hmm.... then let me rephrase my question. Where can I find some comparisons between all the SkyTeam mileage programs? I'm sure some are better than others for things like status vs. upgrades vs. redeemable miles. With Star Alliance, there was a clear difference between mileage programs (Back in 2012 Asiana was better for status but United was better for redeemable miles) so I was hoping to receive some advice on how AZ compares.

Hi,

Just looking for a skyteam FFP to credit to. Seem to fly them once a yearish. From some skim reading it looks like DL miles or points don't expire (just looking to accrue points, not status) and flying blue you need activity every 18 months or so?

Given I fly VA and they credit to Delta it would be easy enough to credit a flight to them maybe once a yr or every 2yrs?

Alitalia expires every 24mo and has just partnered with VA so I could keep the account active also.

I see you can buy miles with Alitalia, Flying Blue and Delta which would be handy for buying an award eg likely to be in Y. Do either have family pooling? Most likely to fly skyteam on personal trips.

Europe and US I'm most likely to fly on price given the short distances so I'm not sure which program will be more valuable but one where we are able to pool miles and do points + pay and where I can easily credit a flight flying from NZ (I think one of the Chinese Airlines flys trans tasman or crediting VA to a skyteam partner is the best option to keep the account alive?)

My parents are taking a big trip to South America in September/October and I was wondering if anyone could help suggest which FFP they might join. As a BA flyer, I know nothing about Sky Team, so any advice would be very gratefully received!

My parents travel profile
They are retired and all their travel is for leisure. They currently have no status with any programme. They don’t fly long haul much – maybe once every couple of years. They tend to fly U2 around Europe (they are very close to LTN), sometimes BA a few times a year. LH they would want to fly J if possible and would consider ex-EU to do so. They have only experienced BA J so far on a couple of US trips.

Where they are based:
Close to London. Nearest airport is LTN (hence using U2 a lot), but also easy access to LHR, LCY and LGW.

Their planned trip
LHR-ATL-UIO on VS and then DL, all in J
SCL-FCO-LCY on AZ J

What they’d value most
Miles to upgrade or short haul redemptions (they’re unlikely to earn enough to get LH ones). Given their travel pattern, I think it’s unlikely they will go out of their way to fly Sky Team a lot in the future. So it’s really about maximising what they can get from this trip to either use towards a future upgrade or get a SH redemption somewhere. If that’s possible with so little flying! Earning status is not really a priority.

Status on other airlines:
They will end up BA Bronze after this trip, due earning 280 tier points on SCL-IPC-SCL in J on LAN.

Their planned trip
LHR-ATL-UIO on VS and then DL J
SCL-FCO-LCY on AZ J

Thanks in advance. I’m happy to reciprocate if anyone has any BA/OW questions, I’ll have a go at answering them!

Knowing what you explained, I think they could forget to sign up for any program because they will never have enough miles to redeem anything (forget about upgrading with miles or things like that : they will never have enough and it usually requires to buy very expensive tickets in the booked class of travel).
Now, if you absolutely want them to sign up for something, knowing the flight plan you gave, go for DL Skymiles. Indeed, you'll be able to credit all flights including the VS-and the AZ-operated flights. If you sign up with any other Skyteam program, the VS flights won't credit.

Thanks for your help. Really interesting that they wouldn't earn enough miles for anything. Had they flown OW (an extra £1k when they booked the trip so that’s why they didn’t do it), they would have gone LHR-MAD-UIO//SCL-LHR in J. They are BA members but have no status so wouldn’t get a tier bonus. However, they would earn 19,333 Avios each. Add in the bit they are doing on OW (SCL-IPC-SCL on LA) that adds another 5,840pp. That would give them 50k in Avios between them. For that they could have quite a few options. I was hoping they might accrue something similar, but it’s not a problem. They won’t mind at all, it would just be a little bonus for them.

Thanks again.

Dear FT oracle,

The Mrs. and I will be flying from Seoul to Nadi on Korean in Business in about four weeks.

We're based in London and about 90% of our travel is on BA (will both be BA Silver in the next couple of months), predominantly to continental Europe with the odd 1-2 intercontinental return flights in between (no region standing out in particular).

Having not looked into Skyteam at all in my flying history ever, does it a) make any sense to sign up to a Skyteam program to put the miles we get from the Fiji trip somewhere (ie. will there be enough to redeem them, even if it's just a European return in Eco to some SkyTeam airport) and b) if so, which one?

Many thanks!

You didn't specify the booking class, so hard to say how many miles you will get, however assuming even on a class Z (100% on Flying blue) you will get roughly 10K miles, which is enough for a one-way redemption for a short EU economy ticket, so between the 2 of you, one r/t, or with promo awards maybe a r/t + one way

All of the above assumes you are flying a r/t ICN-NAN and not just one way.

