bhomburg

If you only fly (even severely discounted) business class, you will hit EXP and earn 4 SWUs after just 50,000 miles (every mile flown in premium cabins earns 2 EQM per mile now with the 2016 changes). At 75,000 miles you'll earn another two, and at 100k miles another two for a total of 8.
Looking just at this aspect , AA comes out ahead of BA here.

HOWEVER, I see several issues why AA might not be the best program for you. First, AAdvantage SWUs are only usable on AA metal flights on AA tickets. Not all good BA deals like the DUB fares are necessarily found on AA as well.
Then, keep in mind that AA is in the process of removing its F cabin on all aircraft except the few (13?) 77W frames they have. Those service LHR-JFK only (from the routes you mentioned), and you will not be able to use your upgrades on any other route as there wont be a cabin to upgrade into. BA offers F on way more routes, and you'll be able to upgrade all your longhaul flights using BAEC instruments.
Also, AA will move redeemable miles earning from distance-based to spend-based later in 2016. This will greatly and negatively affect those who buy heavily discounted premium cabin longhaul flights. Example: FRA-FDW-GRU and back right now nets 41,000 redeemable miles before any bonuses as an EXP, but that will be reduced to ~15,000 miles after the move to spend-based earning if the ticket cost just $1,500 - as an EXP you'll earn 11 times what you paid for the ticket (minus certain taxes). Also, AA charges co-pays for upgrades when using miles.
Even with the 2015 devaluation, upgrading with Avios remains one of the sweet spots of BAs program.

My advice would be to stick with BA for this year and see how AAdvantage will evolve, especially how upgrades will get handled with the introduction of PE, before deciding on a switch.

instantoatemeal

I know this question is person specific. I have been researching but with the new changes for both programs, I am still a little confused. Here is my situation:

• I am based at LAX USA
• Most of my travel will be through CX (4x+ this year alone)
• I will be flying on W,R,E Premium Economy classes for the LAX-HKG route and Buisness on the Dragonair HKG-PVG routes
• all other travel will be in the western US via Alaska
• I am currently Marco Polo Silver (OneWorld Ruby)
• I prefer miles over status. The goal is to fly the family (3 of us) to Europe in 18 months.

Some things I currently dislike about Asia Miles/Marco Polo

• miles expire after 3 years (fine for now but I don't want to stress over this if I do not have too).
• the new point system seems more difficult to get to Sapphire Status through Marco Polo (Marco Polo point generated for roundtrip LAX-HKG-PVG will be 150 and need 600 for Sapphire, while AAdvatage I can earn at least 16,860 of actual miles flown per trip and gain Sapphire in 3 trips if my Dragon Air flight counts towards AA)
• I have heard that redeeming miles though Asia miles is difficult. I have no experience with this yet. Just what i have read.

So my questions are:

• Am I going to accumulate more (or similar) miles if I switch to AA? If so, would it be a mess to redeem 1 seat though Asia miles and 2 seats though AA for a future family trip to the EU?
• Can I use my current Ruby status at the Cathay lounges if I am using a AAdvantage # on that flight?
• Anything else I am not considering?

Gardyloo

Moving this to the "Which Oneworld FFP" thread.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

bhomburg

AAdvantage will change their mileage earning to spend-based later this year (miles will be awarded as status-based multiplier of fare paid, regardless of distance flown). It is currently unclear how partner earning will be handled, but expect a major devaluation from the current status quo. I would definitely wait for this to be officially announced in a few months.

As award seats come out of the same inventory bucket and are made avilable to all alliance partners, it shouldn't be a problem to redeem MP miles and/or AA miles for available seats. I have done cross-program redemptions with multi-passenger awards before, redeeming AB miles and AA miles for seats on QR flights...

You should be able to access the CX lounges with your CX status regardless of the FF number that's attached to the itinerary. Just show your card in addition to the boarding pass. That's one of the very few occasions one needs the physical card nowadays...

One thing you need to be aware of: AAdvantage is now enforcing their long-standing minimum segments rule. You must fly at least four segments on AA-marketed and -operated flights in order to qualify for AAdvantage status. If you only fly Alaska and CX, you will not be able to gain AA status.

Niwisan

Due to an unresolved issue with Etihad I am currently thinking about moving to oneworld. Would moving to AB topbonus make more sense? Can I transfer miles 150k miles to them? Or would it best to go with BA or QR? Thanks

Mwenenzi

Effectively you cannot move freq flyer miles from 1 ffp to another ffp.

As to if AB is best for you go to post 1 or the wiki and anwser the questions
Do you realise AB is controlled by Etihad?
What is the issue you have with Etihad?
The grass in not always greener on the other side

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

mauimauer

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge Access, Upgrades
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
20-40 flights. Mostly trans-atlantic. Some inner european flights
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Premium Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Work, I can choose myself (given the fare is under cap)
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Transatlantic
(6) What is your home airport?
London 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?
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club Gold, AAdvantage Gold
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Virgin Atlantic

Which OW program fits me?

