OK, so now it's getting really scientific (I love it ). So if I understand you correctly, you're suggesting to to join both the BA and the AA program, and then use BA for access to lounges and upgrades on BA flights, while using AA on intra-US upgrades?

Wow, this is very strange. Are you saying that AA discriminates its own premium members when it comes to lounge access and boarding priority?

Yes. And IMO AA's redemption scheme is generally much better than BA's, particularly for US west coast residents (gets technical re the details of Avios redemptions.)

Yes, no. Other Oneworld Sapphires & Emeralds can use Admirals Clubs on domestic trips and AA (Plat) Sapphires and (EXP) Emeralds can't. Both get boarding priority.

Now if you're both and show the lounge gatekeeper a boarding pass that has your AAdvantage no. on it, and simultaneously show a BAEC Silver/Gold card, I don't know how that would play. At the discretion of the gatekeeper I suppose.

So let's say I book an Economy flight from SAN to LHR with BA, can I still use AA miles for an upgrade to Business? If so, I may just go with AA. There are very few flights within the US where I'd need lounge access.

This still seems very odd. What is the rationale behind not giving your own best customers access to your lounge? Doesn't seem to make sense.

The way status is handed out to freq flyers in the USA it would mean standing room only (or less) in lounges if lounge access came with high status. And the revenue to the airlines with paid lounge membership

From AA:

So you'd have to book in Y or B, and your upgrade would only be to World Traveller Plus (premium economy) and not Club (business.) The cost of an AA Y economy ticket would undoubtedly be greater than just buying a business class ticket directly from BA.

AA and other US airlines have a different philosophy on lounges from most other (European, Asian) airlines. You buy a membership to the clubs and then can visit them regardless of the class of service you're flying or your elite status. There are so many domestic routes flown by AA, and so many elites, that allowing free access to the clubs for elites (or for premium-cabin domestic travelers) would probably swamp the system, or so I suspect the thinking goes. Plus club memberships are another revenue stream.

That's very helpful, thanks so much. Will have to calculate if I have enough flights planned to get top status in both programs.

One more question if I may: which of the two programs is better for getting a free ticket to Europe with miles for myself and my family? Miles & More sucks in that regard... very few seats available, need to book like a year in advance and then have to pay about $400 per ticket in fees!

Is you stay in the USA permanent or temporary (years/months)?

Nothing is free. BA have horrendous fees & fuel surcharges. And can have high UK government charges (a lot of $$ if business or first). Have a look on the AA forum for more on this. One of the reaason I suggest AA firts

Miles earning from credit card spend is useful for many

I plan on staying permanently.

Getting a frequent flyer credit card is certainly worth a thought. My experience in the past was that they are a ripoff, but will look at them here in the USA.

Hi All. Help/advice would be appreciated. Have been demoted to BA silver after years of being gold and have moved from Europe to Singapore.

I am flying to HKG a lot from SIN and realised BA is only giving me 25% of the miles in cheap Economy whereas other programs such as CX seem to pay the full 100%. However, I don't know if I fancy paying to join a FFP! So is there any other Oneworld carrier I could join to earn miles on the SIN-HKG route in low fare economy (e.g. V class)?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: SIN
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: don't keep track to be honest as it varied, flew a lot of long haul but the move has changed that. From now on I will be doing:
1-2 times per month to HKG from SIN in low fare economy
1 per year to Europe (France) in Economy from SIN
2 + per year in J to Europe from SIN
Ad hoc personal travel
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? ( First, Business, Economy etc.)
Reply:
Business on long haul except for the home trip (1 per year) in Economy
Economy (restricted) on sort haul
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: I travel for both. I can choose between SQ and CX on short haul and more or less have to go with the cheapest on the long haul be it in Business or Economy
(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: most in Asia between SIN and HKG
(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: BA Silver - should renew it soon so will have it until Q1 2014

(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: Lounge access though upgrades are handy. Baggage Allowance can be useful for personal travel but it is mostly about lounge access when traveling in Eco

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: BA, CX, SQ

Thanks a million!!

I'm on a DONE4 and I'm flying SAP-MIA-SJO-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT-SIN-MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR-HEL within about a year. I'm OWE on BA and need to get 550TP before august 2013 to retain it until sept 2014.

