its really bad when compared to a miles per miles flown system, Lanpass KMs also looks to be pretty bad when compared to AA.

As for mileage runs I am still doing lots of research and I'll probably do it only 6-9 months from now or so(after the rates go down from the World Cup), I still need to check if OW is better than *A for me, and even though the majority of my travel is domestic I'd expect to do mileage runs mostly on international flights anyway.

Just a word of caution: When you actually use AA metal to anywhere in the world from your home airport you have to connect in the US. The US does not allow transits but makes all incoming passengers pass through immigrations and customs. Assuming you're a Brazilian citizen, you'll need a $160 visum and have to endure the long lines at immigration...
I only started to use AA from Europe to South America via the US after I got Global Entry/PreCheck and could get around the horrendous lines. Your tolerance may be higher (I'm not that young anymore, and my backpacking days are pretty much history), but MIA immigration lines at 6am when all the SouthAmerica flights arrive is definitely not a pretty place to be.

You're right, that 160 USD and needing visa for transfer is really going to be a problem for me, I am currently in the process of arranging an italian passport but that could still take years, so for now its unlikely I'll benefit from this, combined with the fact that I need to take an hour flight to Rio just to get the US Visa.

And I am sorry to bother again with this but some new information just came up, and I actually managed to scramble around my bank rewards website to realize I can credit miles to the following FFPs in oneworld: Iberia, TAM and LAN(options outside of OW include Aeromexico, Gol, Azul, TAP and Delta). Considering that this bank rewards could be my main source of points(family doesn't use them and I could get about 100k-150k miles a year with it), could it be better to get one of those 3 instead of AAdvantage?

Absolutely. 100k plus in points are pretty huge and would be way too big an earning option to forgo - that's a trip to Europe per year!
Just check which program gives you better options for what you want to do with it, IB plus or LANpass/TAM fideltiy (whatever program will prevail post-merger).

Well, I have little knowledge of FFPs fees for award tickets, and I see a lot of details FTers discuss about them(for instance getting award tickets with BA on OW flights from other carriers seems like what most do), so I guess thats what I need to figure out now, is there anywhere on Flyertalk that compares fees/points between programs?(e.g. would I pay less fees for a RTW ticket with TAM or IB).

Between TAM and LAN I guess there's little difference, I'd guess its better to pick TAM for the domestic factor(despite many locals bashing the Fidelidade program, but then again, we bash everything corporate), even if Lanpass prevails post-merger, the points would easily convert.

1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

seat booking, free lounge access

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

25000-50000 miles, 12-24 segments

(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?

Slight influence, Work

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?

intra-Europe, Europe - Asia, Europe - US

(6) What is your home airport?

PRG, VIE

(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?

Aegean Air, SA*G + Lufthansa, SA*S

No significant amount of miles.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?

BA



Thanks for any advice.

Oneworld virgin needs help!
 

I'm relocating from Asia to Europe/Latin America so could really use some advice on which OW program to bank my miles in. Currently *G/PPS on SQ. Thanks!

1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Miles earnt and ease of redemption

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

60000-80000 miles, 24+ segments. Mainly flights to Europe/Latin Am and home trips to Singapore

(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?

Airlines yes. Business for flights 4+ hours. I'll redeem mostly for Europe-Asia pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?

Europe - Latin America, Europe - Asia

(6) What is your home airport?

Amsterdam (sometimes Singapore)

(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?

None in OW. *G in Star Alliance / SQ

Small amount of miles in Qantas, Malaysian

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?

SQ , Emirates. I go for good in-flight service and comfy seats

hey guys,

seems like I'll travel with some Oneworld Airline soon, so I need some good 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: Lounge, Upgrades
(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: >50.000, > 50 flights
(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: Work, no choice as will booked by guys who don't fly and so have no clue about the stuff...
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Global
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HAM
(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: Working on *A Gold at Aegean
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: none as I can't choose...

