Any FFP for cheap long haul flights?
 

I really hope there's something better for cheap tickets than MileagePlus (Singapore, Aegean, Air Canada?), as it doesn't really work out for me: I didn't get ANY miles for my Lufthansa flight from SFO to Munich, only got 845 miles for ANA San Jose-Tokyo... and MQD's are also just a fraction of the actual price (e.g. $95 for ANA Tokyo-Bangkok, none for Swiss SFO-ZRH), so for example this year having flown ~50k miles on *A, I've earned 24,632 award miles, 44,799 PQM and only $1,553 (so not even silver)...

(1) What is your home airport? SFO (would prefer SJC though if it had more flights...)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? L, discounted economy on other *A airlines
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? nope
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good accrual rates for cheap tickets (and of course redemption), I don't care about lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Transatlantic, transpacific
(7) Preferred Airlines? No preference (...but I have Chase Sapphire Preferred, so I can transfer to MileagePlus and KrisFlyer)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mostly for pleasure and can choose flights even for work related travel

(1) What is your home airport?
WLG

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Cheapest

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
About 30k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
none

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Frequent upgrades on travel, good award redemption rates

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
To India mostly. I fly to Japan every other year. I’ll also fly to other places near New Zealand.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Pleasure.

Currently in India but will move to New Zealand in February. Thanks!

In New Zealand you are pretty much locked down with NZ, since the vast majority of internal flights do not earn anything anywhere else. However, in NZ you will find a reasonable number of credit cards and other offers to boost your status and award points, so if you do your homework you can get some benefits out of Airpoints.

You look for "upgrades", forget about them. If you make status with NZ you will receive upgrade vouchers, but that's about it.

Another option is to look into VA's program, but its earning/redemption possibilities within *A are very limited.

Hi,

I'm really new on collecting miles on FPP and still on researching but it is hard to collect all information together. According to the wikipost, I know that my choice might be between Aegean Airlines, Turkish Airlines, or Asiana Airlines since I fly less than 50k miles per year but I'm still not sure which one would give more benefits for my pattern.

Could you please recommend Star Alliance frequent flyer program to credit miles for me? Thank you.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
>>> SYD, BKK (SYD is more often)

(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)
>>> Less than 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 rate and better award access

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
>>> sorted by most frequently first:
Australia-Asia (SYD-BKK, SYD-NRT/HND) This is most often.
Australia-Europe (SYD-DUB, SYD-GOT, SYD-MUC, SYD-BRU)
intra-Oceania (SYD-AKL, SYD-WLG, SYD-CHC)
intra-Asia (BKK-NRT/HND)

(7) Preferred Airlines
>>> None

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

Hi everyone,

new to post here but have been lurking & doing research. Currently FB gold with KL, discovered I would've gotten at least 2x miles and DL platinum with flights from this year. Deciding whether it's worth to switch FFP. Anything that I'm missing here?

(1) What is your home airport?
SFO, OAK (expat from AMS)

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy (comfort)
>50k

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

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- Upgrades to Business for SFO-AMS
- Priority boarding & security

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Transatlantic: SFO-AMS, SFO-DUB
US Domestic: SFO-NYC

(7) Preferred Airlines
KLM is convenient to Amsterdam.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Both, free to choose airlines but budget constrained (business usually too expensive).

Thanks!

Hello vuurvos and welcome to FT!

So far the only mistake you made has been posting in the Star Alliance forum, when your question belongs in the SkyTeam one :)

Try asking the same question to out ST friends next door. Good luck!

You don't fly enough to reach any kind of significant status, so you should look for a FFP with no miles expiration. UA and A3 should be your best bet, but you should shop around. Check your recent flying activity and using the accrual charts try to calculate how many miles you would have received in either FFP. That will help you narrow down your choice.

I am a Canadian living and working in the United States (but entire extended family in Canada, so Canadian stop-overs and visits are nice). I have moved to a new position within my company that will involve some travel to Europe, beginning this month.

(1) What is your home airport? IND
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Currently Y (short term economy measure at work. Likely to go back to business class soon)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Likely 25k-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good redemption rates, trying to get enough to take my kids and spouse on a trip from IND to Europe next spring.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Transatlantic
(7) Preferred Airlines? Unsure, haven't traveled much recently.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? I travel mostly for work but can choose my airlines (cannot choose what class of travel, usually transatlantic is automatic business class but right now is temporarily restricted to economy)

If you want to travel through Canada, then IND-YYZ-XXX on AC is your only choice. UA runs a decent network out of IND, which would allow you to connect to a number of *A airlines in New York or Washington.

Your best bet remains UA, since it's probably the most generous in Y out there even on non-UA flights. As usual, try figuring out your routes and your likely booking classes, and simulate the earnings in a couple of programs.

