Unless you're looking at flying at least 30k a year with Cathay, I wouldn't bother opening Asia Miles. The points expire within 3 years and a business class ticket redemption on Cathay from the US to HKG return is between 120k and 145k. Upgrades are 30k to 45k.

Would be more than happy to get some suggestions.

Background information: I'll spend most of my time in Singapore in 2016. Work based travel will decline (currently doing HKG-DFW at least monthly). Therefore I'm more or less free to choose what I'm going to do next. I'd like to stay with OW as I quite like the network and carriers they are using - plus I refuse to fly one more time with United :P


(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Award redemption / award access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Usually a steady 100-120k "BIS" - less segment orientated tho. 50% Business Class 50% Economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy? (First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Business for work related travel, Cheapest for leisure travel

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I'm free to choose whatever I want to fly with as long as it's reasonable (e.g not double or triple the price). Most of the travel will be work related within Southeast Asia and occasionally flights to Europe/US.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
SIN-HKG (CX)
HKG-DFW (AA)
SIN-NRT (JL)
SIN-CMB (UL)


(6) What is your home airport?
SIN

(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 EXP with approx. 250k miles banked

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
AA,CX,JL

Seeking advice re best OW program for me, preferably one I can STATUS MATCH from *G

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply:
priority services when flying the airline & lounge access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply:
>50000 miles, 25 sectors, many long haul with stopovers

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes I can choose most of the time, depending on schedule . Travel for Work & Pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply:
Transatlantic middle east to US west coast, middle east to ASIA, Europe

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply:
TLV

(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?
Reply:
TK Elite Plus (*G until 2018)

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:
TK, LY, UA, OS, LX, AC

Thanks in advance for replies.

I can't think of a reason to switch from AA.

As you probably know, the only Oneworld carrier that flies east from TLV is RJ (not a bad airline at all) to Asia via AMM. Otherwise you'd have to backtrack to western Europe in order to fly to Asia.

American and LY have dropped their FF relationship unfortunately; however following its merger with US, AA now flies from TLV to PHL. The ex-US business class product is quite superior, and connecting through PHL is not hard at all.

So I'd be inclined to suggest AA for your Oneworld membership. AA doesn't status match (none of the major OW carriers do) but they have a fast-track challenge procedure that would earn you Platinum (Oneworld Sapphire, equal to *G) in one trip to the USA in business class. Once you're Plat, you'd get 100% mileage bonuses on most Oneworld flights, lounge access (except on domestic US trips not part of international itineraries) and other perks.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html

Thanks Gardyloo!
I understand from your suggestion I should probably call AA and "initiate a platinum challenge" which includes a certain co-pay element, if I get it right.
What about a match via the current AirBerlin TopBonus plan to Gold - would similar benefits be available to me even if I am an AB gold/plat and not an AA?
Thanks again, looking at the details for that AA challege now.

From what I can see the AB bonus would be fine; however the perks are considerably lower than AA's (at least for the time being) - lower bonus miles on flights, higher redemption costs (more miles for award flights) etc. Yes, there's a one-time charge to sign up for the AA challenge (I think $240 or so, not certain) but you could make that up in award miles and/or upgrades pretty quickly.

It really depends on how you plan to use your status, and if you'd plan on maintaining your flight activity. AA no longer offers a "soft landing" - i.e. once you fail to requalify for a given tier, that's it, so if you're looking at a short-term romance, then AB would probably be the better bet. Longer term, if you could manage to switch most of your activity to Oneworld, with >50K BIS miles in business class you'd get pretty close to AA Executive Platinum, with its 8 SWUs and many other excellent perks.

Well, just goes to show you... AA is dropping its PHL-TLV service in January. http://www.travelingbetter.com/showthread.php?t=5942

I am going to ask the question but sway slightly from the template because I couldn't word it properly for my situation. I will try keep it concise as possible.

I have two business class bookings coming up and wondering where I should credit them...

At the moment, the plan was to credit those flights on my BA account. By the end of my HKG trip, I would be on around 1100 tier points, so not far from BA Gold. But my membership year ends in March, and I would not reach Gold due to my next potential J trip being in May.