Thank you

Paxi

Well... there's not much choice of OW airlines flying out of HAM to a variety of 'global' destinations: it's either AB or BA/IB.
As for lounge access - OW is very straightforward here: Lounge access is available from the OW sapphire tier onwards which generally needs 50k status miles (or 600 TPs on BA, which is roughly equivalent) annually to attain no matter the program.

As you said that upgrades are important to you - keep in mind that upgrade instruments generally are limited to the issuing program's metal flights.
Of these two, only BA is a truly global airline while AB only has a few longhaul destinations in North America which get serviced with their own metal. For everything else, they rely on codeshares with either EY or OW partners, and these cannot be upgraded with AB instruments.
Should you primarily fly to North or Central America, AA would be another good option to go with. They charge co-pays (USD 700 return) for mileage upgrades, though.
While IB shares much of their program rules with BA, there's one major difference between the two: You can only upgrade full-fare (Y,B,H) IB tickets with Avios, which severely limits the usefulness of it for upgrades.

Also, keep in mind the points expiration policies - as you cannot choose airlines and have no way of predicting which one you'll end up on on work trips, I'd stay away from programs with fixed expiration policies and go with a more generous one. Here, BA with its any-activity-in-36-months policy handily wins.

Taken all this, I'd go with BA.

Thank you for the feedback... Then I'll go with BA... :)

New York to Sydney
 

I'm overwhelmed by the amount of info regarding FF programs :confused:, so I've decided to just ask and hope to get pointed in the right direction.

My goal is simple: I take an annual return trip from New York to Sydney, and am looking for the best FF program to bank my miles in so I can get the best deal I can for this route. This also involves signing up for credit card offers and other means of collecting miles (shopping, whatever), but I need to know which program to join first :rolleyes:. I'm currently with QFF but I live in New York so I can't really build up my miles when not flying.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Good award redemption rate for my specific route, and travel upgrades if possible

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
<25000, 2 flights (there and back)

(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?
Travel for pleasure. I've only been flying Qantas but may consider changing if there are cheaper options (but Qantas seems to offer the cheapest price for my route)

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
New York to Sydney and back

(6) What is your home airport?
JFK

(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?
QFF Bronze, currently just shy of 40k miles

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Qantas
__________

Only 1 choice: AA. Look at post 330. You will get AA miles on QF flights. But check if an eligible earning booking class. Some cheap fares were not, but with a change to booking class earning last year most (all?) are.

AS is an option as QF, AA & DL are partners: http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Other airlines to Australia (from LAX) are
- United (Star Alliance)
- Virgin Australia (DL & VA are ff partners)
- Delta (DL & VA are ff partners)
- Air NZ (via AKL) (Star Alliance)
- Hawaiian (AA ff partner)
- Fiji Airways (AA ff partner)
and many via Asia or the Middle East

You will need to careful about QF points expiry. 18 months without eligible activity they expire. Use them if you can. Can be keep alive by several non flying ways including hotel, rental car, asking QF for a new ff card(1000 points) or when in Australia signing up to www.everydayrewards.com.au and then spending $31 on food or booze

Thanks for the info!

I checked the route I usually book and the booking classes are O and Q. So if I credited the miles to AA then I'd get 25% of the miles? NY to Sydney is ~10k miles, so I'd get 2500 miles. Doesn't seem worth it, right?

Alaska Air's Mileage Plan seems to look better with 1 mile = 1pt. NY to Sydney is 42.5k miles + $40, compared to Qantas' 64k miles. But it looks like they only have 1 credit card with an annual fee, so it's not as easy to earn miles through spending compared to AA. (one of my goals was to rack up points with credit card signup bonuses/spending)

Not sure my conclusions are correct though. Where do you think I should go from here? Are there better options with the Star Alliance?

And QF points expiry is not a problem, I use my everyday rewards every time I go back. ^

AMS doesn't get much love from OW; I hope you don't hate LHR as you'll need go through there a lot....

