Thanks for the reply. Yes I realise that, I previously achieved *A Gold on Aegean despite never flying with them a single time.

But my understanding is that some airlines may credit more (or at all - for some discount tickets) than others on partner flights, and I was wondering if anyone knows how Asiana compares to Turkish Airline.

Realistically, I think that those are the only two airlines I have a chance of reaching and keeping *A Gold (which is the goal).

Edit: Okay, I found the two pages (https://au.flyasiana.com/C/en/homepa...0&menuType=CMS and http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-in...s/when-you-fly) that answers my questions.

1. For Air Canada, Turkish Airline is better for Business and Premium Economy.
2. For Eva, Turkish Airline is better for Business and H Class.
3. For Air New Zealand, Turkish Airline is better for Business class, while Asiana is better for many discount Economy.
4. For SAS, Turkish Airline is better for Business class and a whole bunch of Economy class and above.
5. For ANA, Turkish Airline is better for Business class, and some heavy discount economy, while Asiana is better for almost full fare Economy.
6. For United, Turkish Airline is better for some premium class and heavy discount economy.

It seems like Turkish Airline does win far more often than not on top of having a slightly lower requirement for keeping *A Gold. On the other hand, Asiana has that *A Gold for life after 500k.

Edit2: May I check that I am reading the redemption charts correctly? (https://kr.flyasiana.com/C/en/homepa...0&menuType=CMS and http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-in...d-ticket-chart)

If I do Japan -> North America it would be 75k on Asiana but 115k on Turkish Airline?
And Japan -> Australia or New Zeland is again 75k on Asiana but 80k on Turkish Airline?

Cheers.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
SIN

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Y

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
15k-20k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
None.

(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.)
Lounge Access, Upgrades, Priority Services (check-in, baggage allowance, boarding, etc.), Easy to gain status

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Intra-Asia, Asia-Pacific, Asia-Europe

(7) Preferred Airlines
Any.

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

TK can be considered for Asia-Europe. Within Asia it's a bit tough.

Hi, I am currently trying to decide on a suitable *A FF scheme and I have narrowed my choices to UA or AV, but I am open to other suggestions:
I am an occasional flyer and am mainly looking at a FF to get award tickets (in Y or maybe C), not for status. My research has currently given me the picture that:

AV Lifemiles
Pros:
-Good miles&cash deal (20-25$ per 1k miles) on award tickets, no fuel surcharges
-Frequent miles sales
-24 months miles expiry (on inactivity) vs 18 months on UA

Cons:
-No mileage earning for discount Y on LH, LX, TK
-Difficult to deal with call centre, very restrictive award travel rules

UA MP
Pros:
-Earns 50%+ mileage on discount Y at LH, LX, TK, CA
-Easy award travel booking with good search engine, no fuel surcharges and very flexible rules
-Possibly better credit card deals for EU based customers?

Cons:
-UA travel is revenue based, hurting discount Y, and *A partner rates have an uncertain future
-Fee for award booking 21 days before departure
-Buying miles cost 37$ per 1k

From the above, it seems UA should be the better choice if I want the flexibility in carriers - however, I am worried about them switching *A partner rates to revenue based in the near future and maybe I should stick it out with AV and restrict myself to travelling on CA, UA and AC? What do you think?

P.S. I did not consider TK because of their difficult relationship with LH Group and not OZ because my focus is not to receive *G and I believe OZ miles expire regardless of account activity.

Hi, I am currently trying to decide for a good *A FF scheme and I have narrowed my choices to UA or AV, but I am open to other suggestions:
I am an occasional flyer and am mainly looking at a FF to get award tickets (in Y or maybe C), not for status and not for cabin upgrades. My research has currently given me the picture that:

AV Lifemiles
Pros:
-Good miles&cash deal ($20-25 per 1k) on award tickets, no fuel surcharges
-Frequent miles sales
-Miles expire after 24 months of inactivity vs 18 on UA

Cons:
-No mileage earning for discount Y on LH, LX, TK
-Difficult to deal with call centre, restrictive award travel rules (no stopovers etc)

UA MP
Pros:
-Earns 50%+ mileage on discount Y at LH, LX, TK, CA
-Easy award travel booking with good search engine, no fuel surcharges and very flexible rules
-Possibly better credit card deals for EU based customers?

Cons:
-UA travel is revenue based, hurting discount Y, and *A partner rates have an uncertain future
-Fee for award booking 21 days before departure
-Purchased miles cost $37 per 1k

In summary, UA MP sounds like the better deal if I want to keep carrier flexibility and in general customer service should be easier to reach if needed. Flexible award routing rules are a pro, but that is partly evened out by both carriers not offering stopovers on one-way tickets. I am very worried about upcoming changes to MP, probably switching *A Partner rates to revenue based as well, which is why I am currently looking more favourably on AV, even though I will have to restrict myself to CA, UA and AC travel in the future.

What do you guys think?

P.S. I did not consider TK because of their difficult relationship with LH Group (still better than AV earning 0% though) and not OZ because I am not focused on gaining status and I believe OZ miles expire regardless of account activity.

YYZ
 

To follow the template, here are my responses. Any help definitely appreciated

(1) What is your home airport? YYZ
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y and discounted
(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? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) Air Canada Altitude Elite 50K
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge Access; Upgrades
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc): Fly mostly to Africa and Europe, so use Air Canada to Frankfurt or Brussels and then onwards to Africa on Brussels or Lufthansa. Turkish is also an option.
(7) Preferred Airlines
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Business. Always economy.

