Hello OW experts! As I see a lot of flying ahead of me, I decided to join a FFP. Reading through a lot of threads here I decided to register since I couldn't find a recommendation for my flying pattern. Due to changing career and family plans I cannot predict my future flying pattern exactly and am therefore looking for a flexible program. I answered the questions below and hope you can help me with my decision. Every help is much appreciated!

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: As pointed out it might change soon. Currently it is Southern Germany STR/FRA/MUC but might relocate to MEL, LHR or Asia soon.
(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.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Free choice of airline, travelling for work (25%) and pleasure/family visits (75%).
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Within Europe and between Europe-Asia-Australia (mostly via the gulf or SIN/HKG).
(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: None.
(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 award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access would be nice but is not crucial.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No preferred airlines but trying to avoid US airlines.

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HKG
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 50-70k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: 50% of the time Y (Half Dis. Economy, Half full fare) Economy is only usually within Asia. Anything 6 hours plus or to another continent is J.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: 100% Pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Intra-Asia, usually 1-3 or 4 Asia-Australia, and 1 HKG-LHR return in J every Summer (usually)
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline at present? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Currently hold BA Bronze (OWR) and am a member of Asia Miles. Please note I am unable to join the CX MPC.
(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: Lounge access is most important, followed by redemption rates, Baggage allowance is nice, but mainly lounge access!!!
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: I'm flying CX 80-90% of the time. Every now and again I'll fly BA but I try and avoid them as service is usually hit and miss and I feel CX have superior Y & J Hard Product. I wish I could just join CX!! Although 18< rule doesn't permit this.

Hallo,

I purchased for me and my wife each a Round-The-World-Tickets with Quantas and British Airways. Now I have the problem to chose a frequent flyer program to get e.g. lounge access at least for the last trip. I am planning to have just one account where I can book the miles for both tickets. Below I put in some informations into the questions.

Thank you so much in advance for your help.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: DUS is our start airport for the Round the world ticket
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Destinations are DUS-LHR-JOH-SYD-CHC-PPT-LAX-LHR-DUS
Four British Airline Flights (DUS-LHR-JOH and LAX-LHR-DUS) and four Quantas flights (incl. Codeshare JOH-SYD-CHC-PPT-LAX)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: We have booked Economy (class B)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Airlines have been chosen as above
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: After the ticket I will not fly inside OW
(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 yet
(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 our last flight from LAX-LHR and Lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

I checked already Air Berlin, American Airways, British Airways and Qantas frequent flyer programs, but everything seems to be the same. Thank you very much again for your help!!!

In a fix deciding where to show loyalty - I have FFM in both Qatar and AA - I travel to India on Qatar at least once a year sometimes twice. now - I am at silver status with Qatar (OW Ruby) - nothing with AA. now how do I step up on the Tier system?
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: ORD
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: around 25K.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Free choice of airline, travelling for work (25%) and pleasure/family visits (75%).
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic mostly and to Asia
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it? Qatar - 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 on travel and priority is not bad.
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Qatar and AA

Dear One World experts,

I am just contemplating which OW airline would be my best option. I am pretty sure it would be AA, but would love to hear about any other options. The #1 goal for me is award redemption rates. Does anyone beat AA for 67.5k to Asia from the U.S.? On another note, does AA award elite bonuses on Cathay Pacific Codeshare flights?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: JFK
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: >50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? I plan to fly CX in J from U.S. to Asia on paid tickets at least 3 r/t a year. I am traveling for work
Reply:
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline at present? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc) UA 1K
Reply:
(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.) good award redemption rates combined with good earning rates
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: CX

Sorry if its been answered before but I am in a spot of personal termoil.

1st the standard Q & A

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR or Manchester UK

(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 (reduced tier points), via corporate web based Tool (company policy)

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes i can choose Airline, no i cant choose class, Travel for work only.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: I fly in EMEA (Europe, Middle East & Africa) with occasional flights to USA (transatlantic)

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline at present? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: BA 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: Lounge Access and the ability to actually use points to UG flights.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA/Emirates/Etihad/Air Berlin (basically any non budget airline)

So, am 4 years into a job that is crazy mad travel all the time, but we have to use Concur - an american express tool to book flights and travel - no exceptions, and for the second year running i am a BA Executive Club Silver member - priority check in, priority boarding and Lounge access.

What i am seeing thought is becuase i have to use Amex to book the flights - they are always the reduced tier flights, so its almost impossible to maintain Silver this year as each year the tier points earned seem to be less and less per segment - now its 10 points and i need 600 to maintain silver.

