Except that we don't know the OP's intended redemption destinations. Most of his paid travel is not to/from Europe, so extended award availability on BA and family status in BAEC might be of little actual value to him.

Which is why I requested additional detail lol.
The last bullet was a comment based on limited information but obviously not final.

FFQ for my younger brother. Family has been on CX Asia Miles
 

Just asking this thread about his Oneworld FFQ.
Questions are
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Perks, and priority services
(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: 16,000-50,000 miles. Usually on Economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Economy and if applicable upgrades to Business Class
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Family has CX FFQs and it's vacation/family trip
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transpacific and Domestic US and Australia that means CX,JL, AA/AS and QF
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: EWR/JFK Asia Pacific and Australia PER/KIX/MNL/CRK
(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: None so far. His is banked on a PR Mabuhay Miles
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: CX for JFK/EWR-MNL via HKG or JFK/EWR-PER via HKG. Has done PR recently VX pre-merger with Oneworld member AS

Special note: Should he pick these ones JAL JMB QF Frequent Flyer AS Millage Plan AA Advantage as his Oneworld FFQ or not? Everyone else in the family as CX Asia Miles since 1999- December 17th 2005

Mahalo All Responders. I guess I should have emphasized my interest in improving my position with HA/AS post merger. I have not used AS cause I donʻt care for the 737 over water. I like HAʻs layflat cabins and I do worry how AS will assimilate HAʻs plane leases. HA has 330ʻs and 787ʻs which I like, and am hoping the 787ʻs might survive. My preference is to get to Europe/Brazil/Asia with 1 single stop, so historically DL HNL/ATL/AMS or HNL/SEA/AMS, etc.

I like the results for AA Biz fares to GRU, havenʻt looked into their nonstops to Europe from DFW, which is a good jump from HNL. I mostly work out of AMS, CDG some German cities not that inconvenient.
The OW affiliation with JA is important, they have very competitive fares, good cab/service, and they fly to where I want to go in Asia

To Izzik;

• Finish the run to 2MM on Delta if possible. Even if Skyteam is not a focus, it's better to lock it in before the goal posts are moved.
• DL has increased their fares significantly over UA such that I canʻt imagine accumulating another 300k miles (Iʻm 70 later this year), especially given the HA (ex-ST) incorporation into OW.
• How much progress on United MM status?
• Iʻm 200k in in 2 yrs.
• What kind of awards (Y, C, F) are important for redemption? And on what routes?
• HNL to mainland and HNL to Europe/Asia, mainly to comp or upgrade my wife
• Unless AA status is the goal, credit card spend is potentially more valuable on a hotel program card. Hyatt or Hilton, not so much Marriott.
• Hmm, thereʻs a rub...Iʻm Bonvoy Plat/T depending on the year. Where I travel, other than AMS, there better situated for me.
• With the information provided, I'm leaning towards recommending BA because of the extended award availability calendar and the potential for achieving GGL which addresses family status.

Very helpful, thanks! Yes, definitely wait and see how the Alaska/HA merger pans out.. if it even happens. I would love to see HA expand their nonstops to other North American cities. ORD, MIA, CLT esp.
If you are redeeming for HNL-mainland flights, then I think Alaska Mileage Plan would be better. They will likely absorb HA lifetime miles into their program too. I do wonder how they'll account for inter-island commuters who had Pualani Gold on segments but would theoretically drop to low level elite if getting 500 min miles/segment.
Top tier AS elites can gift status as well, which helps on the family stuff.

Very helpful, thanks! Yes, definitely wait and see how the Alaska/HA merger pans out.. if it even happens.

well….here we are ! The dust hasn’t settled yet but I thought I’d “bump” the thread in case there’s any new information that I’m not aware of. I’m down to a few months and 1 trip to BKK/China and 1 mainland trip left to book. Not sure I can status match my 1K to an AA Plat + level with that spend

Help us Choose FF Program..
 

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- Good award redemption rate & access (ie no blackout dates, etc).
- Would appreciate option to use rewards for upgrades which would allow us to use the smaller mileage amounts we gain in a way that’s become more a necessity than a luxury as we age.
- Good lounge access would be a nice perk for the international trips but without status I assume it's unlikely & isn't as important as reward value/easy redemption.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Unsure of average miles but it’s low. Our year usually consists of 2-3 Domestic non-stop flights + 1 International with a single layover.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
In the past it was cheapest or economy. However, now it feels necessary to book premium economy or business for anything over 5 hours.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Leisure travel only & usually end up on Alaska, Southwest, or Delta.
We both have owner-operated service businesses which doesn’t allow us much time for travel, however we try to do at least 1 bucket-list trip and/or a visit to Hawaii each year.
All other flights are to visit family or friends in Washington or Midwest.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Domestic: SAN-SEA, SAN-OGG, SAN-OMA.