1) What is your home airport? chicago ORD,or Midway
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? I usually go for the cheapest fare
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) <25K I don't fly much beyond may one business trip, vacation, some family visits
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) Nope
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? award redemption for economy, business, first. and upgrade affordability and availability.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc): I usually save my pts for international flights. And just pay for domestic.
(7) Preferred Airlines: None really.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure.

I currently have 180K in AA pts, . I have 30K in United. I have 60K in Chase ultimate rewards. I have 60K in Citi thank you pts. I also have 55K in BA Avios.

My ultimate goal:

I am trying to get enough pts for a trip to Taiwan for two(2016) in business class.

Then I have planning for a 2017 honeymoon for Europe for Spain and Italy in business class. I figure once I get to Europe Avios pts is good use for the short haul between Spain and Italy.

Trying to figure out what program to commit to so I can plan pt accumulation and redemption. Thanks ahead of time.

I wouldn't redeem intra-Europe flights because of the high taxes and surcharges that usually exceed the actual fares. Also intra-Europe travel is already much cheaper than US fares, so probably better to pay in cash.

(1) What is your home airport? BCN, but I often fly to JFK.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Generally discount economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? In 2015 I flew about 60k, but plan on flying >100K in 2016.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? I have AA Platinum (OW Saph)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Priority access, Lounge access and upgrades (for instance free main cabin extra on AA)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often - I fly BCN - JFK A LOT
(7) Preferred Airlines - I generally dislike US based airlines. Since I live in BCN, I often fly BA via London, so a transfer doesn't bother me - whether it's LH,SQ via FRA or TK via IST, etc...
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? I travel mostly for work, but I pay for tickets - I'm a freelancer - so price is a big importance.

I already have AA Platinum for 2016. I will requal for 2017 (already have ~23k MQM booked for 2016), but would love to pick up *A gold as well. I'm hoping to do this so I have flexibility to fly different airlines since OW only really has BA that flies my route and isn't horrible (AA and IB aren't really options).

The big problem with flying discount economy is that you won't get full mileage in FFPs that are not the one of the airline you are actually flying. I have a feeling that UA might be your best match, since it's still relatively generous with LH deep discount fares.

If you are willing to commit to TK, then matching your AA status with them would get you going immediately, but connecting in IST seems like a very unnecessary backtrack.

Then there would be M&M which is of course a tough sell, but if you decide to commit to the LH group you could make SEN and enjoy the perks for two years. However, earning in economy is bad, so actually getting 100k status miles out of your 100k butt-in-seat miles might be a challenge. If you are willing to pay for premium economy, there seems to be a good track record of upgrades on LH/LX/OS/LO.

Hello, first post here!
(1) What is your home airport? MAN
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Heavyly discounted fares (LH:K,L,T; SN:L ; THY:K)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k-35k (according to calculators) but only get around 2500 due to discounted fares!. This year I have big trips (to Asia) planned so probably more!
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? No status (M&M card holder)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free upgrades, lounge access, security fast lane
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: Intra EU flights and EU-Turkey
(7) Preferred Airlines: Don't care (but I used a lot LH, SN and THY)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 75% work (some flexibility to choose, but never ever business class), 25% pleasure.
Also add that I can start to use linked credit cards and stuff like that as I wasn't aware of the amount of possible combinations!

(1) What is your home airport? KBP - 75%, LWO - 25%
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy, discounted economy, seldom economy-priced deal for business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 70-100k in actual miles, >50 segments, earn >40k TK miles/year
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? TK*G, PS Premium (issued for 1 year only if one flies 20+ segments - I do), W6 WizzClub
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1) Lounge access (pref with 1 guest on the same itinerary), 2) Upgrades, 3) Priority in case of delays/cancellations, 4) Companion tickets
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Ukraine-EU and intra-EU, much less Ukraine-Turkey, intra-Ukraine, 2-4 long haul flights a year (N America, SE Asia) with additional few local flights there, seldom Caucasus and Central Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines? TK, but my European routes and schedules mostly get me on LO, PS and LH. I avoid OS (bad scheduling in VIE if you have to cross Shengen border and poor miles earnings on TK). Used to do up to 10 RT flights a year on W6, but they cut Ukraine, so I will abandon them.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Short/medium haul mostly work (more flexibility, mid-priced), but long haul for leisure (fixed dates, cheaper fares)

I was actually thinking if I should:
(1) stay with TK and aim for Elite+ and thus have 4 years to start over with a different program or continue with TK
(2) move to a more generous (?) UA
(3) move to Asiana to get their lifelong *A*G
(4) switch to LO/LH as I fly them most, try to earn *G status there

If you fly discounted economy you'll never make SEN, so (4) is a no.
Making (3) would be a big gamble, since you can't be sure OZ will keep the program running for the next 10 years. You should carefully compare the earnings on UA and TK according to your travel patterns. Since you actually fly a lot, UA might be a better choice for cheaper redemptions, but keep in mind that you wouldn't get domestic lounge access if you fly UA within the US!

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.): PHL or EWR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) :Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k): 25K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc): none
(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.): good award redemption rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc): US Domestic and Europe/Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines: none
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? I can choose

Need advice on which FF program from * Alliance to join

Originally Posted by thegurlyouknow View Post
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
Toronto YYZ

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Economy

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
10K-20K

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
None.

(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.)
Lounge Access, Upgrades, Priority Services (check-in, baggage allowance, boarding, etc.),
frequent upgrades
good award redemption rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Intra-Asia, Asia-Pacific, Asia-Europe
US Domestic
International - US -South Asia

(7) Preferred Airlines
Any.

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