Great thread, it's exactly what I need right now. I'm about to book a DONE5 RTW ticket. It'll start with Qantas but the majority of the flights are on LAN (5) and AA (5), with 1 or 2 each of CX, Iberia, and Finnair thrown into the mix. I currently am a JAL member but have barely used it. That said, I can share miles between my family members because I have the JAL credit card, which would presumably come in handy. However I'm wondering if I should use a different mileage club for this ticket, considering none of it's on JAL.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: Tokyo
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: ~40k, mostly in Economy, roughly a third of this on credit card miles
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Economy (this RTW ticket is the big exception)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Mostly pleasure in which case I can choose, sometimes work in which case I normally can't.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Tokyo to the rest of the world, in particular Vancouver
(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, although I hope to get some kind of status out of this RTW
(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: Bonus on earning rates
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: No particular preference - most of the Asian airlines are pretty good.

I mostly fly Transpacific, I rarely fly in North America. My CX Marco Polo Silver is expiring soon and I would like to change to another program.

Hello

Hope you can advise me which OW program might be best to join:

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

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: 45-50,000 miles

(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?
Reply: Travelling for work with a choice of airlines

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: BCN-XXX-RUH

(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

(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 redemption

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: QR, EK, CX, QF

Leaving AC due to grumpy FAs
 

I am *G with AC. I fly for business across the oceans in business, and domestically I largely fly PD from YTZ. For leisure, flights to the Sun or Ireland are typical for me, where I buy economy x 4. I'm tired of the grumpy old flight attendants on AC - I'd like to drive more of my business travel to CX, but am trying to decide between BA and CX for loyalty programs, given my main benefit is getting reward travel for four people from YYZ-Ireland...


(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
40-60K
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
70% Business, 30% economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Mostly work, and yes can choose airlines
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
1-3 TPACs per year (business)
1-3 TATL per year (business)
1-2 TATL per year (economy - personal)
1-2 Can-S. America/Caribbean

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades and rewards on personal travel - TATL generally, TPAC occasionally
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Only have flown CX

Other notes: have AMEX MP points ad infinitum and have an RBC Avion credit card.

As you mainly do TATL, then AA or BA would be the logical choice. AA has a better earn/burn rate, but BA may be better if you fly BA TATL and want to upgrade.

For clarity, I do many more miles with my TPACs than TATL (approx 60% of my miles come from trips to HKG/MNL.) Does the same guidance hold true? Ie choose based upon the carrier I'll be using when travelling leisure, assuming that J and benefits comes with work travel?

Sorry misread TPAC as TATL, but personally I think so.

Alright. Well, I'm 40 Tier Points and 878 Avios into my journey (whatever those amounts mean - time for research!)

If your TPAC travel is on CX in business, those flights will credit equally well to AA or BA. Remember 33.3K EQP credited to AA will get you PLT status and the 100% status bonus. With the joint venture with AA/BA, award seating TATL should be equally available to both and at the present AA awards will "cost" less. You would need more than 70K miles in Biz (90K economy) to get CX Gold. You will need to research the CX award cost tradeoffs there.

Happy wandering

Fred

You need 50K elite qualifying points (EQP) for Platinum. In premium economy classes and above, AA allots 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so 33.3K flown miles will earn 50K EQP.

With your flying patterns it might behoove you also to think about BA. It sounds like you could easily qualify for BA Silver (= AA Platinum = Oneworld Sapphire) which would get you mileage bonuses but also permit access to AA lounges even when traveling domestically on US or Canadian itineraries. You'd need 600 tier points (for example, one-way TPAC or TATL in J earns 120 tier points, 140 if on BA metal) for Silver, which certainly sounds doable. (You'd also need to fly 4 segments on BA metal during the year, which might or might not be an issue.) Look at the tier point tables that you can find on the BA board. Short-haul redemptions using BA Avios can be good value compared with AA redemptions (long haul not so much) but BA's upgrade options (MFUs) are way better than AA's.

