Hi everyone... please help a confused air miles newbie.

I'm flying London-NY with American Airlines this August and want to start earning air miles.

I understand oneworld airmiles can be earned and redeemed with any oneworld airline so it seems there is no particular advantage to choosing one oneworld program over another - am I right?

I seem to have a choice between several types of program across several airlines and I have no idea where to start. All the websites overload me with information but nothing that will help me decide what to do next.

Hope someone can get me started with some good advice.

Thanks

Eric

It would probably help us if you gave some details about your travelling (which airlines are you using, do you fly economy or business, etc) and where you're living.

Thanks - I will be living in the UK for the next year, but not necessarily long-term. I have no idea where I will be travelling to, but I travel A LOT. I tend to fly with whoever is cheapest and don't have a preferred airline. Look forward to any advice you can give me.

Eric

For the most part you can specify that the miles accrued from a flight on any OW airline are to be credited to your FF account with any other OW airline. And in general you can use the miles that you accumulate in that account to buy trips on any OW airline.

But it's so far from a "common currency" that I'd say my first two sentences have no practical meaning.

The mileage credit you get with your "home" airline "A" when you fly a segment on airline "B" varies from zero to full credit or more, depending on route and class of service among other things. The cost of redeeming miles is even more variable, I think.

So I think most people simply sign up with an airline that they're likely to use a lot. The best accruals and cheapest redemptions will always (I guess) be on your "home" airline. If you do a lot of flying and are likely to put a lot of miles on more than one airline, then it's worthwhile to look at the details of those two or few airlines to see how to manage your miles.

Thanks JuPe and JohnAx

I may go for AA as I will be flying with them, but how carefully should I think about this? Is it possible to join a program with a different oneworld airline in future if I find myself flying a lot with a different airline?

Eric

Your only risk is stranding miles in a program that you've left behind.

Just bear in mind though that you cannot accrue miles to disAAdvantage when flying from London to the Untied States on BA, so joining disAAdvantage will limit your airline options a bit. Might be worth checking out the other programs, QF, EI, IB and so on.

Dave

If you are originally from the US and only temporarily in the UK, AA may be preferable. Non-transatlantic BA flights can earn mileage on AA. Discount coach flights on BA only earns 25% credit (including BA transatlantic flights), whereas all AA flights earn 100% credit on AA. Thus, if your longest segments are likely to be on AA metal, it may make sense to choose AA as your 'home' program. Also, most inexpensive fare classes on BA do not count at all towards elite qualification in BA Exec Club, whereas all mileage eligible flights on AA and OneWorld partners count towards elite qualification (again, very relevant if your longhaul flights are on AA). AA also allows mileage to be used to upgrade almost any fare class on AA (i.e., even a cheap transatlantic coach ticket can be upgraded), whereas BA is more restrictive.

For one who is US/UK based, I would expect that EI, IB, CX and AY are significantly less useful FF programs. Airlines tend to give the most recognition to their 'home' elites, so it is generally a good idea to focus on an airline that one will be flying with some regularity.

You do not need to join another FF programme just because you choose to fly with another airline. You choose the programme that will give you the most chances in accrueing miles through various partnerships.

Firstly, where do you normally fly to? Where were you originally from? So after the year is up, where will you go to?

Is attaining miles / status very important to you? Because there are a few other airline partners (not necessarily Oneworld) that you can join which can help you earn AA miles.

The issue of BA/AA miles between the U.S. and London was more important when BA service was significantly better than AA's. Nowadays it seems that although AA hasn't gotten any better, BA corporate is doing everything possible to lower standards and disappoint their pax. We used to forego miles to fly BA on the North Atlantic, and are about to try a couple of trips on AA. Hope we're not too misled about their service, in the front at least.

Maybe ASIAMILES, QANTAS FREQUENT FLYER may be better for you. There's also SWISS TRAVEL CLUB.The latter doesn't include Oneworld flights toward status, (actually neither can you accrue miles on BA flights at the moment) but if its just collecting miles you want, then maybe you should look into it.

Thanks everyone for your advice.

Eric