Based in UK go with BA http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/briti...tive-club-446/
If flying Oneworld ex UK you are more likely to be on BA. But you will not get many avios (miles/points) on any ffp.

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 operational upgrades.

Earning miles/points/avios from non flying activities is easier with an airline of your home country.

Upgrades are always hard to get. For upgrades the general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your frequent flyer programme (no codeshares). Cross airline upgrades are possible on BA/IB/AA, but require a high priced base Y/B fare

Would anybody have any idea? I am sort of veering between QR and CX, although BA could also be an option. The most important parts of the program would be good availability to redeem award flights in J, followed by quick accession to higher tier and good mileage earning opportunities. I've checked availability on BA and CX for certain routes, and CX seemed to have a lot more available on BA; I don't know about QR, especially not their access to partner airlines' inventory. Finally, BA appears to give access to OW Sapphire quickly (One return SIN-ARN-SIN on QR in paid J almost gets me there!), but their award availability seems lousy (Although that might have to do with me currently being a mere blue - do their Silver and Gold members get better inventories?)...

You would need 4 BA metal/code flights for BAEC status.

Award availability is generally the same for all oneworld carriers, the CX website may find more availability but assuming it is saver award space it can be booked through any oneworld program.

You miss one important consideration with your first option. Based on the mileage figures you're throwing out there for BA Business, you're looking at almost 4.5k Tier Points on those flights alone. Depending on how much flexibility you have for your other travel, you could easily get up to 5k Tier Points and get Gold Guest List and the Concorde Room Card. After one year you only need 3k TPs to maintain GGL. For layovers in London that frequent, having reliable Concorde Room access will be really nice. And that much flying on BA means having the added prestige of GGL certainly won't hurt.

It would also be easy to make up those Tier Points by booking some domestic F travel in the US--there are some incredibly cheap options on which you can earn TPs quickly, both transcon and East Coast shorthaul.

One thing you don't mention is your lifetime tier points with BA. Depending on how many you have, it may be in your interest to push towards lifetime Gold status at 35k.

Reaching for 5k TPs and related perks could be very good option for many people (especially London-based) but not so much for me, I guess. I try to keep my flight times as short as reasonably possible: this is in fact the main reason I have chosen BA as the preferred airline on my main business route. Considering WAW-ATL I have about 1hr of lounge time each way so the visits are frequent indeed but rather too short to be a decisive factor. Other than my new biz-route I make LHR layover 2-3 times per year so this is hardly something to be concerned about.

Right now I have barely 1800 lifetime TPs so going for 35k is rather not an option - I would have to drastically change my travel patterns in order to make it work and this would too much of a hassle. Possibly I will think about if I ever move from PL to UK, as many of my fellow citizens ;-)

If you don't value CCR enough to push for 5kTP then your BA-AS option may make sense. I would also seriously consider crediting your BA flights to AA, though. You'll be earning 125% miles (and 150% EQMs) flown on business class fares and will easily meet the EQD requirements for Executive Platinum based on that mileage of business class flying. You'll then receive SWUs and complementary upgrades when flying in the US, as well as status perks on AA and AS. AS has higher earning on certain business class fare codes, but also isn't an alliance member and it wouldn't offer you any status perks on BA, KLM, or AF. You miss out on the 2.5k and 3.5k BA bonuses, but you would anyway if you were crediting to AS after 1.5k. The only real downside to this strategy is no AA lounge access on domestic AA flights, but it doesn't sound like that would be an issue for you.

Well, I have to say AA looks tempting considering their elite programme seems to be focused on EQDs now - for my specific flying scenario this is actually quite good because I may be nowhere near hitting 120 segments yearly but "luckily" all my meeting schedules are usually confirmed just few days upfront which results in business-flex rates and typical ticket price around 4k$ each. If I understand AAdvantage T&Cs correctly it means 4000x5 EQMs per ticket flown in the beginning and eventually 4000x11 EQMs as soon as I reach EXP. If this calculation is more-or-less correct then crediting to AA may be quite sensible...

By the way, I checked that although all my WAW-LHR-ATL flights are operated by BA I could actually buy them on the AA stock with AA flight numbers as well. The price is very similar. Does in make any difference considering AA earning scheme? I mean, is it "better" to book tickets with AA-marketed segments if I am going to credit them to AA or it does not matter at all since they are operated by BA anyway?

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- upgrades on travel
- good award redemption rates
- better award access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
So, I usually don't fly much, but I'll be moving to Budapest from Brazil(BHZ) in the next year, so I'll probably go back and forth a few times, so anywhere between 40k-80k is possible depending on how many times I go back home. I have only flown Y so far

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
When the company pays they usually give me a choice of 1-3 itineraries I can freely choose from, but can't choose class.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Expected to fly between CNF-BUD, most common is through GRU-FCO/GRU-AMS/GRU-FRA

(6) What is your home airport?
Currently CNF, moving to BUD
(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?
Nope
(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Dislike AZ for bad experience, other than that not much preferences, I like BA, KL, TK, QR, LA/JJ

Thinking of switching from AsiaMiles to another one world program
 

Hi Everyone,

I am thinking of moving from AsiaMiles to Privilege club (or another one world program). Would like your thoughts

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- upgrades on travel
- Lounge facilities
- good award redemption rates

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
I am based out Sri Lanka and travel twice/thrice a year to US (now Emirates) and to Aussie on personal visit (Cathay/Singapore Airlines)

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
When the company pays they usually give me a choice of 1-3 itineraries I can freely choose from, but can't choose class.