Since August (when they Zero your Tier Status) i have worked my arms off flying every week and have only accrued 330 tier points.

Whenever i try to UG a flight i get a pop up telling me its impossible because of the class of ticket (always economy - but apparently there is different levels of economy)

I heard rumours other OW loyalty schemes are not so restrictive or ungenerous for your custom, regardless of which OW member you fly with.

For me personally the 2 must haves are Lounge Access and Using Miles to UG a ticket regardless of class of ticket.

As i travel so often a lounge is a life saver and somewhere to get work done.

appreciate the help, appologies for droning on and on.

I have other Airlines i use as backups for flights to the Middle East as BA doesnt fly everywhere i need to go, but generally its BA i end up flying with as i am UK based and its the only direct flight operator (mostly).

Edited to add - am sat in Vienna Airport and YET AGAIN my effing BA flight is Delayed, i can honestly say none of my BA flights have left on time since i can remember.

They are similar - but not the same, there *are* differences. Among all the programs you have mentioned, only BAEC offers accounts where you can put the miles for yourself and your wife into one account. BAEC calls this household account. If that is what you meant by "booking the miles for both tickets". If you meant just that you want to put you QF and BA miles in one program - any OW FFP will do as "B" fares should earn full mileage anywhere.

This trip is less than 28,000 miles all in all and will not generate enough miles/tier points to grant you OW Sapphire status (which will give you lounge access - you'll need 600 TPs in BAEC or 50k miles in all other OW programs to qualify for it) on its own as far as I can see - but calculate for yourself with the tier points calculator on BA's website. So unless you join BAEC now and plan on doing some regular flying before starting this trip, you're out of luck.
Upgrading LAX-LHR: Pretty much the only realistic chance to get an upgrade on that flight is when you stick with BAEC and use Avios plus money (calculator here). Make sure you upgrade into Club World ('CW', business class), not into World Traveller Plus ('WT+', Premium Economy). The upgrade into WT+ costs only half the Avios, but the experience is not much different from economy apart from a slightly better seat. CW will give you a true premium cabin experience with lie-flat seats and nice food. Plus a CW ticket comes with lounge access .

In a nutshell: Enrol you and your wife in BA's Executive Club, and redeem as many of the miles (Avios) you earned on that trip as possible towards upgrading the LAX-LHR leg. You might make this without the co-pay when you take out a BA credit card: The better of two cards BA touts comes with a 20,000 Avios sign-up bonus (I presume you live in Germany, here's more details).

Well, that's easy: Fly more often, and pay to sit in the front of the bus!
The earning rates for Qatar economy fares (apart from full-fare Y and B) on all other OW programs are dismal - no more than 50%, the cheapest ones earn only 25% or even nothing.
When you fly economy on QR and want some decent earning rates, sticking with QR's own program is the only viable choice.

Yes. You get elite bonuses and class-of-service bonuses on all CX (and other OW airline) flights, not only codeshares. See AA's CX earning table here

Remember that AA will be yanking out the F cabins on the 777-200s used to Asia next year as they go two-class, and CX F awards seem to be increasingly hard to obtain (source), so that 67,500 mile award (while still a bargain) is getting harder to redeem.
Still, I'd say AA makes the most sense for you, seeing where you live. In the past at least, CX awards were reasonably easy to obtain with AA miles if that's what you're after. Way better than SQ premium cabin awards with * partner miles.

So you'll need a program that earns well on BA - the only one that comes to mind here is AAdvantage: All published BA fares earn 100% mileage on AA, and with any sort of status you are awarded a minimum of 500 miles per segment (even for short domestic hope, say, LHR-MAN).
Switching to AAdvantage which is mileage-based will probably make it easier to attain/maintain Platinum - the 50k OW Sapphire tier which comes with lounge access.
BUT while you can upgrade BA flights with AA miles, you'll run into the same issues you experience now as only full-fare economy fare buckets are upgradeable on BA.
AA metal flights are different - these may be upgraded using AA miles from any fare class BUT AA charges co-pays. For transatlantic flights this co-pay is $350 (oneway) that'll have to come out of your own pocket.

With such a stingy employer there's not much you can do, except maybe upfaring the tickets on your own dime (I don't know if that's possible with BA - it does work with AA and MH)
Regarding lounge access: If you travel every week, I'd consider a PriorityPass membership. At �259 per year for unlimited access that's definitely cheaper than tier point runs just to chase status. Ask your employer if they'd reimburse that!

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it! It is because people like you that flyertalk is a great forum.