I have a Priority Pass which gets me access to lounges in most airports also, so that's not a necessary perk.

My primary reason for switching is I've grown tired of AC's mean old FAs in J class, and the crap around their FFP. What I want from benefit is the upgrades on purchased economy for the family vacations TATL, or ability to reasonably redeem for business class TATL.

The big hole in my plan, of course, is what to do with domestic longhaul (ie YYZ-YYC/YVR). Seems like AC remains my only option with J, though I'd fly WS if I could credit their points to OW.

My thought had been CX vs. BA, but seems like AA may be worth considering.

WS miles can be credited to an AA account; no redemptions yet but expected. Miles are not elite qualifying. https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/e...es/westjet.jsp

If I could credit them yet to BA, it would be an easy decision. Still - it's only 1-2 flts per year.

Apologies, I did mean to say 33.3K miles in Business (yielding 50K EQP)
AA's qualification year is fixed calendar. I believe BA/CX would have a "floating" year based on anniversary/qualifying. That might make a difference.


Fred

Is MH Enrich an option?
 

I'm based in MEX and KUL so I fly between the two regularly. I used to have Sapphire status with MX but since it went bankrupt on 2012 I switched to fly mainly *A and ST of which I have status.

Now that MH is joining OW in Feb should I maintain my Gold or is AA a better option?

I did take a quick look at the MH program through their website, and I DO NOT claim to be an expert. My conclusion was that I would re-read the details after they have officially joined and all of the cross crediting arrangements are known.

My guess from the look was that only MH flights were used to determine status. If true, not very useful.

Happy wandering

Fred

Changing between programs (AA to LAN)?
 

Hi all,

Probably this question has been asked before, but I wanted to get your insight on this conundrum.

Currently I have Aadvantage gold status and residing in Ecuador. In the near future I will most probably be transfered to Lima, Perú. From there I will most travel (how frequently I don't know) between Perú and Ecuador, flying LAN, with the ocassional escapade to the US, in that case probably either flying AA or LAN.

Should I switch between programs or stick to AAdvantage?

My current thinking is that since I already have status with AA I should continue using it, since -at least- I'll get to use the business counters at the airports and get bonus mileage when flying LAN, plus the possibility of keep on profiting priority access and seating when flying American.

What's your take on this?

Thanks,
Fernando

Not too familiar with LANs program but another option to keep in min would be British Airways BAEC. If redeeming your miles are important to you, BA Avios are distance based and would require less points if you were to redeem
from Lima to Ecuador for instance.

I'm moving this thread to the sticky regarding Oneworld FFPs.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

I would posit that that may change with entry into oneworld.

Aside from a few with minimum 'home airline' segment rules, there are no oneworld airline FF programs that prevent the attaining of Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald levels without being able to earn part of the qualifying status on oneworld parters.

Compliments of the season, OW sticky,

I'm not sure whether or not I should start earning miles with a OW carrier, for the following reason:

Of all the airlines in this alliance, the only one that would prove useful to me is LA. I'd like to get to a few places in South America - Caracas, Merida (Venezuela), Iguazu, maybe Easter Island, maybe Stanley, Brasilia, and Puerto Montt- and it seems Lan flies to most of those. I currently have zero miles in the entire OW alliance; is it worth it to buy a LA explorer pass, and if so, what is the best itinerary? Or should I just start earning with one of the OW carriers, and get some open-jaw segments in the continent?

Thanks,
BmB

QANTAS Gold FF moving to USA - Switch to AAdvantage?
 

I am a QANTAS Lifetime Gold FF currently based in SYD and will be moving to New York mid year until at least mid 2014. While my flying will slow down to one or two domestic trips per month and 2 or 3 international trips per year (Mostly all in Economy, discount economy at that!)

I currently have 110,000 QFF Points and am trying to work out if I should switch my mile earning to AA or keep my points going to QF. I will obviously use my QF card for lounge access and just switch the account number on the booking once in the lounge.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm going to move this to the existing sticky thread regarding choosing a Oneworld FFP.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Thanks,
It is less about choosing a program than choosing if I should credit AA flights to an AA or QF account. I am sure I will get a helpful answer here though.

