Only one year of frequent flying - which programme?
 

My parents normally only make one significant flight per year - Holland to New Zealand.

However, for a variety of reasons, this year they will come three times. That means they will fly about 57,000 miles between April and December and about 69,000 within 12 months from April. After that it is back to one return trip per year.

They are considering flying CX and I was wondering what would be the best programme for them to credit to. Had they flown Staralliance they would have (easily) been able to get to Gold and even keep it for two years (as with Thai) but I am not familiar with Oneworld. I am aware of the platinum challenge but I am not sure if it is the best option in this case.

Any suggestions?

Really depends upon which class. If it is economy class, you can probably eliminate all but CX, QF, and maybe AA. Also, how do you plan to spend the miles is pertinent. Flights, upgrades, or other expenditures. CX may be the best bet since the vast majority of miles will be on CX flights and except for deep discount fares, one earns 100% miles. The downside, no status bonus.

Sorry, and thanks headinclouds for putting me right - this is all in economy class.

They do not have a strong preference to use miles for either UGs or free flights, so it depends on which is the most generous option in the above situation.

How about the Platinum challenge? They would reach 10K in April and (presumably?) have OW benefits until the end of the year, so for their next two long-haul flights - and then could use their AA points for OW awards? Are there any major restrictions on earning miles on AA when flying CX? (which is what they will be doing to NZ).

Well, the problem with the AA program and flying CX is that you must book in YBH fare classes which are usually the 3 highest economy fares. And yes you would get OW sapphire status after 1 return flight in those fare classes. However, if you don't fly the other trips in those high fare classes, no miles just status benefits.

Whilst the QF programme is one of the meanest i(if not the meanest) n terms of redemptions within OW, it is one of the only programmes where almost everything credits. Suspect this would probably work best. The other option is going with CX as you will by flying with CX I am sure your fares will credit there. The problem with the CX programme is that you don't get status bonuses unlike other OW programmes.

Finally, some people have said a few good things about AY (Finnair) so I suggest you take a look at their site as I think most fares credit there too.

The only problem in this case might be that there needs to be atleast 4 AY flights (both code & metal) per year to get/keep the status.

Technically this is true of any OW programme. QF and AA however tend not to enforce this. Do you know if CX or AY do?

Some airlines do enforce it. BA definitely does (and even enforces not being able to activate a BAEC account until you take a qualifying flight, so you cannot credit discounted fares retroactively). Any of the plans could start to enforce the 4 flight requirement at any time. The only one that has never enforced it to date is AA, all of the other airlines have enforced it from time to time, and BA systematically and rigorously enforces it.

To answer the original question, without a doubt CX would be the best plan under their circumstances. Their chances of an op-up is quite good if they reach any CX status (and they should with 3 round trips on CX). They cannot qualifiy for the AA Plat challenge unless they are buying USD 3K+ roundtirps on CX (instead of the normal USD 1K discounted fares). In fact they would be better off buying BA WT+ fares if trying to do the AA challenge (1 trip would earn status for up to 2 years; their other trips could then be cheap fares on CX with lounge access and some op-up potential).

Not pertaining to the initial question, but you might look into starting out of Germany if you are taking BA. At least with published fares, they seem to be quite a bit cheaper out of DUS, FRA, etc.

Thanks people, this is very helpful. Looks like it will be CX.

Why not BAEC?
 

Why not take a look into the BA executive club? Although you say they will travel in Y i understand that BA fare ex-AMS can provide a significant discount, they could look at WT+ fares and i believe they would be able to get to AKL using solely BA codeshares (AMS-LHR-SYD-AKL) although the WT+ would of course only be applicable to the LHR-SYD. I believe they'll then earn 125% of miles flown.

They would have BA Silver/OneWorld Sapphire within 2 return flights as members residing in mainland europe only require 400 tier points to reach this level, which gives you lounge access and business class check-in when flying any OW carrier, along with a 50% tier bonus for miles.

It'd be worth checking out, and although it may bear an extra cost they'd only need 25,000 miles (i think it is) to then upgrade to Business Class (from WT+). Providing they fly WT+ on their first return flight they should have enough miles each to upgrade to Club on their next return flight.

Best bet is to check the BA board, as the guru's on there know far more than I do, and will also be able to point you in the right direction for finding cheap WT+ and Business class BA fares in europe!

Good Luck.

BAEC only works if flying WT+ or higher, and the cheapest WT+ fare is generally triple the cheapest economy fare. So it triples their total airfare expenditure. It might make sense to do one WT+ trip, crediting to AA on a Plat challenge to get Sapphire, and then use cheap economy fares (which earn well on CX Asiamiles). You cannot even join BAEC if flying a discount economy fare! BAEC requires a premium fare flight sector before you can get the account activated and start earning miles at all.

BAEC does allow earning in the following economy (WT) classes: Y, B & H. The first 'premium' fare flight you take will allow you to open the account and simultenously open and credit the flight to your BAEC membership. You can get around this by applying for a BA Amex credit card which will open a BAEC membership for you without requiring a F, A, J, C, D, I, W, T, Y, B or H class fare. Fares below the above earn only 25% miles and don't qualify for tier points.

I do however agree with number_6 that maybe AA for a single WTP fare maybe worthwhile doing a Platinum challenge on AA, then credit everything to Asia Miles. Then again, if lounge access is the only requirement, just put everything to Asia Miles and get a Priority Pass membership to get the lounge access.

I disagree with the posters above who recommmend splitting the miles between carriers. While AA (and the Plat Challenge) is not bad for getting status, just what do your parents want to do with the miles?

If you split miles between too many programs, you just end up with a lot of accounts which would need to be topped up before you can redeem a reward (I have this problem).

Try to stick with one account if you can - my suggestions would be AY and CX as other posters before me have mentioned.

I know CX enforces the 4 CX flights criterion, I'm not sure what the deal is on AY. BTW, to get into CX's status-earning program, the Marco Polo Club, there is a $50 (I think, something like that) sign-up fee.