I'm no expert on AsiaMiles but the first level is I believe 30K, so did the 25K come from current flying? If so, I'd certainly consider that fact in my decision.

If your flying pattern normally includes SEAsia and/or Australia, the call between the two is more difficult as posting on Flyertalk indicates that CX does take incredible care of its own FF members. And upgrades with miles are relatively easy. And allows the use of premium cabins and status earning simultaneously. Remember you have to register for MPC separately.

OTOH my experience with AA has been quite good. And if you fly long haul economy, gaining and keeping status is quite "possible". And currently the award flights with AA are "economical". Lifetime status though is now going to require a LOT of BIS flying.

Happy wandering

Fred

95% LTG (AA)

Which OW membership to join?
 

Hi everyone,

As you can see on my profile, I'm a Star Alliance G* member already and this year, I'm planning to have two trips SIN-ZRH and return, which could earn me around 25,600 miles (flying in Y).

(1) What is your home airport?
SIN

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
>50k in Y unrestricted most of the times. But currently accruing on StarAlliance.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy, full fair usually.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline but not the class of service. Mostly for work.

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Mostly in Asia ex SIN to India to the West and Japan to the East. Rarely China.

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No but I do have around 3000 miles with BA and 2000 miles with CX.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Moslty lounge access and priority check-in and luggage handling. Then comes upgrades or good award redemption rate.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Within OW: CX mostly because of my flight pattern around Asia. JAL would be a bit too stretched out.

My intention is not really to jump programme. I am quite happy with Star Alliance for this part of the world but I was thinking that I might as well build up a status with another alliance while I can.

So the question would be: which programme has the lowest mileage requirements to attain Gold status on OW?

Relocating to London for a year; need advice on which OW program to join. No status with any OW, have A3*G though, apart from status with couple of India based airlines.

(1) What is your home airport?
DEL (shifting to LHR for a year though)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
~50k (Y on domestic; J on international). Primarily on 9W, IT (no alliance); have *G status

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airline most of the times (given similar fares) but not service. Work mostly

(5) Which routes do you fly most often?
Mostly India domestic till now; will change to largely intra-Europe travel.

(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?
(a) Priority check-in, baggage (b) Upgrades, (c) Lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
None

I got to *G with A3 in just 6 DEL-SIN flights (just needs 20k M&B miles), is there a similar program in OW that makes it relatively easy to attain Gold status?

Becareful about CX
 

Most economy fares on CX or dragon air does not offer AA miles.

They only give you Asia Miles which is useless for most people

best bet?
 

Questions
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: MEL (Melbourne, Australia)

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

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Work; some pleasure (both cheapest economy)

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Australia-US, some domestic Australia

(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 status

(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:
(1) good award redemption rates
(2) lounge access
(realize that upgrades are unlikely for me)

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Avoid United internationally, like the service on QF


On advice I got from you good folks before moving to Oz, I started focusing on AA. Then I realized that the bargain-basement economy tickets our work travel agent is buying us aren't getting me any ffp at all (!) on AA. I flew roundtrip DEN-LAX-MEL on AA/QF in October 2011 and only got ffp for the domestic US DEN-LAX legs, nothing for the real mileage part of the trip.

I have the following travel upcoming:

(trip 1)
MEL-LAX-JFK -- QF Q class
JFK-BOS -- DL K class
BOS-JFK -- AA G class
JFK-LAX-MEL -- QF Q class

(trip 2)
MEL-Hong Kong-Pusan, S Korea -- CX L class
Pusan-Cheju S Korea -- Korean Air Y class
Cheju-Seoul S Korea -- Korean Air Y class
Seoul-Tokyo -- JL L class
Tokyo-San Fran-LAX-DEN -- AA L class
DEN-LAX-MEL -- QF L class

I'm thinking I need to start accumulating with QF to get *any* benefit from those long-haul cheapo-class QF flights. But on the other hand my primary purpose is to consolidate enough miles to get award tickets (preferably to go to Europe). I do have a BA account with 21k Avios miles but I do know from experience that those miles are difficult and expensive to use, and I understand the same is true for QF. I could also split and try to put the AA flights on AA and QF on QF but I'm not sure I can do that on a single itinerary, and that just spreads my points out thinly.

I am also in the market for an Australian credit card, so thought about getting a QF-associated one if I need to go that route. Not sure how much that matters.

Thanks for any thoughts.

In my view the reply in your first post http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...lub-vs-aa.html is still relevant. To collect points/miles for a reward with low miles/fees AA is OK. With 5 in the family. some will need to pay. 5 rewards on 1 flight is very optimistic

For rewards Aust to EU you are trying to get tickets from the same bucket no matter which airline ffp. However due to different airline IT systems QF has awards from 353 days vs AA 330 days vs BA ?? days.
AA has the best burn rate / lowest $ fees by far. Indeed a full AA reward can be not much different to points needed in the QF upgrade lottery.

