I was about to leave Star Alliance behind, but I'm about to get booked on a rather lengthy J itinerary, so I should probably revisit this.

(1) Home airport: MCI
(2) My normal fares in *A have historically been discount-Y, but I'm about to embark on a journey of about 12,000 miles on UA and Avianca in a mix of J-type fares. Could include D, Z, and P.
(3) If I brought my Oneworld and non-alliance travel back to Star, it'd be 20k-25k/yr.
(4) Current status is Star Silver thanks to A3. I will have no A3 metal in my travels anytime soon, so I've pretty much given up on pursuing status with them in the future.
(5) Most important, in this case: lounge access and other minor perks on United. Since UA Silver so rarely gets upgraded, I would value partner Star Gold over native Silver.
(6) Aside from domestic U.S., more Europe than anything. Although South America (in C/J) could pop up 1x-2x per year for a while.
(7) No particular preferred airlines.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both. Pleasure tends to be discount-Y or award travel though. Biz would include some medium- and medium-high coach fares within the U.S.

Thinking Asiana based on first review of the various options...

EDIT: I have booked the aforementioned trip. U.S. to Lima on United in P. LIM to EZE on Avianca in D, EZE back to the U.S. on United in Z.

Thanks in advance for your advice!

(1) What is your home airport? (JFK)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, D, J)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (>50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (Star Alliance Gold through Krisflyer Gold)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (good award redemption rates for premium travel)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (Transatlantic)
(7) Preferred Airlines (Singapore Airlines)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Both, but more for work)

I have 2 questions:

(1) What is your home airport? DFW, DAL
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? lowest
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? less than 25k usually
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? none
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? travel rewards
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic
(7) Preferred Airlines - AA, but leaning away from them - leads to 2nd question
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? both. For work, it's mostly within texas, but occasionally outside of TX


I will be doing some large international travel in the next year, and am wondering which to join. I'm part of mileageplus already. Going to Bali and a couple SE asia countries, and am likely to book with EVA air (cheap and probably will upgrade to premium economy seats). But will be departing from IAH (wedding in Houston, leaving out of Houston). And arriving back in Houston. We also have a trip to New Zealand planned. And we will also be departing from IAH to Auckland and back [edit to add that the airline will likely be Air New Zealand]. So that's why DFW doesn't seem to matter regarding my question. So I have these 2 big trips.

For work, I can choose, but have chosen AA in the past since I fly out of DFW. But I could start choosing United for some of the work flights. Work related travel is less than 25k.


Actually have a 3rd question which was not answered by AA clearly. If I were to book on a oneworld partner like Cathy Pacific can I use my AA FF# when booking with Cathay Pacific's website? I got the impression I have to book on AA website to use AA FF#.

Same question with United MP. Can I use my MP to book a flight on EVA air? I think i can from what I read.

Thanks!

pilsn3r Welcome to FT

When you make a reservation on any Oneworld Alliance airline you add your AA ff number to the reservation (at the time or later)
When you make a reservation on any Star Alliance airline you add your UA ff number to the reservation (at the time or later).
You do not need to book a flight on the AA/UA web site to earn ff miles when flying other airlines.

Some flights earn low or even nil ff miles, depending in the fare booking class.
Cathay (to AA ffp) & Air NZ (to UA ffp) are notorious for earning nil miles on low-mid cost fares.
But buy on schedule and cost and treat ff miles, if any, as a bonus.

Subject to availability, you can get an award flight on a Oneworld Alliance airline (or other AA partner airline) with your AA miles
Subject to availability, you can get an award flight on a Star Alliance airline (or other UA partner airline) with your UA miles

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

Edit
Both UA & AA are starting new USA-NZ services mid year.
I would expect some aggressive pricing from all 3 carriers on this USA-NZ route (NZ, UA & AA), especially from NZ.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-n...july-16-a.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...solidated.html

Germany -> Canada
 

Hi Folks,

I'll relocate from Germany to Canada. I will most certainly give up my LH Silver, but I am wondering if I should continue to retain A3 Gold or start a North American based program such as AC oder UA. Please advise.

(1) What is your home airport? YYZ

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? 80% Y(+), 20% C

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? approx. 50k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? A3 Gold, LH Silver, Delta Silver

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? 80% Canada/US; 20% Canada -> Germany

(7) Preferred Airlines: Any Star Alliance

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? mostly Y

Moving from US to Australia - recommendations on *A status?
 

I'm hoping this forum can help me with this question. My search turned up some information, but nothing that really offered a complete answer.

I will be moving this year from the U.S. to Sydney, Australia. I've been a long-time *A flyer under UA Mileage Plus, 4 of the past 5 years at 1K. While UA isn't the greatest sometimes, I do like the airlines in *A and agree that it's the best alliance available.

I've answered the forum questions based on my new situation after the move:

(1) What is your home airport? SYD
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y within Australia-New Zealand, J elsewhere
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~75k BIS miles
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? UA 1K
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? priority services and rebooking assistance
(6) Which routes do you fly most often SYD-AKL, SYD-SIN, SYD-NRT/HND, SYD-SFO-ORD
(7) Preferred Airlines UA and AC for now, but SQ and NZ for better service
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 80% travel for work and can choose airlines when UA not available

The problem is that there is no *A carrier based in Australia. My new situation will include 1-2 trips back to the US, flights to New Zealand once per quarter or so, and probably 2x per year to Singapore, one to Japan. All of those would be in J. Clearly those flights can all be on *A carriers - NZ, SQ, NH (or for that matter connections on TG, CA, OZ, BR, ZH). The key question is - should I continue to accrue my mileage with UA, or should I switch to one of the other *A carriers? Or perhaps I should try a status match to Qantas and go over to OneWorld (gasp!)?