I'd go with AA. AAdvantage miles are easy to earn and redeem on a vast array of partners. And they do have a very good TATL premium cabin product on their new 777-300 - the seats in J/F are arguably the best hard product out there for these routes right now. They fly those from LHR to their hubs in MIA and DFW from where it's easy to connect to their large South American network.
With your flight pattern you'll easily make top tier EXP (66,667 miles in a premium cabin will get you there) which will get you OW Emerald status (alliance-wide F lounge access!) and earn 8 systemwide upgrades annually which you can use to upgrade Europe-LatAm flights to F.
Only drawback: In order to use AA metal from Europe to South America you'd need to connect in the US which makes for longer flights and the dubious pleasure of US immigration which can be a real hassle without Global Entry (by all means, get that!).
If you want to avoid connecting in the US and prefer direct Europe-SouthAmerica flights, IB has new A330s and newly reconfigured A346s with a very comfortable 'business plus' cabin product (lie-flat, 1-2-1 staggered layout with all-aisle access) via MAD. Credited to AA, all business fares earn full mileage plus COS bonus.

Redeem those miles for premium cabin flights to Asia on CX, QR and MH (or BA if you don't mind paying heavy surcharges). Availability is good across those partners, and quality is on par with * offerings.

Doing this flight once a year, there's no need to worry about QF points expiry. The QF points expiration counter is reset by any activity once every 18 months only, and one flight within 12 months will keep all points safe from expiring as long as rules don't change.

The two cheapest QF booking classes earn only 25 % with AA, and the six fare classes one and two steps up the fare price ladder earn a still meager 50%. QF economy fares earning more than 50% on AA get horrendously expensive. I've flown in business on MH for less money than QF wanted for a "H" coded economy ticket that was far away from being full fare!
I don't think QF offers an affiliated cc in the US. AFAIK their relationship with Amex is limited to Australia. Check Amex if they allow MR points transfer to QFF for US-based members, though.

I would switch to AA only if you'd be willing (and able) to play the credit card game in the US. The miles generated by AA (and US! US miles will become AA miles at one point as the merger progresses, and in the meantime applying for US cards just doubles the opportunity for sign-on boni. US cards don't have a spend requirement, either) cc activity more than make up for the lower earning on AA on one flight a year. If you do not want or can not do that, stick with QFF.

Thanks for the info!

I was looking at redemption rates for AA as well and saw the meager 25%, thanks for confirming that. I've been looking to play the credit card game though, so I may switch to AA if I can figure out how to do it right. So what should I do with the 39k points in my QFF account right now? :rolleyes:

Mwenenzi mentioned AS, where I'd get "actual flight miles", so should I bank my miles with them instead of AA? Because their redemption rate seems better than Qantas (42,500 Miles + $39.60 for New York to Syd compared to 64k points on Qantas)

And just throwing it out there, but would I get better value from switching airlines/alliances? (like the VA/DL partnership, or the Star Alliance)

A QF award NYC-SYD will have a high cash fuel surcharge/fees/taxes of USD$386 paid to QF (sample was economy on QF107 on 17 Jun 2014). Have not checked what the cash price is.

Compare
AA earnings (even at 25% or 50%) vs the AA miles needed for an AA award and the minimal cash taxes
to
QF earnings (even at 100%) vs the QF points needed for an QF award and the high cash taxes/fees/surcharges

From post 330
LAX-SYD one way
Economy QF 48,000 - AA 37,500
P Ec QF 72,000 - AA n.a
Bus QF 96,000 - AA 62,500
First QF 144,000 - AA 72,500
Plus a lot of $$$ in fees / surcharges to QF

Use your QF 39,000 points on an award in the USA on an AA or AS flight

As imaltesers is looking to boost miles with non-flying activities better to use AA (or AS) as a freq flyer (spender) program

Not really.You choose the QF flight because it was the cheapest option for you, remember? Spending more upfront with another carrier while hoping for better FF points earning for future award ticket doesn't make much sense for a once-a-year flyer at all.
Unless you go all-in with manufactured spending and churning multiple credit cards for sign-on bonus miles, you won't be able to generate enough miles in any program to fly to Australia and back purely on points every year, so some of these miles have to come from flying.
And to not let your existing QFF miles go to waste should you decide to change programs - redeem them for AA flights. Your points should be good to get you anywhere and back within 2,400 miles. Enjoy a nice trip to say, anywhere in the Caribbean, Central America, or even Vegas... :).

