Thank you for the prompt reply. I'm aware of many of these issues. My question, to be clearer, is that given how I've weighted my preferences, I'm trying to figure out which one is best. I'm particularly curious about options beyond the AA/BA programs, since I know them quite well.

I would really appreciate help on choosing the best FFP for us. We will start our 1st RTW with OW through JAL in January. We intend to do another RTW in the near future also with OW through JAL as starting in Japan gives us the best price. We currently live in Thailand & are likely to do BKK-YUL, BKK-SEA, YUL-SEA routes once every 1 or 2 years between our other Asia/Europe explorations. We have family near SEA & MTL. I've looked at www.wheretocredit.com & it looks like we would get the most miles by using Alaska'a FFP for most of our flights although Alaska is not officially a OW member. With our flights with Qatar & Latam we would get more miles with Bangkok Airways. But miles are not always more important than other factors & I'm wondering if it would not be better to pool all the miles in one place. Thanks in advance for any advise you can give us.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Good Award redemption rates & better award access
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 usually Premium economy but sometimes business.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Premium Economy when purchasing single segment. Business when using awards or purchasing RTW
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for Pleasure. Freedom to choose any airline or class of service
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Asia & Transpacific
(6) What is your home airport?
BKK (Bangkok)
(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?
No status yet. Delta 40K+ Chase Reserve 100K+
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Up to now, mostly Delta, Air Canada & Air Asia. With our upcoming RTW it will be a first with most of the OW airlines.

Alternatives to Marco Polo?
 

I am from Hong Kong. Every year, I fly at least 4 times HKG-LHR with Cathay in Economy. I also fly to Seoul as well. Starting university in UK soon, I will travel with my friends to Europe for vacation. Therefore, priority service matters, such as, extra baggage allowance and good administrative services such as toll-free calls at any time, clear ticketing fare rules, be able to talk to managers when the front line can’t solve our problems, just like CX.

I will be an uni student for the next 3 years and probably another year in the US for masters. I don’t mind to take business for some trips.

It is very likely for me and my family to relocate to the UK or US, probably Singapore as well due to the social unrest in HK.

I am a Marco Polo Gold member (OW Sapphire) because due to unforeseen circumstances I flew 7 times HKG-LHR last year.

I would like to maintain my OW Status, but keeping in mind my future plan for the next couple of years it is unlikely for me to do so with Cathay.

I am looking for an alternative for Marco Polo and have done some research. Personally, I am attracted to Qatar’s Privilege club because the membership lasts for two years, which saves me a lot of time in planning trips. They also have bonus Qpoints as well which attracts me a lot.

I am also attracted to Finnair’s FFP. We are able to collect mileages based on distance travelled in kilometres. When taking Finnair flights there are multipliers based on tier and if I take CX flights, I can get extra mileages. I am also attracted to their lifetime membership.

While researching, I found out that Japan Airline’s JGC Club automatically give members lifetime OW Sapphire memberships. Looks like a good thing…

Thank you for reading though. Can you kindly suggest which FFP I should go? If any Star Alliance airlines are suitable, please feel free to suggest.

P.S. I think grace period matters most.

Many thanks, Neo

I am from Hong Kong. Every year, I fly at least 4 times HKG-LHR with Cathay in Economy. I also fly to Seoul as well. Starting university in UK soon, I will travel with my friends to Europe for vacation. Therefore, priority service matters, such as, extra baggage allowance and good administrative services such as toll-free calls at any time, clear ticketing fare rules, be able to talk to managers when the front line can’t solve our problems, just like CX.

I will be an uni student for the next 3 years and probably another year in the US for masters. I don’t mind to take business for some trips.

It is very likely for me and my family to relocate to the UK or US, probably Singapore as well due to the social unrest in HK.

I am a Marco Polo Gold member (OW Sapphire) because due to unforeseen circumstances I flew 7 times HKG-LHR last year.

I would like to maintain my OW Status, but keeping in mind my future plan for the next couple of years it is unlikely for me to do so with Cathay.

