SwissBritMiss

I should have clarified - there isn't a 4 flight segment from 2017 for AA, but lack of clarity around the conversion to EQD from partners puts me off.

Ailoev

Any help with the above would be much appreciated

JacobP

Hi all, thanks to the recent changes to the AA program, and the fact that I've relocated outside of the US, I'm debating changing my FFP. I'm going to book two Asia-US, one Asia-India, and one Asia-Europe flights soon, so IF I'm going to change now would be the time to do it. Any feedback or info is appreciated.

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?
Lounge, priority services, less so: upgrades and redemptions
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
50-100,000 miles depending on year, 25+ sectors, but not many more because it's mostly long haul flights.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
I try to fly mostly discount business for long haul, and economy for shorter flights.
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, almost all leisure travel.
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
BKK-HGK 3-5 times per year
BKK-US 2+ per year
BKK-India 2 per year
BKK-Europe 1 per year
other asia 3-10
(6) What is your home airport?
BKK (Bangkok)
(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 Plat, 46k miles.
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
JL, CX, QR, AA

kcaluwae

Just like JacobP post above I think AA will be no longer the ideal program for me because of their upcoming changes. I'm looking for some advice on what program would be right for me.

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?
In order of importance: 1. Redemptions for award travel or upgrades, 2. (status that comes with actual benefits like lounge access)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
+/- 25K miles
Usually I either just reach or miss the 25K benchmark for Gold status with AA. Class of travel is mostly Economy or Premium economy. Going forward I suppose class of travel will more often become premium economy.
Segments: 8-10. (of which 4 at least long-haul)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest economy and as stated above towards the future probably more premium economy.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes I can as most travel is leisure.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Varies heavily and depends on the holiday destination.

(6) What is your home airport?
BRU is closest significant airport.
I often opt for AMS and DUS as well.

(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 PLT through challenge. Most miles in this account. (82K)
BA Executive club (no status, little miles). I use these for shorthaul rewards currently.
IB (no status, miles via groupon promo a few months ago 70K)
I can transfer miles to BA/IB from AmEx membership rewards.

The main reason I was loyal to AA were the challenges that offered access to status. The benefits most important to me as PLT member were 100% bonus redeemable miles and lounge access. Secondly I was loyal as the Aadvantage program used to offer:
- 100% redeemable miles of the actual flown distance on all fare classes when travelling AA (not anymore in the future with the changes coming)
- 100% redeemable miles of the actual flown distance on all fare classes when travelling BA (has already changed a while ago and is now 25% in deep-discount economy)
- 100% redeemable miles of the actual flown distance on all fare classes when travelling FY (this is still the case and FY is a good carrier for Asia routes)

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Currently I most often fly BA,AA,FY,IB. Not necessarily in that order, all depends on holiday plans.
Some travel on SN as well for short-haul flight. Miles for travel on SN are collected in UA MileagePlus account.

Current year 21K EQM miles in AA.
Upcoming flights this year is a long-haul to Africa. (most probably on BA)
Start of next year a long-haul to S-America (could be on either BA or IB)

I look forward to your opinions.

bhomburg

I would at least wait with a decision until after AA releases information on how RDM and EQD will be calculated on oneworld partner tickets on July 15. Seeing you'll be buying business class fares (albeit heavily discounted ones) and fly long distances - the changes might not even affect you too much.
And FFP numbers on bookings can be easily changed
Depending on if there is AA metal involved on those upcoming BKK-USA flights you're about to book and how many EQM you have accrued so far this year, you might qualify for EXP, good through 2/2018 - one BKK-HKG-DFW return flight in business will earn over 36,000 EQM! EQM earning will remain distance-based even after August, and the revenue requirement will only come into effect from Jan. 2017.

That said, you'll likely end up on QR planes the most for BKK-USA and BKK-Europe if you can plan ahead, as they have the lowest (promo) fares and frequent sales, so QR would be the most likely candidate for a switch.
QR Privilege Club also has way better earning rates for economy flights on CX compared to AA, should you want to stick to OW for those intra-asia flights - most discounted fares earn 50%, and the cheapest ones 25%.