Thank you so much for your response. As I look at the choices generated by my company's travel service, I see that I can see different fare types:

Economy (N)
Economy (Y)
Tango (L)
Flex (V)
Latitude (B) - though this one might break a cost rule

Will one fare type tend to generate more airmiles than another? I put in my original post that I would be a Y class traveler but that seems to not always be true.

Hi all. Looking for a bit of help, as I'm fairly disillusioned with BA and heavily considering trying to get a Status Match / Challenge in the new year. I'm also seriously weighing up the possibility of moving to mainland Europe in a couple of years, so I wouldn't be as restricted by their stranglehold on LHR.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Rather depends. Primarily Y for work / SH. Occasionally C/Z (though more likely Y) for work on LH. C for pleasure / LH.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) Significantly >50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) With BA, it will be Gold by the end of my current collection period. No status w/ UA, but around 14k miles sitting there collecting dust.
(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.) All of the above.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) Differs heavily. Primarily within EU, but approx 10-15 LH per year.
(7) Preferred Airlines N/A
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) Both, primarily work. Can choose within reason; will generally travel Y for work.

I was looking recently at Miles & More w/ LH/LX, and imagine I'd be very likely to get SEN status fairly quickly. A few questions on that, though;

1/ After achieving FTL, and requiring 75k more for SEN, is that number actually reduced to 56.25k given the 25% enhancement / if so, would that only be applicable on LH/LX flights?
2/ Presumably, in the case of above, that would mean, in actual terms, only 75k status miles would be required to re-qualify over the 2 year period?
3/ Is it at all likely M&M would change their lifetime status to award those under 60 w/ the required miles?
4/ In the case of re-qualifying in the first year, having read this forum a bit I presume the second is simply a 'dead' year in terms of status miles? i.e. If I earned the required 100k, and then the next year did again, my membership would not simply get lengthened, but I would have to earn 100k in the third(+fourth) year?
5/ Do airlines within the alliance tend to award a smaller % on status miles (I think I read TK offer only 25% of the miles flown?).

I think that's about it for now. Thanks for any help. If there are better programs for my wants/needs (I didn't really investigate the other schemes so much), I'd love to hear so.

Yes, assuming you are on a fare that accrues 100% of the miles butt-in-seat. A list of airlines that award the executive bonus is on the M&M website, and it basically includes the LH group at large, AC, and UA.

Again yes, assuming you fly in a fare class that accrues 100% of the butt-in-seat miles.

Lifetime SEN status is an unpublished benefit. It is more likely to disappear than to be extended. If you are after lifetime status (and are ready to take the gamble), look at OZ.

Yes, if you accumulate the 100k status miles within the first year of your status, you can use the second to cultivate status somewhere else. Say that your SEN status starts on 1/1/17 and it expires on 28/02/19. You have to earn 100k before 31/12/17, in order to extend your status to 28/02/21. If you fail to earn the 100k before 31/12/17, you have to collect the 100k between 1/1/18 and 31/12/18.

That's just a spat between LH and TK. In general award miles and status miles earnings are the same.

Thanks! Final question, though. Is it worth signing up for M&M via LH or LX, or is there likely a better *A partner? I know you mentioned OZ, but what about the likes of UA (where my miles will likely otherwise be dead), etc.?

Regarding the perks - lounge access is a pretty big one for me, but good redemption and all the others are also fairly important. Due to generally flying SH in Y for work, I can generally offset the extra cost of the ticket from a LCC to a better / more comfortable airline provided it, given that otherwise I'd possibly be expensing things in the airport. Regarding good award redemption - again due to the sheer volume of flying, miles accrual tends to be fairly high despite lower cabins, so bumping up / using a reward flight for a LH in C tends to be the way I try to do things.

The reason I'm a little skeptical about UA is from reading on here about the high surcharge of using awards for partners.

JFK is home airport, frequent trips to PEK. I get NO respect on UA as I don't book enough domestic legs. I book F. Sometimes Air China, sometimes ANA, sometimes Lufthansa. Rare but love Singapore Air. 6 to 8 R/Ts per year from NY to Asia. I need a great SA FF program - who do I choose?

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

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

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
I would say around 125K-150K

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
AA Executive Platinum. Had Aegean but wasn't able to keep the *G renewal this year due to lack of *A travel (mostly was on AA, the amount of flights I would have had to book for a mile run to keep Aegean was a bit expensive), but next year should pick up.

(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.)
Just *G lounge access and priority boarding.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
For *A, mostly international.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Usually only fly United, Air Canada, South Africa for *A

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?)
Work, so a majority of the time it's either I pick Economy for domestic or International, or have PE or Biz booked for me international.

I'm leaning to OZ since the 40k over two years seems pretty doable, especially since I can have down years where I fly less *A. Turkish seems to earn a bit more mile % but one year might be difficult.