So I'll probably get those 550TP first (SAP-MIA-SJO-JFK-HKG-BKK-NRT), but any suggestions which FF program to use for the rest of the trip (NRT-SIN-MEL-AKL-SYD-LHR-HEL)? In addition to those flights, I'll most probably fly MH (if in OW at the time), CX and BA otherwise also within a year. Maybe also AA one or two flights.

Ok so here I go. It seems I screwed things up as I started to accumulate miles in Lan and AA, but within their own FFP memerships. I used to be Gold on AA but now I only have 18K Miles on each program (AAdvantage and LANPASS). So yes, fool of me. Even flew 16K miles on Delta this year (aaargh).

I also have a Visa Platinum accumulating on AAdvantage, that I use on a daily basis but being based in Argentina I do not get a huge amount of miles there (say 500 miles per month). All my travel related expenses go via Amex Corp.

So, question is, should I stay on AA or LAN FFP? Can I do anything to consolidate at least from Lan to AA or vice versa? I can anticipate traveling a lot on LAN across latam, so it seems the choice should be Lanpass. But the longest travels are to US (I can easily travel 10K miles on one trip, but they are yearly) so there I use AA.

The key would be to know if I would accumulate 100% bonus miles once I get to Plat/Comodoro, when I fly on the other airline.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: EZE (Buenos Aires, Argentina)

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Reply: > 50K around Latin America plus 1 or 2 trips to US. Coach (or upgrade if available).

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes, normally I tend to use LAN and AA

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: Latin America / US.

(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: Not yet, have 18K miles in AA and around 20,000km in LAN. Have 43K million miler on AA but expired.

(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: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LAN, AA

Welcome to the forum ^

Not many (none?) with detailed knowledge on LAN ffp post here. Hopefully others will offer an opinion

Collecting miles in one ffp would be best, but some low priced flights may not may not get miles in AA or LAN ffp if booked other as a flight with the other.

As a general rule upgrades are only available with airline miles on a flight number and operated by the airline with your freq flyer miles.

hello everyone!!

i am sure you heard similar questions countless times but I gather that each case is very much individual so decided to start new thread. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated as i never posted anything on any forum in my life so behold

me and my gf have booked the following route to aus from london and wondering which ffp to join to get the most out of it during this specific trip as we may try to get some deals on hotels or car hire through our ffp whilst travelling. if it is not possible I think we are more into getting some reward flights. All flight booked through BA!!

BA LHR-NRT
QF NRT-CNS
QF BNE-ADL
QF MEL-HOB
QF HOB-SYD
BA SYD-SIN
BA BKK-LHR

All BA flights are S and QF are M

We are also doing one leg short haul between WAW-LHR (BA) in mid September and with LOT one on WRO-WAW if it makes any difference

Plus I will be trying to get to Poland for Xmas this year which means one return LHR-DUS/FRA/MUC -WRO with LUFTHANSA

We will also need to book some flights between SIN and BKK but have no idea how many yet

as proposed/suggested here is info:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply: LHR

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

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

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or, class of service?. Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Normally BA/LUFTHANSA short haul flights within europe - economy

(5) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply: EU domestic plus if lucky once per year long haul flight. destination varies

(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: not yet, i have currnelty 15k on M&M with peak of 27k

(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: Upgrades and Lounge Access.

(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply: LUFTHANSA, BA


hope i didn't forget about anything

Many thanks!!

Mikl9

This thread is being moved to the sticky thread covering FF options with Oneworld.

Gardyloo
Oneworld moderator

Are all the flight numbers booked as you listed? Or do you have BA flight numbers for all flights even those operated by QF?

Is your NRT-CNS flight a JQ flight number? If Jetstar you will not earn any points, except if you pay for the bundle that includes earning QF points (and you won't earn any crediting to BA). Jetstar is a low cost airline and not part of OneWorld (although the parent company is Qantas).

I assume you realise you will need to travel between SIN and BKK on the return..

I would credit it to BA, as QF points will not be very useful to you in the UK. Although you will only earn 25% on QF flights in discount economy when credited to BA.

If you credited to QF, you would get 100% miles on BA on the kangaroo route (LHR-SIN/BKK, SIN/BKK-AUS), and 25% for all other BA flights.

But again, having BA avios will allow you to upgrade BA flights, book BA reward saver flights, etc.