Hi,

I've currently got 80k miles banked in LifeMiles, but I just moved from BOG to Washington DC, and thinking of moving my primary *A account to United Mileage Plus. Any recommendations?


(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) - IAD/DCA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) - Cheapest Economy.
25-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) - I had lifemiles silver last year, but just lost it.
(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 and redemption rates.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) - IAD - LHR
(7) Preferred Airlines - I'll probably be flying united mostly, but also a set of others in near term (BA, turkish, etc)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? both

Hey there,
Appreciate any feedback on this, thanks. :-)

(1) What is your home airport? AES/OSL. or AMS/CDG/LON

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Cheap business fares. Lowest Y within Europe

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? KL Flying blue gold. SK Basic.

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

(6) Which routes do you fly most often ? Transatlantic / Europe-Asia /US-South America

(7) Preferred Airlines : KL/DL/AF/GA. Prefer SkyTeam. But whichever i get cheap C fares.. :-)

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

I have a trip booked in april on the OS C fare SOF-JNB round trip, so need a *A program to credit the miles to.
SK not a good option for this trip since FRA-JNB segments booked as OS earns 0 miles...

Have considered getting a match from KLM gold to TK gold,but i'm interested in remaining a gold member if i get matched, and i could do that but difficoult if all the miles requiered have to be flown on TK marketed flights...

I have also thought about A3 and OZ.

Best regards, Eric.

Best A* status for FB+QF PLATINIUM travelling 70% of the time
 

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

PARIS CDG

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

First class A-F-P
Business Class J-C

(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)

No star alliance status but Flying Blue Platinium and Qantas Platinium.


(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.)

Booking guarantee / Highest waiting list priority / Preferred standby status / Guaranteed seat / Exclusive reservation service/ Dedicated phone line



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

Transatlantic/ Europe to Asia

(7) Preferred Airlines

I fly lots of different airlines especially to the US and to ASIA and I'm lot loyal to specific airlines at all.

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

80% for work 20% for leisure
I can always choose which airlines I want to fly.


For example in January I've been to the CES with DL in J then to Zurich with AF in J, then to Tokyo with Korean air in First. Then I'm going from Japan to NYC with Japan Airlines in First and finally I will fly back to paris with AF in J

Now I'd like to access to even more airlines

So, I have a UAL Mileage Plus account, but will be zeroing it out before April on J class flights to India. I will, however, continue to travel star alliance-- the first flight being a business class (Z) from BOM-JFK on Egypt Air. Need help finding a new Star carrier, so here goes...

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
JFK, and other NYC airports

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
International: Discount Business and Premium Economy
Domestic: Mostly cheap Economy (but domestic flights are perhaps two R/Ts a year on Delta)

(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)
Delta Silver

(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.)
Business Class Redemptions, North America- India

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

(7) Preferred Airlines
Literally none, since I stopped chasing status. Cheap Business class Preferred

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

I prefer programs where I can transfer points from Chase Ultimate Rewards, Amex Membership Rewards and SPG.

The grass in not always greener on the other side

With the majority of ffp's benefits are reducing and ff mile award/upgrade costs are going up. Upgrades are now harder to get. The halcyon days of frequent flyer programs a decade ago are gone: just accept reality.

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, better service when disruptions, ability to upgrade flights and possible operational upgrades.

Credit card transfer links. This limits you a lot. Have you looked at which ffp's you can transfer to?
Credit, Debit and Prepaid Card Programs forum
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l-program.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chase...mes-rules.html

The grass in not always greener on the other side.
Why not stay with UA?

Thanks for your quick response!

I completely agree with you that the best days of frequent flying are behind us.

Now I have no problem staying with UA, but that doesn't mean it is an airline that I fly frequently. To be honest, i haven't set foot on UA metal in many many years.

But I do fly other star alliance carriers and I have been crediting those to my United account (transferred from CO). I most often fly to India from the US-- a mix of paid and award business on LH and OS (love the J soft product!), but fees on awards are prohibitive on mileage redemption with M&M, which is why I credit my flights to UA.

I was looking at Turkish, which has J awards for 52.5k O/W (almost 30k lower than UA), but I am not sure what their fees are like. Besides, there are no US based credit card transfer partners with Turkish.

Eventually, if UA is the best I can do, then I'll continue to credit there, but the reason I am seeking advice here is to figure if another program might serve me better, based on the information I provided above.