I am looking for an alternative for Marco Polo and have done some research. Personally, I am attracted to Qatar’s Privilege club because the membership lasts for two years, which saves me a lot of time in planning trips. They also have bonus Qpoints as well which attracts me a lot.

I am also attracted to Finnair’s FFP. We are able to collect mileages based on distance travelled in kilometres. When taking Finnair flights there are multipliers based on tier and if I take CX flights, I can get extra mileages. I am also attracted to their lifetime membership.

While researching, I found out that Japan Airline’s JGC Club automatically give members lifetime OW Sapphire memberships. Looks like a good thing…

Thank you for reading though. Can you kindly suggest which FFP I should go? If any Star Alliance airlines are suitable, please feel free to suggest.

P.S. I think grace period matters most.

Many thanks, Neo

Hello,

A friend of mine would like to consider a frequent flyer program for One World. He won't fly that much so I was wondering what would be the best fit for him, as I don't fly OW.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, and potentially priority boarding, but mostly lounge access.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 usually economy for work.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy

4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for work, can choose the airline if the price is cheap enough relatively speaking.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Latin America and Caribbean

(6) What is your home airport?
JFK, LGA and EWR.
(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?
United Silver this year.

8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Up to now, mostly Delta or Air Canada (going to Canada).

The rouge is now changing to South America. LatAm should be the most common carrier used.

LATAM is leaving OW in Oct 2020. Will then be associated with DL. DL have take a part ownership of LATAM.
Mid top level status with AA will not get you lounge access on USA domestic flights. Unsure on Caribbean flights.
Some other ffp's like BA & QF have an requirement for X flights on the ffp airlines. Precise rules vary, so check each ffp. But mid-top level status get you lounge access on USA domestic flights.
May be better to pay cash for lounge access. Or a credit card that has a lounge access benefit.

Will lose AA exec platinum after 10 years of having it and will miss my emerald card and those first class lounges in hong kong plus using F class BA checkin in London when time is tight. I have a Centurion so not a big deal, i can always use fast track. I've joined RJ thinking that 65,000 EQMs would be easy. Thoughts on this? What's the easiest to qualify for EMD. BA is a big turnoff to me because of the poor phone service and high fuel surcharges on awards.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Easy EMD qualification (easiest) plus low fuel surcharges on awards.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
100k in business long haul and economy EU short haul
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
discount business and economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
total freedom to choose. usually for work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
GVA/MLA TUN/LAX ARN/PEK

(6) What is your home airport?
GVA
(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 Exec Platinum (losing it January 2020) and AF Platinum
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
QR, CX, BA

I think rj has two years for emd.

IB vs BA
 

I’m located in Europe and need some help deciding between BA, AA and AS.
The last 4 years, I have had BA Silver (OW Sapphire) or Gold (OW Emerald) status from flying cheap QR business class tickets to Asia and cheap BA/AA/IB/AY business class tickets to the US.
But I have recently flown more on miles, so for this year I haven’t renewed my BA status yet.

I have three bookings in Finnair I class to CAN/HKG from Germany.
Something like TXL-HEL-HKG and back.
Apart from that, I don’t have any longhaul travel booked yet for this year.

I’m wondering whether I should credit those flights to AS, BA or AA.
AS would yield the highest number of the most valuable miles - but they’re not a Oneworld member yet and a devaluation is incoming.
BA wouldn’t yield as many miles, but it would help with renewing my status.
AA has the challenge to Platinum Pro (I’m a Hyatt Globalist).

I have very few domestic flights in the US, so lounge access in the US or upgrades on domestic AA flights aren’t very important to me.
I could also credit the AY flights to AS and then book something with QR, purely to renew my BA status. But then again, I’m wondering how much sense that makes... Status actually isn’t THAT important to me. It’s just nice to be able to select seats for free (especially on BA metal - but then again, I try avoid flying BA...).
And the other benefit that I use is lounge access, especially at MAD. And of course fast track security.
I only fly business class on longhaul flights though, so again, it’s not that critical.
But I do fly IB in economy from time to time, etc.

Most of my economy class flights are with Star Alliance nowadays, and I’m already covered there.
But I still think it would be nice to keep Oneworld status as well.

