pondjumper83

Hi All,

I am a long time FF member, first time poster on the forum, and would really appreciate your help!!

I would like to know whether it makes more sense for me to credit my miles to the AAdvantage program instead of BA Executive Club? I think Executive Club works great for European short haul redemptions, but I am never able to find availability on long haul upgrades and there are lower earning rates on economy flights (I earn almost nothing for flying to Australia), plus higher taxes/surcharges on redemptions on BA.

Secondly, can you advise on any tips for using my Avios for personal travel?

Below are all my details.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
I am most interested in being able to upgrade long haul flights from economy to business (good award upgrade availability) and being able to buy short haul award flights in Europe (good award redemption)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
I fly about 45k-75k miles a year.
35-45k miles (12-14 flights) in business, 10-30k miles a year in economy (12 flights). About 25 flights in total

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
I buy all work-related flights in business (12-14 flights) and all personal travel I will buy in economy (12 flights) and upgrade with points if it is long haul and available (not very often).

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I need to buy the cheapest direct route for business but can choose my airlines for personal travel. I travel for work and pleasure, but earn the majority of my miles with work travel.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
I fly UK-US mostly for business. For personal travel I will fly mostly in Europe and to South America or Australia once a year.

(6) What is your home airport?
LHR

(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 BA silver member with 140k household avios. I am also a Delta Skymiles member (30k miles) and a United MileagePlus member (20k miles).

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
I like BA/AA for UK-US flights, Qantas/Singapore for travel to Australia (I know Singapore is not OW).

My wife and I also have BA Premium Plus AMEX cards which we spend at least £20,000 on each year and so we normally receive two companion vouchers a year.

Gardyloo

Welcome to FT!

AA is about to announce (maybe within a week or two) a major revamping of the AAdvantage program(me)'s earning and elite qualification structure. AA has also recently announced a reduction of earning metrics for BA/IB flights credited to an AA account. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...y-sourced.html

So I would advise patience, see what changes AA institutes, and then do a fresh analysis. It won't be long.

pondjumper83

Thanks. Do you have any guidance on the best way to use Avios for business class travel from the UK? I would be interested in travelling to central/south America, South Africa or Japan. The main issue I keep coming across is that the BA fuel & surcharges are huge, yet I have difficulty finding availability on partner airlines for flights originating in the UK.

Are there any other tips/techniques I should be using, or should I just be using the BA award flight search tool on the BA website?

Mwenenzi

BA surcharges are part BAEC program. As is the UK APD on departures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_Passenger_Duty
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...os-2015-a.html

mchan

Hi all, thanks in advance for the help. I’m looking for guidance from the experts on my current situation - apologies in advance for the long e-mail.
I'm currently living in Hong Kong and flying mostly with Cathay. I qualified for Gold last year, and have already re-qualified for Gold for next year. I have 46,025 miles to go to qualify for Diamond (by Jan 31, 2016), but that doesn't include the following:

1) About 9,500 miles for a Business Class fare from ORD to HKG just the past week that hasn’t posted yet
2) 7,479 miles for a Business Class fare from HKG to LHR Dec 5
3) Unknown miles for a Premium Economy fare from LHR to HKG on Dec 14
4) I then go from HKG to JFK and JFK to LHR on reward tickets

I figure that I’ll still be short about 20,000 miles from Diamond. I’m looking for advice on what to do given an upcoming move to London (I'll probably be there for about 2 years). Should I switch to British Airways, and start accruing miles with them since I’ve already re-qualified for another year of Gold with Cathay and probably have no chance at Diamond?

Regarding the questions at the top of this thread:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP? Chance for upgrades (which I never get currently) and lounge access for me plus guests.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors? I'm really not sure. It was HKG to NYC about 4 times per year in business class, and probably HKG to Tokyo about 4 times per year in Economy plus misc. personal travel.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy? varies

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Economy/Business is dictated by travel time (+/- 6 hours)

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often? See above. Post move I assume it will be mostly London/NYC


(6) What is your home airport? Will become London in January


(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 Platinum expiring at year end; no miles banked, but 100,000 AMEX miles I'm waiting for a transfer deal

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on? No preference currently
___________________________________________

Any advice is appreciated, and please let me know if you need additional info.