(6) What is your home airport?
SAN but often use LAX for international flights

(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?
Miles, No status.
- Alaska: Roughly 90k miles & partner has just shy of 19k. Also have the Alaska cc for companion pass, priority boarding, & free checked bags.
- Southwest: Roughly 26k miles & partner has 3k.
- Delta: I have 27.5k miles, unsure of partner balance.

Credit Card Points:
- Chase Ultimate rewards via Sapphire Reserve + Freedom (5% bonus categories)
- Barclaycard World Arrival+ ...Despite the poor value we find it useful to use for everyday purchases & then use the points to pay ourselves back for some of our travel purchases

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Alaska & Southwest. However, if there's something that you feel would better suit our needs I'm open to learning a new program!

Jibber Welcome to FT
(2) With so little flights FFP frequent flyer programs are not for you. Frequent spender programs (that go to FFP) may be of value. Do not expect much.
(7) Alaska has taken over Hawaiian Airways and will have 1 FFP and later 1 reservation system. Hawaiian will be a brand of Alaska.

Alaska is in Oneworld alliance (this is the OW which ffp thread)
Another thread https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/info...help-here.html

Just keep selecting flights based on best schedule - price.

That’s kinda what I feared, just hoped there may be a method of getting better use of our miles/cc points to book better seat class on long hauls.

Will do some further reading on how best to utilize our spending points. Thanks for the reply :)

Mainly looking for suggestions on either BAEC or QR
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge Access, ease of redemption?
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
60-80k miles, I do twice yearly QR J from CGK-JFK, booked on AA code. Rest I mix between CX Y and some domestic US AS/AA J/Y flights.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Business on longer hauls, Eco on CX and short haul domestic.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for leisure, so have full freedom and willing to do status runs.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Mentioned above, CGK-JFK QR J on AA code, w
(6) What is your home airport?
HKG

My main concern is choosing between either QR or BA as they seem to be the easiest in earning status based on what I'm flying. I would earn around 270 Q points on a single CGK-DOH-JFK roundtrip and 600 BA tier points.
I would have a good chance of earning OWE in either of the programs. I currently have BA gold and a negligible amount of Avios in it but I have to go out of my way to fly the 4 sectors. I rarely travel to Europe.
I am expecting a move to the US soon, though, but I would continue to fly similar routes, except probably more US domestic.

QR has the same segment requirement that BA has. The CGK-NYC deal is only on AA codes, you have to pay A LOT more to get QR codes on it, despite being QR metal. If you want an Avios program then probably need to look at AY or IB, they don't have segment requirements.

You also need to check your CX Y segments, they may not credit to many places, a lot of the lower economy fares don't credit to most OW partners, those that do only credit at 25% (BA, IB, & AS) If you'll no longer have CX economy segments after moving then that may not be a concern anymore.

I would probably be looking at AS as a potential as it's not too hard to hit 50 or 75k in that program, but it sounds like you may be after domestic US lounge access which it won't grant you. AA business class flights credit pretty strongly in AY, so that may be the next place to look.

Thanks for the feedback, according to the current Qatar language it says, “you will need to have earned at least 20% of your Qpoints or have flown 4 sectors (within 12 months prior to retention) or 8 sectors (within 24 months prior to retention) on flights either marketed* or operated** by Qatar Airways.” so judging by that my CGK-JFK twice round trip would satisfy the sector requirement. However, I probably won’t see a lot of benefits outside of OWE with QR as the main Al Safwa access must be on QR code. I might do around 1 round trip a year on Qatar which may be on J. Will also research more into the AY program.

CGK-DOH-JFK-DOH-CGK in J credited to Iberia Plus would get you 2,200 of the 2,250 IB+ Elite Points needed for oneworld Sapphire; IB does not require any flights on IB metal or IB codes to attain status. You might or might not achieve oneworld Emerald status with IB+, but Sapphire might be sufficient for your needs.

The Iberia Plus Avios you earn can be transferred to BA, and thence to AY or linked to QR, if necessary, for better award redemptions.

Just had my 6 month status match to BA Gold expire and feeling the blues...