Mwenenzi

What is wrong with your AAdvantage Gold status?
Living in UK, the only other option is BA, but you will have no status until earnt. But BA mid-high status will give AA lounge access on USA domestic flights, but that is not much, given the lounge quality.

pbd456

booking a done4 for a 2 years old. which program allow child to become elite? should have no problem making ba gold as long as we get 4 segments on ba. i know marcopolo wont allow elite until 12.

maxvor

Hi guys,

I think I will be able to get ~70K EQMs on AA by April this year, and with one more business fare scheduled for December MIGHT be able to hit Platinum on AAdvantage. On the other hand, I might also get highest status on BA even without the December trip, but will have to do 4 sectors on BA/IB for that, since none of the traveling is on their metal/codeshares. Do you think it might be worth for me to credit to BA or better stick to AA? Or maybe try QR/LA? Maybe answers to question below might be helpful to give a good advice.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free/discounted lounge access, upgrades, award redemption with minimum extra cash spend on YQ and taxes
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000 miles - ~25 flights, mostly economy
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest available, except for reasonably priced business class fares
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
For pleasure only, no work-related traveling, so not constrained to any particular airline
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
~60% intra-Europe, ~40% different transcontinentals with no particular pattern
(6) What is your home airport?
AMS, BRU, DUS
(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?
FlyingBlue Gold
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
KLM/AirFrance, ME3 carriers.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

asdhjk

Hi all & thx for the great forum!
I would really appreciate help in choosing a oneworld FFP.

Best Oneworld Frequent Flyer Program for you?
The answer to this question depends very much on your personal travel profile and objectives.
- what is your definition of best?

Best possibilities to claim flights with miles.

- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
To be honest I haven´t fully grasped the concept of miles in this context.

- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
I would assume not

- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
Flights flights flights

- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
Economy/Coach; preferably within Europe but could see spending miles on longer holiday trip to US/Asia.

Mostly interested in flying out for weekends/extended weekends.

- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
Yes if necessary/good value (but don´t see myself spending more than low 3-digits

- which airline and where do you normally fly?
Cheapest/best connections; all around Europe; no regular destinations

- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
leisure

- where do you live?
Helsinki

- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
Only reasonable offer I have seen so far would be Finnair Plus Diners but I would think at absolute maximum I´d be capped at around 40k points per year at current terms. To my understanding AAdvantage credit cards are not available in Finland.

Super-rarely stay in hotels (that would be part of a program at least).

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?
Reply: Basically my only goal is to get free/cheap flights. Mostly in within Europe flying out from HEL, but I could see myself using miles on flights to US or Asia.

Baggage, lounge, upgrades, hotels I don´t care about.

(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: 5-10 return/multistep flights in Europe; as far as I can tell <25000. (Have possibility&resources to mileage runs/trips partly motivated by miles so hoping this could be more)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy/cheapest. Often choosing destination and/or time of travel at least partly by fare. Mostly look for discount tickets

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Within oneworld I´m flying out of Helsinki so Finnair dominates lot of the market. Within restrictions of HEL I can choose airline. Do not fly for work.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Reply: In Europe

(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: HEL (Helsinki)

(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: No

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Reply: No. Choose by fare. Thinking back last ~5 years mostly flown Lufthansa and Finnair or Finnair affiliates.

OTHER INFORMATION:
Reason I´m asking I have
HEL-MAN-HEL, HEL-LHR-EDI-HEL, HEL-PRG-HEL coming up within next 3 months. I have difficulties estimating what these flights for example would earn me. In addition there´s a special hotel bonus that I will claim that would earn 10-15k Finnair Plus points.

To my understanding there has been relative upgrades in Finnair Plus T&C and AAdvantage is changing their terms which is why I´m a bit confused on the best option even after I´ve tried to do my research.

My current plan is:

1) Join AAdvantage and use the credit the flights (above) there (better program for my purposes long term, Finnair punishes discount/cheap tickets heavily? Though AA will be doing this too very soon? Would I still get these flights (by May) in under the current system?

2) Join Finnair Plus and claim the hotel booking bonus to kickstart my account. Figure out how to earn more point later. (FWIW the same hotel bonus for AA was only 1000 points).
At some point I probably will for example get a special offer on the Finnair Plus Diners right?

Thanks for taking the time, would really appreciate any input to keep me fro second-guessing!

maxvor

Not an expert here, but given your current travel patterns and the fact that you mostly want flight rewards for as cheap as possible, I would try to put miles to the program that earns the most while being reasonably priced for reward flight. AAdvantage seems like good choice, difficult to say when precisely they turn to revenue-based earnings, but flights till May are most probably safe. But again, you know your booking classes for upcoming flights , so consult wheretocredit.com for optimum choice.

carlosoubina

First of all I would like to introduce myself, as I have found this forum very interesting to solve my doubts, now that I am a bit disappointed with Iberia plus program due to a bad customer service I ask you for opinion

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, Lounge access…

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
About 50k miles per year 2-3 transatlantic in Business class and about 10 European flights in economy class

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
When Flying for work in flights over 4 hours Business class, when flying for work in Europe Economy, and when Flying in free time Economy / cheapest

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can influence if there is not a huge price difference

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?

Europe-Argentina/Chile once per year - Iberia/LAN/TAM
Europe-Mexico once per year – AeroMexico/Lufthansa
Europe-NYC once peryear - AA

(6) What is your home airport?
LUG/MXP/LIN
Living in Switzerland closest airport LUG and closest international airport MXP/LIN

(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?
Iberia Plus Silver (about to get gold) and Miles&More Silver

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Iberia, Lufthansa, LAN/TAM

Mwenenzi

carlosoubina Welcome to FT. Please continue to stay around and post

While knowing nothing about your situation bad customer service is often the traveller expecting more than they are entitled to. Air travel is mass bulk travel for a low price: its not a private jet.

With membership of IB (OneWorld) & Lufthansa (Star Alliance), both with status, you are unlikely to do a lot better with any other ffp. Other than upgrades, what do you use your ff miles for? Upgrades are hard to get on non USA airlines.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you do not fly USA based airline tends be of little value, unless looking for awards.

The grass in not always greener on the other side

bhomburg

AAdvantage has no minimum age requirement for status purposes.