The AS program looks like it could be a good choice for you, though. They have a large earning partner network and a generous award chart. Plus, as an independent, financially healthy smaller carrier, they might be less inclined to devalue their FFP like it's currently en vogue with the legacy airlines. Current trend with FFPs is to reward spend rather than mileage. UA and DL have implemented changes to their programs in this regard, and it remains to be seen if and how the merged AA will follow suit. Personally, I doubt the current terms will survive much beyond 2015.

Permanent Tier membership
 

Hello Team, I have read through the several pages and could find something that met my criteria.

I have frequent flyer membership with BA and Etihad.
1. I'm currently in US and typically fly domestic to Chicago/NYC 2-3 times a year and one round trip to Bangalore India and back.
2. I have racked up some good avios and miles with both Frequent flyer programs.
3. I typically fly economy for personal trips and business class for official purposes.
4. All i'm looking for is good program where i can earn a permanent tier status which allows me lounge access and several other previleges. I'm not really into earning miles by flying because i have Citi Permiermiles card where i earn 10 miles for every 1 USD (on average its 80 cents). and 4 miles for groceries, entertainment etc.
5. Is there any program where i can get such a tier membership.

Any help here is appreciated!! thank you very much.

lon3volf Welcome to the forum

BA and Etihad are both AA partners.
Be careful about avois/miles expiry. Have you used your BA/EY Avois/miles?

Status/tier level is only by flying for most people. BIS - Butt in seat is the jargon here on FT. And AA status will not get you US domestic lounge access. Chicago/NYC 2-3 times a year and one round trip to Bangalore India and back will not get you that many miles or status earning

I typically use the avios to upgrade to first from business or economy premium from economy when flying international. A round trip to India, i earn close to 24k miles and with domestic flights, i earn enough to maintain the tier level of silver with BA. However last year i couldnt fly international because of which i lost the silver tier which i dont want to happen again.

I'm not sure this is something possible. But thank you for your response.

A good use of Avios.
Have you used your Etihad miles? I assume you can us on AA flights, given the converse is possible

Thanks for all your feedback. I thought about it and figured that I'm going to start collecting my FF miles with the AS Mileage Plan (since they have lower award redemption rates, and earn 1 point per mile), and I'm also going to hunt for credit cards that'll get me AA and AS miles. Does that sound like a good strategy?

Unless you fly or spend a lot better to concentrate on AS or AA. Not both. A (low) risk with AS is that QF cease to be an AS partner

So is there any program where i could earn good tier membership level which could be permanent or something which could be of long term.

No tier/status level is permanent, unless you get lifetime status. You have to earn status every year or for a minority of FFP's longer. In some places you can get status associated with a credit card. Based on your travels you can work out (in MS excel) what status you could get. But not easy to do.

Debating IP or BAEC
 

We live in Tel Aviv and until now we have not flown much on OW planes. As it turns out we will be flying to MAD for a weekend in May - cheapest fare possible and on IB business to JFK in July. We are members of LY Matmid (mainly credit card points), LH M&M and United Mileage Plus and KLM flying blue. What do you think is the best bet for future bonus tickets.


1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Point redemption for bonus flights. I would love to upgrade but I don't want to pay full Y fare to be eligible.

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

It's hard to say that there is a "usual" as we fly to attend professional conferences and mix in vacations. I would say 3-4 flights a year. Last year we did TLV-LAX (KLM C) and TLV-JFK (Bonus LY + points for economy plus). This year we have scheduled TLV-MAD, TLV-JFK and TLV-MEL.

