You could earn status miles on AA even when flying BA. And if you do the challenge, you'd get AA PLT after your first trip in J, which gives you priority boarding on BA. You'd already have lounge access with AA PLT, but you would get that from the J ticket too

Also, since airberlin is joining, you might keep your AA PLT status for all the OW benefits, and then earn against topbonus later. Hopefully the benefits get better once they join. I hope the program will be more extensive.

FS_FRA would have lounge access everywhere except in the US for domestic flights if he were to stick with AA. Also, to complete the challenge they would have to fly on AA metal. If the TATL flights are in J, I would say go with BA. Flights in higher classes earn many tier points, you get lounge access domestically with AA (though this might be moot if only flying business TATL and not taking any domestic flights); BA have published they have a soft-landing policy whereas AA can decide to do away with it.

BA are not as generous with upgrades, plus redemptions are cheaper with AA. If that's important then go with AA.

I don't know much about airberlin's programme but they might be worth considering once they join oneworld.

Hi there, as my home Airport is Munich most of my travel is with Lufthansa and Star Alliance (have status with Lufthansa) but not all of it. My answers to the questions below are only about the non *Alliance Part because thats what i need a little help with:

(1) What is your home airport?
MUC

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

(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 work and pleasure - but can choose airline etc.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Longhaul Travel mostly *alliance - but a number of intra-european and
domstic flights mostly with AirBerlin or BA

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
No Status with OW - but Lufthansa Frequent Traveller and Etihad Silver

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
as this is only for those flights where i don`t use star alliance i simply look for a FFP where i can credit my miles to with the goal to redeem them for a flight (preferably in a premium class) sometime in the future

(8) Preferred Airlines
Air Berlin & BA

To cut it short i am simply looking for advice on the following:

Most of my flights are with Star Alliance - but there are still a few flights every year with OneWorld Airlines and i don`t want to waste the miles i can earn on these flights. So i am looking for a FFP where i can credit those flights to. Whats important is, that its a program where the flights stay valid as long as i have activity every year or so - as it will take some time until i have accumulated enough for a redemption.

No, it can be any metal as long as it has an AA flight number. This changed about a year ago.

My bad, Still a caveat to take into consideration though.

Hi,

Thanks everyone. Just 2 questions for clarification:

1. Where do I sign up for the AA Plat challenge?

2. All my flights in BA would have to be booked under the AA number, right?i guess this applies actually for all flights?

Have a look here:

http://www.flyerguide.com/wiki/index.php/Challenge_(AA)

I've received an invitation to do a challenge after contacting AA by e-mail.

for 2) I thought it was always AA metal only but apparently yes, you can book BA flights as long as you are flying under the AA codeshare. Can't back this up though.

I am currently AA PLT and CX Silver.
So here is my travel plan for this year.
I will have 1-2 trips from TPE to US, also 5-7 trips intra-asia from TPE.
My travel is always deep discount Y.
So for trip to US, I have the choice of AA and CX.
For the trip intra-asia, I have the choice of CX.
What program should I credit my miles?
For AA, I can get 100% bonus miles if I fly AA or CX H fare. But I will get nothing for intra-asia fare.
For CX, I can get all the miles, but I will not have 100% bonus miles.
I can try to do both, which means using AA for the trips to US and using CX for intra-asia.
Any recommendations?

Thanks

Should I stick with Iberia?
 

(1) What is your home airport? MAD
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Around 100,000 but split across one world, star, sky team
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? Gold Iberia, Gold Spanair (worth nothing since they just went bust), Silver FlyingBlue
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, accumulating and redeeming miles
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? 4* year MAD-USA, 6* year MAD-GRU or CDG-GRU, 4*year MAD-SCL or MAD-EZE, 12* year MAD-LON or MAD-CDG, 12*year MAD-PMI
(7) Preferred Airlines? Iberia has lots of nonstops to Latin America from MAD but is expensive. TAM seems fine for Brazil
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both


Thanks for any advice!