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Access to AA Flagship Lounges on domestic itineraries
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
International trips are with miles and always premium cabin. Domestic travel in economy - mainly DL, but willing to accept AA non-IFE aircraft for the nicer and less crowded ORD Flagship Lounge. Fly 30-50 domestic segments/year.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Domestic main cabin (no basic economy).
(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?
GRB - DL hub / ORD - SRQ/RSW/TPA
(6) What is your home airport?
GRB, but easy drives to ATW, CWA, RHI, ESC, IMT, MSN, and MKE

Without at least some paid, long-haul travel in a premium cabin, I doubt that you will be able to obtain oneworld Sapphire status (the minimum needed for domestic lounge access) based on your flying patterns. I'm assuming that your domestic travels, though not in Basic Economy, are still on a discounted Economy fare, not full Y.

I figured that was probably the case. There are sometimes ways to temporarily buy up to oneworld Sapphire with an international partner for ~$500 for 1 year, although I would have to use the Flagship at least 10 times to match the $50 Sky Club fee after the limited entries (10/yr) via the Amex Platinum card run out. Realistically, other than another status match (fingers crossed), most optimal will be to route as much travel as possible through ATL and rely primarily on the Amex Centurion lounge there, saving the Sky Club entries for other connecting points or when the Centurion line is too long...

So last year i was here trying to stitch together a OW RTW and trying to decide which OW program to accumulate my miles it. At that point i was convinced, thanks to great inputs, that i should go with AA.

But i could not get the extended leave i was looking for, so ended up with a ANA RTW that i had to complete in 4 weeks.

But i am planning a new trip for next April/May/June timeframe. This time I have the extended leave. My question was, is AA still the choice of FF program OR should i gravitate towards Avios. If its Avios, which airline should i book it with.

Off topic
Link--> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onew...periences.html
If you book a *ONE* or *GLOB* on line via the OW Tool the software decides who issues the ticket. Can the first airline or Qantas. Qantas seems to be the default issuing airline in many cases. QF can be difficult to deal with. AA, via phone, will issue if long haul over water flights are AA. But experiences differ. From reports on FT AA are good to deal with if/when changes happen/are needed.

If your question is which avios currency frequent flyer program to join are opinions. BAEC & QRPC are closely linked. Do/can any of your credit cards transfer cc points to an avios FFP?

DELETE

Let me try this again.

I have the option to transfer to a few different Avios programs via 3 different CCs

AA PP frustrated by the loyalty points chase, looking for a long-term program. Please poke holes in my plan below as you see them.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, MCE seating on AA.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
2024 YTD I have flown approx 50k miles across roughly 50 sectors, all within continental US. This does not include two award trips US-Europe in J that I booked using miles. 2025 will look pretty similar.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
More than half of my flights are in business/domestic first, remainder in economy. All comes down to pricing.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose any airline, work will only reimburse economy (hence price sensitivity).
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Almost exclusively AA. ORD-MIA is probably 60%+ of my travel (hence why I have no shot at upgrade as PP). If I didn't fly to MIA so often I'd also be considering *A, but having 8+ nonstops a day to choose from on AA isn't something I want to give up.
(6) What is your home airport?
ORD

I'm wrapping up my travel for the year this week, as mentioned above I'm Platinum Pro with AA, no shot at EP unless I really play games with loyalty points from non-flights. Being ORD-based, earning OWS with a non-US alliance member would be quite valuable as I'd have access to the Flagship Lounge there on outbound, and additionally I find myself in MIA about once/twice a month so I'd have access inbound quite frequently as well. Canceling the Executive card would save $595, and on top of that I'd have access to much better lounges most of the time.

Plan A would be traveling back in time and taking advantage of the BA status match last year. Since I do not have access to time travel, I'm leaning toward Finnair as Plan B. I have found that upgrading from economy to business on AA books into J, which earns 250% on AY. If I assume all flights are ORD-MIA, I'd make Gold in 8 RTs if I upgrade to J on each. More realistically, some will be economy but I should have no issue getting to Gold and having a decent shot at Platinum most years. I like that AY awards tier points purely on distance, has decent earn rates on AA metal, and has some decent status benefits that I could theoretically make use of given ORD-HEL daily frequency. I only wish there was a way to status match up to gold with AY but currently I'm only aware of SAS matches.

I also considered BA & QR, but the 4 segment requirements for each turns me off. BA I could easily get each year, but really I don't like the thought of routing through LHR solely to meet this requirement as I have found transiting LHR for US-Schengen to be a PITA. And I'm sure my wife would love 4 segments a year on QSuites, but I don't want to be locked into that annually. It is a shame because QR for my travel patterns would be the fastest earn from a status standpoint.

thetaxman29 , have you verified that Finnair Plus awards tier points based on the upgraded booking class, and not the original booking class?

If you're expecting to have long-haul Business Class travel on oneworld carriers, you should also look into the Iberia Plus program. Like Finnair, Iberia Plus does not require any flights on its own metal to achieve status.

Also, adding a connection (if you are willing to do that) can be a good way to earn tier points faster in certain programs, like IB Plus.

I have not verified this - do you know how I could do that?

Understood on IB, I considered that as well. My biggest issue is when I am in economy, earning 20 status points per segment is horrible. Adding a connection I agree about, but being based in ORD that is almost never necessary for me and I'd rather not connect.

Posting a query in the FT Finnair forum might yield an answer to how upgrades are treated for earning purposes. (The same issue could arise if you opted to credit to Iberia Plus rather than Finnair Plus.)

I understand your concerns about poor IB Plus earnings on cheap, ORD-MIA Coach tickets, but if you're going to also fly paid Business Class to continental Europe on oneworld, you're liking going to connect somewhere (in the U.S., HEL, LHR, or MAD) in each direction. Just one roundtrip like that would get you oneworld Ruby; two such roundtrips in a single IB Plus earnings period (April 1-March 31) would get you oneworld Sapphire.

There is a recent data point where someone said that paid upgrades on AA prior to departure date no longer credits as J with Finnair Plus.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/36725365-post1258.html

If you are heavily relying on this particular aspect, you may want to confirm ... or make backup plans on how you would earn status with AY+.

This is very helpful, thank you! Back to the drawing board...

I would suggest giving BA another look. You don't have to fly via LHR for the 4 segments; you just need flights marketed OR operated by BA.. or flights marketed AND operated by IB.
BA is more than happy to sell you codeshares marketed with a BA flight number but operated by Oneworld partners. See below.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...fed749c551.png

I also have a question, if i can book my itinerary with AA, how can i calculate how many Loyalty Points i can score ? I do not have status with AA currently.

Look in the AA forum. Can be complicated and inconsistent.
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...advantage-733/
If a RTW ticket https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...age-miles.html

Thanks. It is a RTW ticket. Will post my questions in that forum.

Yes I agree, however from what I can tell after some experimentation, BA will NOT be more than happy to sell codeshares solely within the US (i.e. just the ORD-PHL leg of the example you posted). Still helpful, but my issue really is that for trans-Atlantic trips I would prefer to use miles, which won't count toward the 4 segment requirement.

So you want status and perks with Oneworld but not AA or AS...and it's all based on domestic US revenue flights in economy?

I'm sorry but you'll have to compromise a bit.

I'm wondering whether to stick with Qantas or Finnair's frequent flier program to try to reach the lifetime tier?

I have 4765 lifetime status credits with QFF, and need 7,000 for silver/14,000 for gold. And 89,882 tier points with AY+, needing 2,000,000 for gold with them.

I do find it slightly easier to retain status and make award bookings with AY though.

How old are you?

26

I'd say Finnair, though at least get to LT Silver with QF at some point. Finnair's program just changed, so I can't imagine them moving the goalposts anytime soon.. but the difference between QF and AY lifetime is that AY lifetime Plat is not too bad after reaching Gold.. whereas QF lifetime Plat is ridiculously far after Gold and is not worth the effort, even at your age. You have a better chance of making LT Plat with AY at some point, even if you are satisfied with LT Gold.

Now that BA has implemented huge changes to status attaining and make it impossible to get Emerald status with them, Any recommendation for other OW FFP that emerald status can be reached easily?

Emerald status "easily" is a very optimistic ask. Depends on your flying-spending pattern
BA forum---> https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/brit...e-emerald.html

A lot of FFP just change the rules. Would need some help in update my options. Appriciate all the help I can get.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
1. Lounge
2. free check bags
and occasional redeem miles in some short haul expensive route.

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

I usually fly with Star* so not so much of OW. O would say in a years I wd probably fly about 30000 miles in OW airlines. Most long flight and little sectors. Unless it's in US trip which is gonna be short flight and many sectors.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy incl discount, occasional Premium Eco.

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?

BKK - US /1 a year, max 2.
BKK - Europe (any cities) / 2 times a year
US or Europe - Brazil/Argentina 1 a year
Intra Europe
Intra US

(6) What is your home airport?
BKK

(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, use to have BA few years ago. It s something i can still reach in status. But now since BA change the way of earning. Im not sure anymore.

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

I dont have one really. All OW airlines is ok with me.