Who do you credit your current flights with (QF / DJ) ?
Is PEX Peking or ? PEX is in Russia
Will the RTW be OneWorld or Star airlines ?
With any ffp need to check if you get miles credit with your home ffp and other airlines in the alliance. All depends on fare bucket
Hard to get status when traveling few miles/trips and in economy

I actually meant PEK, so Beijing. RTW will be OneWorld.

I currently credit any miles I get to both QF and DJ. I have been quite stupid. I have no false illusions that I am likely to get status any time soon, but depending on how agreeable to wife is, there is a slim chance I will do enough miles.

Please help I am completely new to one world!
(1) What is your home airport? AMS
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? <25K not interested in status.
(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? Yes. Mostly pleasure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most most? 1 Europe to USA 2 Europe to europe 3 USdomestic
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? N
(7) What is most important to you in FFP? Easy to earn miles, good reward redemptions in Econ and business from eur to America and eur to Asia.
(8) Preferred Airlines ???

if I choose iberia or BA can I book awards on AA and vice versa?

Yes. But BA have very high add on surcharges on rewards. I have no idea about IB surcharges. Much less on AA

Where, if any, do you OW miles go now ?

AA has good earn to burn rates. But some fares with BA, IB etc may not be miles earning. For miles collecting with few flights, AA may best for you.
Wait to see what others think

AAdvantage or Asia Miles?
 

I've got 25,000 miles in Asia Miles.
I've only got 600 miles on American this year.

I'm about to book a round trip from ORD to Perth.

I'm confused with AAdvantage vs Asia Miles, so should I book this new trip using my Asia Miles number, or my AAdvantage number, and start building some One World status?

I am Gold Premier on Star Aliance, but the One World carriers are so much cheaper on this route.

I'll be making this same trip a couple more times, this year.

This board is so full of knowledgeable travelers, so please give me some advice....

Where do you live ?
Do you get miles from credit cards or other non flying activities?

Some of your other thread's answered some q's
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/catha...give-them.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...ld-i-know.html --> Post 12 by Dave

I live near Chicago.
I do get miles from credit card (Mileage Plus Explorer card)

It also depends on what you want to get from a Frequent Flyer program.

- rewards flights?
- lounge access?
- upgrades?
- lifetime status?

Unless you fly a lot of CX there is very little incentive to be with Asia Miles. So personally I would most probably go for AA even so you don't get lounge access domestically.

I'm primarily interested in earning free flights. Second would be lifetime status.

That's what I feeling, regarding Asia miles vs AA. So, I think also that doing what I can to earn AA would be better.

Any suggestions for what I can/should do with that 25K miles I've banked with Asia Miles? I'm kicking my butt for even putting those couple of trips into Asia miles rather than AA.

I am merging this thread with the ongoing "Deciding on a Oneworld FF Program" sticky thread.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I'm no expert on AsiaMiles but the first level is I believe 30K, so did the 25K come from current flying? If so, I'd certainly consider that fact in my decision.

If your flying pattern normally includes SEAsia and/or Australia, the call between the two is more difficult as posting on Flyertalk indicates that CX does take incredible care of its own FF members. And upgrades with miles are relatively easy. And allows the use of premium cabins and status earning simultaneously. Remember you have to register for MPC separately.

OTOH my experience with AA has been quite good. And if you fly long haul economy, gaining and keeping status is quite "possible". And currently the award flights with AA are "economical". Lifetime status though is now going to require a LOT of BIS flying.

Happy wandering

Fred

95% LTG (AA)

Which OW membership to join?
 

Hi everyone,

As you can see on my profile, I'm a Star Alliance G* member already and this year, I'm planning to have two trips SIN-ZRH and return, which could earn me around 25,600 miles (flying in Y).

(1) What is your home airport?
SIN

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
>50k in Y unrestricted most of the times. But currently accruing on StarAlliance.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy, full fair usually.

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Mostly in Asia ex SIN to India to the West and Japan to the East. Rarely China.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No but I do have around 3000 miles with BA and 2000 miles with CX.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Moslty lounge access and priority check-in and luggage handling. Then comes upgrades or good award redemption rate.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Within OW: CX mostly because of my flight pattern around Asia. JAL would be a bit too stretched out.