Can someone advise me which FFP from One World allows the quickest way to partner lounge access?

I have been with AirNZ Star Alliance 15yrs but since 2003/04 when they switched to dollar points not gotten anything other than domestic, I just joined Asiana but not done any mileage. So just wondering about One World.

I have looked at Qantas but seems longer to get status or rewards. I also looked at their earning tables, if you fly Cathay, Qantas only give you 0.50pts per mile and 0.25 with British Airways - with the economy fares. The Cathay Marco Polo club isn't as generous to get to Sapphire (ie., 60,000). The British Airways FFP doesn't allow New Zealanders to enrol.

Edit - normally taking cheap fares. Flying NZ to Asia mainly maybe to Canada occasionally. Once or twice per year that is 14,000 miles per time so 14-28k per year in total. 1) which is quickest to get lounge access? 2) which is faster for rewards ignoring lounge access.


Cheers.

Should I stick with QF?
 

Hi all!

Would appreciate any advice thanks :)


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


(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 50 - 75k


(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: J or full fare whY
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 100% pleasure


(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Kangaroo on the odd occasion, AU domestic, lots of Asia to EU and AUS 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: QF bronze... I know! but if I don't get any advice from you guys will go ahead with my planned out scheme for gold :P


(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: equal 1st lounge access and easy status 2nd good redemption rates 3rd better award access


(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I have 110,000 points on QFF so If you could help me think up a cheaper scheme for gold happy to stick with them :P Any


PLEASE NOTE I AM NOT ABLE TO JOIN ANY FF PROGRAMMES WHERE YOU MUST BE OVER 18. THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION AND VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS :)

After MALEV is gone, would be nice to choose a new place
 

Hi,

Thanks for all the help with our choices. Unfortunately, MALEV is gone now and I'm not sure what will happen with my oneWorld points (had less than 10% of my points from MALEV in the last 18 months), I'm looking for some new team to join.

1) BUD
2) 50-70k
3) Economy, sometimes Business
4) I can choose, fly for both work and leisure
5) Have 2-3 BUD-US East Coast flights a year (AA or BA), 20-30 Europe, 1-2 BUD-Asia (FinnAir)
6) Have a MALEV Sapphire (exp 2013) for 4-5 yrs now
7) In order of importance: lounge access, priority boarding, excess luggage, redemption
8) Don't like AA, other OW are okay

Looking forward to your suggestions!

Thanks,
Nash

Please advice me. I am a newbie in the forum and a new flyer, I would like to get some advice about the FFP selection in OW

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HKG but could start from any CX destination in far east
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50k economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy (would become a J-flyer later)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: BA, Y+ and usually pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: HKG-LHR, HKG-YYZ
(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: BAEC
(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: upgrade and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, CX, JL

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.)
SFO

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
30-50k, mostly in Y (and mostly on *A)

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

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

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

Last year, NONE of my travel was on OW. It was 2/3 *A and 1/3 Skyteam

(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)
United 2P (don't laugh)

(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.)
Better access, especially in business class

(8) Preferred Airlines
I like BA, haven't flown many other OW carriers other than AA.

I'm a member of both AA and BA, have had both credit cards (no longer have BA's), but seem to prefer BA's program to AA's. I just did a big redemption of OW miles for half a RTW trip.

So my question is: I'd like to drop one of the two programs, but which one?

Which Program is the best for me?
 

Hi guys!

I am planning a RTW on oneworld and wanna know which of the OW programs will give me the most miles. I mostly will fly with CX, QF and BA in Y. Moreover, will I get 100% of the flown miles with the AA program?

best,
flo

Moving this to the existing "which FFP" thread. If possible, could you edit your post to include the "stock" questions at the head of this thread?

You should also consult the AA board regarding mileage eligibility when using other airlines.


Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Good comment here as post 2 in another thread. My underlining

Your Duna club points are gone, irrespectively where they came from.