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

Since my wife has a research fund that covers C I will splurge if we can find a good business price on any carrier. Otherwise I'll go LY "cattle class" and use points for economy plus or pay to upgrade to C

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

All open. As I said we mix business with pleasure or pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?

TLV-USA, Europe, Far East, Australia

(6) What is your home airport?

Tel Aviv

(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?

No status. We are members of LY Matmid (mainly credit card points), LH M&M (credit card bonus) and United Mileage Plus (left overs from Continental) and KLM flying blue.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?

LY for the direct long haul flights and Turkish for the price.

I would definitely say AA, especially now that the merger with US Airways means you'll have nonstop service from TLV to PHL. AA's "earn/burn" numbers are superior to other airlines', and while TLV has been a difficult place for eastward travel on Oneworld, it's less an issue now that Royal Jordanian is in the alliance, with easy connections through AMM to SE Asia, thence Oz. AAdvantage membership will get you decent mileage earning on Oneworld routes with all carriers, and okay earning on LY flights (or full miles on AA codeshares with LY) http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/ea...lines/elAl.jsp

One other thing, maybe significant, maybe not... For the time being Israel is one of the "cheaper" origin points for Oneworld round-the-world (RTW) tickets. Don't know if you could coordinate some of your trips to the US and to Oz to take place sequentially, but if so you might find that the RTW products can save a lot of money, particularly in business class.

If you haven't, read some of the "sticky" threads in this forum regarding the Oneworld Explorer RTW product and have a look at the RTW ticketing tool on the Oneworld website, just to see the possibilities and limitations. AA's general sales agent in Israel, Tal Aviation, is a seriously competent group who can handle a lot of problems that would send other travel agents screaming; if you get addicted to the RTW game (which is easy to do) you'd have a great resource just across town.

briana Welcome to the forum

If "IP or BAEC" was meant to be "IB Iberia or BA" there is little difference. Both use avois as freq flyer currency. Subject to terms & conditions you can move avois from/to IB/BA. Both are owned by IAG

Agree AA is a good choice, especially with US Airways merging/taking over AA and joining OW

Alaska is a good FFP due to its many partners, including some you now fly with. http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Be careful about having too many FFP's with a low balance of miles that will expire. You have 2 FFP's in Star Alliance (LH & UA)

Debate between Iberia and BA
 

Thanks for the advice. The 2 star alliance memberships happened when Continental miles were transferred to United. Everytime we travel on a carrier that is a member of a new alliance we open a new account. I actually prefer to fly El Al, despite their inferior product, but when I am going to splurge on business class I can't justify $4000 to the US on El Al and $2300 on Iberia. I'll change planes!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge Access / Priority Boarding on Alliance and Flight Reward Redemption. I'd love to redeem for multiple layover flights.
(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: >50k miles
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Mix of Business and Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mix of Business and Pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Likely Australia a lot this year, but South America and Asia in future years.
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Sana'a is my home airport. I usually fly through Dubai but could fly through Doha instead.
(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: Currently EK Gold and *A Gold (AC EK50)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: I've always stuck to Star Alliance and Emirates but am thinking of changing to OneWorld as I hope to travel to South America more in the future. My hope is to take time off work and redeem economy flights with multiple layovers while maintaining lounge access / priority boarding.

As I've been with *A and EK for the last 8 years, I've very much new to OW and the various programs.

How is the Qatar Airways program in relation to other programs? Doha is the most convenient "hub" for me, but their QPoints system is confusing.

Interesting answers to the questions. With the amount of flying you do getting & maintaining high tier status with multiple airlines should be possible. Aegen for Star Alliance status is popular with some people who do not live in USA. Miles from credit cards is significant for many here on FT, but less cc opportunities for many non USA residents.

AA is the default choice for many. Good earn/burn and upgrade opportunities/instruments on AA metal. Look at the AA Plat challenge.