My intention is not really to jump programme. I am quite happy with Star Alliance for this part of the world but I was thinking that I might as well build up a status with another alliance while I can.

So the question would be: which programme has the lowest mileage requirements to attain Gold status on OW?

Relocating to London for a year; need advice on which OW program to join. No status with any OW, have A3*G though, apart from status with couple of India based airlines.

(1) What is your home airport?
DEL (shifting to LHR for a year though)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
~50k (Y on domestic; J on international). Primarily on 9W, IT (no alliance); have *G status

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airline most of the times (given similar fares) but not service. Work mostly

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Mostly India domestic till now; will change to largely intra-Europe travel.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
(a) Priority check-in, baggage (b) Upgrades, (c) Lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
None

I got to *G with A3 in just 6 DEL-SIN flights (just needs 20k M&B miles), is there a similar program in OW that makes it relatively easy to attain Gold status?

Becareful about CX
 

Most economy fares on CX or dragon air does not offer AA miles.

They only give you Asia Miles which is useless for most people

best bet?
 

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: MEL (Melbourne, Australia)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25k-40k

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

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Australia-US, some domestic Australia

(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: 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:
(1) good award redemption rates
(2) lounge access
(realize that upgrades are unlikely for me)

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Avoid United internationally, like the service on QF


On advice I got from you good folks before moving to Oz, I started focusing on AA. Then I realized that the bargain-basement economy tickets our work travel agent is buying us aren't getting me any ffp at all (!) on AA. I flew roundtrip DEN-LAX-MEL on AA/QF in October 2011 and only got ffp for the domestic US DEN-LAX legs, nothing for the real mileage part of the trip.

I have the following travel upcoming:

(trip 1)
MEL-LAX-JFK -- QF Q class
JFK-BOS -- DL K class
BOS-JFK -- AA G class
JFK-LAX-MEL -- QF Q class

(trip 2)
MEL-Hong Kong-Pusan, S Korea -- CX L class
Pusan-Cheju S Korea -- Korean Air Y class
Cheju-Seoul S Korea -- Korean Air Y class
Seoul-Tokyo -- JL L class
Tokyo-San Fran-LAX-DEN -- AA L class
DEN-LAX-MEL -- QF L class

I'm thinking I need to start accumulating with QF to get *any* benefit from those long-haul cheapo-class QF flights. But on the other hand my primary purpose is to consolidate enough miles to get award tickets (preferably to go to Europe). I do have a BA account with 21k Avios miles but I do know from experience that those miles are difficult and expensive to use, and I understand the same is true for QF. I could also split and try to put the AA flights on AA and QF on QF but I'm not sure I can do that on a single itinerary, and that just spreads my points out thinly.

I am also in the market for an Australian credit card, so thought about getting a QF-associated one if I need to go that route. Not sure how much that matters.

Thanks for any thoughts.

In my view the reply in your first post http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...lub-vs-aa.html is still relevant. To collect points/miles for a reward with low miles/fees AA is OK. With 5 in the family. some will need to pay. 5 rewards on 1 flight is very optimistic

For rewards Aust to EU you are trying to get tickets from the same bucket no matter which airline ffp. However due to different airline IT systems QF has awards from 353 days vs AA 330 days vs BA ?? days.
AA has the best burn rate / lowest $ fees by far. Indeed a full AA reward can be not much different to points needed in the QF upgrade lottery.

With cheapest economy you always needs to check earning: some earn - some don't. With only a few flights, at the cheapest economy, status is unlikely to be earned. With QF higher status gets you lounge access.

Having a QF ffp account for all the other non AA earning flights is worth while. And you can collect points at Woolworth supermarket by spending $31. Can join QF for free (all 5 of you) at https://www.everydayrewards.com.au QF allows family consolidation of points

Not sure, but BA avois may expire if no account activity after ?? months. Check the BA ffp conditions. AA has a similar no activity condition.

You can split sector into different ffp, but at times the individual ffp does not stick. Phone the TA or airlines. Check, check & recheck. Or leave the ffp out of the reservation and manually claim later.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r-service.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...er-change.html
Post 4 on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-ud-seats.html

Thanks Mwenenzi! This is really helpful.