So... What would you do?

Shuttle between BLR / LHR and SFO a lot. Which OW status makes sense?
 

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?
(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: Extra Baggage Allowance, Good Award Redemption Rates are things I'd prioritise over anything else. Lounges get covered by my credit card (Diners)

(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: 100000-150000 miles in a year. All in Economy.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose any airline. International Travel is work and domestic is for work and pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: India -> US, India -> UK, US Domestic
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SFO and BLR (I spent equal time in both these cities)
(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: Flying Returns Silver (Star Alliance Silver) where I have 25K miles. Vistara Gold (40K miles). Other than this, I have 25K in Asia Miles, and 7-10K miles in KrisFlyer, Etihad Guest, American Airlines.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: My most common international routes are BLR -> LHR, BLR -> SFO and hence end up taking either Cathay or Etihad respectively. Though also end up traveling quite a bit on Air India too coz of Direct flights to India from both SFO and LHR.

Since I already have a star alliance silver, I am hoping to get OneWorld status this year and hoping with atleast 6 long haul flights and about 10+ mid range (across US domestic/UK-US) flights, it should be enough. The only challenge is that all these flights are going to be economy. What would you suggest?

I am personally quite keen on Alaska, but also thinking about other alternatives. I am not very thrilled with the surcharges on BA

Hello

Would like an opinion on what may suit my travel.
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?
(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: Extra baggage, lounge access
(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: ~100,000 miles on paid tickets
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy/Business (cheapest)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes - but prefer to have least stops. Traveling to represent country in sport events, given a travel stipend usually but no restriction
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: in asia, Asia to US (3-4 times/year), Asia to Europe (1-2 times/year)
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: HKG, SIN (travel between the two almost every 2-3 weeks)
(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: CX Silver, UA 1K
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: CX, UA, SQ

I don't see the huge added benefit of 1K vs Gold on UA, so will likely shift some travel onto Oneworld to get a mid-high status on each alliance for convenience. Traveling with my sport equipment usually requires extra baggage, so with status to save the cost of extra baggage is essential.

For lounge access, definitely CX MPO if you mostly travel in Y. CX gives silver members unlimited lounge access before its own flights, which is not a benefit given by UA or SQ. On the other hand, CX only gives silver members extra baggage on non-Trans-Pacific tickets. If you think 2pc*23kg is enough, it should be okay, but if you need more, you will have to aim for Gold. Note AFAIK SQ doesn't give extra bags to silver members, either. With CX silver (oneworld Ruby), though, you can get a free bag on AA domestic, too.

Incorrect in my opinion. Need OW Sapphire (look at the bottom on OW linked page)
https://www.oneworld.com/travel-benefits#benefits Click on benefits
AA charge for bags on many flights. Baggage not included in many fares
Better to refer to OW status as airline gold/silver has different OW status depending on airline ffp

oneworld Ruby passengers get 1 bags worth 23kgs ( 50 lbs ) on American Airlines flights.

Source:
https://www.aa.com/i18n/travel-info/...age-policy.jsp

Not a oneworld benefit but as stated by ISTFlyer AA does give the one free bag, and I had personally take advantage of it several times when I was a CX MPO silver member. I considered using ruby/sapphire but as all airlines mentioned by tdlim (CX, SQ, and UA) have comparable silver and gold tiers, I decided to keep silver and gold. I know what I'm talking about and did my research / double-checked before I posted my comment :).

Currently LT PLT on AA. Don't plan on making the minimum spend on AA for OWE so I'm considering changing programs with the following:

2021 travel: Jan: AA I fare SEA-MIA-BZE-DFW-SEA 6300 miles
Aug - Dec: DONE RTW D fare CPT-DOH-MAD-CMN-CAI-LHR-HKG-BKK 20,000 miles

2022 travel: BKK-KUL-MNL-NRT-DFW-GUA-MIA-SEA-DOH-CPT 27,700 miles
Possibly another RTW end of 2022

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?
Lounge access and accruing maximum miles for award travel.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~50,000 16-20
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
domestic first, international business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes. Pleasure
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
OW RTW, US domestic
(6) What is your home airport?
SEA but leaving for 2+ years
(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 LT PLT 400,000 miles
BA 100,000 miles
AS 135,000 miles
UA 100,000 miles
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
None, AA.