Is there another OW frequent flyer programme I could credit these flights to that would make me OneWorld Emerald but give me the next year to do so?

LHR is my local OneWorld hub.

I would like to be able to use my miles for redemptions.. mainly just European flights though. Lounge access is important. A soft landing from Emerald to Sapphire would be great. Everything else is less important.

I was considering creating a new BAEC account and having them close my old one, thus giving myself a new membership year. Could this be an option? Obviously I do not wish to jeopardise my account or miles!


Thanks so much for any and all input!

Sorry for the really noob-ish question, as I am new around here.

I have a DUS-LHR-PEK RT flight coming up on BA First (Fare Class A). I am currently a CX Silver (OneWorld Ruby) (till May 2016) and my main base is in HK/China. I considered crediting this flight to CX, but it seems that it wont get me any higher. Instead I was considering crediting this to BA, earning me 500 TP, which is enough to get me BA Silver (OneWorld Sapphire) after my next flight from PEK-LHR on CX.

However, I also looked at AA's Plat Challenge and it seems that my flights would also qualify me for AA Plat. Which one is better for someone based in China/HKG? Thanks!

PS: Sorry for the bad English, it is not my first language!

Thanks again Gardyloo. I never had high hopes for the PHL service but I wonder if the rumors about AA starting to fly MIA to TLV could have some truth to them!
link to Israeli business magazine in Hebrew about US & AA reorganizing in Israel: http://www.themarker.com/news/aviation/1.2272972
With this in mind - and seeing as my upcoming J class trip in OW might be on BA metal - maybe I should try for a BA match? I also hold a"no status" BA Executive Club account.
Cheers.

When AA acquired TWA twenty years ago or whenever, they inherited a big legal dispute between TWA and the Israeli government, so frankly I was surprised that they didn't suspend US's TLV service right away. Too bad.

I'm not aware that BA matches; I rather doubt it. BA recently revised its redemption numbers and - to me at least - is far less attractive than it was. In addition, BA's practice of adding big out-of-pocket surcharges to their award flights is a big disincentive, and like AA and most other airlines, BA require at least 4 flown segments on BA metal annually (in addition to earning enough tier points) in order to requalify.

It does come back to your plans going forward, however. If Oneworld status is going to be a one-and-done thing for you, i.e. you're not going to try to maintain status in the future, then go with the AB match, use the lounges and perks while you can, and call it good in a year.

Currently put all my miles to IB, but not sure if this is really smart, so seeking advice.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free - discounted lounge access, upgrades on travel, award redemption with minimum extra cash spend on YQ and taxes
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 miles - <25 flights
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest, but next year jumped on a few First class tickets with AA ex-Brazil error fare, so might be able to get quite a lump number
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
For pleasure only, no work-related travelling, so not bound to any particular airline
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
~70% intra-Europe, ~30% different transcontinentals with no particular pattern
(6) What is your home airport?
AMS, BRU, DUS
(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?
Think will get Silver with ST this year based on number of segments.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Not sure, started to flight OW pretty recently, enjoyed LATAM service on my trip to SA, but can imagine QR might be pretty good.

Thanks in advance, dear FTs!

Hi everyone! I'm looking for the most suitable OW FFP for me. I already have an Executive Club account (BA), but I'm wondering if some other FFP could give me more miles and benefits for the flights I'm about to take (see details below). Could you please help me? Thanks! :)

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free - discounted lounge access, upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Unfortunately <25000 miles and <25 flights (around 15 flights per year).