Very few people post on the in & outs of QR FFP, but is seems basic & archaic. For an upgrade request you email them & hope. But as QR are in OW you can fly with them but credit to another FFP

Both AA & QF have multi stop "OneWorld awards". Unsure what RTW awards other OW FFP's offer. Look at FT airline forums & web sites. While EK is an QF partner hard to recommend QF for someone not living in Australia.

Alaska may be of interest to you. Wide range of partners, including EK
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Others will have different opinions & suggestion's

Thanks!! It's hard enough to keep up with the *A rules let alone those of EK and now possibly another alliance.

I still quite like *A but Aeroplan has become a pretty bad program in my mind which is why I'm considering switching FFPs. My girlfriend will be in Australia for the next year and Malaysian is the cheapest way to get there business which is why I was thinking it may now be time to try OW.

EK is a horrible program but I end up having to fly EK for work quite a bit so I'm going to try and maintain EK Gold for sure.

From my limited knowledge of OW to date, it looks like AA is the program I need to consider if I'm going to start flying OW metal. Do they status match or allow for challenges?

So many different computations and considerations!!! Arg...

My limited understanding is AA do not match to EK.
Details of the AA Plat challenge here:-
http://flyerguide.com/index.php/Challenge_%28AA%29
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html
But MH & CX are not listed as airlines that can be used for the challenge.

A risk with AA is that changes due to the USAirways/AA merger(takeover) are possible. Some other USA FFP's are moving to a revenue based system.

Thanks. I would probably try to status match with my *A Gold or challenge. I noticed that at least 4 flights a year need to be with AA though, which is one of the reasons I was looking at getting away from AC.

Now that I work in the Middle East I tend not to return to North America very often, making it difficult to get those segments.

In general AA do not status match. However a year ago they did this: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
Without flying AA metal you can still do the AA challenge

AA does not (currently) enforce the 4 segment rule

The 'four-segment on AA metal' minimum rule for AA status historically hasn't ever been enforced by AA so far. Of course, that could change anytime, so beware...
AA has a large presence and good route network to South America, though. Although in order to use it you need to connect in the US. From your posts I presume you're a Canadian citizen so you don't need a visum to enter the US. I would not recommend routing flights to South America via the US with a Yemeni passport...QR will fly from DOH to AA's main hub in DFW starting in July, so getting to most anywhere in South America on OW will be pretty easy.

QR has good product, especially in premium cabins. I like flying them. Until the new airport opens (hopefully soon), the transfer experience in DOH is subpar for economy passengers, though (bus transfers instead of jetbridges, crowding, lounges very full and far from premium).
BUT discount economy flights on QR have very bad earning rates on ALL other oneworld FFPs. If you fly cheap Y fares on QR, expect to earn no more than 25 % of mileage flown on AAdvantage, BAEC etc. In this case, weigh your options and either spring for higher fare buckets (most of the time, an "S" fare which will earn 50% on AA is just a few bucks more than the cheapest available, you can upfare to higher bucket tickets by calling them) or go with QRs program although that doesn't provide the level of benefits AAdvantage does.
Flying business class, all OW carriers including QR and MH earn full mileage plus COS bonus on AAdvantage - same as AA itself. MH business class is very nice as well. At least on their A380s, which is what I have flown a few times now on Europe-Asia.

Hey guys, first post, thanks in advance!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Number one priority is ease of upgrades/award bookings. I don't mind copays as long as it's significantly cheaper than normal business class fares. Status and lounge access are also a plus.
(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: Right at about 50,000 miles. (2-3 RT from East Asia-US, some inter-Asian flying, 1 RT elsewhere)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Deep discount economy for regional travel, and cheapest available business class for long-haul
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mix of Business and Pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: ICN/TYO/PVG-LAX/ORD/JFK/WAS/MCO
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SHA and PVG
(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: Currently SQ Silver (soft landing) and CZ silver
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: A little background: Because I pay my own way, I'm always on the hunt for the cheapest available business class that earns miles/is a decent program. When available, SQ is my favorite. The company's fares from TYO-LAX in J are excellent, but if I'm not flying to LA, it means I have to take two separate flights just to get from my origin to my final destination...and if I'm pressed for time, that's not an option. For some reason, with the exception of PR, PVG's business class fares to the US are substantially higher than other comparable east Asian cities (ICN/PEK/TYO/KIX/HKG); as a result, I frequently have to take a hop to Seoul or Tokyo in order to save a couple grand. I thought I had the whole thing figured out when CZ was offering 1700-2100 RT J fares from ICN to LAX all last year, but apparently, they've wised up (closer to 6000 USD now for a mediocre product..no thanks).