Best program will depend a bit on which airline you do the 25 intra eu trips with. I would suggest to look at BAEC first, since your main longhaul is with BA. You should also pay close attention on AB topbonus, when they announce their thresholds for status once in OW.
If your longhaul to asia is in business, then Finnair plus can be of interest as they credit 200% for C. If they are in discount Y, Finnair is not the program for you.

I think you should stay with NZ, even if it is all black! :D There just isn't any program in OW that will award you status on 14k-28/year.

What you can do, is to very carefully examine the fare classes of your NZ flights, especially your longhaul, to the earning table of A3 Miles&bonus (*A). Some low econ classes earn 70%, and if so your 28k miles will just barely put you over the threshold of *G and you will be back in koru lounge, 'Maramara keke'.

StarAlliance 1k to OneWorld?
 

Hello,

I recently moved to Hong Kong and have been flying Cathay/DragonAir in Asia for personal travel. I am pretty sure that I can make the Silver Tier in one year but will not be able to move past that to Gold. I will also probably be able to maintain a Star Alliance platinum level through my transAsia flights. Is it worthwhile to go completely OneWorld and get the 1k equivalent status via AA?

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: HKG and SFO

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 1K past 2 years in economy

(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. I can choose airline and class of service (price sensitive thought). Travel for both. SF - Asia is work and withing Asia is pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: SF - HKG (work), HKG to Asia (PVG, NRT) pleasure

(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: UA 1K

(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, lounge access, baggage allowance

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Star Alliance partners for transPacific, Cathay for interAsia, UA for domestic US

Hi guys, so I managed to get a job that might offer me the possibility to continue my jetsetting lifestyle, only that from now on, the company would be paying for it.

I need your help to suggest the best FFP.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: LHR/LGW and SIN for leisure

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

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Cattle, always

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Usually EK for pleasure, Ryanair for UK-EU for pleasure. For work, it might involve UK-US, UK-South America and UK-Ireland, rest of EU.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: LHR/LGW-SIN 1-2x per year, UK-EU flights 2-4x per year

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: EK Skywards (30k points), SQ Krisflyer (80k points), QF (12k points) all with no status, except EK where there is a chance to upgrade to Silver soon.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Extra baggage allowance for longhaul, good award redemption rates, better award access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: EK, SQ, don't really like QF and never taken BA before. LH is not too bad for continental flights, actually.

(9) Remarks:
I'm definitely keeping my EK FFP (30k with a chance to upgrade to Silver soon). I'm collecting lots of points from my Singapore credit card on SQ's Krisflyer (80k). I have 12k points in QF and naught in my AAdvantage membership.
Could you also suggest the best UK-based credit card to earn miles that I could credit into either a *A or OW FFP?

Sick of AY as a airline and as a FFP program.

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport?
Reply:
BER
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply:
>300K J class
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply:
restricted C Class fares like Z/P/J
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
I travel mainly for work, and can choose whatever I want.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply:
Going to SEA very often SIN/BKK/CAN some trips to the US (Westcoast) and EZE.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply:
BAEC Gold & AY Platinum
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply:
I need lounge access, good chance of upgrades and good service if things going down the drain.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:
BA - I like their C seats and the service,

Newbie here
 

Hello. I am quite new here and to FFP, though not a complete noob. My situation is a little special in that I do not plan to have a home airport for the next few years, so I thought I'd ask the experts for help.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: None planned. Currently EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: At least 25k. Maybe over 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: I can choose. Leisure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: I plan to spend the next few years flying mainly between Asia, Europe and Oceania/Pacific. Only occasionally to the Americas or Africa.
(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: Have 38019Km in LANPASS of which 25602 were this year. No status.
(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, lounge access. Awards only in a distant third place.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Do not have a preference at all. So far I have flown the cheapest.

tl;dr

1. Starting a nomadic lifestyle
2. Plan to move a minimum of 3-4 times a year
3. Mainly between Asia, Europe and Oceania/Pacific.
4. Less than once a year the Americas.
5. Self-funded.
6. Earning from flying mostly.

