Advice on frequent flyer program for LONE5
 

Hello guys,

I'm planning to do my first LONE5 in january, and I'm trying to find out what frequent flyer program gives me the most benefit for this trip.

My LONE5 route will be:

LHR -> NBO (BA) -> JNB (surface) -> MRU (BA) -> JNB (BA) -> HKG (CX) -> DEL (CX) -> NRT (JO) -> SIN (JL) -> BNE (QF) -> NOU (QF) -> SYD (QF) -> SCL (LA) -> IPC (LA) -> SCL (LA) -> GIG (LA) -> LHR (BA)

I can maybe change the flightcode on some of the legs to a different codeshare if that makes a difference for earning miles (for example SYD to SCL on QF) (does it?).

I'm based in The Netherlands, if that makes a difference for FFP sign up.

So in summary: 4 flights on BA, 2 flights on CX, 1 flight on JO, 1 flight on JL, 3 flights on QF and 3 flights on LA.

I would really appreciate your help! I tried finding this out from the various pages of the airline FFPs, however it's very easy to loose oversight.

In which class(Coach/Eco, or Biz, or First), you will fly?

Edit: I am refit a misstake

It will be economy class (hence the LONE5) :)

You are right, I have been lost my brain this evening a little bit. ;)

I think without status, the LANPASS(LA), would be the best ffp for you. With the LANPASS, you get:

LHR -> NBO (BA/25%) -> JNB (surface) -> MRU (BA/25%) -> JNB (BA/25%) -> HKG (CX/100%) -> DEL (CX/100%) -> NRT (JO/70%) -> SIN (JL/70%) -> BNE (QF/100%) -> NOU (QF/100%) -> SYD (QF/100%) -> SCL (LA/100%) -> IPC (LA/100%) -> SCL (LA/100%) -> GIG (LA/100%) -> LHR (BA/25%)

Perhaps you will get also a status, but this you can average out, bye yourself. ;) Edit: The costs(LANPASS use kilometers, not miles ;)) for a awardflight are also ok.
When you will have the chance, to make a Elite Challenge with AAdvantage, befor your RTW-Trip(nice route by the way :)) start. Than AAdvantage is also a opportunity.

Edit2: When you want to have a Status for your RTW-Trip. Than will be the best way, to make a Elite Challenge with AAdvantage, befor RTW-Trip start..
Do you have any preferred oneworld Airline? It is also importand to know, for the time after the RTW( to get also 100% miles, for the flights after the rtw. ;))

Thanks for your reply!

I think earning miles is most important for me now :)

Right now i'm actually modelling everything in Excel so I can compute exactly what the best option would be. I ll post this model when i'm done, so that others may be able to use it!

One more question. Is the codeshare trick valid? As in, if i book a flight under a codeshare that gives me a higher percentage of miles earned for a particular FFP, will they honor that? Or only look at the actual operating carrier?

Yes codeshare should be OK, You need to check the rules of each programe. They may be different

Also be aware SYD-SCL is very hard to get in L class

I obtained some of the miles earning data from the one world member websites for their different FFP programs and different carriers.

The colums are for the FFP programs and the rows represent the carriers. I make no guarantee that this data is correct. But maybe it's useful to somebody else!

Using this table and the data of my segments and their carriers I let Excel compute the number of miles for the different FFPs. The results are as follows:

This indeed shows LANPASS as the best option regarding the number of miles earned. With Cathay Pacific's Asia Miles and Finnair Plus as runner ups.. But are there any other things I should consider?

Yes: what those miles will get you, and include any fuel surcharges that could be applied. Can be a vast difference eg AA and QF. 25,000 AA miles is worth more than 30,000 QF points

LONE earning is in a FT wiki, but may not be up to date

Hmm, Quick overview of what I found till now:

AY: 60K Pts needed for 6000 km OW award (excl. all taxes/surcharges)
LA: 50K Km needed for 6500 Km OW award (or 65K for upto 10K km) (excl. tax/fuel surcharge?)
AA: 35K miles needed for 4000 Mile OW award (incl. fuel surcharge/excl. tax)
CX: 35K miles needed for 4000 Mile OW award (excl. all taxes/surcharges)

All for economy.

So LANPASS comes out pretty well it seems.

got one question to this:
which way do i have to read the table?do you get 100% aadvantage miles by flying on cx or do you get 100% asia miles by flying on aa?

The top are the FF programmes. The left side are the airlines you are flying. For example, if you are on AAdvantage and the flight is CX, you get 0 on booking class "L".

Thanks. The thing is, I was a bit confused about this because here I found you get 100% mileage in Economy on AAdvantage when flying CX but the table said 0%.Still, "L" doesn't occur in this table on aa.com at all so is this the reason why you get 0% on CX or has it been updated to 100% and the booking class is just called differently?

For L booking class:
* AA flight - 100% on CX programme
* CX flight - 0% AA programme

For economy on CX flight, you can only get AAdvantage miles on booking class Y, B or H. Note that if you take an AA codeshare (with AA flight number), then that will be different.

I have made a update from your table with the earning data from Royal Plus(RJ). At least also the sentence: I make no guarantee that this data is correct.

Thanks! Now this table is starting to get useful :)

Hello,

By travelling in L and not doing the AA platinum challenge you seem to be treated quite badly and cannot expect to get that many miles I'm afraid.

I used Qantas miles to get a flight to South Africa from Melbourne, then I'm starting a DONE4 from there, earning PLT status on my HKG-JFK flight. End up with 90,000 miles which I can then redeem for a 14,000 mile journey home, more if I play club live: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showp...2&postcount=33

Unless you want to do something similar and fly AA metal for PLT, which would cost you about USD$8000 for a Condor flight to Mauritius + a DONE5 from there ending in NBO, I can't think of a way to earn a heap of miles.