(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Shanghai, both Pudong (PVG) and Hongqiao (SHA)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 70-80k, 90% in Y, balance in domestic F or international C
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Y, discounted C or F ( rarely, mostly domestic or regional)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: yes, can choose airlines for work and pleasure. Travel approx 2/3 work and 1/3 pleasure. Service class see above.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: China domestic 70%, Asia regional 20%, China - Europe / Australia & NZ 10%.
(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, not yet. Banking most miles on *A so far with Krisflyer (legacy decision, like their hard product, and have relevant CC).
(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: baggage allowance, free lounge access, good redemption offers
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: In O/W, CX. Generally more a fan of Asian airlines.

Thanks!! :)

Who do you mainly fly with in China domestic? I think you can earn Cathay miles when flying Air China, but I don't think you'd get any perks while flying Air China.

What OW airlines do you fly and how many miles? It is hard to get high status on CX.

Yep, when you're VIE-based and do the most of your business flying on AB from there, topbonus would be the logical choice.

Personally, ever since since AirBerlin joined oneworld, I credit (almost) all my AB flight activity to AAdvantage. The vast bulk of my accrued mileage is done flying TATL on OW airlines and domestic connections inside the US, so that was the natural option for me. I don't fly enough intra-european to maintain status on AB separately.
By pooling all activity into one program, I am usually able to get to OW Sapphire status any given year, which gives me lounge access (very helpful for those long LHR layovers connecting from flying BA out of BSL to LAX on AA), free seat selection including the all-important ability to pre-reserve XL seats/exit rows on AB free of charge, which is a real tangible benefit as well as having complimentary access to MCE (AA's version of "premium economy" with more legroom) on AA as well as earning 'sticker upgrades' for upgrading my US domestic flights.
In general, which oneworld FFP program(s) you choose depends on your flying habits and personal preference. My focus lies on the other side of the Atlantic, yours probably in Europe or Asia.
Seeing that AB and EY are in bed together as tightly as they are, I'd check out the EY program as well. When flying to Asia out of VIE, you probably end up on their planes a lot.

The topbonus program has been aligned with the rest of the OW benefits when AB joined OW.

check out the benefits of the three levels on the OW page: http://www.oneworld.com/ffp/

Topbonus does have a few advantages (that's why I continue to use it occasionally):
- some discount economy fare classes earn only 25% miles on Aadvantage, but 100% on topbonus - it'd be a waste to credit those flights to AA. When you fly AB a lot, and you or your employer buys discount eco fares, this is important (same situation as with your Finnair flight above)
table here.

- companion ticket: When you have a significant other and want to use your miles for trips with same, you get the second award ticket for half the miles.

- AB has "Schnäppchentickets" on offer for redeeming miles which are a very good value. Those are for topbonus customers only.

- Additionally, topbonus offers the option to redeem additional miles to cover the cash-co-pay-required-everywhere-else taxes and fees which can be pretty costly on some destinations like the UK or CDG...
And their redemption rates are pretty good - 40k miles for a business class flight to the US compared to 50k for AAdvantage. Availability of awards is good as well, too.

I'd go with them.

Hi, I would really appreciate some opinions on the best FFP for me. I have read a lot today and it is looking like AA is easiest for achieving status because I always have to travel on the cheapest fare available but do mainly TATL.

I got AA PLT by completing the challenge just over a year ago and started pumping miles into my AA FFP, but then (stupidly) decided to try and achieve BAEC Silver as I'm based in the UK and thought I'd find it easier to accumulate status. I work for a US company who is constantly pulling me over there to cover US projects as the UK market is a bit quiet. I have just got BAEC Bronze but think I'll struggle to make Silver before the end of my membership year in June'13.

Questions answered below and happy to provide any more information needed.

I REALLY appreciate the benefit of other people's knowledge/wisdom, so thank you for taking the time.

[MaccA]


(1) home airport?
Reply: MAN (Manchester, UK) but can easily connect through LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 50K-60K Economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Cheapest available unfortunately (Economy, non-flexible)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes I can choose airline. Class of service has to be cheapest available, even non-flexible tickets. The majority of travel is for business with a couple of vacations per year. I book most of my business travel with only a week or twos notice.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transatlantic, MAN-ORD, MAN-JFK, LHR-JFK, LHR-SFO (at least once 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 PLT expiring end of Jan, obtained using the AA PLT Challenge. Just achieved BAEC Bronze this month, with membership year running until June'13.

(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: Most important is BA lounge access, priority boarding (massive carry-on) and express security. I would love free TATL upgrades but have read that they don't really happen on BA and I only occasionally fly AA metal TATL because AA55 doesn't have ICE.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Prefer BA but often end up on AA or AEagle for the second segment of my US travel.

It does indeed sound like AA is the best fit. If you're flying 50-60K miles annually, then obtaining/retaining Platinum shouldn't be that difficult, although of course you won't have Plat hence lounge access during the current year (1 Mar. - 31 Dec.) once you fall to Gold at the end of February, or at least until you cross the 50K EQM threshold this year.

My main consideration for choosing AA is actually buying miles on AA when they go on sale. They seem to have very good redemption value for both inside Australia flights and for SYD-TLV and they do not charge YQ on AA awards.

Do Qantas periodically sell miles at a discount like AA?

No

Thanks Gardyloo. I'm going to miss lounge access this year for sure :(

Which FFP?
 

Hi, as per the opening post, here are my answers to the questions: (thank you in advance for your help!)

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

London LHR

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

>50k
Economy

(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?

I can choose airlines and class
Both business and pleasure

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

London to Latin America, e.g. LHR to Peru, Chile, Mexico
Possibly some internal Latin America flights like Lima to Santiago

(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)

BAEC - 15,000 Avios currently
United Mileageplus - some lifetime miles from a long time ago

(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.)

Using my points to get reward flights from London to Latin America, without having to pay huge surcharges still on those reward flights.

Upgrades would be second most important.

(8) Preferred Airlines

Anything except Iberia (my god they are terrible!)

ok guys ... thanks i think i'll try topbonus event tough their support sucks ... i'm trying to reactive an old account of mine but it seems to be broken ... anybody experienced similar issues?

What is the easiest OW program to achieve OWE on economy flights (looking for something like Aegean in *A)

you forgot S7

Probably Qantas, with instant upgrade fares in the USA - subject to the minimum four Qantas segment rule.

Would appreciate some details.

For economy flying, AA is probably easiest. Although with some Instant Upgrade AA fares (as said above), QF Platinum can be had for $1k-$2k.

What is your normal flying pattern? Regular routes, class, etc.

AA is better for long haul economy fliers, BA/QF may be better if flying in higher classes.

BA and QF use zones with fixed Tier Points/Status Credits. The tables are different and the levels are different. Regular Premium Economy flying is better on BA, mid range flights better on QF.

But then a lot of perks on OneWorld are for the specific carrier. AA has System Wide Upgrades, so flying on AA mostly you would be better off going for AA Emerald.