Long version:
Due to my job, I am able to be anywhere I like in the world, and as I know from experience I love that lifestyle, I plan to do just that for the foreseable future (5-10 years). The regions that interest me the most are Asia, Europe and the Pacific (in that order). I will not have a home airport and will be self funded. Being a resident of Argentina, I can't access any worthwhile credit card offers.

I aimed at Oneworld mainly because I have some miles in LANPASS from previous leisure travel. If you tell me it is worth going to another alliance, that's fine too.

As you can see, this is not an easy problem to crack for a newbie, so any help is very much appreciated!

I'd value your feedback. Is oneworld for me?
 

A bit of background: My partner and I are Americans who live in Spain most of the year. We've been Diamonds on Delta, and were happy until the domestic upgrades started to disappear. Now we're looking elsewhere.

Your feedback and suggestions would be very much appreciated.

(1) What is your home airport?
MAD, VLC, BCN, LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
125k-plus


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

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
MAD - SEA
LHR - MEL/SYD
LHR - EZE
And anyplace there is a good fare.

(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)

Diamond, Delta

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

a. International upgrades
b. Domestic upgrades
c. Personalized service, especially where their is a disruption on the journey
d. Quality of food and service onboard

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

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

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
R: economy, premium eco, low business


(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? can choose the airline, not the class, travel for work.
R: yes I can choose the airline but usually in economy and premium eco; not ot often business

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
R: I think it would be easier this way: http://flightdiary.net/andreim


(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)
R: nothing with OW


(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.)
R: redeem on exotic places like Male, Bali, Fiji and being able to pay taxes with points and lounge access

Many thanks for your thoughts! 

Re-posted: Deciding on a Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program? Help is here.
 

Somehow this thread was inadvertently merged with an unrelated thread, so I'm re-posting it here and moving the affected posts back. (Apparently there isn't a means to "un-merge" threads which have been combined.)

Please send me a PM if you posted to the "old" thread and it doesn't reappear here, and thanks for your understanding.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

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.)
NYC

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
70-90K, usually J

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

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
US domestic and 2-3 trips per year to Europe and 1 trip to South America

Last year, NONE of my travel was on OW. It was mostly on *Alliance

(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)
Lufthansa Senator, United Gold.

(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.)
Reward trips

(8) Preferred Airlines
I like Lufthansa, but it has come harder to get Reward Travel (all of their reward travel seems to be pushed to Swiss) and I will start going to London a couple of times a year, so I was thinking it may be time to try One World.
What program should I use? American or BA?
Thanks

Pcosta Welcome to the FT forum


As you live in the USA AA. Do the AA Plat challenge (see AA forum sticky). With travel in first should be easy.
And you can feed credit card and/or hotels and/or rental cars miles into the AA ffp if you want to.

I'm thinking of switching to OW from *A (UA). I am BD*S, so will become BA Silver as of May1-ish. I could also obtain AA PLT right now based on my Premier Gold UA status, although if I go AA I may be better to wait until June 16/July 1 and pay for a challenge as I have a SFO-LHR WT+ trip in July which will easily get me >10k EQP and then I'll have status until Feb 2014 right?

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: ~50k perhaps less actual miles with ~20% in FF coach.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: mainly economy, some full fare economy and premium economy (BA)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work is all coach, mainly UA options, but I can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Transatlantic (SFO-LHR, ~2x year), US domestic.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: I will soon get my BMI status matched to BA Silver.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Low-cost redemptions, Elite ground handling (check-in, security etc), upgrades, lounges (international)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: AA, BA

TIA

There's a sticky in the AAdvantage forum on this, but I believe that this would qualify only if booked as an AA Codeshare

I would go with AA, as you don't appear to fly enough high TQP routes to earn Silver with BA. However, you state your actual mileage may be a little below 50k, which could make AA PLT will be a close call. Unlike UA which allows high bucket fares to earn 50% extra EQM, AA separates out EQM and EQP. High bucket fares earn 1.5 EQPs per mile flown, but only 1.0 EQM per mile flown. Many low bucket fares that still earn 1.0 EQM/mile flown only earn 0.5 EQP per mile flown.