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy, the cheapest

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Just for pleasure; I can usually choose the airline, but not the class of service.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Mostly European flights and some transatlantic flights (usually 2 per year), but I have a very long upcoming trip to South America with 10 flights (7 in 2015 and 3 in 2016) with Iberia, LAN and TAM:

With Iberia: MXP-MAD in Economy S and MAD-SCL in Economy S

With LAN: SCL-IPC and return in Economy H, SCL-CJC and return and SCL-PUQ in Economy Y, FTE-AEP in Economy B

With TAM: EZE-GRU in Economy B, GRU-MXP in Economy X

(6) What is your home airport?
Milan (MXP, LIN or BGY)

(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?
I have 10.5k miles on Miles and More (LH), 2k miles with Miles and Bonus (A3) and a Star Alliance Silver status until December 2015, 0.5k Avios and 10 Lifetime Tier Points with British Airways and 4.5k miles with Alitalia.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Well, my most common airline is SWISS, but it's part of Star Alliance. My OW preferred airline is BA.

BA or Virgin?
 

Hello
I'm looking for some advice on which airline FF to use for my upcoming 12 months of travel (and onwards). I'd prefer to stick with OW but the BA end of year is extremely annoying compared to Virgin's rolling year.

Here's my questionnaire with some additional relevant information below, thank you in advance!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Upgrades and Lounge access

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
50000+, approx 14 long haul, 25 short haul

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
Business long haul, economy short haul

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Work, i can generally choose

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
London to USA but also fairly frequent to Australia plus European domestic

6. What is your home airport?
LHR

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
BA - Silver, 280k Avios, Year ends in April
Virgin, no status, 150k miles
Qantas, no status, no miles.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
Cathay Pacific, Qatar, Singapore

Additional info:

My approximate schedule is:

November Various European short haul
January London to Australia return and several domestic.
March London to Dallas return.
April London to Lax return
May Various European short haul
June London to NYC return and various US domestic
July Various European short haul
September London to Toronto return
October Various European short haul
December London to Australia and various domestic.

Hi

Deleted previous txt. Far too verbose.

Id consider getting *A gold for European lounge access and T2 usage at LHR.

Looks like BAEC Gold is also well within reach


Rgds OF

Thanks for the response OF.

Unfortunately based on my schedule it is one or the other.

Based on this, and assuming business class on the long-hauls per your description, you could easily make BA Gold, or probably AA Executive Platinum. With AA EXP you'd earn 8 one-way systemwide upgrades (on AA metal) and while I haven't gone through the numbers, I suspect you'd end up with more spendable AAdvantage miles than you would Avios, and in any event IMO the AA program is more generous on redemptions than the revamped BAEC comparables.

It might behoove you to do a side-by-side comparo, using BA tier points and AA elite qualifying points (1.5 per flown mile in PE or higher) as the metrics - you need 100K elite qualifying points or elite qualifying miles for EXP, i.e. 66.6K butt-in-seat miles in PE, J or F. AA uses a calendar year for its qualifications, with the status expiring at the end of February the following year. (In other words, qualify during calendar 2016 and the status expires 1 March 2018.)

Thanks for the response.

The AA option sounds interesting, i shall investigate that.

The problem with BAEC is my year end is mid April so realistically i wouldn't be looking at Gold till January 2017. And it's frustrating to see 5 months of good travel go to waste (personally i find Avios to be pretty much worthless as i can never spend them).

Harking back to previous question I raised in this threat, related to the current question:
If both BAEC Gold/Emerald and AA Plat/ EXP are within reach, but AA Plat/ExPlat requires co-pay for the status match (about 200$ IIRC from what Gardyloo posted) would that still be a worthwhile target? I seem to think it would be, given the value of SWU. What are the key differences, other than Avios / AAdvantage miles, and the SWUs?

Recently AA has made some changes in the challenge system worth noting; see these threads -

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...gram-come.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-targeted.html

In terms of advantages of one over the other, a couple of things come to mind -

AA EXP doesn't automatically get access to AA lounges on North American itineraries while BA Gold has access to BA (and other Oneworld) lounges on any itinerary.

AA EXPs get unlimited (space available) upgrades on North American flights; BA Golds don't receive any automatic upgrades.

I can't speak to BA Gold, but the dedicated AA EXP desk people are miracle workers in cases of IRROPs or things going sideways. They're the best customer service people I've encountered anywhere, by an order of magnitude.