Dylan1848

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates,

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Reply:25-50 in discount economy

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply:cheapest

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

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

(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply:SGF (Springfield, Missouri)

(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?
Reply:About 30,000 in American and 60,000 in United

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply:American, United, Air Canada

Mwenenzi

As you are in the AA ffp & UA ffp you will not do any better with another ffp. (AS or DL or non USA)

USA based airline ffp's tend to more generous (earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry), even after the recend changes to some USA ffp's

The grass in not always greener on the other side

tango3

Looking to move out of QF membership, given their poor earn rates on Qatar.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, extra baggage allowances, good award redemptions.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Between 50k-100k, depending on work travel requirements.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Cheapest Economy and Business

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Asian routes. Typically, 2-3 major trips annually.

(6) What is your home airport?
SIN

(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?
Qantas WP (OW Emerald)

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
No preferred, QR/MH/CX seems to be having lots of good deals recently.

lcpteck

Since you're traveling frequently within Asia, why not go with CX since they have a good network and they earn miles even on lowest discounted rates. See if their new 2016 program fits the bill.

Since I fly 99% only within Asia for leisure, I chose to go with MH.

tango3

Cheers, thanks will look into CX or MH.

Benjamin Tan

Hello experts!
Looking to apply to a OneWorld FFP (already an Asiana Club member). Appreciate any help!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- Good award redemptions and burn rates.
- Miles that don't expire so quickly.
- Good network of partners apart from oneworld partners

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Between 10k to 30k mainly on economy class. Approx 20 flight sectors.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Cheapest Economy and Economy

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Within South East Asia and East Asia. Occassionally Australia. Mainly Singapore Airlines, Thai or Jetstar.

(6) What is your home airport?
SIN

(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?
Non in OW.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Singapore Airlines. Occassionally CX, Thai, Jetstar and once or twice a year on JAL.

Sphereo

Would be grateful for any advice on my situation. I have a number of flights already booked for 2016 and want to make sure I'm with the best program. I've read up about as much as I can but most info on this is pre-AA devaluation (and sometimes pre the BA one too)

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrade long haul flights to business, lounge access.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
I fly about 75k miles a year (although will be 100k+ this year)
Probably 30 flights total

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
'I' class

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, I can choose. Some work travel to the US (average twice a year). Work pays for premium economy although I typically pay the difference and take an ex-Dub route.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
LHR to JFK and ORD. Fly US for both personal and business, for personal I also travel to Europe, as well as South Africa once a year. Currently have flights to JFK, JNB, MIA and SEA booked for first half of the year

(6) What is your home airport?
LHR

(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?
Currently Silver with BAEC, and 70k miles. Have a 2-4-1 voucher with them from Amex, although I typically struggle to use these (last one lapsed)

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
AA or BA for UK-US flights, Qatar for South Africa, BA for Europe.

One final thing to add - there's a good chance I'll be moving to the US with work this year.

Any thoughts very welcome

Gardyloo

I think you should review the thread and wiki covering the revisions to American's FFP that are now taking place. Just on the basis of the flights you've already booked you'd easily qualify for AA Platinum (Oneworld Sapphire = BA Silver) and it wouldn't take too much effort to make Executive Platinum (OW Emerald) which would convey some systemwide upgrades, auto upgrades on domestic flights, and quite a few spendable miles.

Sphereo

Thanks Gardyloo, appreciate the link you included, what I meant to say was I haven't seen much in the way of a head to head comparison of BA and AA since their devaluation.

If I were to get, I'd estimate, 3,500 TPs with BA or hit Executive Platinum with AA, whats the current thinking in terms of how those stack up against eachother? In theory both would come with 4 upgrades per year.

Gardyloo

IMO AA upgrades are more useful than BA's because AA (as of yet) doesn't have a premium economy cabin, so Y upgrades book into J or F, whereas using BA upgrades from economy would just put you in PE. OTOH AA status doesn't get you into lounges on domestic segments while BA status would.

But some homework would definitely be advisable; both programs have their strengths and weaknesses.