Illustration: If I fly 35,000 in deep discount Y, and 10,000 in full fare Y, I have earned 50,000 EQM with UA.

But with AA, I have earned only 45,000 EQM (35,000 + 10,000), and only 32,500 EQP (35,000 * 0.5 + 10,000 * 1.5).

This is interesting, the question for me is to stick with Star Alliance, or to acquire a new status in OW. So let us see how I do! (I thank you for your answers.)

SIN

Usually 75K-125K, mix of economy and business, but more in economy.

Mostly economy, but some business. First only when upgraded.

Can usually choose the airline, often forced into economy, but will be business at client's discretion. Mostly work travel, but substantial pleasure travel also.

"Kangaroo"?

(1) Intra-Asia
(2) Asia to US
(3) Asia to Europe
(4) Other destinations (Australia, Africa, South America, Pacific islands)

I will very soon have million-mile status on United, so the question is to continue in this system, or cover additional bases by acquiring a OW status. I am in BA plan right now, and also AA (maybe expired years ago), but without any status, unless my recent trip to London in business will get me some status. (Probably not enough?) Silver in EK, but I think this will expire soon.

Upgrades, lounge access.

SQ, EK, CX, QR. I guess BA is alright, just flew AY for the first time in 27 years, and it was OK, but probably not good for my travel patterns.

Unless you want to hop to HKG every time you fly, I would probably stick with *A as your primary program.

If you want to get status on OW for the occasions you do fly it, BA is a good program to consider. If you fly Longhaul in business, one trip on BA to London in Club World nets you 560 TPs and nearly enough for BA Silver (available at 600 TPs) and OW Saphire.

If you do want to switch completely to OW, I would go with CX given that they will be your primary OW carrier.

"Kangaroo" refers generally to UK < > Australia routes. SIN is a typical fueling stop for Qantas and BA services between Europe and Oz.

I think if I was living in SIN (ha ha - first time you've heard that, right?) I'd probably wait a few months until Malaysian is a full OW member, then look at how MH structures its FFP to align with Oneworld standards. I'm guessing their Enrich program is going to get quite a makeover, but we'll see.

Remember that most Oneworld FFPs require a minimum number of flights be taken on the airline's own metal (typically 4/year) in order to achieve/maintain elite status. Some are less stringent about enforcing it (AA) but it's there generally.

In the meantime, though, I'd look at BA, CX and Qantas. Different earn/burn/upgrade standards, but all are quality programs.

OK, thanks for the suggestions. I am in the BA programme, but it may be awkward to fly on BA metal every year, given my location and travel patterns. So maybe Cathay or Malaysia makes sense. But we will see.

Just starting out, so asking if I should continue to chalk things up in my QF or switch to other OW.

(1) home airport - SGP
(2) miles flown each year & in what class? 52k all chalked on Qantas from Jul(start point)-Dec 11. Estimating this year will be 52-80k? Economy
(3) types of fares bought - either a discount economy or economy
(4) choice of airlines/cabins. work and/or pleasure? - work basically whatever is cheapest or reasonably cheap.
(5) routes flown most often - SIN-SYD (2X a year), SIN-LHR (2X), SIN-MIA(1X). Sin-MNL(3X). SIN-PVG(2X a year)
(6) current FFP status - QF Silver. BA lowest (LHR-EDI). United (not sure expiring. First flight may09. silver). AA (1000 miles)
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? -redemption, upgrade, lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines - none. SIN-MNL-Sin will be on SQ

Please advise- Going to embark on SIN-LHR-SIN again(CX flights out, BA in)

baby00 Welcome to the forum ^

Better if to have 1 ffp with a OneWorld airline (for QF, CX, AA, & BA flights) and 1 ffp in star alliance (SQ, United & many others) and collect miles in those 2.

