Hey everyone.

My name is Jacob and I am from San Francisco but recently moved to Tallinn, Estonia. I got a job while studying in Germany so I also fly back to Berlin about once a month, as well as other destination within Europe for several short trips. This year was the first time I tried to do anything regarding FFP's. I was aiming to do 30 flight segments on Miles and More with LH to get Frequent Traveler status. For me this is important because I often travel heavy and I generally am unwilling to buy a cheaper flight because of a long layover or a 5-6AM departure, so the extra checked bag and business lounge access would help me in the long run.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of confusing M&M airlines with ALL *alliance partners and didn't realize it until it was too late; that SAS and UA don't count for M&M flight segments, but just miles (which won't be enough). I will fill out the questionnaire below but before I do that, what should I plan for 2017 assuming I don't move? Should I stick with M&M and just be smarter about who I book with exactly? Is there any *A status still within reach? Should I switch to something else completely? Any help would be highly appreciated!

Please pardon the out of order questions.

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
>>> Reply: Baggage Allowance, Lounge access, upgrades, in that order

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
>>> Reply: About 30-40k, but 40-50 separate flight segments

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
>>> Reply: Economy like 98% of the time.

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Mostly work, but it is on my personal budget.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
>>> Reply: Within Europe about once a month, and back to SFO 2x a year. I fly TLL-SFO and TLL-TXL a lot, usually connecting in FRA, CPH or RIX.

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: TLL. Honorary mention SFO, TXL

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: No status. Total newbie I regret all those years of budget airline flights just to save 20 bucks. It has hurt me in the long run.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: LH, SAS, Finnair, Adria (soon to be Nordica out of Estonia so we'll see how that plays out), United if I have to fly a US carrier, mostly because they fly from SFO to anywhere.

Thank you for your reply! Bonus miles based on status is indeed a feature of individual programmes but I was mainly wondering if there existed some kind of spreadsheet from a fellow-FT'er with an overview of the key elements (like bonus miles) for the main *A programmes.

Thank you for the suggestion but UA wouldn't really work for me I am afraid, mostly because I have no intention to fly UA. At this moment AA/OW will remain my primary FF scheme and I am mainly looking out where a few upcoming flights (TP, SQ and TK) could me maximised in terms of credits/earnings. A generous bonus based on status (easily achievable in some programmes or with a status match) is something to take into account.

Trying to avoid starting a new thread; my situation is not the typical for this thread.

I am a Delta/SkyTeam flyer due to location (FSD). I am in an usual situation where I need to go to Jeddah Saudi Arabia for business. Trying as hard as I could, I was unable to find reasonably priced Biz flights on SkyTeam, so they booked my on Star with LH in J. (Which, I admit, is a pretty good problem to have.)

Qualification miles mean nothing for me on Star. So my question is where should I credit the miles? I don't know all the rules that well, and figure I can do better than United. I like to fly to Europe and Hawaii. Coach fine to Hawaii, biz or higher for over the pond. My gut tells me Aeroplane or Singapore, but I just don't know who will credit me the max miles. Or, should I still be looking at United with the revenue changes? Or is Turkish or others better?

I will answer the questions below:


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

FSD

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

For this, J (biz).

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

<25K on Star

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)

Yes, Plat on Delta :) Nothing currently on Star; used to have TK gold on a status match, but they yanked it on me since I was not crediting flights.

(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.)

Travel to Europe or Hawaii. For Europe, F or J seats. For Hawaii, Y ok. Also, very important for me to be able to combine with UR, TY, MR, or SPG points.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)

Most often, for star it has been domestic economy for revenue tickets. I have flown LH F with United miles before the devaluation thanks to UR points.

(7) Preferred Airlines

DL (whoops.....) Really does not matter for Star.

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

When using Star, it is almost always pleasure on award flights.

To answer the question univocally we need to know your itinerary (FSD-ORD-FRA-JED?) and the booking class your ticket is in. Then it's easy to figure out what program to use. I would stick to UA or AC for low surcharges on awards and plenty of availability within north america (most likely your redemption target).

Okay, specific flight plan is:

FSD-ORD-FRA-JED-FRA-DEN-FSD

FSD-ORD is in Y, but the rest are in Z.

Being able to combine with MR, UR, or TY points is important to me, too. Domestic US use is NOT the most likely way I will use them. Only US location I'd consider is Hawaii (love singapore for that), but most likely for biz or F to Europe (why I need to combine with other currencies).

Which airlines can transfer MR, UR, or TY points to?
FSD-ORD & DEN-FSD on UA? With Star operating carrirer determines earnings (even on codeshares)
http://www.wheretocredit.com/lufthansa
http://www.wheretocredit.com/UA

Awards assistance tools (use at your own risk. May not be up to date. These are not recommendations)
- 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/

Hello good people!