On personal, this year, i booked one way from Aussie to SL on Business class

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

Sri Lanka to Boston (twice a year)
Sri Lanka to Sydney (once a year)
Sri Lanka to Chennai (4-5 times a year)

(6) What is your home airport?
Sri lanka (Colombo)

(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?

Emirates - Silver

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

Emirates is the most i have flown on. But also Sri Lankan to India about 6 times.

Hi All! New to the FT forums.
I originally posted in the *A forum because I'm more familiar with that team, but given my circumstances, I figure I'd ask and get some advice from the oneworld group.

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?
- Free lounge access
- Easy requalification
- Upgrades

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
Normally I fly 10-20K, but that will increase given my circumstance (which I'll explain below)

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Traditionally I've chosen the cheapest fares.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I predominantly travel to attend (academic) conferences, but will also be traveling to see my family given my impending move.


(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Historically, I have flown with *A from YOW to various destinations in North America and Europe (e.g., OSL).

(6) What is your home airport?
My home airport has been YOW/YYZ, but I'm moving to MEL and so that will be my home for the next couple of years.

(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 flew AA a couple times in the past, but nothing banked in the AAAdvantage I don't think. I've amassed 20K miles this year with AC on *A.

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
I suppose my preferred airline is AC as I've flown them often and know they have okay food and cabin comfort. But I'm open to new things.

For 2017, I will be making a one-way flight from YYZ to MEL (haven't decided on the FFP yet), followed by a trip from MEL to YYZ/YOW, then to PHX, back to MEL, followed by another trip in the summer from MEL to YYZ, then to DEN and back to MEL. There might be some smaller trips in there (e.g., MEL to SYD), and potentially a MEL to BRN trip in September, but those transpacs are the big ones for sure.

I figure if I joined *A with TK or OZ, I could easily get my *A gold status, but wondering if there's a OW FFP that I should be looking at instead.

Cheers!

The first 2 items in (1) come with mid - high level status or class of service (business or first).
The hope/expectation of upgrades (free by high status) or with ff instrument is unrealistic for a non USA ffp's. More so when flying on low priced economy tickets.
You will not get status on a few low cheapie are fares. Cheap long hauls earn little.

As the other Star thread what benefit do you expect Star Alliance gold to give you? You are being optimistic in getting Star Alliance gold IMHO

Thanks for the insight. At the very least, I'm looking for lounge access. Many of my trips would be covered, but I'd have to choose the lowest fares available. Hence why I'm looking at the "easy" ffp on star alliance (e.g., TK, OZ).

If I'm flying from MEL to North America/Europe 4x a year, do you not think that I would hit the threshold?

Marco Polo or other One World program?
 

I have recently had a change at work and I'll be flying out to Africa and the Middle East more often, before I had M&M HON Circle status (still do) but LH isn't suitable for me anymore and I've booked flights on AA, CX, QF and QR.

My original plan was to credit them to BAEC as I'll hit Gold within a month and a bit but I've been wondering if BAEC is right for me as I do dislike BA as an airline and their race to the bottom approach.

With my currently booked flights, I can cancel them and rebook under a different airline if required for segment thresholds that OW seem to apply, for example I could cancel my QF flight to DXB and replace it with QR to DXB (works out at similar cost anyway) if QRPC was best suited for me.

On to the Q&A:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, upgrades and soft landings/easy requalification also no hard expiry of miles.

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
I'm usually in and out of FRA, MUC and ZRH once or twice a week however I'm now working in a different department that means I'll be going to DXB and JNB each month with the possibility of other African and Middle Eastern cities.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
I usually get J fares for flex, although if work ask, I do go for cheaper non-flex Biz fares.

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
I can choose my airlines and I'm restricted to Biz, F upgrades come out of my own pocket.

I've current got flights lined up with AA, CX, QF (on EK metal) and QR.

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
Until the change at work I flew with LH or LX to FRA, MUC and ZRH. Now I've decided that they're not suited to me, especially with the African and Middle Eastern pivot.

(6) What is your home airport?
LHR is my home airport although I can fly out of LGW too.

(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 hold M&M HON Circle status at the moment with 150k miles left to spend (which I'm doing quite well).

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
In OW I'd like to avoid BA for flights but I don't have a preferred OW airline yet (QR looks most appealing).

Look forward to your thoughts, it's been a long time since I've flown with any OW carrier, only other airline I've flown recently is EK which I loved.

Thank you.

Contemplating a change of loyalty...
 

Hi Guys,

I am currently BAEC Silver (thanks to a very generous GGL in the family) and will retain it until at least 05/2018.

I have recently ticketed a QR return flight VCE - BKK in J early next year, thanks to a great deal and mobile discount found in the mileage run part of the forum.

I am contemplating crediting the resultant TP / equivalent (600 including positioning flights) elsewhere in an attempt to qualify for another program to OW Sapphire, any suggestions of which scheme would be best / has benefits that BAEC Silver doesn't ect?

I look forward to hearing everyone's opinion!

CB