Which |FFP in OW will be the most appropriate for us?

(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
>30 < 50 in Y unrestricted most of the times. But currently accruing on StarAlliance.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy but NOT discounted usually mileage accruing.

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
YYZ-SIN/BKK/NRT and YYZ-GRU/EZE

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No but I do have CX basic membership.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access and priority check-in and luggage handling. Then comes upgrades or good award redemption rate.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Within OW: CX and BA

[NEWBIE LOUNGE] Ask Your Questions Here (flame free)
 

I have no status with any of OW apart from joining a couple of programs.
Based in Mel but fly various destinations a lot to asia, europe and oz and I want the best value possible.
Upcoming flights are Lhr to nce with ba one way in j
And then auh-hkg-kul one way in j
With cx

Options and programs you think are best for this?

Very confused by all the different threads at the top!

Excuse the grammar on the iPhone!

Better to ask in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

Is class of travel mainly J ? Getting status is worthwhile.
Put some flights into http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm to check status earn
For in frequent OW flights AA is best for many. (best earn to burn with low co payment fees)
I assume you are directing any credit card / hotel / rental car points to DJ. Non flying points/miles are valuable source for many.

Edit: Post 99 & 100 have been moved from the original thread ! Thanks Mr Moderator

Here is some more info if you can assist

(1) What is your home airport?
MEL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
25-50k combo of Y, Y+ and J

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy, Flexi or Disc Business

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. A little of both

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Varies every year...could be within Europe, Asia, the US or MEL to Asia etc

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I am Bronze with QF with only 4000 points

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Being able to upgrade, not fussed with lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
The one that is going to give me the quickest status with the upcoming flight sectors that I have in J.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
I used to be LAX but now I'm being relocated to IND but I don't mind the drive to ORD.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
25k-40k-ish.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Full Fare Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airline. Class of service is a stretch. 50/50 work-pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Mostly international-EU, China, SE Asia and Dubai. Dubai is often a rarity though. From what I've heard, my EU trips in the future may be pulled and instead moved to S America.
(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)
I was elite on EI. har har
(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.)
Lounge Access and priority is a plus. Inter-airline award F travel is also on the list but I wouldn't mind not having it. Also, with unpredictable economic times, I'd appreciate a program that doesn't have an expiry rate shorter than a year.
(8) Preferred Airlines
I know this is going to be harder when I say this, but I try to avoid AA. My parents fly them though, so I'd be open to any of the AA partners as well.

Thanks in advance!

Well, if you're flying full fare Y, you could easily do a Platinum Challenge on AA, make Plat and therefore get lounge access on international trips, and at Oneworld partners' lounges overseas, and as AA Plat get upgraded on domestic and Canada/Caribbean/Mexico/Central America flights on any full-fare (Y/B) economy ticket. You'd also get "sticker" 500-mile upgrades (4 per 10K BIS miles) good on any domestic discount Y fare, no bag fees, priority access at the counters, and various other perks. AA supposedly requires 4 AA-metal flights annually to requalify, but it seems nobody has ever lost status by not doing the four flights.

To keep Plat status you need to log 50K EQ Points or EQ Miles in a calendar year; however Y and B economy earns 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so you'd retain Plat with 33,333 flown miles in those fares (or any business/first). In redemption terms, AA is about as good as it gets, and if you're spending more time in Latin America, AA's route structure is also the best.

Thanks! I'm a bit hesitant about this though. It seems like a reach of commitment and I'd like to stay away from AA. What would be the next likely option?

Just because you are in the AA freq flyer program does not mean you are limited to only to AA flights.
AA is best ffp for you IMHO

Probably BA, but there you need to fly on 4 BA-metal segments. BA awards (with the exception of some short-haul trips) are generally more expensive (in mileage terms) than comparable AA awards, owing to BA's requirement that multi-segment awards are charged on a point-to-point basis rather than an origin/destination basis. For example, using BA Avios, IND-xORD-xLHR-JNB (one way) in J would cost 99,000 Avios, vs. 75,000 AA miles. 9,000 of those Avios would be needed just for the IND-ORD segment; using AA it would be all-inclusive.

