Utazo

Hi, happy 4th of July!

I'm reachinh Lufthansa Senator with my next flight and I'm considering switch to a oneworld program through status match.

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?
good award redemption rates

(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:~80 000, 4+ transcontinental and 3 transatlantic business, a few US domestic personal
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?

Reply:Business for work, economy for private travels
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:I have relative flexibility. I travel for work and pleasure.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: US domestic transcontinental and transatlantic
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply:SFO
(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: Lufthansa Senator soon, no current OW membership (registered to AA recently)
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: LH, Swiss,

I'd like to use points with my family to visit relatives in Europe.
Thank you!

bhomburg

well, as you say your primary concern is a program that will match your LH status, the choice is limited.
AFAIK, the only program that will match your status outright is AB - you'll get straight to Gold, which is OW Sapphire (mid tier). Click here to request it (German language only).

AA might match your status or (more likely) you will have to enroll in a challenge to get to Platinum, which involves paying a $240 fee and flying a ceertain amount of points (not miles!) within a given timeframe, usually 90 days.
Browse these threads for more insight:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/american-airlines-aadvantage-combined-airline-program/967395-help-desk-aadvantage-elite-status-challenge-gold-platinum.html


AB Gold status (or any other non-AA oneworld sapphire or emerald status) will get you lounge access on domestic AA flights, something you can't get with AA status of any kind.
However, you'll likely fly a good deal on AA, and non-AA oneworld status will not give you domestic upgrades.

When you fly 80k miles a year with most of them transatlantic in premium cabins you will likely achieve Emerald status at some point in any OW program. Currently, Executive Platinum on AA will confer hard-to-beat benefits for an US-based flyer: 8 systemwide upgrades good on any fare, complimentary domestic upgrades, expanded award availability. Emphasis on "currently", as the consensus around here seems to be that there will be a major devaluation of the program following the US Airways merger/integration.

bhomburg

I would stick with CX or look at BAEC.
with BAEC, one return trip from CDG to China in WT+ or CX Premium economy (with the EU and Chinese domestic flights in cheap Y) will net you 220 Tier points - you need 1500 to qualify for Gold, so with one such trip every two months plus the other flying you mentioned you will definitely qualify for BA Gold.
They have recently slashed earnings for discount economy tickets, so carefully check earnings of your domestic China flights using their earnings calculator.

Award availability isn't too bad, however there's substantial cash surcharges on longhaul flights, especially in premium cabins.

scubaskyscott

My Work is taking me to London and Spain more often and I'm thinking of switching to BA any advice is wonderful! Thanks
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: Upgrades
(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 Currently Plat Med Delta
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply: Premium Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? Choose
Reply:
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Domestic though as of recently to London alot
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LAX NYC LHR soon
(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: Platinum Medallion Delta through 2016
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Delta KLM
__________________________

Edlington

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounges, priority services (+award tickets/upgrades)
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Around 50k
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Couple of J, rest is Y or discounted Y
(4) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Both. For work: 1-2 J return to Europe / year, rest is mostly Y. Some flexibility in choosing airline/alliance.
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
To Europe for business, SE Asia regional and US for leisure
(6) What is your home airport?
HKG
(7) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
LH FTL (won't make it to SEN unfortunately barring a crazy mileage run)
(8) Preferred Airlines
N/A

Many thanks in advance!

CSW

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?
Reply:Lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply: 25,000-50,000 Taking job in Qatar, so travel patterns changing.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply:Econony

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: No - work dictates - mostly Qatar Airways.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:YYC - DOH

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
ReplyOH

(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: AC basic at moment

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: Air Canada until this move.

bhomburg

If you are sure to have at least one annual US trip in your plans for the foreseeable future (to satisfy the four-segments-on-AA-minimum metal requirements), AAdvantage currently is arguably the most generous program out there.
With a few longhaul J flights annually, you should not have a problem quailfying for mid-tier sapphire status which will give better benefits than LH FTL - namely alliance-wide business-class lounge access (comparable to Star Alliance Gold and way better than the limited LH group lounges open for FTLs), extra baggage allowance and free advance seat selection/free premium seats on a number of oneworld carriers (AA, BA, QF...).
If you don't know if you can satisfy the minimum metal requirement, check one post above and look into BAEC or CX's program.
Coming from Miles and More, you won't be too shocked at the cash surcharges BA imposes on long-haul redemptions . BAECs redemptions are distance-based and the sweet spot is with shorthaul awards.

I did the switch from LH to AA back in 2009 and haven't looked back since.

bhomburg

US based, with LHR as frequently-visited destination?
I would rather go with AA than BA. As a 100k flyer, you'll earn eight systemwide upgrades (which, in my experience, are actually usable and good on any fare and always cleared going to LHR as there's a ton of capacity on that route). Also, AAdvantage has no unlimited domestic upgrades for its lower tiers (this is a benefit reserved for its 100k top tier), so likely your domestic upgrade rate will be higher than you are probably experiencing on DL. Mine is something like 85%, and I usually only sit in coach during IRROPS or after last-minute changes.
While you can upgrade AA domestic flights with BA points, this is highly restrictive (only Y and B fares). Same the other way around: One can only upgrade Y and B fares on BA metal with AA miles.

Caveat: When you book travel on BA in premium economy on those London flights and want to upgrade, it's better to go with the BA program as you can use BA points for this but not AA miles to upgrade from PE to business or F. If that kind of upgrade is your primary goal, you will indeed need to go with BAEC.

Edlington

Many thanks for the detailed answer!

