Apologies for mega late reply- never got notified about any replies so assumed FT had deleted my reply.

Oz/NZ is a permanent move, although I'm not settled in either country at the moment (if that makes sense)

I decided to jump to LANPASS in January, given that I can reasonably fly at least 4 times a year syd-akl.

HOWEVER- LAN (LATAM) customer service for frequent flyers is monstrously bad- truly awful. Having been accepted for a status match in January, I still do not have anything physical in my hand from LAN. Therefore I have not taken a trip in over 6 months and will be pushing it to meet the renewal criteria for any FFP

Is this a usual thing for LATAM? I had an email last night saying that my case (to supply me with a frequent flyer number/card) was being closed as I had not supplied the necessary information- although they are unable to state what information they require from me. I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall with them

Trying to decide for a OW program. Usually I'm traveling *A exclusive but a new project in Australia made me now fly CX J from HAM to BNE and I have no idea where to bank those miles.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
for *A it is lounge access, fast track security etc since I'm hanging around airports quite a bit. For OW probably how to efficiently spend those miles. Probably won't requalify status next year

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?

About 50 segments/year. Most Intra-Europen economy, 5 to 10 long hauls a year, mostly to the US East-coast.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Intra-European economy, long-haul economy and one or two times business if the price allows it.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Can choose airlines, but have to book the cheapest reasonable economy ticket. I can pay up on my own dime.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Not sure... as said, I usually don't travel OW much but as there is quite some business in UK on the horizon I could imagine flying HAM-UK on BA quite a bit

(6) What is your home airport?
HAM

(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?
SK EuroBonus Diamond (*A Gold), have a AB TopBonus account which I can upgrade to Gold before the outbound flight.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
usually LH, OS, LX and of course SK. Could imagine getting in AB or BA segments

At the moment I'm thinking of either BA and qualify for BA Silver (my flights HAM-ZRH(first leg on LX)-HKG-BNE-HKG-LHR-HAM should be exactly 600TP) or AB and get those 40% extra miles for the Gold status.

Any opinions?

No one having a suggestion?

If you already have a topbonus account, especially one where the miles will not expire as long as you have gold status, use this (but watch out for expiration... AB miles expire after three years if you don't retain gold or above status, much like LH does it).
You'll earn 25,000 redeemable miles with AB for this flight, as well as 25,000 status miles. Halfway to Platinum, or retaining Gold another year... (assuming FRA-HKG-BNE at 20k miles return, plus 25% COS bonus)
Airberlin has "Schn�ppchenticket" sales from time to time - bargain redemptions which provide exceptional value - provided you can use them.

Other than that, I always recommend BA for orphan oneworld flights, simply because BA has the most liberal expiration policies (three years, but any account activity will keep the balance alive for another three years) combined with cheap intra-European redemptions. You will get quite a few RFS redemptions between LON and HAM out of the 25k avios this flight will net you. Additionally, this one flight will net you 560 tier points - almost Silver status (600 is the threshold).

You will have a markedly better airport experience on BA flights from/through LHR as oneworld status holder, doesn't matter if AB or BA. Fast Track security (Emerald only), priority check-in and lounge access make connections in LHR bearable. BA's lounges are a notch above LHs SEN lounges overall.
Also, with oneworld status (again, doesn't matter which airline) you will be able to preselect seats on BA flights free of charge.
If you plan on flying AB: AB extends free XL seat selection (extra legroom seats) only to its own Gold/Platinum members, not to members of other oneworld FFPs holding Sapphire or Emerald status. Major letdown, and they lost out on much of my business because of this.

I`d say "yes". All other airlines (except AA and QF, but both are not a good option for you) have way more restrictive expiration policies.
Also, BAEC disproportionally rewards longhaul trips in premium cabins. Most other programs will not let you qualify for Emerald status with just 30,000-40,000 flight miles.

Hello, I have a newbie question for you all.