Elite status in the BAEC comes from tier point totals, not miles flown, with discount economy earning very few TPs, full-fare ("flexible") economy earning more, but not as many as business or first class. You need 600 TP or 50 flights to earn BAEC Silver (Oneworld Sapphire = AA Plat) which might be tough given your flying patterns.

You wouldn't get upgraded on AA flights; however as BAEC Silver you could use AA lounges on domestic flights, which you couldn't do as an AA Plat.

Probably best for you to research the programs some more on the AA or BA boards. I do think, however, that based in the US, AA would be the way to go.

Hi everyone, I am still pretty new to Flyertalk and this is the first time I'm ever even considering oneworld. I've been (and continue to be) mostly a Star Alliance flyer. However, I've now ended up needing a flight at short notice and found a Cathay Pacific flight that's way cheaper than the nearest *A flight that seemed acceptable to me. In short, I would like to know which OneWorld FFP is best suitable for just redeeming a few miles now and then. Here are my answers to the questions:

(1) What is your home airport? (CGN/FRA)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (25k-50k, but not on OneWorld, the amount on OneWorld would be just the occasional longhaul)

(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? I can choose my airlines and OneWorld flights would be pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (mainly Europe-Asia, transatlantic also possible, perhaps the occasional Asia regional flight)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? none

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates, better award access, long validity, good recognition of booking classes (on *A some exclude anything even remotely discount, some aren't quite as strict). Lounge access, upgrades etc. are no issues as I doubt I'll be flying OneWorld enough to ever get any elite status.

(8) Preferred Airlines: So far considering Cathay, but no real preference, I'd be following the prices.


Thanks for the help!

Hey all, *A user here based out of New York. I'm likely to start flying more so than I do now, but specifically to the west coast of the US and Western Europe for work. I'm likely to continue to use my *A memberships for international via the Pacific Ocean, but I'm a bit miffed by the lack of *A coverage out of JFK specifically to London, and am looking for advice. Thanks!

(1) What is your home airport?
JFK/LGA. EWR is out of the question due to distance.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
About 15K in Economy on leisure, but I am anticipating 10K or more in Business. Those 15K leisure miles may end up getting split with oneworld and *A.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy, though if the price is reasonable I would buy discounted Business. For work, it's also going to be a mix, but I don't think they'd put me in Y even to the destinations listed below (cross-country or to Europe).

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, and no (on choosing cabin class). I do travel for both, but for now it's heavily weighted towards leisure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Right now, all my leisure flights usually are JFK-NRT and NRT-??? (using NRT as a connection). I imagine I'll be doing a lot of flights to SFO/SJC/SEA/LHR/ZRH.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No, but I do have an aging JMB card and membership -- it may even be inactive now as I haven't flown JAL in 6 years :(
I am planning on getting *G through A3 at some point though, so that will eat into some miles. I use NH for redemption purposes only, as MR points transfer there and it's fairly easy to get JFK-NRT.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reasonable redemption rates for domestic travel or to Western Europe, and easy-ish elite status.

(8) Preferred Airlines: I currently do most of my spending on AMEX, so BA is the only option for transferring miles, unfortunately. I'd have to justify getting a paid AAdvantage card (and that would eat away at my MR points). I don't think I'd want to do JAL for the JFK-NRT route, however I would consider using AA for JFK-HND at least once.

AA, BA or QF loyalty club?
 

Hi, I was after a bit of advice.

I have emigrated from the UK to Australia and have been an executive club member for some years now. I have gained Silver (one world sapphire) on a couple of occassions but am now down to blue with 50k avios points. Most of my points are gained through travelling to the US, which I usually pay for premium economy and use miles to upgrade to Club (business). I usually gain 13,000 miles and spend 25,000 on my flight and top up my miles inbetween flights with Amex purchases. I have been told by BA that I can use miles on the route from Sydney/west coast (on AA/QF) but only in full payment ie not money plus miles)


My question is with regards to which loyalty club to join and try to gain points through. I had thoughts of joining Qantas or American's loyalty clubs as I am still plaining on visiting the USA, although this will probably be via San Fran/LA. Given how I use my miles I would appreciate any advice (and reasoning behind the advise)

Many thanks

Barry

PS im posting this in BA, AA and QF forums

Hello and welcome to FlyerTalk, iambazza! We are always happy to have new members. I see that you have posted this question in 3 different fora. While I appreciate that you're looking to canvass a large audience for this question, cross posting is prohibited by the FlyerTalk Terms of Service. Specifically:

You can find that rule here, and the entire list of FlyerTalk Guidelines and Rules here. I've gone ahead and moved your question to the oneworld forum, which I believe is the right place for this type of questions. Our friends here will be able to offer you some good advice I'm sure. :) If you have any questions, please do feel free to PM me or my moderator colleagues.

