Thanks for this! Other big factor pushing me toward AA is ability to do a status challenge to either get gold immediately on my first flight to KIN, or get platinum if I wait until Summer 2013 and take in one or both of my Australian flights. Should also be able to earn AA miles on a Jamaica bank credit card.

Which OneWorld program to choose?
 

Moving to Melbourne in January to take up an academic job. Unless something goes wrong the move is permanent.

Plans for 2013 include YVR-SAN return, YVR-MEL one way, MEL-YYC return, MEL-YYZ return, MEL-YUL return, and probably MEL==>US==>Europe==>TLV==>PEK==>MEL. Finally, perhaps 8 domestic flights in Australia (mostly short), All flights in economy, most or all in discounted economy. I can choose whichever airlines I want, but am limited to economy.

Priorities: lounge access, upgrades to business, being able to get exit seats when flying economy, priority in going through security

Would very much appreciate advice. Should I go for AA or QFF? Any point/chance to try and obtain status in *A? Any particular credit card that is worth getting after I move to Australia?

With TAM getting out of *A soon, i would like to know from the experts what would be my best bet for OW in south america? I am not much familiar with OW FFPrograms but I hear that LANPass is really bad. My home airport is POA but I use SaoPaulo-GRU very often. I fly 50k per year usually with *A carriers, normally economy.
Also, would any OW airline match my *G status?

Thanks a lot.

Hi there,
I'm wondering about whether to credit my upcoming CathayPac business NZ>LHR return miles to asia miles or QF ffp. I'm based in NZ, have NZ*G but looking at leaving *A and moving to OW.
I travel to asia 1-2x per year, either business or economy and up-grade to business and to europe once a year in business. Half paid for by work, rest by me.
I like the business traveller eperience, lounges, priority check-in.
I can usually choose my airline.
Any thoughts wouldbe greatly appreciated.
Thx

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: HKG
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: <25k on economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Can sit on any OW airlines. Pleasure (+ aircraft type :p)
(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Asia
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: No, planning to have one.
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Redemption rates and lounge access
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Every OW carrier except CX

Thanks a lot :)

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SFO
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: more than 175K (almost all in J)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Business, J
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: for work, planing to choose Cathay Pacific for 2013 trips.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: SFO to China
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: UA 1K
(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: Award travel (Asia, Europe and S America)
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Currently *A (United) would like to try out Cathay Pacific

Hi

i don't know if this is the right place to post my question, so please accept my apologizes in advance if not

well, my sister never selected any FFP because she never cared

therefore she could have earned a lot of miles but never did

now that she is living in Canada and will be visiting us in Europe and also travelling across North America
i was wondering which FFP i would advise her to register to

she will soon fly from Canada to Vietnam with Cathay Pacific

should she select Asia Miles or another OW program and get her miles on this program from her Cathay flights ?

hesitating between Cathay, AA and British Airways

thanks

If award travel is most important and you are US bsaed then most probably AA is the best program for you. Also you are already booking J so the need for upgrades is less pressing compared to flying Y.
The only thing I would add is that IMHO in is advantages to have status with the airline you actually fly. So should you aim for status and you almost always fly CX, I would join their program even so earn/burn rate and fees might be worse than AA.

If most of her travel is TATL then I would not join the CX program. In fact, if she is mainly flying Y and not that often anyway, AA will (again) be the best program for her.

The first reply to naar keer
With 175k miles in J, I would seriously quality as EXP under AA and then Gold with Cathay MPC. CX does a quite reasonable job of tracking your flying even under other programs and have treated me well over the last 6-7 years as AA EXP/PLT. And remember that upgrades with MPC may be better bargains than awards under AA. And both airlines handle IRROPs better than others.

Happy wandering

Fred

is AA good for me if i base at HK?

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

(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: Economy most times, Business occasionally.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I can choose airline and class or service. Travel for both work/pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: 2 return trips from DEL - ORD in a year and some travel to Europe/Asia.

(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: Delta Silver Medallion, Kingfisher Gold, British Airways Blue. These are all mine. My wife has Bronze on BA which will soon be 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 is most important.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: KLM/BA to USA and no specific ones in Asia

We are mostly looking for getting upgrades through miles and hence what would be the best program that allows us to do that?

That's actually a tough call because only H class or higher fares on CX credit to AA.
If you flew 30K miles/year CX would likely be a better choice. CX Sliver gets lounge access in HKG (I believe).