QF has very high surcharges on rewards. AA much less. BA some.

Apart from some exceptions, upgrades with airline miles/points can only be on a segment that is both marketed (airline flight number) and operated by the airline (metal). This is a common rule of freq flyer program. So if you want the chance of upgrade you need to collect miles in that ffp. Upgrades are at times very hard to get. Status helps.

Thanks Mwenenzi.

Should I just keep using my QF account to earn status and miles or should I start all over on AA? I like flying in the 380s from sin....which is a flight that QF provide from SIN-SYD or SIN LHR. Not sure about the others on OW. Didn't know its so hard to get an upgrade- got bumped up on biz once and that flight was non-qualifying for miles i think(zuji.com booking)

SA group- which one will be easy to redeem? I didn't know they changed the ffp for UA and hence under the new program, all my miles(44k) were expired 1 April 12. (My flights were taken end may 09 and late aug 10.) My email account with them was down but UA did not send a hard copy to my physical address too, so I wrote in last night the request for extension of the miles. Getting ready for the worse case scenario of UA not to extend the time I can use to redeem the miles I had. In that case I will be starting ffp in SA from scratch, so need to know which ffp in SA should I use.

Also need help- When I flew SIN-MIA last year (SIN-LHR qantas->LHR->MIA BA. When I returned, I did a 1 week break in LHR), I was only allowed 1 bag. Is it a norm? Do I really have to fly SA routes to get a 2 bags allowance?

AA is generally considered a far better freq flyer program than QF, but if you fly QF more and want to partake in the upgrade lottery, QF may be better for you. Especially since you QF 52K points and silver status. Would take many flights to get 30K ~ 40K AA miles

If you have AA miles they cannot be used to upgrade a QF flight.

With QF, it is notoriously difficult to get points upgrade. You do not known if your upgrade request [upgrade lottery] has been successful until just before the flight. And they cost a lot of QF points.

At times a straight out reward redemption with AA miles (on a QF flight) is far better value (and its assured). QF redemption can be difficult to impossible if you are not flexible with dates and/or route. High points cost and very high $$$ co payment fees (compared to AA)

Some low cost QF flights do not get AA miles in the AA program.
All QF flights do get QF points in the QF program.
I have no idea which CX fares get QF points in the QF program. Check the QF web site)
But some QF fares (buckets) are not able to be upgraded with QF points

Be aware that your QF points will expire if you do not have eligible QF activity in 18 months. Expiry after time happens in most programs. Need to log into the airline web site to check. Hard copy freq flyer statement now rare: costs airlines too much real money

Better to ask on the Star forum They have a sticky thread on the top of the page about ffp. Gets good response from several posters (better than here)

Number of bags / allowable weight varies a lot. You just need to check carefully before making a reservation.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: DUB Dublin Ireland
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: not so many on OW - typically only as a last resort - but with BA acquisition of BD perhaps more in future - typically in economy (fly 50-75k or more overall I guess across all alliances)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy only
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines but am a self-payer for all of my travel
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: TA, EUR Domestic, Eur-Asia
(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: DL Platinum (ST Elite+), was UA Silver now about to be Aegean Gold (*G) (also Silver in EQ in case that helps - acquired as a 'promo')
(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: access to lounges, exit row or prem economy seats, opportunity to redeem for complex itinerary Biz or First awards.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: whatever works, but I naturally lean towards AF/DL

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: Melbourne
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25k
(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 travel primarily for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: MEL-BNE, MEL-HKG, MEL-PEX.
(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: Gradual points accumulation. I am increasing the rate that I fly this year and next (taking a RTW mid next year), so I should be able to crawl over the line for some crummy status.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX