Being in Aus it is hard to consider which airline to use but for also good domestic basically you have VA and QF. QF is one world but with RTW and such DL can also be a good choice given that DL can earn on VA, DL, VS, AF, KL etc. if you have higher fare which it seems you do, you may come out ahead with revenue based program and Aus will have no MQD requirement so you should calculate what kind of miles and so on you can get and don't forget that you may be able to status match to delta for 90days and complete low mileage requirement to keep it beyond that to start gives you a better experiences and head start.

http://www.delta.com/content/www/en_...challenge.html

LH or SK, or stick with UA, during two years in Europe
 

(1) What is your home airport? (DUB)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (Y)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (>50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (DL Gold)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Priority services when flying the airline, free lounge access)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (EU Domestic, Transatlantic)
(7) Preferred Airlines - none
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (both, mainly business and can choose except not at substantial extra cost)

I'm moving from US to Dublin, Ireland for a two year assignment. I'll travel every month from DUB to FRA, ARN and CWL, usually as separate trips, sometimes combing more than one destination. In addition, I'll fly to the US 3 or 4 times and to a variety of other European destinations one or two times a month.

I have 860k lifetime on UA, so moving towards 1m could be of interest, though getting from 1900 lifetime on DL to 2m is even more appealing.

I am Gold with DL, so Skyteam Elite+ and so will tend to choose AF, KLM where they are options but they are not viable for ARN and FRA (CWL is Flybe only, so it can be ignored).

DUB-ARN is 2022 rt, DUB-FRA is 1350 rt. So I will have 40k+ miles each year to put in LH, SK or UA. The project will not extend:2 years is definite, after which time I'll be back in the US and flying DL 90% of the time (and not flying as much).

Any thoughts on which is the right choice, presuming that the logical path is to put all the miles in one place?

Will you be restricted in what carrier you fly? From DUB it's likely that the lowest fares will be on EI, which will (re-)join Oneworld in 2016.

If you know you will fly *A carriers (LH and SK), then just stick with UA. Even the most discounted booking classes will pay, and you can possibly earn when flying EI on selected routes. You should also be able to book LH and SK tickets on 016 stock, if you need the PQDs.

There's very little point in starting from scratch with either LH or SK, more so since you know you'll only stay 2 years.

(1) What is your home airport?
- EDI, HKG
(I do Ex-EU trips if the price is significantly cheaper, especially in business. I ususally depart from MUC though will do OSL,ARN,CPH,AMS and more if they are cheaper. )

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
- Discounted business
- Economy in the EU (for "feeding" myself into the loung-haul bookings)

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
50,000+ miles

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
- BAEC Silver (OW Sapphire)

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- 100% eaening on hopefully all flights across partners even in discounted economy
- NO last minute bookong fees
- Can book one-way awards
- Can book for friends under my account
- Hopefully I can get upgrade vouchers when matched into Star Gold
- lounge access (hopefully 2 guests)

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
- EDI-LHR-HKG
- EU-HKG

(7) Preferred Airlines
- SQ Business
- Just any reputable airline with good business class hard and soft product, at least equal or better than BA

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
- Study in Scotland and HKG for hilidays. I can do whatever as long as they are in good price.

Hi I already posted in the "not so frequent flyer" thread, but didn't get any responses so not sure how active it is.. If I need to do a status match I better get moving because my next flight is in 2 weeks.

(1) What is your home airport?
HKG, CAN

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Shorthaul - Discounted Economy (W,H,M,B) Longhaul - Discounted business (D,I)

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
>50K, however over the past last few years most of my travel has been on OW to keep status on CX

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
OW Sapphire (CX Gold), however with the changes in the CX program I'm likely to lose this as of April 2017

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.)
1) Free Lounge Access, 2) Good Award redemption rates for one way travel

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
a) +/- 20 ultra short hauls within Asia & Europe per year in discounted econ - at present about half on *A
b) +/- 3 long hauls per year in discounted biz - at present all on OW but happy to change once I have status

(7) Preferred Airlines
on *A - SQ, TK, TG

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)

Work and Pleasure - yes can choose myself

my post in the "non-so-frequent-flyer" thread is below:

Hi - thanks in advance for letting me in on this thread:

I'm a OW Gold (CX), and soon i've got a trip planned with AC in (D) Business Class, the flight is about 8,000 miles, which I don't want to waste, looking for the best *A FFP to join, a bit more information about me below:

1) I fly about 10 ultra short hauls a year on the Chinese *A carriers at the moment (normally on discounted economy or discounted business but very rarely the cheapest fares) [it would be ideal to have status to be able to use the lounge for these flights as they are often delayed] I also fly several shorthauls a year on other *A carriers i.e. LH, TG, SAA

2) I have a UA account with probably 25k miles in it at the moment, sometimes when booking one way international trips, about once a year I use this account to buy discounted miles from MileagePlus and use this to issue one way or round trip flights

3) I have a SQ KF Account with 100k miles in it, which is also used as (number 2) but I use it more for transferring in from my credit card which offers 1:1 with SQ

If I had status, I would more than likely take one medium/long haul discounted business class flight in 2016 with: TK/TG or Swiss

My goal is to keep the status as long as possible, and to be able to get decent earning capabilities for discounted business so that I can use the accumulated miles to issues short haul econ tickets on any *A carrier when purchasing tickets works out too expensive

Thanks in advance for all the advice!

(1) What is your home airport? YYZ
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? F, G
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~13k, over 25 aqs this year. expecting similar, maybe more.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Aeroplan 25k (just earned)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, priority boarding, ideally in Toronto and US airports.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: Chicago, New York, SF, Europe once/twice a year.
(7) Preferred Airlines: don't care. I
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both (80% business trips that are short hauls, but I enjoy flying profoundly and would do mileage runs if YYZ was decent for it. Would fly to Europe for a weekend in a heartbeat.)