You may get better joy with MH or UL when they join OneWorld. Also read through the stickies on the JMB program.

Happy wandering

Fred

I got the PM from someone suggesting I might like to help out here. Popped in to have a nose around.

If anyone can put in 4 LAN segments per year then by all means send me a PM and I will chip in with LANPASS comparisons

Happy flying and greetings from South America

First of all, I appreciate everyone's willingness to help. It's a big reason I finally registered after years of merely lurking.

I'm currently Gold on A3/:-:A. And since it doesn't take much to maintain my A3 Gold, I wanted to find another program to dump my new miles into. I figured it would be smart to see if there was anything feasible for me with One World.

(1) What is your home airport?

In a few weeks it will officially be ICN for a while. When I'm stateside, it's PDX.

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

I'd say I average just over 25k in Economy per year.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)

Nearly always Economy.

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

I'm almost always flying for personal vacations. And the few times it's specifically for work... I buy my ticket, but it has to be Economy.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often? (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

I'll probably only make 1 round trip back to North America per year and the rest of my flights will mostly be around E/SE Asia.

(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)

Just :-:A: A3 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.)

1. extra baggage allowance
2. low qualifications for maintaining status.
3. not having to worry about my miles expiring.

(8) Preferred Airlines

I really haven't experienced too many that have won me over (yet). In the states, I've probably had better experiences with Alaska Airlines more than most other ones.

I'd just like to have a OW option to add to my :-:A Gold status... something that would be useful in Asia and the US.

Thanks in advance for your help! :)

Offhand, I'd probably investigate a household account with BA. Depending on the specifics of your longhaul travel, you (personally) might be able to attain status with BA on your own, playing the tier point game. But having a household account means you can pool your Avios with your wife or other family members, which might provide enough points to make MFU upgrades (one of the best aspects of the BA scheme) more practical. That would address your priority for "what's important" at no loss of your own ability to achieve status based on your personal tier point accumulation. (Remember tier points are still personal, even with a household BAEC account.)

http://www.britishairways.com/travel...t/public/en_gb
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...ing-avios.html

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LAX
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: <25K Coach
(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: Work / pleasure. Always can choose.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US Domestic, going to be doing a lot of Asia travel 1st quarter 2013
(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. Have 60,000 BA avios, 75,000 Amex points, and 25,000 ultimate rewards points, but No Tier Points.
(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
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: None

Thanks so much for any help!

(1) What is your home airport? FRA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Varies a lot, but between 60-110k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? AA EXP

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Miles. Upgrades and Priority are also welcome. Lounges is not a big deal for now since I've a Amex Plat. Lifetime status is always a plus.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? I will be flying 1...2 times per year to South America, plus some travels to North America and Asia, and a few intra-Europe flights.

(7) Preferred Airlines? I like AA nowadays, but I'm moving to FRA and it's *A land, so I'm considering switching.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both


Currently I live in the US and like to fly AA in which I have EXP status (already achieved for next year), but I will be moving to Frankfurt and it's Star Alliance territory. What are my best options in your opinion? Keep flying mainly with OneWorld and try to get an easy Star Alliance Gold in Turkish or Aegean for the times that I need? Completely switch to *A?

Thanks!

(1) What is your home airport?
SYD

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Likely < 25k miles, but small chance of > 50k

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Y/B or J

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for work, QF domestically, but lots of choice int'l

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Domestic Australia, with some International

(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)
CX Gold; AC *SE (any hope of status matching anywhere to get Emerald?)

(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, upgrades

(8) Preferred Airlines
Challenge is that I'm in QF for less than 2 years, have 350k in BA, and 15k in AA (I'll likely be going back to US/Canada).

YYCOllie
Welcome to Australia

Guess "Challenge is that I'm in QF for less than 2 years" should be "Challenge is that I'm in Australia for less than 2 years"

So you have CX Gold (and some miles?), many BA miles & few AA miles

Being in 3 OW programs now, seems no use joining a 4th, if these miles will be orphaned in 2 years, unless you will use them now. BA do not accept Aussie members, so best not to change your address.

QF upgrade's with QF points can be problematic. International very hard tending to near impossible is you have no QF status and/or busy route. Domestic a little less so, especially if can get ODU in the QF club. AASA/JASA can be good value at times using your QF points and earning points/SC on the same flight.