I'm flying SQ NRT-LAX next month, and will probably fly CX NRT-HKG-ORD/JFK-HKG-NRT this summer, and (again, probably) AA PEK-ORD-MCO in the fall (all business class). I currently don't have any oneworld frequent flyer program, but would love to know the best way to maximize my miles on those last two itineraries in order to work towards upgrades/business class awards in the future/which airlines have decent availability. If AA, I'll probably also get one of their credit cards for a further mileage bonus boost (because most of my expenses in China are cash, the credit card aspect isn't terribly lucrative for me).

As well, if there are any status tips for challenges, etc., I'd appreciate those, too (although much less important to me than being able to redeem miles for upgrades/awards).

Alternatively, I could fly all of those routes on *A (as well as MCO-PTY-GIG in D on Copa RT), and rack up a bunch of miles but a) that means flying United instead of Cathay on ULH and b) United's availability on China award flights seems non-existent. Am I looking at it wrong? Or does anyone know another *A carrier with good award availability at a reasonable number of miles?

Sorry for the probably excessive information, I really appreciate any help. Thanks!

I'd look closely at both AA's and CX's programs; each has its strengths and weaknesses. One caveat is that right now we don't know how AA's will change following the merger with US. However you might hustle to open a US Airways account and credit the upcoming SQ flights there; at some point in the next year (?) US Dividend Miles and AAdvantage will merge, so it's a way to grandfather some good miles to the AA program, if that's your choice.

Personally I'd probably go with AA for better earn/burn numbers than others'.

Not knowing how much lead time you have in long-distance travels, or how much flexibility you have on route and timing for specific trips, I wonder if you might benefit by looking at a couple of Oneworld RTW or Circle products. For example, a business class Circle Pacific ticket (22,000 flown miles) bought in HKG is US$5000 at present, $6100 for 26,000 miles. You need to use the North Pacific in one direction and the South Pacific in the other, i.e. Australia/NZ. For example, HKG-PVG-ORD-LAX-SYD-HKG comes in just over 21,000 miles, or HKG-SYD-JFK-MCO-ORD-LAX-NRT-PVG-HKG comes in under 26,000.

There are also RTW products that would require you to travel via Europe in one direction, but depending where you buy them the price can also get down to the US$5K range. The Oneworld Explorer has no mileage limit, but does limit the number of flights per continent touched - 6 in North America, 4 in all other continents. Still, that would get you a lot of miles on quality carriers, and would allow some intra-Asia travel as well. For example, at present a 3-continent Oneworld Explorer bought and started/finished in Japan is around US$6300 plus taxes and fees. Like the Circle tickets, it's good for a year, date changes are free, and itinerary changes just US$125. Carefully constructed, Oneworld Explorer tickets can offer a rich harvest in FF miles. (And the distances are not that hugely different, PVG-LAX-JFK is a couple hundred miles longer than JFK-HEL-PVG.) Here's an imaginary 3-continent RTW that would earn you AA Platinum (Oneworld Sapphire) and bank around 60,000 spendable miles. Just for your consideration.

Oh, and welcome to FT!

Hi Gardyloo, thanks for your response!

Aaah, I wish I had known about this earlier! (Already booked MCO-PTY-GIG because demand will be super high this summer). That would've been perfect...but now I know for next time.

Thanks again!

XF