Of course, CX is a very good contender, but they don't discount their premium cabins as much as QR does...

In addition to what you have mentioned, I would also have a look at ULs (Sri Lankan) program. They do have competitive (read: low) prices on BKK-Europe and BKK-India, a good business class product (same critically acclaimed Cirrus seats as AA on their 77W, at least on the A333 I flew with them) and their mileage requirements for status are much lower than most other OW carriers. You should be able to attain Platinum (Oneworld Emerald) with them (requires only 60k miles annually, even less to renew, half of which needs to be on UL metal) - something out of reach with all others, and which will give you First class lounges at airports, F check-in and Fast Track security all across oneworld. If you can make their somewhat limited network work for you, definitely check them out!

bhomburg

Stick with BA/IB.
All other oneworld programs (except AA, but that program won't do you any good as it's going revenue-based for 2017 and beyond) have 'hard' mileage expiration dates of around three years. You simply do not fly enough to build up any significant balance in any program with fixed expiration dates - your miles will expire before you have enough to use them for a meaningful redemption.
As you live in the UK, get a BA credit card and explore all other means to earn Avios through spend (Tesco!)


I gather you mean AY (Finnair) and not FY (Firefly, Asian regional LCC)?
Here again, you don't really fly much and will run into issues with expiring miles in all programs except AA and BA/IB as these all have 'hard' expiration dates that let your miles expire - commonly three years after earning - regardless of account activity.
The AY program is not bad, actually and if you can live with the 36-month mileage expiration limits I`d give it a look. Just don't expect opportunities for mid-tier status.

In any case, wait until AA has clarified how they will handle EQD on partners on July 15. I suspect that should you buy premium economy longhaul tickets on any other ticket stock than AA, things won't be too bad.
Get a credit card for lounge access instead of chasing sapphire status - the fee for an AA challenge is about the same as what you'd have to pay for an AMEX plat after the airline statement credit...

Mwenenzi

QF has an 18 month no activity expiry. But QF is not a good ffp.
Look here:- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html (click the wiki)

And for AA & other potential refugees:- The grass in not always greener on the other side

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally however you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, better service when disruptions, ability to upgrade flights and possible operation upgrades.

kcaluwae

Yes indeed, off course. Must be the jetlag from my last flight

bhomburg

This, and QFF has a four-segment minimum rule. No status unless you fly QF/JQ, which will not work for anyone not living in or (regularly) traveling to the region.

JacobP

Thanks for the help bhomburg! I definitely plan to wait for AA clarification before I make a final decision, but the feedback is appreciated.

Sri Lankan is an interesting alternative I hadn't thought of, they also run a BKK-HKG service that might make them worthwhile, it's not nearly as convenient as Cathay, but the business class is almost the same price as Cathay's economy typically. Not flying to the US is a downer though as a huge chunk of my miles come from those flights, but I might still be able to put 30k miles on them via India, Europe, and Hong Kong flights.

I noticed you mentioned AY's program to someone else, I've never flown with them so I can't evaluate their hard product, but I've noticed they also fly nicely priced business class flights to europe and jfk from BKK. I assume it's not as nice a product as QR's business, but from a quick bit of research it would be easier to qualify for emerald with them based on my flight patterns. Plus at least for now they offer full points (km based instead of miles) for all classes of AA economy for any domestic US connecting flights I might take. Any overall opinions or impressions on AY both as an airline and a ffp? Thanks again!