If you are not a QF member and do want to join can do free on www.everydayrewards.com.au (Woolworth)

Will have miles earning potential from an Aussie credit card ?

For good redemption rates run away fast from QF. AA has better burn / earn

Many QF flights will credit to AA or BA or maybe CX. But check the fare bucket. Some low QF fares get zilch with AA. But I assume you need some activity with CX/AA/BA in these every 18 months(?) to keep these accounts alive.

If it was me would not be looking at QF but building up miles - status with BA or AA

Welcome to FT

I don't know enough about BAEC to really give you a full answer. If the flights you will be taking will credit to BA, perhaps remaining with that program will be in your long term advantage. Note though that with CX MPC Silver status (30K miles) will get you lounge access in HKG, something that is unlikely in any other OW program. I believe that there still is some cross fertilization between the BA and CX programs in terms of using miles in one program to upgrade the other's flights. Also AA is very generous in the mileage credit for their flights being credited to CX MPC/AsiaMiles.

Hope that helps.

Fred

Because of the JointVenture agreement between BA and AA, almost all BA flights credit fully to AA. AY also credits well and covers quite a bit of China. Back to the USA, use BA for the east coast, and AA for middle and west. It may be a pain but connections in MIA for South America will work if there are no reasonable flights with BA/IB.
I acknowledge that life time status on AA is rather more challenging now, but I think I'd stay with AA.

Fred

Mostly agree. Except for "Some low QF fares get zilch with AA." QF currently markets domestic sale type fares so that no partner programs will easily collect mile credits (mostly E/N/Q classes). So you would need to book semi-flexible fares on-line or have access to a TA for Australian domestic flying. Note that QF fares in V class or higher will credit to AsiaMiles/MPC. The same applies for AA with the addition of O and S class. Though, if I were likely to be flying through HKG multiple times I'd stick with Cathay since even if downgraded to Silver you still get lounge access in HKG.

As always, YMMV

Fred

Fred: thanks for replying. Good to get more opinions here
From another thread I note that YYCOllie received CX gold via an AMEX cc and not flying

Thanks everybody - I guess crediting to AA is the way to go. :)

Thanks!

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

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 40-50k, mostly economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: economy & premium economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: yes. Mostly work, 1-2 times per year for pleasure.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: mostly transatlantic (often YUL-LHR) and YUL-US transborder. I also fly YUL-MEX or thereabouts 1-2 times per year for family reasons.

(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: not in OW. Currently AC Elite, and will be A3 Gold in 2013.

(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 in TATL legs, priority services. Mile redemption will most often be to Mexico.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA

I am intending to switch to OW since my relatively frequent YUL-LHR legs a well served by BA, but I am trying to decide whether BA or AA should be where I credit to. It seems that AA makes sense due to the redemption criterion, but I prefer BA for transatlantic flights, and that is where I would appreciate upgrades the most. However, maintaining status will be a consideration and so I am interested in opinions concerning the best FFP strategy. Also, do either have a credit card in Canada? Many thanks!

Beware: lost oneworld emerald due to AB!
 

My poor judgement should be warning to anyone located in Central Europe and deciding which Oneworld-programme to concentrate on:

In order to remain independent from LH, I have maintained my BA gold status (oneworld emerald) since over 10 years without interruption, parallel to LH Senator (Star Aliance gold), AF/KL gold (Skyteam gold, but not held it continuously) and additionally AB-Gold (now oneworld sapphire) for my econimy flights on business within Europe and my longhaul business class flights.
When AB joined oneworld I thought this would be relief for me, being able to concentrate on only one oneworld program and thus enabling me to get more consistence into my Skyteam status due to less necessary flights.
I opted for AB platinum (oneworld emerald), sacrificing BA gold after 10 years for the sake of priviledged parking at German airports and the additional possibility to collect on EY, also due to the poor customer service of BA Executive Club in Germany.
What a mistake!
In spite of actually flying more oneworld in 2012 (I did even book addition flights just for the reson of maintaining my emerald status), I never made it to AB Top Bonus platinum. BA has just sent me my silver card for 2013 (I am thankful, because I didn't even know they offer a soft landing). But it is sad to no longer have oneworld emerald from January 2013 inwards after over 10 years and my last visit to LHR T5 first lounge in December is also lost due to my BA flights having moved to T1.
The reason is very simple and I should have paid more attention to this before opting for AB top bonus:
Top Bonus gives more than fair credit for their own flights (shorthaul economy), but very poor credit for business and longhaul and absolutely no additional status points for status members on oneworld (and Etihad) flights!
A business class flight on BA from Germany to London can get less credit than an economy flight on AB within Europe. A longhaul flight in business class on BA or EY receives less credit than three shorthaul flights in AB in economy! Credit for a Finnair return flight in economy is a joke!
Had I continued to collect in BA executive club I would have maintained my emerald status by far. But AB top bonus is only interesting for customers who mainly fly on AB metal within Europe!

