Which ST program should I sign up for?
 

My home carrier is SK and I therefore try to fly as much on *A carriers as possible. Currently I am looking into some summer travel from CPH to SFO. It's expensive!

It turns out, however, that a biz ticket on AF/DL is only slightly more than an economy ticket on SK. So I am strongly leaning towards that option. Now the question becomes: which ST program should I sign up for to credit those miles to? Is there a program that could tempt me to fly more ST out of CPH? Thank you very much for any good advice.

Without knowing your travel habits and usual destinations, it's difficult to give you a good advice. At that stage, I would say that you should sign up for AF/KL Flying Blue. The possibility to qualify for Elite/Elite+ status by segments might be interesting for you with CPH well served by AF, KL and other Skyteam partners.

That was a fast response, thank you very much! To describe my travel habits I have on average yearly about 10-15 intra-european r/t flights, 4 flights to the US and 1 to Asia. Does that change anything?

it just confirms my 1st response, as you are flying mostly intra-Europe :)

What I like about Flying Blue is that there is good rewards availability (eben for one-wat flights) and they don't include fuel surcharge on the reward ticket (unlike LH, OS and other Miles & More carriers).
However, while Eu flights are good for status, earning miles on the cheapest has become painful. Some AF flights even earn 0 miles in certain booking classes, or you have to pay extra to earn 125 or so...
Plus, I hate the fact that one has to pay extra for checked bagage on most intra-european AF flights, as if it was a LLC.

This is only with the MiNi fares (the same as the ones that give no miles).

Ok, Flying Blue here I come! Thanks both for your explanations!

One advantage of DL is that miles currently don't expire.

Are you likely to fly SkyTeam enough for status, especially at the ElitePlus level?

I'm also looking for a SkyTea airline to sign up for. I'll hardly fly them (still Star Alliance Gold), so it would be important that miles won't expire. Also, I hate to pay high surcharges (>100 Euro) when redeeming an award flight.

Does DL stand for Delta? Do they charge high fees?

Thanks in advance,

HTB.

Delta. There are high fees on award tickets originating in Europe and using certain partners.

Which ST member to become member of ?
 

Hi,

Looking for flight options between India (Kolkata) and Russia ( Moscow)..
I mostly fly Y class and between 3-4 return trips a year ( so not much but why should the miles go waste ;))..

Aeroflot seems to be the best option with respect to duration and pricing..

I am not a member of the SU ffp nor any other ST member.
Seek advise on which ST ffp is the best to join if looking for easy flight award options with ideally low fuel surcharges.. Mostly travel is ex India..

Have a look here:- http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html Has some things to consider
Also look at the non alliance partners of the ST airline you fly most with

Edit
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/skyte...p-skyteam.html

Thanks for the reply..:)
Had gone through that link earlier and from there it seems Delta Skymiles is quite decent..
Was hoping for some inputs on my specific situation ( India based travel, Aeroflot flights)..

AF & DL are partners of Alaska. AS is a good ffp with a wide range of partners. They have had "buy miles" promotions which have been good value. Better than buying biz tickets. http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

newbie
 

Hello, All.

If objective is to earn Elite+ quickly, can one fly Garuda (homebase airline but requires 60K miles) and deposit the miles to FB (40K miles required), for instance? Is there any better way?

Homebase is Jakarta and destination is Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Fly about 4x a year in economy (about 30K miles).

Thanks in advance.:)

In theory, yes. BUT note:
- You will only earn miles on FB for Garuda marketed-flights if the flight is operated by a SkyTeam airline*. (I understand that GA are dropping JKT-AUH themselves, and relying solely on a codeshare operated by Etihad. And as EY are not in SkyTeam, this will not earn you any FB miles. If you can get a fare for a routing JKT-JED on GA (or SV), and then JED to DXB or AUH on SV, then that would be a different matter.)
- Only the highest (most expensive) booking classes on GA (ie: Y, B) will earn you 100% miles on FB, and the cheapest booking classes (eg: V, S, etc) won't earn any miles at all - and hence won't count as level flights, either. See the FB earning chart for Garuda.

So, if you're planning to fly on full-fare tickets on Garuda-operated flights, then this approach could work (as long as you'll hit 40k miles in a calendar year). If not, you'll need to think of something else... (I would also say it is generally best, all else being equal, to be in the FFP of the airline you actually use most frequently, as it seems airlines will often treat their own elites slightly better than elites from elsewhere in the alliance).

* The only exception to the general 'must be operated by a SkyTeam airline' rule is flights which are coded AF or KL. Nearly all AF/KL coded flights can earn miles, even if they are operated by non-SkyTeam airlines (such as EY).

Thx, KQ321!
I am not aware of Etihad operating that JKT-AUH route. Now I should look for alternative.