~Microwave
AAdvantage Forum Co-Moderator

OK, many appologises, my intention was to gauge information from people who knew the different specific programmes well. I wasnt trying to break any rules

Barry


I wasnt aware of the template so here goes


(1) What is your home airport?
SYD

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Not sure only just moved to Oz, but have a couple of USA road trips planed for SYD-ORD, JFK-SYD and SYD-LAX LAS-SYD for june and sep next year both would be in Business as well as a couple of Australian domestic economy flights.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
short haul Economy and long haul business usually using money + miles (see comments above) although I will buy long haul business if needed

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. shorthaul business and long haul pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Now will be SYD-USA

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I have a QF card (but no points) and BA ex silver (now blue with 50k)

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Being able to use a flat bed on the flight, lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
none but would prefer to stay in a 'better, respected' carrier

iambazza,
Given that it comes down to AA or QF in my view. Unlikely with that amount that you could go for both

QF advantages
- Easier to get to sapphire/emerald using paid J or F (including YUPs)
- Access to AA lounges on US domestic itineraries
- Ability to upgrade QF metal (important given this seems to be your main longhaul)
- Ability to combine with Aussie credit cards
- More achievable lifetime status (now that AA has gone BIS only)

AA advantages
- Generally better earn/burn rates
- Upgrades on AA domestic legs
- Status challenge to move you up the ranks quickly

Personally if in your position I would value the ability to upgrade the longhaul legs, but others will look at the earn/burn ratios.

Not directly related to your decision on which FFP, but it sounds like you might want to investigate a Circle Pacific fare (ex-HKG, starting around US/AU$ 5000++ in business class) which could dramatically reduce your long-haul business class outlay and still keep you in high-standard carriers (QF, JL, CX) in the process. The intra-Oz flights could be included (in J.)

for iambazza would US Airways be worth considering as a play towards the expected switch of US Air out of *A into Oneworld assuming the purchase of AA by US Air is going to succeed reasonably soon? wondering if it's worth a gamble of using the advantages of the US Air program whilst accruing a balance that presumably will become a Oneworld cache of miles?

1) What is your home airport?
JFK and BNE

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Jan 1-present: 8,000 in BA Y, 8000 in BA Y+, 22'ish in QF paid J (JFK-BNE round-trip). 2013 will include at least 1, possibly 2 round trips JFK-BNE in paid J. Also, perhaps a BNE-HKG trip.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Dependent on price, distance etc, Y, Y+, and J. I am both price sensitive and comfort sensitive.

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

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Will be JFK-BNE.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I have BA silver with 52k avios. Barring an ad hoc trip across the pond, I will lose this in Oct 2013 due to not flying 4 segments with BA.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, redemption availability (YQ charges aren't a huge bother...I just want availability). MAINTAINING OW SAPPHIRE!

(8) Preferred Airlines
Because of my limited flying, obviously only OW.

It is pretty clear that if AA and US does merge, the combined airline would be in OW. However, that does not mean the merger will go through.

Hi all,

Very happy to have found this forum. I am a frequent traveler and long term Miles & More member. Having moved from Switzerland to the US (San Diego), I am now evaluating my options. Given that BA is the only airline flying directly from San Diego to Europe, I thought I'd look beyond Star Alliance into Oneworld - but no experience with them at all. Would be great to get some opinions.

