I've been on AA forever, bouncing around from GLD to PLT to EXP and back again (lifetime GLD right now). I have a legacy BA account (renewal date is mid-August). My traveling habits are about to change wherein I'll be going to London a couple of times a year and travelling NYC-ROA (on a mix of AA and US) every week. Wondering if I should stick with AA or move to BA where the qualification to Silver might be easier than Plat on AA. Opinions?

What is most important to you in a FFP?
My primary objective is to earn status.

How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
NYC-LHR in premium economy, domestic in economy. 30k miles internationally, 30-40k miles domestic

What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Premium econ/WTP for long haul and Economy for domestic

Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can chose whatever airline I want within reason for work. Fly for work and pleasure

Which routes do you fly most often
NYC-LHR
NYC-ROA
NYC-ORD

What is your home airport?
NYC (EWR/LGA/JFK)

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 lifetime Gold - about 250k miles in the bank right now.

Preferred Airlines
AA
BA
Cathay

Hi, sorry I know there are a million threads on this, but it's rather confusing for each persons individual situation. (I've read a ton of these threads.)

I'm from the UK but now living in Canada (van), I still fly home 2-3 times per year (typically via DFW) as well as trips fairly often around north america. I'll be flying OW (AA, US, Alaska AA marketed, AA don't really fly from van/sea much) typically. I'm wondering what program you think would be best for me? I fly back to the UK with BA and I hear great things about their upgrades, however taxes are apparently high.

I'm currently a AA Plat (challenged) and typically fly premium economy back to the UK and economy around the US, however come January I'll be flying even more internationally including Australia and possibly Japan.

I should be AA Plat / BAEC Silver quite comfortably every year, possibly will be close to EXPlat as it requires 1 less round trip to the uk per year than BAEC Gold.

Which FF program do you think will be best for me? Lounge access isn't a huge deal on domestic fights, and out of van their arent that many AA flights so upgrades aren't hugely important (though I connect via DFW quite a bit)

Also, probably a stupid question, but if I fly premium econ and use miles to upgrade to business on BA do I still acquire miles (at the prem econ level or at all)? If so my trip is usually 12914 miles earned, AA offer PE to Business upgrade for 12,500 with BA.

Thank you!

Welcome to FT!

I'm moving your thread to an existing thread that covers choosing a Oneworld FF plan.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Josh229 Welcome to FT
As you are now AA Plat I would stay with AA. Especially if living in North America is long term. Do you have BA any avios or BA status?

With upgrades you usually get the miles for the fare class you paid for and not the upgraded class. Note AA does not have premium economy.

Thanks for the reply, no I don't have any avios or BA status, but was thinking of maybe switching to a different FFP start of next year.

The upgrade miles that sounds great, I'll pay for premium economy and use 12,500 miles to upgrade to business hopefully, as my standard run back home YVR -> DFW -> LHR gives me 6457 miles each way, with 100% bonus miles thats 12914, so essentially free upgrades on 15 hours of travel.

Whether or not that's the best thing to spend miles on, I have no idea.

I have an upcoming flight with Malaysia Airlines in August. I signed up for Enrich, but have time to change to a different OW program. I will be moving to Houston next year and looking to get a head start in an OW program.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Priority services when flying the airline.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?

Currently: 30-60k Economy Next year: 20-30k (OW)

(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?

Pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?

CRK, BKK, SIN, KUL, SJO, & MDE

(6) What is your home airport?

This Year: ORD
Next Year: IAH

(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?

OW - No
*A - Asiana Club Diamond (*A Gold)

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?

Prefered: Any Asian airline. I avoid US airlines for international travel and don't have any preference for domestic flights.

Most Common: Asiana Airlines

Firestorm1 Welcome to FT

Living in Houston hard to go past AA. For USA domestic flying you may find yourself flying AA.
You will not get many AA miles flying MH, but neither does anyone.

http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=HOU-CRK...A&MS=wls&DU=mi
http://www.gcmap.com/mapui?P=HOU-SJE...A&MS=wls&DU=mi

While not OW, Alaska is worth considering http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Saw this in my May AAdvantage summary:

First time I've ever seen a reference to this rule outside of the fine print in the AAdvantage T&Cs. Might well be a hint to AA choosing to finally enforcing their long-standing four-segment-minimum rule for status attainment.
That would be a pretty major change of the OW FFP landscape and bad news for all members with AA status who don't fly AA to the US at least once a year.