It seems GA is dropping JKT-AUH on its own metal from end of May, as the current JKT-AUH-AMS service is upgraded to JKT-AMS nonstop. Mentioned in this article: Garuda adjusts 777-300ER route plans to focus on Japan while dropping Australia-London one-stops

Thanks again, KQ321.

There are several "Which FFP's should I join" threads. Starting questions are:--

Best Frequent Flyer Program for you?
The answer to this question depends very much on your personal travel profile and objectives.
- what is your definition of best?
- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
- which airline and where do you normally fly?
- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
- where do you live?
- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
- etc, etc, etc
(above copied in part from a post by dunk)

There is a big difference between a frequent flyer and a frequent spender getting freq flyer miles from a credit card. For questions about which is the best credit card to sign up for, to get frequent flyer miles, please do not post here, but refer to other threads on this topic

Questions
For members asking for information, to help people to assist you, can you please provide:
(1) 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:
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
(<25000, 25000-50000, >50000 miles - <25, 25-50, >50 flights?)
Reply:
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
(First, Business, Premium economy, Economy, cheapest)
Reply:
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply:
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
(US Domestic, Transpacific, Kangaroo, in Asia etc)
Reply:
(6) What is your home airport?
(SFO, SCL, London LHR, HKG, Singapore SIN etc.)
Reply:
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
(AA Executive Platinum, UA 1K, LAN Comodoro, etc)
Reply:
(8) Preferred Airlines
Reply:

Similar sticky threads
If you are sure a Star Alliance or OneWorld Alliance or Skyteam airline FFP is for you, please post in those forums, as more Star/OW/Sky experienced people are likely to answer your question.
Star Alliance forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html
OneWorld Alliance forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
Skyteam Alliance forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/skyte...i-sign-up.html
Information Desk forum http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

Major airline alliances are
www.staralliance.com web site and the Flyertalk forum Star Alliance
www.oneworld.com web site and the Flyertalk forum OneWorld Alliance
www.skyteam.com web site and the Flyertalk forum Skyteam

I am based in eastern Canada-YHZ. I usually fly twice a year YHZ-BKK and once a year to Europe. I normally book discounted Business or Premium Economy fares. I have little or no domestic or trans border (USA) flying. YHZ is served by DL. AF/KL serve YUL and YYZ so to fly them requires a connection on a non ST carrier.
Because the Cdn market is dominated by *A, most of my flying is with AC or partners. Recently, through Expedia, AF/KL in combination with CI have been offering very good prices on business class from YHZ to BKK. DL is also an option to Asia via the Pacific. AF is often less than AC for Premium Economy to Europe, The question is of course which ST plan would be best for my travel pattern.

I just relocated to London and will be flying regularly back to good old Amsterdam. The most convenient airport for me to start my travels is LGW.

After searching for tickets I found that Garuda had deeply discounted tickets available and I decided to give them a chance. My first flight with them will be soon and if Garuda is okay I will keep flying with them between LGW and AMS. It would be great if there is a frequent flyer program which allows me to earn miles on deeply discounted economy tickets (S). I have tried to find something but have not been very successful so far, it seems like none of the ST members offer a program that would work for me. I am mostly interested in priority services. I expect to do 10 return flights between LGW and AMS a year, all as cheap as possible.

Thanks in advance.

I have a short intra-europe roundtrip tomorrow on KLM (though it is ticketed on Delta stock). I have an old Delta account with nothing left in it. Note that I'm SPG Platinum (w.r.t. crossover rewards).

I expect to continue flying US (now American) as my primary carrier, but every so often will end up on a Skyteam carrier (likely most often for flights outside of the US). Looking to pick one to earn miles in, knowing I will likely not achieve any status tiers - probably 10K or fewer miles on skyteam per annum.

Any reason to pick one carrier over another?

The Q&A:
(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: priority services when flying the airline, lounge access, upgrades
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class?
Reply: 50+ flights, around 100K year, mostly economy, a few business. Note: these will mostly stay on OneWorld
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Reply: Premium Economy or Economy
(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Reply: Yes (sometimes) and Both
(5) Which routes do you fly most often
Reply: Mostly intra-US, once or twice a year to Europe or Asia
(6) What is your home airport?
Reply: NYC area or BDL
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
Reply: US Chairmans
(8) Preferred Airlines

Is your flight a KLM flight number on a KLM aircraft? Booking class ? (not the cabin)
Another option is Alaska. KLM & DL are partners
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...ePlan-partners

Unfortunately if the GA fare class is so deeply discounted that GA won't even credit it to its own FFP, I doubt they'd be prepared to pay a partner airline to have them credited to the partner FFP.

10 returns a year is 20 segments, which would earn you Silver (SkyTeam Elite) status on Flying Blue, which gets you an additional baggage allowance and some priority services (although not lounge access). However, these segments have to be in a fare-class which earns miles on FB - and it seems S (and V) do not. If you're willing to pay for T (or above) then you would earn miles, and hence segments, on FB.