I have about 6000 Avios sitting in my BA account. I know it's not much, but do you guys think that I can do anything with them? Or is it just so little that it's worthless? I don't expect much but if I could score a free flight to london or something that would be nice wouldn't it? I am based near AMS.

I can also transfer them to my IB account or to the Avios website, do they give better redemptions?

If it were me, I'd use it from AMS-LHR. Even if you don't have enough Avios, you can cover the difference with cash.

Thanks! I think I'll go for BA than.

However often when I look for those, the cash I have to pay with my avios is greater than just buying a normal ticket on a budget carrier

Perhaps I'll just have to wait until I get a bit more avios then.

Dears,

I used to fly a lot from Europe to Asia with my previous job, thus I earned OW Emerald with CX.

Now I relocated to London on a EMEA role, and as you very well know acquiring status flying in euro traveller it's very hard.

Nevertheless I started building my status with BA, now got to Bronze but I realise the road to Silver is sooo long that I started questioning whether BAEC is the right programme for me. Need your help!

Answers to questions:

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Fast track at security lines and lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Hard to say now as my job is new and still have not understood what's expected. I would say 3/4 EU flights in economy a month and 2/3 intercontinental flights in business a year.

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy short haul, Business long haul.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
70% work, 30% pleasure. I can choose both airlines, class dictated by policy (biz from 5 hours flights up).

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

(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?
CX Diamond, almost dry of miles now having spent them all on personal trips lol

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

Hi all,

I've signed up for the American Express Premier Rewards Gold card, and I'd like to have an account with each of the major alliances that I can transfer its points to when I want an award ticket. (I've already got Delta Skymiles since I live near DTW.)

So, which of their OneWorld partners would be best for me, out of British Airways, Iberia, or Cathay Pacific? I'm not looking for status, just ease of earning and redeeming points (both for tickets and upgrades). Most of my travel would be U.S. domestic with the occasional trip to Europe. I'm a bit leery of the 1.25:1 exchange ratio with BA/IB and BA's taxes and fuel surcharges on transatlantic flights, but I'm intrigued by their low redemption rates on AA domestic flights. I don't know much about CX but I hear AsiaMiles are pretty versatile.

As you have observed, building (higher level) status with travel mostly in economy on European short haul routes is difficult. Unfortunately, that is the case for all programs nowadays.
If your travel primarily short haul routes but do that fairly often, consider a program that offers segment qualification such as Finnair Plus, Airberlin topbonus or AAdvantage. AY Plus will let you qualify for Gold (OW Sapphire) after 46 segments, and they do not appear to have a own metal requirement. With 3-4 flights a month that should work out (too bad that most of your flights will be nonstop out of LHR, if you were flying on airlines requiring a connection your segment count would double). AB's topbonus requires 60 flights for Gold/Sapphire and also doesn't require any of those flights to be on AB metal. AAdvantage requires 50 segments annually and they have ditched the 'four flights on AA' minimum requirement starting from 2017.

Or stick with BA and upgrade the occasional flights to Club Europe which will grant you a lot more tier points for not that much more money (BAEC awards tier points and Avios for cabin class flown even on upgraded tickets, unlike most other airlines). Check out the BA forum threads about AUP and POUG.

Sign up for both Asia Miles and BAEC/Iberia. It's free, and for what you are going to use the membership for, keeping all your eggs in one basket simply doesn't make sense.
Asiamiles will give you access to a bunch of additional non-oneworld airline partners to redeem on as well as upgrade awards on CX/KA.

The same for Skyteam - signing up for Flying Blue in addition to Delta will open up more options than are available with just Delta.

Each program has its sweet spots, why not take advantage of them?

I am flying SFO to Dublin on 1st August on discounted business class on British Airways, it was ticketed through American, with the AA devaluation starting on the 1st August, which airline FF account should I use, AA or BA to get the best value?

Value (to you) is dependent on you: not others
What are your objectives from a ffp? (post 1)
What is your flying pattern? (post 1)
"ticketed through American" means what? AA or BA flight number? AA or BA ticket number (001)?

The grass in not always greener on the other side