Personally, I would use BA as the program if you fly them often. If you can get someone to book you into Y+ then upgrading to business is good value.

And yes, there is a BA credit card in Canada:

http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/credit-c...edit-card.html

Of course you end up with the BA redemption fees for award flights but you win in other areas.

I am sorry to hear that you haven't made your goal. AB is very generous with their own flights, similar to LH used to be. Mainly due to the high minimum miles. Earnings for other airlines are actually average, nothing particularly bad. You are aware that BA has gotten rid of the European exception therefore it is now much harder to maintain BA gold than it was in the past? Most probably it is harder to maintain it than getting AB Platinum. You need to fly significantly more now than in the past to get BA Gold.

Thanks, yes, I am aware of this, but even with the exemption I would have enjoyed as existing gold member at BA for another while I would have made gold there with 26 legs, including some business and four longhauls.

Many thanks for this. I will stick to BA, as I do prefer them over AA anyway.

This is an awesome thread! I'm currently in the midst of changing jobs, changing home airports, and indeed changing alliances (because Air Canada's plan sucks now).

(1) What is your home airport?

Starting in January it will be LAS.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

<25k but close. I could probably top up over 25k.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)


Reply: Typically economy but will go business if long-haul and it's reasonable.

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

Reply: I can choose my airlines and class of service. Travel is a mix of both.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)

Reply: I will be flying LAS-YVR regularly in the coming year, I will probably take one big transpacific trip (likely LAS-HKG) for vacation and a handful of other US-domestic trips.

(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: I am Air Canada Elite (Star Alliance Gold) but nothing on OW.

(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! Especially on long-haul. Not much else matters to me. Lounges are nice.

(8) Preferred Airlines

Reply: Doesn't matter. Whomever I can get to upgrade me will be my favourite.

TIA for the responses!

Which airlines fly LAS-YVR at a price/schedule that suits you ?
LAS-(LAX/SFO)-HKG on OW is Cathay metal

As a general rule upgrades are only available with your FFP airline miles on a flight marketed (your airline flight number) and operated by your airline. In general you cannot upgrade codeshares. But look carefully at the AA/BA/IB arrangement

AA Plat challenge may interest you

Unfortunately, no Oneworld members operate LAS-YVR, or anything close to it. AA codeshares on Westjet metal nonstop, or on Alaska via SEA, but north/south Oneworld service in the western US is basically nonexistent, except for AA services between LAX and SFO, LAX and LAS, etc.

In your case I'd probably look hard at Alaska's program. AS is not a Oneworld member, but they partner with most OW airlines, as well as a number of SkyTeam members, so it gives you more flexibility on earning and redemptions. Upgrades on AS metal are also a possibility, again via SEA.

Thanks guys. I like flying WestJet, their service is always great, but of course they don't have a whole lot in the way of a FF program. Maybe I will just fly WJ a bunch and accumulate AA points.

akqjt
Alaska [AS] is a good suggestion: has a good FFP. CX are a partner.
For AA, AS & other FFP look at what miles are needed for rewards vs an upgrade on routes you may travel.
25K is not a lot of miles, especially on low fares. Will be hard to get status, which helps domestic upgrades

(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
40-60K

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Economy

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can choose airlines but I prefer economy. I travel for pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Transpacific

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No I do not have status

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority Services and Good Award redemption rates

(8) Preferred Airlines
CX, KE, UA, AC

Welcome to FT coolkidflyer!

If your flying is primarily on Economy fares and you do some travel within North America I'd suggest American for the redemption options over BA, for example. Don't know much else about the other programmes.

Is most of your travel long haul ?
So as above, Alaska a good option is as they as the partner with KE & CX
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners
But check if low $ economy fares are eligible for earning miles

Edit
On the other post for star alliance FFP state you are CX Marco Polo Silver