(1) What is your home airport? SFO
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy and Premium Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25K-50K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? AA Platimum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline,
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? SFO to HKG + intra Asia, some US domestic
(7) Preferred Airlines: CX but planning to switch over to SQ
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? For work but free to pick whatever airlines

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
PHL, EWR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Economy or Business Class. I would consider first on several trips this year that are longer in duration.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Varies each year as I am a consultant but I will be traveling more this year.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
No status as I have been dealing with health issues for the past 3 years
(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.)
Free Lounge Access for flight delays, award redemption rates, upgrades to first class when I fly coach,
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Mostly Domestic but I anticipate some international travel to Canada and the UK too I will be making several trips from PHL/EWR to LAS this year and several trips from EWR/PHL to MIA this year definitely.
(7) Preferred Airlines
UA, AA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
I travel for both work and pleasure. I am the CEO of my company and have a disability that requires I use a wheelchair for mobility so I am very selective about my flights and class of service for comfort and ease of getting on and off of aircraft. I often travel several flight segments on each trip so that I can break up the time in the aircraft seat.

I ended up booking my trip to Brazil on Copa. It looks like Asiana is my best choice. I would probably not spend enough to qualify for anything above silver on United. ( The slightly reduced close in award booking fees on United would be welcome)

Well with the majority of *A programs, there are no close in booking fees at all ;)

Looking for suggestions for Star Alliance program to commit to for north asia. (as se
 

Looking for suggestions for Star Alliance program to commit to for north asia. (as secondary or to move away from CX/OW)

My quick googling is telling me Asiana for status earn (40k for gold?) and ANA for spending (and link with Amex MR, which i dont have), but figure I'd ask the experts.

As a reference my current setup is earning CX status with 1-3 HKG-JFK premium econ flights a year along with a fair bit of HKG-TPE or HKG-Japan on Econ. Then redeeming CX miles on some HKG-JFK whilst also transferring Chase points to BA Avios to fly hkg-jpn or hkg-tpe (much cheaper). I may have need to fly tpe-jfk soon and have been looking to shift some flights away from CX anyhow because maintaining Gold status too difficult after the recent changes.

1) What is your home airport? (HKG, then TPE, Tokyo (HND) or NYC (JFK)


(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.): Cheapest available econ intra-Asia/America. PE or biz if crossing ocean

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? : 50k+


(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None in SA, CX Gold in oneworld


(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? : good award redemption rates on short haul Asia econ or long haul from asia PE or Business, ease of status earn, and basic priority services


(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc):
HKG-TPE
HKG-Japan
HKG-JFK
entertaining idea of routing flights to US via TPE or HND to avoid CX, as long as i have stopover purpose which i usually do

(7) Preferred Airlines: ANA, Asiana, EVA, Singapore and Thai.


(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?): Pleasure. I can choose my airline and class of service.

You practically have 1 choice - UA.

Cheapest available econ intra-Asia/America practically means you will most likely not earning anything regardless of programs. Another problem is most Asian *A program will usually require more-than-you-think qualifying miles due to the deep discounted Y issue, similar to CX's MPC.

Because you are HKG-based, having a foreign address will exempt you from UA's PQD requirement, which you simply need to get 50K miles done with 4 minimum UA segments. While UA's M+ is an elite-heavy program, just being an elite in the lowest tier can still get you some decent benefits when you travel with UA, except lounge access.

The best is UA has its own co-brand card through Dah Sing (FWIW - UA cobrand card is one of the oldest airline cobrand card in Hong Kong, which was first introduced by HSBC).

The only problem is - UA awards RDM based on spending. So you won't earn many miles as expect. But again - the deep discounted Y issue will limit your earning anyway. So it is kind of a wash.

1) What is your home airport?
BNE
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
30-50K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
QF Lifetime Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, Redeem miles,
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Australia to Europe and Australia to USA
(7) Preferred Airlines
None
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Work

thanks, but at the moment leaning towards Asiana.

- low 2year 20k/40k hurdle for status and long mile expiry (10y?) is key for it to be a transition or secondary program.
- i also did not notice much penalty for earning on Eva long haul flight where i may potentially put more miles on *A metal, but will find out for sure when i fly (i saw some notice saying they improved/removed penalties on multipliers)
- i even reactivated an old account which i completely forgot i had from 23y ago! miles still there!
- i use card programs that link krisflyer so i can do shorter haul SA redemptions there if i ever move further into *A (asiana redemptions only look good for longer haul)

So the plan is paying for long haul HKG-USA or TPE-USA Prem Econ to maintain the first level of status in both CX and Asiana. Redeeming card rewards via Avios for short haul Asia or longer haul premium CX or Asiana. Paid discounted Y short haul to make up the balance.

I paused at there.

If you want a new program or switch, your only choice is VA, as that is the only choice you really have.

While I respect, that is absolutely wrong thinking.

For lounge access, you will have to earn 40k. Given how Asiana gives flight credits, your 40K is practically 80K. It makes no difference when the membership year is 1 or 2 years as your requirement has practically increased.

UA has the most generous mile expiration policy among *A. Your miles virtually do not expire as soon as your account has some activities in the past 18 months.

Also - you seem to forget a key UA elite benefit - free E+ access.

Is there any site which compares the various *A carriers' Frequent Flyer programs in a tabular form?

What do you want to compare?

Airlines and Hotels But is out of date

These links give a guide of ff miles needed for awards. These may not be up to date or accurate. Check the ffp's rules for awards.
Use at your own risk. (These are not recommendations)

1. AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds --> Awardsace.com Has surcharge indication.
2. Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> Flyermiler.com
3. AwardHacker: a tool we build to tell you how to travel with the least miles --> Awardhacker.com

Thanks Mwenenzi, a most helpful response - as is always the case with you.

Actually what I wanted to compare was a combination of miles required and fuel surcharges (if applicable) for awards, other highlights (e.g. 2-year elite validity as with OZ and possibly TK), how long the miles remain valid for use, ease of booking awards and so on. I have just been caught out by my own ignorance (crediting a bunch of miles to OZ AFTER I crossed the 50K mark within 3 weeks of my anniversary date - which means those miles are useless for status purposes) and wanted to avoid such pitfalls in future.

It is extremely difficult given the fare classes complicate the earning.

Been with One World for the past two years (huge regrets) and am looking to switch back to Star Alliance. I used to be UA Gold for two years before my OW mistake but don't fly to the US as frequently anymore these days.

(1) What is your home airport?
BHX, MAN (can also use LHR, LCY, LGW)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
T, Q, S
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
>50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
British Airways Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- 1. Free Lounge
- 2. Priority service
- 3. Upgrades on Travel
(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
- 1. All around Europe without specified routes
- 2. Dar Es Salaam
- 3. New York/ Washington
(7) Preferred Airlines?
US: United
Africa: Turkish Airlines/ Lufthansa
Europe: Lufthansa/ Brussels
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Mostly Business: Can choose Airlines although limited to economy/ premium economy

Thanks for an interesting post. I assume that the OP Hong Kong address was an important part of your analysis.

With my USA address, I am looking at Asiana. (Actually credited my Copa flights to Asiana - 14,500 miles) My plan is to credit flights to Asiana until I qualify for *gold. After that, I am uncertain where to credit flights.

​​Economy plus is a great "free" benefit. However, my spend (USA address) would only qualify for silver status. 40-60k miles. Any idea if I would actually get United economy plus seating with silver status on USA-SE Asia flights?

PS I have a lot of United miles to burn.

PPS Lounge access is a great benefit of *gold. The value of the *gold lounges is diminished for me due to my having priority pass lounge access via my credit card.

​​​​​