Thanks!

Yep: that's your problem
Award cost is only half the equation. Earning is the other. As is expiry & carrier imposed award surcharges (= 100% airline profit)
Earn to burn is what matters

Awards assistance tools
Use at your own risk. These may not be up to date. (These are not recommendations)
These links give a guide of ff miles needed. Availability is from the airline ffp web sites/phone. Award flights are never guaranteed. You need to be flexible with date and route.
Frequent flyer miles/points are not equal to or burn. They are not 1 to 1
If a multi segment award check the rules/cost carefully. With some ffp’s it can be 2 or more awards or cost more ff miles/points than a direct flight.
If the award is on partner airline it may cost more miles/points than an award on the ffp airline.
Some awards/airlines/routes can have cash surcharges, in addition to real taxes.
Real taxes/regulatory fees are the same for all airlines on the same route/class. Some carrier imposed surcharges can trigger additional real taxes
-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/

The grass in not always greener on the other side

Thank you! These links are great.

Is that your signature? :D ;)

For potential ffp refugees in the USA---> YES :)

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recent changes to some USA ffp’s).

I'm gonna give Aeroplan a shot.

Hello,

can you please recommend a ff program? Thanks.

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

PRG

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

Cheap economy.

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

~ 30k.

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

Lufthansa miles & more silver, about to expire.

(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.)

Most important is the free lounge access (everywhere but particularly in MUC and FRA), then the priority check-in, and then the priority boarding.

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

Twice a year PRG - USA.
Twice a year PRG - Asia.
A few Europe flights from PRG each year.

(7) Preferred Airlines

No preference.

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

Work. I have minor influence on the chosen airline. I will get an economy tickets.

Best A FF ?
 

Apply most flown airline FF, that becuase you will have more chance to use it. More mile to accrual. Easy to upgade form low fare to higher cabin. if you hold FF belong to YY , you may get 50% or lower mile for some fare flonw on ZZ . We will lost much mile on YY to claim ZZ award seat and it too hard to get free seat. You have to purchase hight fare on ZZ and upgade by using YY mile

So apply YY FF flown on YY with real mile flown, easy and spend less mile to claim award on YY flight , easy and spend less budget purchase YY ticket and spend less mile to upgade YY to hihger cebin. And YY is you mosy flown. It more chance to use your mile

Star Alliance from LHR
 

Hi All, really keen to be able to utilise the best star alliance lounges at LHR without having to fly biz. But choose the membership that helps me achieve the highest status possible with only 6-8 biz flights a year if possible? I am flyian ethiopian from LHR to Capetown via ADD in biz in a couple of weeks and want to sign up with somewhere before that flight. It's likely that I will do at least one flight each in Turkish, SAS and United in the next 2-3 months, and Singapore in the next 6 months.

Appreciate any help or guidelines, or any member airlines i should avoid at all cost?


(1) What is your home airport? LHR & GOT

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? price dependent, long haul biz/first if I find fares below £1500 (BA ex-eur, Qatar, AA from Dub), most european flights are economy.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >50k, don't intend to be loyal to one airline.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? BA Gold Guest List

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? My priortity is how quickly I can reach the top award status. Finding cheap upgrades on travel a bonus.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? from ARN/GOT/LHR/DUB to DXB/NYC/LAX/IKA/Asia

(7) Preferred Airlines: prefer diversifying

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) Work and pleasure, self employed, can choose my own airline class etc.

If you are alread planning on flying TK, then ask for a status match from your BA Gold and make sure you fly one international flight with TK within 4 months. With your travel pattern you'll have no problem in maintaining the status. All details in the TK forum.

Which airline should I credit my "butt in seat" miles ???
 

Hi! I need your help. Which airline should I credit my business class flight (JFK-Turkey-Budapest) “butt in seat” miles flown on Turkish Airlines?

From JFK, I mainly fly to ICN and LAX and want to use my miles for economy reward tickets so considering adding my Turkish "butt in seat" miles to Asiana or United. Is this the best way to earn status and redeem miles for flights? Could you shed some pros/cons/general advice on how to achieve and maintain gold status?

A few other points:
- I tend to buy the cheapest flight possible
- I fly 1-2x/year to Asia, 3x to LA, 1x to Europe
- I don't understand Star Gold alliance status or levels and have been with sky team for 15 years so please add any advice and tips