I was thinking that AS might be the best shot at OWE for first class lounge but accruing and using miles is more important.

Thanks

I too think AS might be a good choice, especially if you're from SEA:

https://onemileatatime.com/alaska-mi...tatus-changes/
https://onemileatatime.com/qatar-airways-seattle/

AS is one of very few (the only?) programs where you earn bonus award miles based on your status, even when you're flying with partners.
So you can buy a cheap QR business class R fare ticket and earn up to 350%.

The only thing I'm not so sure about is lounge access for domestic US flights. I know that AA elites often don't get access, while e.g. BA elites do get in.
Not sure how this would be handled with AS.

Agree on AS, as they are a AA ff partner now. AS join OW March 31, 2021
You have a massive overlap of AA-AS-BA as they are ff partners. Except for the short time AS-AA were not ff partners
Time to burn those ff miles. They will lose value over time.
Lounge access comes with mid level status:- easy
First lounge access comes with top level status:- harder. But not that many first class lounges.
The AA exception for no lounge access in USA/regional will almost certainly be applied over to AS .

I guess I'll lose the OWS (AA LT PLT) status during the AS move but since most travel will be on a DONE fare I'll get lounge access. The 60% PLT mileage bonus on AA will be missed.

If you have AA lifetime plat the oneworld sapphire will never go away. Getting a OWS benefit may be harder.

If awards are an objective it is the earn to burn/cash surcharge that is important. Not the raw numbers. Anyway many folk earn ff miles from frequent spending (credit card). AS award chart is limited, but the AS award stop over feature is good, and now very uncommon.

Agreed. I thought I would need to use my AA FF# to receive the OWS benefits.

You would. But with some airlines you can change to the freq flyer number of another ffp after getting a benefit. AA does not allow a change to the ffn after getting a status benefit. But not all airlines have the same policy. The physical card can get entry to some lounges, albeit at the risk the lounge attendant changes the ffn in the reservation. Is very inconsistent across OW airlines and not dependable.. Changing ffn has risks. Keep the physical boarding passes.

You can also usually change the frequent flier number during boarding, at the gate. Not ideal, but I've sometimes had to resort to it when I couldn't add it during OLCI.

AA also gives bonus award miles based on status, including on most OW partners.

https://www.aa.com/i18n/aadvantage-p...p#mileagebonus

Great, I wasn't aware of that! For someone based outside the US, could it make sense to use AA instead of AS?
My plan was actually to switch from BA to AS because of the higher earnings.

I'd think a lot might depend on who/how AS keeps as non-OW partners following the entry into OW. For example, they're currently partners with Latam, Singapore, Emirates, El Al, Korean and Hainan. I'd be surprised if the EK partnership would persist, especially given QR's arrival, but it's not unknown for OW members to keep non-alliance partners. We won't know the final list until (probably) sometime in the first half of 2021. If it was me, I'd probably just be patient for the time being.

BTW, you get AS lounge access with any paid or award FC ticket on day of flight.

Partners outside of OW are common. AA has several others. QF has AF/KLM as ff partners.
https://www.wheretocredit.com/ gives a guide to partners, but need to check the details
To me the too many are over thinking about AS partners after OW entry.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...51aa926989.jpg

JL has both.

EK really isn't that exciting anymore anyway, given that they F award space is now basically only available through their own Skywards program.

Dear FlyerTalkers,

I am currently a Star Alliance Gold member and last year, matched to QR Platinum (Oneworld Emerald). However, due to the pandemic, I will not unfortunately not be able to retain the QR status within the allocated date (which they will sadly not extend, even due to the pandemic). Thus, I would really appreciate your help to see which OneWorld FFP would be best for me in the future.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- The possibility to keep both Star Alliance Gold (currently Asiana Club - i.e. need to earn 20,000 miles per year to retain) & Oneworld Sapphire.
- Most important for me is to have lounge access & extra luggage allowance.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
- Approximately 45,000-50,000 miles total per year, every second year up to 15,000-20,000 more.
- Usually 20,000-25,000 of those miles flown in paid Business, the rest in paid Economy (standard or flexi fares, not discounted).
- Often around 30 sectors, 8 long-haul and 22 inter-Europe or inter-Australia.