We are indeed on a return flight. Booking class is D, which I believe earns 125% when credited to KE.

Given the amount of miles and intended use case (European economy award), does it make much of a difference whether to credit to KE's program or another SkyTeam program? I don't see either one of us earning any significant amount of miles on SkyTeam for the next 3-5 years

Yes, it does, since if you intend to e.g. book an award ticket with AF or KLM, you will have more availability doing that with FB miles rather than KE miles.
D earns 125% on FB as well, so with a little luck you might just be able to get 2 r/t on some promo awards, more realistically you are still looking at 3 one-way flights.

Thank you, we'll credit them to FB then.

Hi everyone,

I'm currently FB gold with KL, discovered I would've gotten at least 2x miles and DL platinum with flights from this year. Wondering whether I should switch from FB to DL - any advice?

Some details below:

(1) What is your home airport?
SFO, OAK (expat from AMS)

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

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
>50k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
FB (KL) Gold

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- Upgrades to Business for SFO-AMS
- Priority boarding & security

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Transatlantic: SFO-AMS, SFO-DUB
US Domestic: SFO-NYC

(7) Preferred Airlines
KLM due to convenience (direct flight) to Amsterdam.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Both, free to choose airlines but budget constrained (business usually too expensive).

Thanks!

Dear SkyTeam gurus - looking for a FF program recommendation. I do have an account with Delta Skymiles (33K "never expiring" miles, regular member), but I will primarily start commuting on Aeroflot starting next week. This will be BRU<->SVO every two weeks for the next year. Wondering how to achieve elite status with the main criteria below. Thanks for any suggestions!

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access, etc.
-> Lounge access and award redemption

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
-> 12000 miles, 12-15 flights

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
-> economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
-> No

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
BRU-SVO

6. What is your home airport?
BRU

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
-> Nope

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
-> I used to fly star alliance primarily, but I need to start doing BRU->SVO with Aeroflot soon, so need a FF program recommendation

Hello,
I am not currently a flyer but am about to embark upon overseas work. I am looking to save money wherever I can while still returning to the US when I receive time off, but only for 30 days out of 365 days, i.e. saving money not paying taxes.

I've provided the copy and paste Q&A, however, I think my issue boils down to choosing between Delta's Sky Miles or Flying Blue and what combo of credit card I should use to purchase airfare. Thank you for participating, generally, and sharing what you know. You people are wonderful.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply (in order): good award redemption rates, better award access, baggage allowance, lounge access
[/B]
2. How many miles do you plan to fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
>>> Reply: 70,000 miles and let's call it 16 flights

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
>>> Reply: Always Economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Can choose. Travel for pleasure.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
>>> Reply: Dubai to Houston (round trip through KLM/Air France); Houston to Cancun (round trip through AeroMexico although the layover is absurd). Maybe Houston to Cabo (no research, yet)

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: Bush Intercontinental

7&8 not applicable

Alaro Welcome to FT

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally 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 from non flying activities is easier with an airline of your home country (credit card for most people).

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the useful benefits are somewhat limited.

Some economy fares do not earn 100% on any airline ffp. Some earn nil ff miles, even if flown on the airline of your fffp. For redeemable miles look at www.wheretocredit.com Determining status earning is much harder.

The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same.

However the frequent flyer game is changing with AA, UA & DL going to a revenue based ffp. Taking the flight that best suits your budget & schedule and treating any ff miles as bonus that may or may not be able to used is now a solid alternative to staying with a single alliance.

As a USA based person I suggest DL may be a better fit than AF/KLM

Alaska AS is another good option. DL, AF/KLM and Aeromexico are AS freq flyer partners. And AA, BA EK & others [15 in total]. https://www.alaskaair.com/content/mi...rline-partners. The AS award chart is limited on routes-partner airlines that can be used.

For Dubai to Houston why AF/KLM? One of the ME3 (Emirates EK, Etihad EY & Qatar QR) can be competitive, but it has been reported on FT EK can be expensive out if home base Dubai DXB.

Look at the award assistance tools to see how may miles are needed for an award. However ff miles are not equal to earn or burn
Use at your own risk. These may not be up to date. (These are not recommendations)
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can be 2 or more awards or cost more ff miles than a direct flight.
Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
-AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds --> http://www.awardace.com/
-Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/
-http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...ast-miles.html --> http://www.awardhacker.com/

The generic "which ffp" thread http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

Once signed up for a ffp, like DL's, the amount of miles or lackthere of will be more apparent, correct?

Otherwise, I am thinking that if always flying on AS ffp partners, the best option is to book through delta.com using a Gold Delta Sky Miles AMEX. I do not plan on hitting the $4,000 90-day mark for Chase's offer.