Flying AA discount economy and accruing to AA with no status you will earn 1 RDM (redeemable miles) per mile flown

Flying AA discount economy and accruing to QF with gold status you will earn 0.875 QFF points per mile flown (discount economy on AA earns 0.5 points per mile, and your Gold status gives you a 75% bonus on that – 0.5*1.75 = 0.875)

AA is recognised as having a better earn/burn ratio than QF (though there are circumstances where QF is better – for example short haul flights in the US for only 8K points)

So accruing to AA will give you a slightly better earn rate, which combined with AA’s better burn rate means you’ll be better off accruing to AA

You should consider doing the AA Challenge to get yourself AA Platinum status – then you’ll get 100% bonus RDM, making AA even better for you

Your QF Gold status will give you AAdmiral’s Club access, even when flying domestic US – something which AAdvantage status doesn’t give. I don't think you need to be accruing to QF in order to use your QF status to get into the lounge, but I'm not certain on this point.

Thanks! With QF Gold I have a minimum points earn of 500 on AA flights which is nice for short haul. For example my recent BOS-JFK which should earn less than 150 points got me 500.

As for AC access with QF status but an AA number in the booking; I understand it is possible.

If nothing else show the card at the door.

Unless you can justify QF Plat, credit to AA.

But I'm biased @ 98% AA LTG.

Fred

To get access to the lounge, just show the QF card ; does not have to be in the booking

If you are going to be doing enough travel to get 10k points in 3 months, then I would also agree that doing the Platinum Challenge will be good. Once platinum , BOS-JFK would earn you a min of 1000 credited to AA vs 500 to QF

I'm relocating to Singapore and am already *A (SK EBG) and OW Sapphire (Airberlin Gold). Before I used to do mostly Scandinavia <> London, Scandinavia <> Singapore, London <> Singapore, but my travel patterns will now change: I will be based in Singapore and travel frequently to:

Sydney - 12 R/T year
London - 8 R/T year
Delhi - 6 R/T year
Various intra-Asian flights - Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Jakarta - let's say about 20 R/T year
SFO - 6 R/T year (either from SIN or LON)

FWIW I think this is a conservative estimate.

Unfortunately I will be flying mostly economy/premium economy.

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: >100k (economy/premium economy)
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Economy, Premium Economy, occasionally Business (1/month)
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work. No C or F
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: See above.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
Reply: *A SK EBG, OW Sapphire Airberlin Topbonus
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Priority check-in, extra cabin baggage allowance, upgrades
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: SAS (!), Singapore Airlines (I have most experience with these...)

Based on my travel pattern, I am fairly confident I'll reach top tier in all alliances if I want to, but I am looking to see if I am missing something in terms of airlines who would frequently or easily allow me to upgrade with miles at gate, cash at gate or super-elite status.

Thanks in advance!

Thanks, how are 10k points earned/calculated? What cost would that be if milage running it?

See the thread in the AA forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...-platinum.html

Here's my question list:


(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: NGO, MNL
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: < 25k , not that frequent flyer, but I have future plans of travelling domestic in Japan with JL if the prices are right
(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: Travel for pleasure.Any OW Airline on Y Class. For my annual vacation in MNL, I am thinking whether I fly JL or CX.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Intra-Asia as of this time
(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: JMB Base, PR Mabuhay Miles Base
(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, good award redemption rates, long miles expiration date
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: JL, CX

Hello OW forum. I'm a regular on the AC and Asia forums and I'm looking for a bit of help deciding on a OW FFP for the upcoming year and beyond.