Hey guys ! I would like to have some advice from you experts ! I have currently difficulties of choosing which program I should stay on. I currently have most of my points on Finnair but I have come to the point where I have noticed that its not my best option anymore. I don't worry about losing the points what I have currently on Finnair becuase theres not much, But I would love to get some advice which Airline program I should stay on. I do fly every year but I also like to have a program that I can save my points and use them 6 years later for example..


(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HEL, DFW, LHR
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 25-50K in economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: ECONOMY (sometimes upgrade)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes and I travel for pleasure mostly
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:Transatlantic, Europe
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline at present? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP? (AA Executive Platinum, QF Gold, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply: Nope !
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? (upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, extra baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, free - discounted lounge access, etc.)
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, QF, AY, AA if it helps keep my points. F

I did a lot of research on this topic a few years ago when moving over from LH/M&M where I got burned with miles expiring ever so often. Revisited lots of links and updated the info - here's my 2c:

Point expiration policies with OW programs are divided into two groups who follow different models.
AA, BA, IB, QF and US's programs govern expiration by general activity: Any activity (earning or redeeming points in any way) will keep ALL points in your account alive and reset the expiration counter for a set period of time.
AA, US and QF have set this activity requirement as at least once every 18 months, while BA and IB require qualifying activity only at least once every 36 months to reset the expiration clock.
For the not-so-very-frequent flyers all programs based on this model are OK, with a distinct advantage for the 36-month date of the IAG airlines (BA/IB).
Both AA and US offer options to reinstate expired miles for a fee: max. USD 400 (for 100k and more) will reinstate an expired Dividend Miles balance, max. USD 600 (for 75k and more) will reinstate an expired AA balance. US also has a cheap option to keep a balance alive by way of a $9 reinstatement fee that will keep the whole balance active for another 18 months after 15-17 months of inactivity.

The other camp lets their points expire around three years after they were earned. Here's the rundown, sorted by strictness:

TAM Fidelidade points expire after two years.
S7's priority miles generally expire at the end of the year in which they were earned, but validity may be extended up to two additional years for 'active members' (fly <3 segments on S7 metal, fare class restrictions apply) for a maximum validity of 36 months.
RJ's Royal Plus miles expire after 30 months.
AY's Plus points, JAL's JMB and UL's Flysmiles miles expire after 36 months.
CX's Asia Miles and AB's topbonus miles remain valid for 36 months, expiring at the end of the quarter in which they were collected - giving you up to 38 months of validity.
QR's Qmiles are valid for 3 years and will expire twice a year by the end of the semester (30th June and 31st December) in which they were earned, thusly giving you up to 41 months of validity.
MH's Enrich Miles are valid for the year in which they are earned plus an additional 3 years - they expire at the end of the third year, effectively giving you up to 47 months of validity.

LAN's Lanpass is something of a hybrid between both models: Kilometers earned by flying are valid for a period of 36 months after they are earned. Kilometers earned by using the services of LANPASS-associated businesses are valid for three calendar years. Independent of the limitations stated above, If you fly with LAN and earn one or more kilometers for the flight, ALL your kilometers will be revalidated for another 36 months..


What I'd do if I lived in Finland and wanted to build a points balance that won't expire even with minimal flight activity:
Switch to BAEC and get an MR-earning Amex card. Amex MR points can easily be transferred to BA Avios. All Avios earned through CC spend transfers will reset the expiration counter. This practically keeps your Avios balance from ever expiring even when you don't fly at all. Check this thread for more info.

edit: One word of caution - FF miles/points are subject to devaluations (just witness what UA did with their program recently or what LH did to M&M over the last decade). These happen with relatively little (if all) advance warning. It is generally considered best practice to NOT hoard tons of them for years and years, stashing them for retirement or whatever. And rules may change at a whim as well - QF changed the validity period from 36 months to 18 months back in 2010 for example. And airlines might not be around forever - anyone remember Qualiflyer?

You don't write which carriers you tend to use. Should you use AY for transatlantic flights, I would recommend you to choose AAdvantage over BAEC - discounted economy earnings are a lot better at the moment.

I will second what bhomburg wrote before - don't get too attached to your miles as they might halve in value - or worse (remember M�lev?) - over night.

I mostly fly AA,BA and AY. Why I don't want to stay on AY is because I get less points from them and then their taxes are way higher than anyone's else. So far, after reading all these posts, I have come up that I should start collecting my points on AA. I do fly every year and I do already have Amex, so I think right now my best option would be AA.

but the again, I heard you don't get points from BA flights for AAdvantage if it's Transatlantic. Is that correct? because I fly a lot between HEL-DFW and that route is usually with BA (sometimes AA)


Thanks you