Just registered and need some help to choose which staralliance airline program to focus on. I just came home from Japan flying with AirChina back and forth from Stockholm, Arlanda and have some miles I haven't claimed yet. I'm guessing this would be about 10 k miles?

Anyway, I am sort of infrequent flyer and will absolutely mostly travel from Stockholm to Tokyo since I have extended family there. I have used Finnair and JAL in the past from OneWorld and also Emirates but this time AirChina.

To the questions:

(1) - Seat upgrades and free (discounted) flights. I that what you call award redemption? I am 1.90 cm tall and it's very uncomfortable usually for me.

(2) - I would guesstimate about 10 - 20 thousand per year. Basically 1 to 2 trips per year to Japan

(3) - Cheapest possible

(4) - Pleasure only. Yes I can choose airline. I've flown Finnar, Emirates, AirChina, JAL so far to Japan.

(5) - Stockholm to Tokyo. No direct flights so have to go through some other hub. I think Helsinki is the fastest.

(6) - Stockholm Arlanda, ARN

(7) - I have some points with Finnair, and some with Emirates but not a lot.

(8) - I would love to fly with JAL, Finnair, or others you might suggest? Maybe not AirChina again if I can avoid it :)

Thanks for your time and I hope to get some answer!
Cheers,
Joakim.

Hello joakimu and welcome to FT!

First the bad news: not many programs allow crediting flights flown before you joined their program, so unless you already have some membership to a FFP of a *A airline your options are extremely limited. Do a search in the forum to see which programs allow this, in particular CA since you flew with them.

With the amount of flying you do, and with the fact that you fly the cheapest fare, if you really want to maximise the value of your miles you have to pick a carrier to fly every time and join their FFP. The majority of FFPs do not give you many (if any) miles for deep discounted economy fares on other carriers, so again you are limited by the combination of fare class and best mileage earning.

I think you should write off these flights and stick to Finnair for the future, since they are normally on the cheaper side and as you say they have the most convenient schedule. I don't know whether their FFP is any good. I also wouldn't bother with CA, as connecting in China is less than a glamorous experience.

joakimu welcome to FT

As above your chances of getting retro credit are slim. If Air China does not allow retro credit, find out if any of Air Chinas partners allow retro credit for the AC flight
www.wheretocredit.com/ca

Some info on retro credit in post 2 here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

I already am a UA 1K and have requalified this year. Also, I am a MM, so always *G. I have some upcoming travel on *A, some on SK in Y, some on AC and LH in P and some on UA in Y. I could simply credit to UA and be done with it, but all I'll get is the RDMs and I have a lot of those. Redemptions are expensive on UA. What I'm looking for is a *A program which offers cheap redemptions and a relatively easy way to keep miles alive, so I can put spare flights at the end of each year into it. I looked at SQ, but I can't work with the expiration policy. Thanks in advance for any advice.

(1) What is your home airport? LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? The cheapest economy or, sometimes, business fares
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? I aim to qualify as 1K with UA each year. This is for spare miles once qualified.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? UA 1K, MM = permanent *G
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good award redemption rates. Ability easily to keep miles from expiring.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? LHR-SFO, plus some intra-Europe and some to HKG.
(7) Preferred Airlines Open minded
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both, but I choose for work.

Hello and thank you! I appreciate the feedback. Well, that leaves me with either sticking to Finnair or starting a new account with British Airways that I've heard good things about for my OneWorld points. Any thoughts on which one is better? They both come to Arlanda.

And as for AirChina points. I need a Staralliance airline and it seems Aegean, Asiana, United might be options. However, should I choose one that frequents Arlanda? Is that important?

Cheers,
Joakim.

Thanks you! I will check if I can claim them somewhere other than Air China. Do you have any suggestions for Staralliance member for my case?

Cheers,
Joakim.

For that you will need to ask in the Oneworld forum.

If you are talking about the flights you have taken already, you might not be able to claim those miles as explained above.

If you are talking about the future, it depends what you want from a FFP, which brings you back to this thread. Read a few pages and see if you find a situation similar to yours.

For redemptions earn to burn is what matters. FF miles are not equal to earn or burn between ffp's. Some ffp's have cash surcharges on redemptions.

Awards assistance tools (use at your own risk. May not be up to date. These are not recommendations)
- 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/

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...-t-expire.html

The grass in not always greener on the other side

Ok. Thanks man. I have started reading but will have to read up more. This whole thing is a bit daunting. Almost like learning a new language!