No one has ever answered this, so I'm going to add some more information and see if anyone can give me a suggestion.

Right now, I have around 20K miles on USAir. I presume that those miles will somehow end up in an AAdvantage account. I have an old AAdvantage account in which my miles have expired. I took big flight in early June, of which one short leg was on AA and one leg on JetBlue. Presumably I can get those miles into the AA account. Is that the best use of them? Is there any advantage to putting them into, say, the British Airways program (which I gather is the only one I can put miles into late, without having a pre-existing account)?

My husband and daughter don't have AAdvantage accounts, so I gather that their miles can only be put into a British Airways account. Am I right? Is there any point in doing so? Like me, they each have around 20K USAirways miles and nothing in any other program.

You cannot credit JetBlue flights to BAEC at all, and even AAdvantage lets you credit only certain routes (check here), so, short of opening a TrueBlue account and putting them in there (they let you credit flights back up to 90 days) these won't get you anything.

Seeing you're living in the US the US and fly mostly domestic, AA seems to be the logical choice. Although the BA program has its advantages (namely cheap redemptions on short AA domestic routes and the option of household accounts where you can pool miles for the family) if you want to attain status on BA they require four BA flights per year, which, unlike the same on AA, is enforced.

Those US miles will only transfer to AAdvantage when the FFPs merge. If your husband and child don't have AAdvantage accounts they surely will get one created when the program gets rolled over.

Thank you so much for your help. Is there any advantage to opening a TrueBlue account and putting the miles in it?

Well, you cannot put them to use any other way. Their points don't expire, so even when you're an infrequent traveler on them they'll continue to add up for that reward flight one day :)

Hey guys, as Aeropesos devalue and I've gotten enough for my RTW trip (even after the stupid fare increase), I've decided to start flying the cheapest airline rather than be loyal to S*

Looking for a good Oneworld program to join

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: YYZ (Toronto, Canada), fly frequently to HKG/NRT

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

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy, sometimes (seldomly) business

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, pleasure almost exclusively

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: To Asia and North America domestic

(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: Air Canada Elite 35k

(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/priority service would be nice

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I've only had experience with Cathay, which I enjoyed.

@exc

Unless your North American flying is in the really discount fare classes that will never credit (from AA) to CX, I would be very tempted with the CX program. While benefits as a CX Silver are limited mainly to CX flights, those benefits are superior to most of the other entry elite level status of the OneWorld alliance.

As with all things read the program notes on line (Asia Miles) before deciding
I haven't checked (recently) whether WestJet and/or Alaska will credit to CX. If they do, all the better

Happy wandering

Fred

The other to consider is Alaska: a good programe with many partners, including CX,AA & DL
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx

Upgrades
The general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your freq flyer programe (no codeshares). However as is the way with FFP's there are some (expensive) exceptions with AA/BA ffp's.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
LAX, SNA, ONT, LGB. Any airport in that area.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
It depends. I don't really fly that much, so usually <25K. Might go into the 25K-50K range if our family decides to travel internationally.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, I can choose any airline or class of service as long as I can afford it. I travel for pleasure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Domestic
(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)
No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Upgrades, redemption rates. Wouldn't mind lounge access and priority services.
(8) Preferred Airlines
None

I deduct from this you're a family travelling together. I'd look at BAEC; they have a unique pooling feature called "household account" where your whole family can pool miles. Also, they give 100% mileage on all AA booking classes, and, since their redemption is distance-based, using them for (short) domestic redemptions is a good value; better than AA.

@bhomburg

Would you say that AA would be second best?

Yes. Being a member in the FFP of your "home" airline comes recommended most of the time, especially since you'll be flying AA most of all oneworld airlines. And AAdvantage is not a bad program at all.
Plus, as US residents, you have a lot of good non-flying AA mileage earning options with their co-branded credit cards (speaking of those, BA also offers CCs in the US - click - something I'd consider when choosing FFPs).
It's just that BA is a good choice for not-really-frequent flying families, especially when redeeming those Avios on non-BA flights where their ridiculous surcharges on award tickets aren't an issue.

Thank you very much for your help, bhomburg! :)

Recently moved and change decision point
 

I've recently moved to India... Been with BA in NYC and BKK these many years, now ill fly enough to get top status on a single alliance only and definitely not enough to make GGL on BA I will fly to London twice a year so will have 4 flights in BA but AA. Is out. Please advice on this basis and with following info

(1) home airport: DEL
(2) not sure. Internationally from today to 31 December ned to do DEL-HKG, DEL-PEK DEL-LON. DEL-MNL, DEL-SYD expect this pattern to continue next year as well WEstbound travel mainly to UK and US some brazil, some South Africa

Eastbound everywhere, really. Next year in particular to Australia.

(3) class :business


(4) can choose airline: yes

(5) routes: see above

(6) FFP. *gold and EK gold but will drop both these now

(7) FFP important for: lounge access, upgrades, priority services

Preferred airlines: I only really dislike AA among all the OW. I love MH, UL and CX, quite like QR and BA, am ok with IB, TAM QF Finnair and RJ. The rest I know not.

Thanks in advance for taking the time to advise me!

I was a long time AY+ member and changed a few years ago to BAEC, but haven't been totally satisfied with BA's redemption availability and some changes in their program. Is there a better FFP for me?

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: HEL

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

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy in Europe and Business or First in long-haul flights

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: + 10 flight per/year in Europe, 2 or 3 flights to North America (LAX, SFO, BOS, BGI or MIA) per/year, 1 or 2 flights to Middle East per/year and 2 or 3 flights to Asia (ICN, NRT, SIN, HKG or MNL) per/year

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: BA Silver

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge Access, Redemption rates and availability, Fast tracks, Upgrades and Extra baggage allowance

(8) Preferred Airlines?
Reply: None. Of course CX and Malaysian are always very good options ^

Edit: And it would be a BIG PLUS if American Express works with the FFP.

FFP Help - all over the place
 

Hello Flyertalk!

While I'm trying to get the online booking tool to work so I can purchase my LONE5, I realized it'd be a good idea to pick a FFP to join first!

Our intended route is (pending availability and success on the booking tool..)

AKL- HKG (CX)
HKG- KTM - HKG (KA)
HKG -JNB (CX)
JNB-CPT (BA)
CPT-LHR (BA)
LHR-IST (BA)
IST-AMM (RJ)
AMM-DME (RJ)
DME -MAD (IB)
MAD-GRU (IB)
GRU-LIM (LAN)
LIM-SCL (LAN)
SCL - IPC-SCL (LAN)
SCL-AKL (QF)


Questions:

(1) What is your home airport? YVR, Canada

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? L class, mileage varies. YVR to HNL for simple holidays.

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? I can choose - usually fly the cheapest and/or most convenient times

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Canada and USA

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? just signed up with Aeroplan

(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, redemption/burn rates

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Air Canada, but could be any carrier.


My initial thought was to go with AA since I've read a lot of good reviews of the program here. My concern is that AA doesn't seem to be the best point accumulator based on my flights above. Earning zero miles from the CX flights, .25 from BA, .3 from IB and .5 from QF seems like such a waste!

I'm wondering, would it be worthwhile to sign up for LA or CX to accumulate, then convert to AA when i'm ready to redeem?

Your advice would be much appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Sophia