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

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: roughly 100k, primarily in Business

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Primarily Business (some random Economy for personal use that I'd like to upgrade with miles)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines, yes (although my business prefers Star Alliance). Travel primarily for business, sometimes pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: Primarily international to Europe (London, Moscow, Dusseldorf, Rome, ...) - sometimes Middle East (primarily Dubai), although I might just fly with Emirates for these instances. Every now and then I also fly within the U.S. (either with Southwest or United)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: Miles & More Senator (Gold) 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: Good question. I'd say easy upgrades, either with few miles or free vouchers when achieving status (e.g. M&M only gives you two vouchers per renewal period, and can't be used long-distance... surely there is better options). Also important that there are not too many restrictions on these upgrades in terms of booking classes, etc. Would also be nice to not have to pay a million miles for a free ticket and not spend as much in airport fees as a flight would cost... Lastly, priority services are nice to make frequent travel easier.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I like Swiss. Don't like Lufthansa, as their business seats don't recline 180 degrees. Heard good things about BA, but never flown with them. UA is ok - nice that their seats recline 180 degrees. Generally open to other airlines, but need to have good business seats that lie flat.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Welcome to the forum !

Only one to consider: AA.
Forget about considering any other OW airline. You get AA miles on BA. A recent AA - BA ffp agreement has cross airline benefits

If you can book AA or AA codeshare and do the AA plat challenge you have a flying chance to get AA status
Look at the sticky threads on the top of AA forum: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-aadvantage-445/

There is a similar thread on the Star forum to ask about star airlines. But staying with your current program best as a first assessment

Thank you :)

So I take it the AA program is better than the one from BA?

Never heard about this challenge before, but just read up on it. Sounds like a great thing. Thanks a lot for bringing this up.

Miles & More lets you keep your status for two years. So I will stay with it as well (have like 300k miles), but thought I might join a second one, now that I live in the U.S.

Does the AA program allow for easy upgrades and free flights without much hassle?

Well, hang on a wee second here.

I agree that AA's is an excellent program, and with your flying pattern (100K miles mainly in premium cabins) you could easily hit AA Executive Platinum, Oneworld Emerald (the highest tier.) With that status comes 8 SWUs (on AA metal) and unlimited "free" upgrades on AA North American services, so certainly not to be poo-pooed.

BUT, your description of your intended likely travel patterns (a lot of international J segments ex-SAN, likely on BA metal) and your questions about upgrading do raise a point.

BA's "MFU" - miles for upgrade - works very well, and might save a lot of money going forward. Flying out of SAN, you'd purchase a Premium Economy ticket in the cheapest bucket (T) then use BA Avios for upgrading to business, or, buy a J ticket and MFU into F (which I don't think is offered on SAN-LHR, but you get the idea.) AA miles can't be used for upgrades on BA metal unless the underlying ticket is full-fare (Y, B, W etc.) which of course is usually more expensive than buying a business ticket outright.

AA elites (Plat or EXP) also are not allowed to use AA lounges on intra-North American flights, while non-AA Sapphires and Emeralds are, so if you were a BA elite you could use Admiral's Clubs in North America regardless of destination or class of service flown. Partner elites also get priority boarding and other perks on AA flights.

One achieves BA status through the accumulation of "tier points" - so many points per flight according to class of service and distance flown. To achieve BA Silver (= Oneworld Sapphire = AA Plat) you need to accumulate 600 tier points. A return trip in J from JFK to LHR would earn 140 TP in each direction; a return trip in AA F from SAN to JFK would earn 210 each way, so with the one return trip you'd have earned 280 + 420 = 700 TP, bingo. (Note you also need 4 BA-metal flights to actually make Silver, so you'd need to buy a cheapo return from London to someplace close - Paris, Edinburgh, whatever - to fulfill that criteria.)

So practically speaking you could do one of your trips crediting to BA, make Silver, get your card and use the AA lounges, then do the Plat Challenge the next time and use AA as your main mileage earner going forward. Of course you'd want to credit some to BA (using your 100% bonus) to build up your mileage there for use with MFUs going forward.

One other thing with the BA program is the existence of family/household accounts, so members of the same household can pool their mileage, a good thing if you travel a lot but other travel a little. Don't know if this applies in your case, but worth mentioning.

Oh, and AA recently changed the rules on the Plat challenge so that now you can use elite points (remember, it's 10K elite-qualifying points, not miles) gained on AA, BA or IB-designated flights, not just AA metal or codeshares.