(1) What is your home airport?
YYC and EWR
Moving to either ITH or RDU in August
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
75k in 2012, looking to do ~50-75k in 2013
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Discount Y within North America, discount C international
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose the airline when flying domestically to a reasonable extent but cannot fly. Current international travel is mainly for business within the US + YYC but also int'l flights for leisure.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
SFO/LAX-NYC and YYC-US are my most frequent flights but my flying is truly a mixed bag.
(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
AC Super Elite exp 2/2013, UA Silver exp 1/2013
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Intl upgrades, priority check-in/boarding, lounge access (already have Amex Plat for AC access), TPAC C award redemptions
(8) Preferred Airlines
OZ, NH, CX, but willing to chase cheap C fares on any carrier. Do not like flying on WS.
(9) Other
Easy requalification for flying international C

I have 2 months of *G left and although I'm considering doing a US challenge to quickly get *G before the end of February, I'm drawn by the often cheap C fares NYC-Europe on AY and YVR-Asia on JL. I used to be CX Gold but I feel that MPC is not at all suited to my current flying. One thing which is important for me is to get some kind of status as soon as possible for as little cost as possible. I know I can do an AA challenge and get 10k EQP for ~$1k before the end of January but I don't feel AA is particularly generous towards people who fly international premium classes although I like AAdvantage overall. BA and IB are all quite generous for Tier/Elite Points for flying C but I'm not sure how easy it would be to meet their own-metal requirements considering I don't fly BA or IB that much. RJ seems to be very easy to requalify, does anyone have experience with their FFP?

Let me just check that my understanding is correct on this one, because I'm pretty sure people are going to tell me to switch to earn and burn points to/with AA rather than the current QF.

Questions
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: STL, aka Stop laughing. :)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: Greater than 50k, although it bounces around a fair bit. This year was actually close to 100k, but that was unusual.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply: Discount economy or economy if I can get the exact seat I want, otherwise PE or business. It's running about 8:1 at the moment.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work & pleasure. I can choose whichever airline I want, although it's tended to be OW simply because I joined that first...quite a while ago.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Transpacific. Usually US-NZ (& I don't care if it transits Oz or Fiji or wherever so long as it's <16 hours) 2-3 times a year, but regular US-China 2-3 and US-UK 1-2 times a year. Travel within the US 10-15 times a year for work tends to be on SW (occasional AA or Alaska) and almost always to one of the coasts simply because they happen to go where I need to and I like them.

(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: QF Gold. Also SW and NZ *A. AA AC membership just for reliable lounge access.

(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: In order, upgrades, lounge access, and check in.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Absolute preferences, if I had to say, would be QF, NZ, and, within the US, SW. AA business class is ok, but Y is awful.

Why do you need AC membership if you have QF Gold. QF Gold will give you AC access even on domestic FLTs.

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. Depending on the airline some low$ fares are not upgradeable. Is different for the AA/BA/IB arrangement. Have read where MPC Asiamiles can upgrade BA flights, but not 100% sure
Also worth looking as Alaska : a good ffp

Yes. Why would someone living in the USA credit to QF? One reason is QF gold give you club access, as post 236 above. But after QF gold credit to AA. The QF points needed for award/upgrades on QF flights are poor value compared to AA, especially if earning with discount economy or economy flights. What AA status would you get with AA with your current flying pattern?

Also look at Alaska: a good program

Originally it was simply accidental they overlapped, but I've actually found that I get refused entry to places with one or the other and so I've just kept it in place ever since so I know I can get into the complete range I want. Besides, the AC membership is tax deductible for me so it takes care of the problem at no (effective) cost. :)

Historical, and it hadn't occurred to me to switch. :)


I just looked at my numbers for 2012 and I would be PLT easily with AA. Dammit :rolleyes: :)

I now realize I should have switched the crediting back in 2011. Opps. Thanks for the comments & confirmation of what I'd (belatedly) realized, ppls - much appreciated. :D

Glad we have helped. :)

Worth looking at the AA forum sticky to check if AA Plat challenge is of use to you.
AA program is by calender year but QF is 12 months from your joining date, so the overlap (if any) may be useful
Remember if you have no activity (earn-burn) in 18 months with QF your points go to zero. You need 4 QF flights to retain Gold or have silver (if downgraded)