But the SWUs and - to me - better redemption characteristics of the AA program - cheaper mileage requirements for most flights, more partners - are the main advantage.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access and more than one luggage when checking in

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Less than 30000

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest and or Business on AY

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Majority N.America and some to Asia

(6) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(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

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
None were Oneworld. But will be booking AY in Business Class from YYZ to SIN

CX has also made substantial changes shifting to a Zonal based points system from 15 Apr 2016
(quite similar in design to QF's SC system - at least before the SimplerFairer changes)..

Reduced points earn on all non-CX flights as well

Thread on CX board for discussion:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...pr-2016-a.html

May I know which airline in the Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program gives the longest validity at each tier?
Thank you.

Hi all,

I need some advises on OW FFP. I already have an asiamiles account for few years. now downgraded back to Green level. Wonder if there is any best FFPs and credit cards to earn points and miles for free/upgrades to Biz or even first class flights

As many things changes in the Macro Polo Club next year in Apr... really hard to think of strategies to get the best way to get the cheapest flight and get points/miles...



(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free - discounted lounge access, upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Unfortunately <25000 miles and sometimes around 32000 miles. fly once/twice a year from US to Asia

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy, the cheapest

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Just for pleasure; I can usually choose the airline CX, but not the class of service.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Mostly to Asia from USA and CX Econs


(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?

lowest level in OW or Macro Polo (Asiamiles) as I used up my points last year. basically no points in FFP now

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
CX and my most common airline is CX

I will be helping my relatives to ask for advice in this case. I believed under new MPC structure, he cant even qualify for CX Gold. He looks forward to keep OWE for first class lounge accesses.

1) What is your home airport?
HKG
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
62k miles - 70k miles

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
L or V Class

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
HKG<->NGB for 45-50 times a year.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
CX DM

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounges and priority service line.

(8) Preferred Airlines
KA/CX

Thanks in advance.

Look here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...hoose-why.html
Will be hard to impossible to keep OWE. That is what these (CX & BA) changes are about. Less miles & benefits to freq flyers

Hello

I'm looking for your advice on which airline FF I should choose.

Thanks in advance!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
good adward chart

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 30000 miles, most on Star Alliance right now but I would like to join OW

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
short hoa eco, Long haul business

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I'm as I travel for pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
inter european, Europe to arabia and Transatlantic to the Westcoast or Hawaii

6. What is your home airport?
ZRH

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
Star Allaince Miles and More from Lufthansa, no Status about 60'000 miles

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
QR, SQ, AA, LX

Help needed deciding on best FFP
 

I'm a long time UA/*A member (>300K lifetime miles), currently UA gold but will be Platinum by the end of the year. I'm not finding the program that valuable anymore and am trying to decide if I should move to another carrier. Any help/advice would be appreciated!

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
IAD for now, will change to DEN or AUS

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

(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?
Work and pleasure, mostly work. I can choose the airline, but I work for NGO and have spending restrictions.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Transatlantic, North Africa/Middle East (I spend a lot of time connecting in FRA)

(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)
UA Gold (will be platinum in next month or so), EK Gold (as Plat member companion), SPG Platinum

(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.)
UPGRADES, lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
Up in the air...UA right now, maybe QA or EK? Or is AA better with base in the US?

Welcome to FT
Living in USA not worth considering a non USA airline FFP. But some people in USA do use BA.
EK Emirates is not OneWorld
QA: if you mean QF Qantas do not consider the QF ffp for 1 second. Its a poor ffp.

Go for AA. DFW is AA home base.
AS is OK for some due to the DL & AA being freq flyer partner airlines

QA = Qatar Airways. The majority of my travel is to the Middle East/North Africa region, thus the appeal of QA/EK.

I only spend 50% or less of my time in the USA. I am more or less a permanent traveler, but as US citizen, I maintain the US as my residence.

Both QA and EK are appealing because they offer lots of connections in the region I travel to the most. But with EK's recent devaluation, I've been looking to QA/AA to see if that would make more sense. I am not sure if AA or QA would make the most sense to maximize earnings and upgrades, since most of my travel would be on QA and AA downgrades OW partner earnings.