With cheapest economy you always needs to check earning: some earn - some don't. With only a few flights, at the cheapest economy, status is unlikely to be earned. With QF higher status gets you lounge access.

Having a QF ffp account for all the other non AA earning flights is worth while. And you can collect points at Woolworth supermarket by spending $31. Can join QF for free (all 5 of you) at https://www.everydayrewards.com.au QF allows family consolidation of points

Not sure, but BA avois may expire if no account activity after ?? months. Check the BA ffp conditions. AA has a similar no activity condition.

You can split sector into different ffp, but at times the individual ffp does not stick. Phone the TA or airlines. Check, check & recheck. Or leave the ffp out of the reservation and manually claim later.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...r-service.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...er-change.html
Post 4 on http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...-ud-seats.html

Thanks Mwenenzi! This is really helpful.

Which |FFP in OW will be the most appropriate for us?

(1) What is your home airport?
YYZ

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
>30 < 50 in Y unrestricted most of the times. But currently accruing on StarAlliance.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy but NOT discounted usually mileage accruing.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. Pleasure

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
YYZ-SIN/BKK/NRT and YYZ-GRU/EZE

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
No but I do have CX basic membership.

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access and priority check-in and luggage handling. Then comes upgrades or good award redemption rate.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Within OW: CX and BA

[NEWBIE LOUNGE] Ask Your Questions Here (flame free)
 

I have no status with any of OW apart from joining a couple of programs.
Based in Mel but fly various destinations a lot to asia, europe and oz and I want the best value possible.
Upcoming flights are Lhr to nce with ba one way in j
And then auh-hkg-kul one way in j
With cx

Options and programs you think are best for this?

Very confused by all the different threads at the top!

Excuse the grammar on the iPhone!

Better to ask in http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html

Is class of travel mainly J ? Getting status is worthwhile.
Put some flights into http://www.slfft.org/mm/award.htm to check status earn
For in frequent OW flights AA is best for many. (best earn to burn with low co payment fees)
I assume you are directing any credit card / hotel / rental car points to DJ. Non flying points/miles are valuable source for many.

Edit: Post 99 & 100 have been moved from the original thread ! Thanks Mr Moderator

Here is some more info if you can assist

(1) What is your home airport?
MEL

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
25-50k combo of Y, Y+ and J

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy, Flexi or Disc Business

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can chose the airline and class. A little of both

(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Varies every year...could be within Europe, Asia, the US or MEL to Asia etc

(6) Do you have FFP status of any kind of OW or other airline at present? What is it?
I am Bronze with QF with only 4000 points

(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Being able to upgrade, not fussed with lounge access

(8) Preferred Airlines
The one that is going to give me the quickest status with the upcoming flight sectors that I have in J.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
I used to be LAX but now I'm being relocated to IND but I don't mind the drive to ORD.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
25k-40k-ish.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Full Fare Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airline. Class of service is a stretch. 50/50 work-pleasure
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Mostly international-EU, China, SE Asia and Dubai. Dubai is often a rarity though. From what I've heard, my EU trips in the future may be pulled and instead moved to S America.
(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)
I was elite on EI. har har
(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.)
Lounge Access and priority is a plus. Inter-airline award F travel is also on the list but I wouldn't mind not having it. Also, with unpredictable economic times, I'd appreciate a program that doesn't have an expiry rate shorter than a year.
(8) Preferred Airlines
I know this is going to be harder when I say this, but I try to avoid AA. My parents fly them though, so I'd be open to any of the AA partners as well.

Thanks in advance!

Well, if you're flying full fare Y, you could easily do a Platinum Challenge on AA, make Plat and therefore get lounge access on international trips, and at Oneworld partners' lounges overseas, and as AA Plat get upgraded on domestic and Canada/Caribbean/Mexico/Central America flights on any full-fare (Y/B) economy ticket. You'd also get "sticker" 500-mile upgrades (4 per 10K BIS miles) good on any domestic discount Y fare, no bag fees, priority access at the counters, and various other perks. AA supposedly requires 4 AA-metal flights annually to requalify, but it seems nobody has ever lost status by not doing the four flights.

To keep Plat status you need to log 50K EQ Points or EQ Miles in a calendar year; however Y and B economy earns 1.5 EQP per flown mile, so you'd retain Plat with 33,333 flown miles in those fares (or any business/first). In redemption terms, AA is about as good as it gets, and if you're spending more time in Latin America, AA's route structure is also the best.

Thanks! I'm a bit hesitant about this though. It seems like a reach of commitment and I'd like to stay away from AA. What would be the next likely option?

Just because you are in the AA freq flyer program does not mean you are limited to only to AA flights.
AA is best ffp for you IMHO