It seems Garuda Miles also only gives miles for T-class or above. With Garuda Miles, you can earn Silver status with only ten segments, but to obtain SkyTeam Elite status, you have to reach Gold (30 segments).

As Supersonic Swinger has said, if Garuda are unwilling to offer miles for S (or V) class fares, it seems unlikely any other FFP will either. (But, you would have to look through the earnings charts for all SkyTeam FFPs to check this...)

Also, see this thread for my review of the inaugural AMS-LGW flight this week (in J), as well as a discussion of how long the AMS-LGW-AMS route is likely to continue (as Garuda want to replace it with a direct LGW-JKT service at some point, if there is sufficient demand to warrant it.)

I'm a dedicated AA/OneWorld guy; but I'm writing here for a friend. Which program will be best for her, considering earn/burn ratios?

Her flying is nearly all SEAsia to Europe on KL. For example, next week she flies BKK-AMS-BGO roundtrip. She buys the cheapest tickets she can find.

I know nothing about ST programs, -- thank you in advance for your advice.

Dear all,

I will be travelling to vietnam soon with Emirates from Brussels. I have chosen Alaska air FFP to put my Emirates miles on. However, I will need about two domestic flights in Vietnam with Vietnam Airlines. In which program would I best deposit those miles?

Knowing that:
Home base: BRU
Travel frequency: low and lower price economy, mostly intra-europe
Target: save miles to use for upgrade or free flight... longest time till expire counts
No preferred airline.

Programs in use:
Miles and more (with BruAir AMEX card)
Soon: Alaska Air
Dormant and empty: Iberia & Flying Blue

Hotel programs in use:
Accor & IHG

Vietnam Airlines ffp is partners with these http://www.vietnamairlines.com/en/fr...-with-airlines
Presumably those airline ffp have reciprocal earning on VN flights
Delta miles have no expiry, but its not the best ffp. (sky pesos)

Or just forget about earning miles for those short flights

AS is a good ffp, due to the many partners
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

I will just use my dormant flying blue then... if there is no exceptional skyteam FFP.

General alert - Delta miles don't expire but they have recently removed their award charts from their website. So you won't know what mileage level to aim for to redeem. You'll only know how much your award costs once you've made it all the way through to paying for the award booking on their online award calendar (which suffers from a number of pricing problems which were usually inconsistent with the award charts anyway)

More details on #AwardChartGate

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ard-chart.html

http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.c...d-charts-gone/

http://viewfromthewing.boardingarea....ation-loyalty/

http://deltapoints.boardingarea.com/...ing-move-year/

Hi,
I have been redirected my a helpful member here. I have a question regarding which ST airline to use, but:
I'm not so interested in earning miles , but of the member plastic card (I have similar one for StarAlliance) which I can use to speed up my checkin, printing my boarding passes on the kyosks?

Which airline can post me a fast and reliable card for this purpose that I can use for SkyTeam lines kyosks machines?

You don't need a "plastic card" to use an airport kiosk or a smartphone app. A booking ref or e-ticket number is enough.

Yes , but if I web-checkin previous day with the card on the airport is just a swipe nothing else, otherwise I have to remember the ref number sometimes ask for flight number etc :D also without the card asks for national ID which I have obsession I can lose :) and also liked to use the card :)

So any suggestion which airline card to make? It will work on any Skyteam flight or only for the airlines which issued the card? :D

I fly *A almost exclusively, but have to fly AF for two legs of a flight. I won't be flying ST much more, but was looking for a an airline to deposit these miles that had a decent partner award chart and didn't expire. Any suggestions on ST? My idea is potentially Korean Air because they're transfer partners w/ Chase. But Alaska sounds like a possibility since they have an interesting partner group and supposedly have decent 'Buy Miles' promotions from time to time.
Anybody have any good ideas?

I can't find the fare class on my current flight, but the AF website says I will earn 1200 miles RT, for a flight that is actually over 5000. Exactly why I want a different partner to deposit these miles to.

Alaska has a good range of partners including AA, DL and AF. But the fare class for AS earning
http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...-overview.aspx

Yeah, it offers 100% earning for my current fare, so I'm not going to complain. Especially compared to AF's own chart.

No mention of KE Skypass/Morning Calm? 10 year expiration period for mileage earned after July 1, 2008 and you can pool miles with family members.

Moving from *A to ST
 

I'm about to move to Paris. I've been a LH SEN for ever, but I guess I'll be using AF now a lot from CDG for long haul. I have a Delta account (with the original card from 1988), so the question is: should I carry on using my SkyMiles account or get a brand new Flying Blue account? Or... Carry on flying LH etc as much as possible?

You already asked the same question in the AF forum. Double posting is not allowed on FT.