remymartin

AY FFP:
pros:
+ oneworld Emerald possible in less than 4 r/t trips
+ upgrade vouchers given at Gold and Platinum qualification (and re-qualification for subsequent years)
+ rather generous perks for Emeralds (and even Sapphires)
+ decent upgrade availability
+ bearable upgrade costs (50-60k longhaul, 5-10k shorthaul)
+ possibility to exchange a certain chunk of award miles into status miles, if you have trouble requalifying
+ no longer charges YQ for Euro award tickets

cons:
- award inventory rarely available in Y
- painfully expensive longhaul awards
- -"- oneworld redemptions
- limited network

bhomburg

You don't need to fly even 30k miles as long as you buy business class - FlySmiles uses 'tier miles' for qualification purposes, which incorporate class-of-service bonuses. Cheapest business (I) earns a 50% bonus, so you'd need to fly only 20k miles in order to reach the Platinum qualification threshold. That's one BKK-CMB-FRA return flight to Europe (19500 tier miles in I) and one HKG flight (1574 tier miles one way in I).
And while UL do not fly their own planes to the US, they codeshare on EY (via AUH) and AA (via Europe) - those flights should earn the same as native SriLankan flights.
Looks like you really could benefit from them here as far as ease of attaining OW Emerald is concerned.

I like them as an airline. They are now my preferred carrier between Europe and Asia after MHs almost complete withdrawal from Europe following the two disasters (used to love MHs A380 from CDG). Tried QR, RJ and UL besides AY, and all have their pros and cons.
Connecting in HEL is as hassle-free as it gets - I like the airport experience with short walks, and no huge crowds (at least in the non-Schengen parts). The premium lounge is really nice, with good catering and a sauna(!).
They are flying brand-new A350s on the HEL-BKK route - those have a state-of-the-art 1-2-1 all-aisle-access business class product that is not worse than QRs (same Cirrus seats and layout as CX and AA on their 773s) and economy is bearable as well, thanks to 18"-wide seats with generous legroom in Economy Comfort, which is free for OWEs and surprisingly affordable for everyone else.
Their older planes, specifically their A340s - well, the seats are old slanty angled-flat ones and QR definitely trumps those. But then, I can still get a night of sleep for not much money.
It basically boils down between a nicer seat plus a bar (QR uses A380s on BKK-DOH - those are equipped rather lavishly and feature an onboard lounge and bar), but interrupted sleep because of the DOH connection. Same is valid for nicely-priced RJ (nice 787s albeit with a 2-2-2-layout, and pray for no IRROPS) and connection in AMM, btw.

Most AY frequent flyers I talked to were quite happy. It seems that op-ups tend to happen more often than with other airlines.
Have a look at the AY forum on FT for a bigger picture: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/finna...nair-plus-636/

kcaluwae

I can confirm the op-ups.
It has been a while, back in the days AY still had the A340's between HEL-BKK.
Two consecutive times we experienced op-ups flying back from BKK to HEL.
At that time we had no status with AY, OW Sapphire as AA PLAT.

I cannot comment if the op-ups still are as frequent. I thought the business class cabin on the A350 is smaller than on the A340. What AY did then was use the front part of the business class cabin as "real Business" and the second part were all op-ups. We did not get Business class catering either but for me the most important part were the hard product anyway.

This, plus the good connections to Asia and the easy transfer in HEL make AY my preferred carrier to go to Asia.

bhomburg

They still do that - and it's not really an op-up. On routes with high Y demand the rear business cabin is regularly sold as Y (hence no J service) and status passengers - AY as well as oneworld - get placed in these seats. On my last two flights to KBV, I could select a seat in this cabin online. I'm pretty sure we'll see this on the A350s in a few years - once they have more of them and use them for destinations like KBV or HKT... The A350 has more business seats than any of their other aircraft types btw - 46 on the 350 , 42-45 on the 330s/340s.
AA does something similar when putting a three-class 777 on domestic routes sold as two-class. Paid F gets the Flagship suites, status pax in Y can select seats in the business cabin (with Y 'service').

haebi

New into this so really appreciate some help!

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
priority services when flying the airline, free - discounted lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
25000-50000, mostly Y or Y+

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy, Premium Economy

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

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Intra-Europe, Kangaroo, Australia Domestic

(6) What is your home airport?
ZRH

(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)
No

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Happy to stick with one according to the program. Mainly curious which to pick out of ZRH: QR, EK (via QF), CX or AB

Cheers