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
- I can mostly choose my own airlines and class of service
- I travel for both work & pleasure

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
- Return FCO > SYD (at least 2 times per year)
- Return FCO > either Asia or USA (approx. 1 time per year)
- Return SYD > MEL or BRI (approx. 2 times per year)
- Return FCO > various european destinations (approx. 15 times per year)

(6) What is your home airport?
- FCO (primary) - resident
- SYD (secondary) - citizen

(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?
- OZ (Diamond Plus / Star Alliance Gold)
- SQ (Gold / Star Alliance Gold)
- QR (Platinum / Oneworld Emerald) [status matched last year from OZ & SQ), expiring shortly.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
- SQ
- EK
- EY
- CX
- QR
- LH
- AZ
- QF

I wish you all a wonderful day and many thanks for your guidance in advance!

Didn't they extend when you need to qualify by from June to Dec 2021?

As you probably know QF has a poor ffp compared to others. But has EK as a ffp. OW airlines Alaska(joins 31Mar) & JL also have EK as a ff partner.
AA has EY as a frequent flyer partner. While AA is mainly a revenue based frequent flyer programme, for flights on partner airlines is more of a distance based ffp (good for earning on business class long hauls)
QF AS & BA have a 4 own flights rule for status. Maybe other do as well. AA does not have a X own flights rule for status.'
I would consider AA: do more research on earnings from flights and credit cards. But AA status would not give lounge access on USA domestic-regional flights.

Having 2 ffp's with Star Alliance gold may not be worth the effort.

That's what I thought, however, upon speaking to them (and I have it also in writing), it's only "half" the story.

In short, yes, they will extend the status to Dec, however, the re-qualification date will not get extended with it. I found that rather sneaky.

Thus, if you have a re-qualification date this May and you don't make the re-qualification by that "original" date, then you will automatically lose the status on 31 December and need another 600 Qpoints in 12-months to get it back. I was quite shocked.

On top of this (and sorry that it's a little off topic from the question), even though it was a 50% off deal to re-qualify, it's not 50% off the re-qualification quota (i.e. 540 Qpoints / 50% = 270 Qpoints), but 50% of the "as new" quota (ie. 600 Qpoints / 50% = 300 Qpoints), which really is impossible in the current climate. I found that sneaky as well.

In fact, to give them credit where it's due, Asiana extended BOTH the status and re-qualification date to match, at their initiative and proactiveness.

Interesting indeed.

I would give strong consideration to BA, even with its 4 "own metal" flights requirement. You could do a couple of quick returns on BA to London every year, or one return trip to someplace like Edinburgh, with a plane change at LHR, to get those flights in, and the rest of your fights could be on OW members, earning BA tier points for status qualification. Couple hundred Euros and problem solved..

IB flights also count. From BA forum https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...1-edition.html

Hi - with AS joining Oneworld I need help choosing which program to make my primary one. I am leaning towards Alaska..

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades on travel, reward travel
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
~120k miles a year, when flying domestically economy (40 segments a year) when flying international usually in paid business class (4 RTs a year)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Mostly economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can choose, most travel is for work
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
US Domestic, AUS-SJC is most frequent route
(6) What is your home airport?
AUS
(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 Platinum Pro
AS MVP Gold
WN A-List
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Almost all travel is on one of 3 of AA, AS, WN

As AAdvantage and AS MileagePlan would have reciprocal benefits in the future, think about this.
Think about your lifetime miles and lifetime status. In AS MP, when you have 1M miles, you would be AS MVPG for life; AA has a gradual system for lifetime status.
If you have no other factor and if you fly both AS and AA equally, head towards AS as you wouldn't have any spending based requirement.