Qatar is QR. Not the best ffp
But it depends on want you want from a ffp.
With non USA based airlines always expect to fly in the cabin you buy: upgrades are not given out like with USA based airlines.
If you look the QR forum you will see upgrades are by email request.

The airline you fly and the airline you credit those flights to does not need to be the same

Let me re-frame this.

According to the AA website, flights on all OW partners are devalued to 50-75% (for economy fares). If the majority of my international flights with AA/OW are on QR, then it would be a massive loss. This is the primary reason I am questioning using AA as my FFP.

Does anyone know how this works practically speaking? Do you truly lose that much in terms of status/points by flying OW partners through AA FFP?

Hi all, I am trying to decide whether to create a new BA FFP account but am not sure if its worth it in my scenario:

1) What is your home airport?
Reply: LHR

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: I used to fly around 90k, almost all long-haul in 3-4 London-S.E. Asia return trips. This has now reduced to a couple a year, plus a few short-haul flights so maybe 50k. All in economy unless redeeming air miles.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Usually the cheapest economy tickets available.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, complete flexibility, but I tend to want to fly non-stop if possible.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: LHR to KUL mostly, with a few LHR to Europe trips.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present?
Reply: MH Silver (so OneWorld Ruby) but this expires in March and I am not on track to maintain it.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge access would be great, but realistically I am looking for whatever programme which will maximise my few flights a year in terms of miles to redeem on upgrades or hopefully just my ruby status for business check-in.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: MH mainly because they fly direct to KUL. I tend to avoid flying BA long-haul wherever possible.

I currently have a ton of points on my HSBC credit card which can be credited towards BA, Krisflyer points, Etihad Guest or Asia Miles points hence the dilemma. I don't know whether it's worth me opening a BA account to simply accrue non-flying points, or open one of the other programmes linked with my credit card. If I do open a BA account, should I start allocating my MH flights to BA or would I be better off keeping those miles separate and redeeming them separately?

I appreciate the advice :)

If only flying few or low number of flights it make no sense to have multiple overlapping ffp's (like OneWorld). You will not get enough miles/points/avios to use before they expire.

I would use your MH points and open a BA account. Credit all eligible flights to BA.
Or look for an award and only then transfer from the credit card

The Privilege Club (QRs FFP) earning table practically mirrors what you would earn on QR when crediting to AAdvantage. Discount economy earns a measly 25% there as well: http://www.qatarairways.com/Privileg...arn_chart.page.
Privilege Club has a point system for earning status similar to BA's program - it's not 100% miles-based. Use their calculator with the routes you fly most to check on if it's worth it: http://www.qatarairways.com/sites/Pr...alculator.page

Workaround: If you buy QR flights as AA codeshares on aa.com, you will earn AA miles according to the AA earning chart, which gives 100% miles for even the cheapest fare - for now. Price differences for codeshares vary greatly - do some research for the routes you fly most often.
Nobody here knows if and when that will change, but everyone around here is certain AAdvantage will see a major devaluation rather soon. Check this thread for where this may well be heading: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-2015-a-2.html

Collective wisdom around here says it's usually preferable to credit to/gain status in the FFP of the airline that one uses most.
In your case, crediting to QR will get you low or maybe mid-tier status with QR, and only by crediting to PC will you be able to use miles for upgrades on QR flights. Also, status in PC MAY LIKELY give you better shots at operational upgrades.
Crediting to AA, you cannot upgrade QR flights with AA miles if that is what you're after.

However, especially for a US citizen, AA miles are - for now - much easier to obtain (think cc use) than QR miles and better overall well due to their generous redemption chart. And AA miles practically do not expire (especially when you have and use a co-branded cc), while QR miles do have a hard expiration date of 36 to 41 months after earning. When you only fly discount economy, you need to collect for a long time before having enough for an award or an upgrade, so keep this in mind.

Personally, in your situation I would credit to AA (and get their cc) and decide what to do in a few months after the AA devaluation has been announced.
For oneworld status - wait until you have your UA platinum card and then status match with airberlin. This will give you OW Sapphire status for a year (incl. lounge access).

