Hi guys,

looks like really great stuff you're doing here. Would love to get your thoughts on this: I have been a LX/LH Senator now for a couple of years now and am moving to Sydney for the next months/year.

Questions
(1) What is your home airport? (will be SYD)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (~75K in 2013 so far, 50/50 Eco/Bus)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (50/50 Eco/Bus)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? (Choose airlines yes, class depends on price, 70% work, 30% pleasure)
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (expecting mostly domestic Australia for work/SE Asia privately)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (LX/LH Senator)
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services e.g. boarding when flying the airline)
(8) Preferred Airlines (so far *A ;-))

*A is pretty irrelevant in Australia it appears, so I'm thinking of switching to oneworld for the time (SEN is safe for a while). I've got an MH flight in Z (Bus promo) in ~2 weeks to get there, return sometime in 2014 if that's good for a start/promo.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Welcome to the forum and Australia
Is Europe home for the long term ? (guessing based on your LX/LH Senator status)

If you are only going to live Australia for only a year QF is not you. So look at AA or even BA. AA has low miles for awards & no YQ, except in BA flights. QR is to join OneWorld soon (1st Oct?). But the details of the enhanced QR ffp with OW have not been published, but from the QR forum the ffp it is changing.

For 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). QF upgrades are not confirmed until soon before the flight (a lottery). However as is the way with FFP's there are some (expensive) upgrade exceptions with AA/BA/IB with higher priced ecomony fares.

Hello,

Haven't visited here in a while as I don't fly for work any more, only on my own dime which goes mostly to the low-cost carriers. Therefore I am a little out of touch with what's in right now (last time it was Aegean for quick status achievement).

My friend who is based in Germany is flying to Australia and back within a week or so, in C. He's not much into miles but I advised him not to let the miles from such a long trip be wasted

Thus my question - which OneWorld programme would be most useful to him in terms of redemption (which would put LH out of question - although I find their Worldshop awards, albeit overpriced, a tolerable way to burn miles). TK? A3? Status would be nice but I understand that he doesn't fly that often either to make use of it.

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance.

Well, it depends on where your friend actually starts and ends the flight to Australia. LHR-SIN-SYD is just about 10K miles. Add a bit on the start and end...

I suspect that there won't be too much opposition to my suggestion that AA has the best OneWorld redemption terms. And the round trip in C/J should provide AA Gold (OW Ruby) status (about 30K EQP) with about 25K RDM to fly/upgrade. Maybe if CX/MH is the carrier being used I would look at their respective programs. But would need to calculate the expected miles (CX needs 30K credit - 24K in J for CX Silver)

Other thoughts?

Happy wandering

Fred

Thank you for your thoughts Fred.

He would be starting in, and returning to, Germany (don't think he has the freedom to stick on segments). It appears that he'd fly QF or EK.

I understand that redeeming AA points on intra-European flights would not be too difficult? Do they still have a policy of low to no surcharges on awards?

Well, flying Germany to DXB does reduce the mileage a bit. With BA's joint venture with AA, I have become rather more interested in BA as all fare classes will credit 100% EQM to AA (unlike QF) though in J/C/W it really doesn't matter. You might want to check prices with both BA and CX. They do sometimes have sales.

If the final destination in Australia is not SYD, there is always the ability to route via there and get a few extra miles.

And yes except for BA flights, I believe the add-on charges for award flights are the least with AA.

Happy wandering

Fred

Using oneworld intra-Europe will mean using:
BA (through LHR)
IB (through Spain)
AB/HG (through Germany/Switzerland)
AY (through HEL)

Going to/from Germany, AB (and HG) would provide many direct flight options, or the others going to their hubs.

With AA, any Europe-Europe flight (even with connections) will be 10k miles in economy and 20k miles in business each way.
For direct flights, BA or other distance based award programs *may* provide better value.

For long-haul redemption, and/or routes requiring connections, AAdvantage would be hard to beat.

Just something to consider.