Thanks for your help, FlyerTalk! Gone are the days of my easy 50k elite with monthly flights to Europe.. turns out status is way harder to get when you only go to Chicago! :)

Hello folks!

Chico here, making a reappearance after an extended hiatus. I'm considering leaving AC Aeroplan after nearly two decades with them (see point 5 below):

(1) What is your home airport?
- ADD, BEY

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
- Discounted economy, economy semi-flexible

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
between 40,000 and 60,000

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
N/A

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
-No requirements to fly X% of miles or flights on one specific airline (this is my main reason for considering leaving AC Aeroplan)
-Maximum earning opportunities regardless of airline and booking class
-Lounge access
-Low booking fees, taxes etc. when booking awards
-Flexible booking: one-ways, reserving for others
-Priority check-in
-Extra luggage
-Lifetime rewards / status

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
- ADD-BEY (on ET)
A couple of transatlantics, which can vary widely: JFK/YYZ/YUL, and LHR/CDG/IST

(7) Preferred Airlines
-*A: SQ, AC, TK, TG
-Elsewhere: QR, QF

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
90% pleasure

Thanks a lot for your advice!

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (Economy, usually discount)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (~50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (NA)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Free Flights)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (SFO-DEL)
(7) Preferred Airlines - AI (have a direct SFO-DEL flight), ANA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (90% pleasure)

I typically travel from SFO-DEL 2-3 times/year, combined with some flying within India. Leaning towards joining the United Plan, since I could supplement those miles with a credit card.

Can someone please help us? It's been a week and no answer at all...

(1) What is your home airport? (ZRH/TXL)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (T, L, E, K - deeply discounted ECO)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (25k-50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (M&M Frequent Traveller)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Priority services when flying the airline,, Low booking fees, taxes etc. when booking awards)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (ZRH-TXL weekly)
(7) Preferred Airlines (Swiss)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (work)

Dear Flyertalk Community

My name is Joe, an IT-Guy travelling weekly between ZRH and TXL.

This year I was able to reach the M&M *S Status, which is quite handy for me when I'm in ZRH.

My next goal is to reach *G either with Miles&Smiles (40k miles) or MileagePlus (60segments). Since I'm not quite sure with which program I should go, I want to kindly ask for help in this forum.

February 2016 I'll have a month off, and I'm planning to travel to the US and Central America.

Thanks a lot for your advice!

(1) What is your home airport? SGF (Springfield, Missouri)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Discounted Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 15-20k (but will fly 20, hopefully 30 this year segments)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Card member for American and United
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Award redemptions for international economy
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: SGF-ORD-YYZ
(7) Preferred Airlines. American or United, normally whichever gives a longer layover in ORD (for obvious reasons):D
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure

As you are in the AA ffp & UA ffp you will not do any better with another ffp. (AS or DL or a non USA airline ffp)
USA based airline ffp's tend to more generous (earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry), even after the recend changes to some USA ffp's

The grass in not always greener on the other side.

Hi everyone, I am also seeking some advice on which *A program to join.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
This is a little complicated. I usually fly out from DAY to LUN via IAD (to visit family), so I guess DAY and LUN could be considered my home airport, but I would go with DAY.

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
B, H, L, M, V (Or whatever the cheap but restricted ones are called)

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Can range anywhere between 6k to 20k.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
No status, but I have a Voyager account with 6000 miles in it, a MilagePlus account with 1500 miles and a a Skywards account with 13000 miles. I know Emirates isn't *A but I'm posting it in case it may influence which program I should use. I am totally fine with starting a new program with zero miles if it is more effective in redeeming rewards than the ones I currently have.

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.)
I would say good redemption rates, especially for flights, and with upgrades coming in second.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
I fly from DAY to IAD often because of international flight transfers, but also from the US to Africa, more specifically LUN because of family.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Whatever has the cheapest tickets for my route, which usually ends up being United, Ethiopian or on rare occasions South African.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?)
Pleasure, so I have complete control over all aspects of my flights.

Thanks!

*I also forgot to add that I have a flight with United worth about 1000 miles and one with Ethiopian in two weeks that will probably give me 6000 miles, but I haven't decided which program to put those in.

(1) What is your home airport?
Hard to say, ABZ/LHR in the UK, or NRT/HND in Tokyo. I am leaning towards NRT.

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Economy, usually one with a bit of flexibility.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
20-30K average. Problem is that one year it may be may be under 10-15K, and the next over 50K. 2016 is looking like year I will spend a fair amount of time in the sky.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
Aegean Miles and Bonus Silver (recently lost by Gold status with the change).

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Extra luggage allowance. Frequent upgrade would be awesome, but I don't expect it.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc.)
Historically UK <> Japan/Hong Kong. But this may change to Transpacific (Japan <> New Zealand <> Canada) in the near future.

(7) Preferred Airlines
I love ANA, but half the time have to settle for another airline due to steep cost difference.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Both, I get to choose but have to pay for it (self-employed).

Apart from London, Aegean simply doesn't fly to any of my regular destinations so I will probably have to drop it. If it did even Tokyo I might've kept it.

That leaves Asiana vs Turkish Airline. Truth is I have never flown with either airline, but I am leaning towards Asiana because I actually have some recollection of seeing it when looking for flights in the past. That said, does anyone know how Asiana compares to Turkish Airlines when flying with ANA/Air Canada/Air New Zealand/Eva/Scandinavian Airlines?

Thanks.

The airline you fly and the airline ffp that you credit those flights to does not need to be the same. That is what ffp partner airlines (and alliances) are all about.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s.

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people.