Best Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program for you?
The answer to this question depends very much on your personal travel profile and objectives.
- what is your definition of best?
- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
- which airline and where do you normally fly?
- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
- where do you live?
- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
- there is a big difference between a frequent flyer and a frequent spender getting ff miles from a credit card
- etc, etc, etc
(above copied in part from a post by dunk)

Questions
For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Priority Services, In-flight benefits (E+, etc.), Lounge Access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: 30,000 AA each year. 12,000 other each year. This can vary- one year it might be more and one year it might be less.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy, Premium Economy

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: LAX - IST (TK), SNA - DFW (AA)

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: DFW, SNA, LAX

(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?
Reply: TK *G. Might earn AA Gold soon.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: I like *A but with DFW involved, it's becoming tough.
__________________________________________________ _

Living in DFW, USA and flying AA there will be nothing better than AA in OneWorld
Some in USA go with the BA ffp. But to get BA status you need 4 BA flights
AS as wild card due to the partners http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx

BEST OPTION FOR ONEWORLD FF IN OCEANIA?

Hi all,

I'm currently BAEC silver (OW sapphire), have been living in Australia and NZ for a year, getting to the point of struggling to make the 4 flights a year on BA required to maintain status (as I don't have that much business in Singapore, and it seems a fairly poor hub for onward OW connections...)

Was thinking of joining QF but have heard very little good about it. Alternatively was toying with the idea of jumping ship to AirNZ (although this would be fairly impractical as a lot of the routes I have to take for work are PSOs with Qantas as the only airline)

Therefore left wondering about Cathay (unlikely as just move the current singapore issue to hong kong), MAS (seems potentially risky in the longer term), or LAN, which with their SYD-AKL route is seriously attractive to me, although I can't find a huge amount of information online

Thanks in advance for any guidance!


(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: I like the free upgrades and decent seating I get being BAEC, and I'm more interest in status (for stuff like lounge access) than I am in miles. I do like how BA lets you pay partially with points and get the same TP/avios but i suspect that's reasonably unique to BA. Extra baggage is occasionally useful but so infrequently that it's not a massive priority

(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: in the last 12 months i've done the following (paid for- i'm not counting courtesy upgrades for comparison purposes)
BA short haul club x2
BA short haul economy x2
BA long haul WT+ x2 (x2 more booked)
AA long haul club x1
AA mid haul economy x1
LAN short haul economy x1
LAN long haul economy x2
LAN short haul business x3 (x1 more booked)
QF domestic economy x12
QF short haul economy x5
QR long haul economy x4
MH long haul economy x4
MH short haul business (x4 booked)
UL short haul business x2
UL long haul business x2

VA domestic economy x4
ANZ domestic economy x3

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply:
Usually economy/premium economy. Business depending on fare or whether I can get a decent upgrade offer

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: To a certain extent but not on some many of my work contracts within Australia (which are usually QF/Jetstar only)

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: No real "home" routes beyond SYD-AKL

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SYD or AKL depending on which way i'm parting my hair that month

(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: 150000 ish miles in BAEC. Very rarely redeem any. BAEC silver for the past 2 years

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Any and all oneworld

nancypants Welcome to FT

An interesting problem.
Is living in Australia - NZ for ever or a short time (few years)? I assume you still a have a UK address for the BA ffp. BA does not allow member with an Australian - NZ address (unless this has changed).

QF is generally a poor ffp. But depends on your objectives from a ffp and how you earn miles/points/status. For many AA is better ffp, then BA but nothing is right or wrong. Look at post 330
AA, BA & QF all require 4 (own) marketed flights for status
AA does not have soft landing from status. If you do not requalify you drop to the bottom status. QF (& BA?) you only drop 1 status/tier level per year
JQ only credit to QF if an eligible flight.

In my view VA is a better ffp for Air NZ & VA flights. Unless flying a lot with Air NZ and earning NZ points by credit card it’s a very poor ffp (a magnitude worse than QF)