Thank you very much for the warm welcome and these insights Mwenenzi! I'm planning on anywhere from a minimum of ~7 months to a year and was therefore also toying with the idea of AA. The MH flight won't count towards an AA challenge though I understand https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...iaairlines.jsp - so starting from scratch it is then?

Hey there
It is my first post on AB forum � apologies if you find any of my questions na�ve or/and basic.

You might have heard that Miles & More have announced new milage accruals in economy which basically devastated whole program for me.
Lufthansa: Changes to the Miles&More program effective January 1st, 2014

I�ve been holding Gold (Senator) status for quite some years now, but given recent news I�m not planning to spend too much money (=0) with M&M team starting Jan �14.

I�m looking for alternatives and being based in WAW OneWorld seems to be a quite nice one. May I ask you to have a look at below and advise if AB/1W might be a good option?

My flight patterns:
- I fly circa 110k-130k miles a year
- 4-5 longhaul (US / Asia)
- ~50 European connections
- Everything is booked in semi-flexible economy

I do not have HUGE expectations (I hope), but there are few small things I value when being FF (part of M&M gold status):
- Priority check-in / priority security check-in (where available)
- Two handbags allowance (computer bag + standard-sized luggage)
- Availability of exit rows where possible (I�m 190cm tall)
- Entry to the biz lounge (nothing fancy � a small bite and a glass of wine will do)
- Fair / reasonable availability of intercontinental premium cabin award seats (holiday booking once a year or so)

There are many nice to haves (two or three bags, blocked seat next to me, priority luggage, onboard recognition, operational upgrades) which I really do not care about too much and M&M wasn�t too great in those anyway.

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: WAW
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 100k+
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: 99% Eco, semi-flex
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: flexible on AI, class eco only. 90% of flights is work
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: 4-5 Asia/US, 50 Europe
(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: *A 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.)
Reply: See above
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Any that safely bring me to the destination within reasonable time

So, what do you think � is OneWorld a right choice? Which airline�s program should I start collecting miles to get most out of the system? With IB / BA / AB / S7 / Cathay in the alliance all my directions from WAW are nicely covered (maybe except MUC for now)

Thanks in advance for your thoughts � planning very busy January/February and I�m ready to start booking my TATL flights now

Thanks a ton folks!
mfk

Hi

I'm have a YUL-CMN roundtrip flight planned in Novemibly on AA+Iberia and looking to get OW status before the flight in order to benefit from lounge access & priority services.

I understand that I could also get free/cheap/trial elite status at a non-oneworld airline then request status match at the competing oneworld airline.


Any suggestions on how to get free/cheap/trial one world status before my flight (without flying)?

Thanks

Hi guys,

deciding if I should ditch CX and go for AA

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: YVR - Vancouver
(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 (most of the time) /Bus (<25%)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines. Travel for pleasure and work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic mostly, to Asia from North America once or twice per year.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: CX Gold, expiring soon as I haven't met the re-qualification requirements this year.
(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, priority service when flying the airline, and able to earn miles on other carriers easily. (Just realized can't earn miles on my AA with a specific economy fare on CX...after booking and paid. grr)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX/AA/BA

I guess if I'm flying mostly US Domestic now AA is kind of a no brainer.

Thanks!

Hi guys,

I am deciding if I should ditch AA and go for CX -

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 125K+
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Restricted Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airlines. Travel for work.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic & Mexico 12 times a year - US to HKG 7+ times a year - US to SA 2 to 3 times per year
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: AA Exec Plat and CX Silver
(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
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: AA & CX

I already enjoy all CX diamond benefits, its more that I dont get upgrades on the SF to HK route. If I switch to CX, will they upgrade me if I am in discounted economy?

If you're flying restricted economy, are your fares H class and above on CX? If you do get upgraded, it would only be to y+ as the class of service is normally 4 class.

Also, with CX you have to do A LOT of flying in one year to reach DM. Once you reach SL, which is 30k in one year, they reset the status. To reach GO, you need 60k. Once you achieve GO, it gets reset again and you need to fly 120k to reach DM.

If you and I were twins this would be an easy job - just switch cards.

Wrong post