Quick question re: alternatives to AA. I was looking at QR as well. Any particular opinion regarding it vs your other suggestions?

bhomburg

Economy fares earn rather poorly in QRs program, on QR as well as all partners. Only full-fare Y/B fares earn 100% miles. Still-pricey next three fare buckets down (H,K,M) 75%, the most prevalent ones (G,L,N,S,V) 50% and the cheapest ones a meager 25%.
This, btw, is exactly the same one would earn crediting QR flights to AA, so they don't treat their own members better than partners'.

Hey, it's Sunday morning, so let's have some fun and use a real-world example of, say, a return HKG-DOH-FRA flight, flying cheapest economy.
On QR, that'll earn you 70 Qpoints (needed for status qualification). You will qualify for Gold (their Sapphire level, which is the one you want) halfway into your 5th return flight on this route. While that is in line with other OW programs, you would earn a crap-tastic 3,380 redeemable Qmiles (25%, remember!) only.

An upgrade to business class will cost you 120,000 of those precious Qmiles, an award ticket 160,000. That means you will earn one upgrade to business after 'enjoying' the back of the plane for 35 flights on this route respectively will have earned one free flight in business after 47 flights! This will halve with the most common economy fare classes as these earn double the miles than the cheapest tickets, but still even then you'll need to fly this long-haul route back-and-forth 18 times on a reasonably priced economy ticket before you have enough miles to upgrade the 19th flight to business. Which totally discredits this program for anyone flying on discount economy tickets.
Your miles would expire before you could use them if you only flew discount economy on QR.

Crediting to AA, flying the same route on QR you would earn the same paltry 3380 miles, BUT an award ticket in business class is just 52,500 miles, so you will have earned a free flight on our 16th flight.
BTW, if you flew this route on BA (HKG-LHR-FRA), you would earn 12,988 miles, enough for a business class award after just four flights! (Well, four, plus a 600-mile shorthaul...). You would also qualify for OW Sapphire status after four flights.

Bottom line: for people who (have to) fly economy, the QR program has a terrible earning rate, combined with expensive redemptions. Play around with their mileage calculator and the fare classes you usually buy to check if this could make sense for you.


BAEC is heading the same way with their April devaluation (greatly reduced earnings for discount economy fares), BTW. At the moment, AAdvantage members earn better on BA flights in discount economy than they do in BAEC. The big question is when and how will AA will follow this trend and institute a massive devaluation as well.
Not that AA is always the best option, especially for someone located in HKG and likely to fly CX: Only the two most expensive fare classes earn ANY miles in AAdvantage when flying CX, That's right - everything except full-fare Y/B earns zero AA miles.

wandering_fred

Well AA earning from the lower CX economy fares along with some of the CX Silver benefits is why I now have status with CX after reaching AA 1mm Gold.

However, while Y and B CX fares earn 100% EQM (and 150% EQP) of base flight miles when credited to AA, H class fares do earn 100% EQM and EQP. Cathay Pacific fare class earning with AA

I have no doubts that there will be changes in the not too distant future in both the AA and CX programs. With luck that will happen after I have given up on earning serious status with any airline.

Happy wandering

Fred

Edlington

Got it. Many thanks again, very helpful!

mormegil

First time poster, long time lurker here. I am an UA FF member. Recently moved to LON from ATL and I spent all of my UA miles lately traveling around, so thinking of jumping ship.

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

Good award redemption rates, easy miles accrual rate.

(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:~35, 000, 2+ transcontinental between LON & India, 4-6 transatlantic economy, a few US domestic 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: I have relative flexibility regarding airlines but economy exclusively, maybe premium economy if its a great deal. I travel for work and pleasure.

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

Reply: LHR/LGW - EWR/PHL; LHR/LGW - ORD; LON - CCU.

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)

Reply: LHR & LGW

(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 currently. Registered to AA & BA.

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

Reply: Preferred - Virgin, BA, United. Most common - United.

Many thanks in advance, guys.

Magnus Nordlander

Hi,

I've been having some trouble deciding on which FFP to use. My home airport is ARN, and most people here choose Star Alliance, since ARN is a SK hub and there are earning credit cards available, but I refuse to fly with SK unless absolutely necessary because they do not offer business class within Europe. Thus, I'm usually flying OneWorld instead.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
My main goal is getting award flights. I don't mind paying cash for miles, but of course, the point is to fly for cheap
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
<25000 miles - <25 flights, mainly within Europe, with a few transatlantic flights.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Business
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes. I travel mostly for work.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
There's not really any route that I fly more often than others. I fly mostly in Western Europe.
(6) What is your home airport?
ARN
(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?
I am a member of Finnair Plus, and have some miles there.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
BA and IB.

In addition, I do use American Express Membership Rewards, so being able to transfer MR points (preferably at a good rate) into my FFP would be good.

bhomburg

Earning miles/points for (cheap) economy flights is - for now, at least - better on AA than on BA. BA has slashed the earn rates for discount economy fares dramatically this year (to 25% for deep discount fares and 50% for the most common fares) of what you'd earn for the same BA flight on AA.

With your travel pattern you will not attain status beyond OW Ruby, no matter the program.

Both AA and BA have co-branded credit cards in the UK, something I`d definitely get to earn additional miles.
The AA card has a good bonus sign-up offer now. Read a good review of the AA one here: http://www.headforpoints.com/2014/04...card-reviewed/ and http://www.headforpoints.com/2015/06...credit-card-2/

I'd go with AA for the moment, and re-evaluate if necessary after any devaluation is announced next year.