Please advise, thanks!

IIRC since you won't be resident in the US the PQD won't apply to you. Therefore, I'd stick to UA and call it a day.

However, trans-tasman NZ flights only accrue 75% in Y, and then only in relatively high booking classes. Make sure you upfare to Q when you buy such a ticket by selecting the "flexi" option in the extras.

The advantage of switching to SQ could be the PPS program, and access to redemptions in SQ suites. But if your move is temporary you might not manage to obtain enough miles anyway.

How long will you be in Australia? A few years or for ever?
QF is a poor ffp. Look at OW ffp post 330. QF will not status match. AA (or AS) may be better for you, more so if you are in Oz for a short time.

Hard to know why you expect with "'priority services and rebooking assistance". Status does have benefits. Rebooking due to weather is very very infrequent. Other wise will be just be as your flight ticket t&c's. Ticket t&c's are very simple in Aust & NZ. Everything is a sold as a one way, with simple restrictions on baggage allowances & rebooking to a later/earlier flight. A return is just 2 one ways in a single PNR.

You will not get upgrades in this part of the world like you do with USA airlines

A lot of Air NZ trans Tasman flights earn nil miles. Flexi does always book into a miles earning booking class. Anyway as this seems to be flights for work Boofer may have no choice. But he/she stated these would be J. However some Air NZ trans Tasman flights are economy only.

Edit
Questions by a person moving from USA to Australia has been asked before
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...tas-vs-aa.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/qanta...-stick-aa.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/onewo...help-here.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

I'm hoping you guys can help me choose the right FF program. The redemption rate on TG is bad and SQ award availability is not great either.

(1) What is your home airport? BKK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? J for 70-80% of my flights (incl. short and long hauls)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~70K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? SQ Gold, TG Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Mileage redemption
(6) Which routes do you fly most often BKK-SIN, BKK-LON, BKK-SFO
(7) Preferred Airlines - TG and SQ
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 80% travel for work

Thanks!!

pboriwat Welcome to FT

Why do you have status with 2 Star Alliance ffp's? Usually better to stick with one, unless a very good reason for 2.
SQ award availability will be no better if you are looking awards on SQ flights with miles/points from another Star Alliance ffp, like TG

Some award cost here
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...demptions.html
http://www.awardace.com/redemptions/search (commercial site?)
But ff miles/points are not equal to earn or use.

Be careful about expiry http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-expire.html

The grass in not always greener on the other side

What is your home airport?
Currently PDX, although that's likely changing within a couple of years--most likely to PIT, but possibly MCI, CLT, or RDU.

What types of fares do you usually buy?
Economy (and usually discount at that).

How many miles do you usually fly each year?
35k-50k total last year and projected for the next couple, but that's mostly on airlines I can credit to AS.

Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
AS MVP, and AS remains my preferred domestic carrier as long as I live in Portland.

What is most important to you in a FFP?
I don't anticipate flying *A enough to get (or at least consistently maintain) status, at least as far as the the 25k-for-base-tier standard goes, so mainly earning and redemption rates across partners. Easy status acquisition would be nice, but it's not a big concern since I anticipate mostly taking international *A flights where I'm going to get a free checked bag anyway.

Which routes do you fly most often
Domestically I avoid UA, so this would mostly be for one-way flights overseas for now (I have an LH KBP-FRA segment later this year and probably a one-way TG flight in 2017); it might even include one or two transatlantic or even transpacific round trips in coming years after I move away from PDX.

Preferred Airlines
Within *A? Anything but UA.

Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Almost entirely for leisure.

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

Freq flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit cards/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s)

I only meant for flying purposes--I understand it's possible that UA's program will be ideal even if I never fly once on UA metal.

Hi folks. Please can you help me decide what to do and when re my Star Alliance memberships? I've got LH, no status, but a few hundred k miles left. I've got Singapore, Silver, based on one first class LHR-SIN in January, and one EDI-SFO business return on United. In my new job it looks like I will be doing United EDI-SFO and EDI-EWR returns quite frequently (6-8 times per year at a guess) - because United is the only direct flight to EWR, and the EWR connection to SFO works quite well. So the questions I have are (1) whether it is worth consolidating my Star Alliance memberships into one, and if so to whom, when (e.g. when I hit gold on Singapore), and how? And (2) if consolidation is not an option, isothere any merit in me abandoning current memberships and joining United?

thanks

With that much United metal, it seems like you'd be best off crediting to United and earning UA status. Assuming a lot of your travels are J/P/Z type fares, you wouldn't need any shortcuts to faster *G status...

There's no real way to "consolidate" anything (short of converting miles and losing a ton of value). But you could certainly hold off on redeeming your other *A miles until you have United Gold, which you would pretty quickly after a couple of your EDI-SFO R/T's.

Airlines don't usually status-match within the alliance, but if all of your UA is in some sort of business class fare this isn't really an issue.

I don't know Singapore's program *real* well. If someone has a case for earning there since that's where the existing status is, I'd be interested in hearing it.