Possibly now being/will be enforced as post 44 here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post22814633 This is no surprise.
QF started to enforce the 4 segment for status some years ago

this rule definitely is enforced now. There's reports from members in the linked thread (post 44 for example) not getting status despite having attained the requisite number of miles/points because of the newly enforced four-segments-minimum rule.
So this is another one of the "it was good while it lasted" things about AAdvantage.

Hi from Auckland. I am keen to hear from some experts how (or if) I can benefit from an upcoming trip (June & July). I read through ten pages but couldn't find a parallel scenario, so my apologies if one does exist.

I am flying (1) Qantas AKL-MEL, (2) Malaysia MEL-KUL-LHR, (in UK for a month) (3) US Airways LHR-PHL and two weeks later (4) US again PHL-LAX. The final leg is on Air NZ (I have an Airpoints card for that leg).

What is most important to you in a FFP?
a) Flights and b) upgrades but beggars can't be choosers. I'll take anything I can get.

The best chance of keeping the miles alive until next time should probably be my top priority.

How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Some years not at all, but most years 1 or 2 returns NZ domestic (usually Air NZ). Every few years I fly NZ to UK return and will look for a deal.

What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy

Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Currently only self directed travel, but I wouldn't rule out my work needing me to do trans-tasman flights in future.

Which routes do you fly most often
NZ domestic
Trans-tasman

What is your home airport?
AKL

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?
None. I had some good A* miles with United but they expired them due to lack of activity. (It would seem that donating miles stopped counting as activity!)

Preferred Airlines
Any

Welcome Chasio.

Alas to answer your questions about the upcoming flights and OneWorld frequent flyer options, we will need to now the fare class in which each segment is booked. Alas this arises due to the variation of how much credit is given for economy fares by each program for its partners. In addition, QF is changing its rules on 01 July. And there are a number of airlines that give no credit for the lower economy fares to some partners (eg CX discount fares with respect to AA accounts)

Normally the eticket receipt will show the fare class for each segment.

Happy wandering.

Fred

Thank you for your welcome and reply, Fred. I have been having trouble tracking down the fare class information.

The QF and MH flights are marked as "N" (so I gather they are not worth a lot!). These are before July 1st.

Post July 1st, I remember that LHR-PHL on US was "flexible economy" but the US Airways confirmation email is silent on fare class.

The PHL-LAX leg on US is also Economy but was booked through an agent and sadly I have not yet received detailed information. I will update as soon as possible.

Thanks again - Chasio

This trip appears to be booked in heavily discounted economy. "N" fares are among the lowest buckets around and earn nothing or very little in programs other than the "home" program of the operating airline.

As you state that you don't fly regularly and there might even be years without flight activity at all, primary concern should be making sure any points do not expire. So what you need is a program with a generous expiration policy. That rules out all programs with a fixed expiration policy and leaves AA, BA and QF who let points expire based on activity - AA and QF require activity once every 18 months, BA once every 36 months.
Next, the program of choice should let you earn points on NZ domestic flights as you state that's what you fly most often, and - if possible - a way to earn points with non-flying activity to keep the balance from expiring and contribute to your total earnings.

My advice would be to go with QFF - even though there's far more attractive programs out there in oneworld, it's the only program delivering on the last two requirements.
First, you can earn QF points on domestic Jetstar flights. QFF is the only OW program that lets you earn on JQ.
QFF is also the only OW program that offers a co-branded points-earning rewards credit card in New Zealand. Co-branded credit cards are the best source of points for non-frequent flyers, plus by using it you prevent your points from expiring even if not flying for extended periods of time.

Many thanks for your detailed and thoughtful reply. I will take your advice about QFF and take a credit card in time to prevent any expiry.

Much appreciated.