I had ~30k miles in my SQ KrisFlyer account that were expiring and could not find an appropriate award flight, and so ended up purchasing a flight with Scoot at the terrible value of ~0.6¢/mile. This got me thinking about switching to bank my miles in a different FF scheme. Given that I'm trying to redeem for US Domestic flights, United seemed like a reasonable choice, but the earning rate at 5x ticket price seems like poor value for Transpacific flights that retail for ~$1000 but are a total of 16k miles travelled r/t. Are there any other options I should consider?

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

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

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

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
No status; ~30k Avios banked with SQ KrisFlyer.

(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 rates, availability (and simplicity of booking) for US Domestic flights --- I don't think I fly enough or in a high enough class to collect miles for more expensive awards.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
US Domestic (~5 per year), Transpacific (~2 per year)

(7) Preferred Airlines
SQ, ANA (but I fly most often in United)

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Travel primarily for pleasure. Can choose airlines but generally am sticking to cheapest economy ticket available.

Best *A FFP for Bay Area traveler?
 

Hello,
Just seeking expert opinion--I've got another thread on the OW board--on how I should approach the FF game. I'm currently an Alaska Airlines MP member and book my international travel on AS partners. My travel requirements are about to change, though. Would it be better to switch to *A? And if so, to which *A? My work-related travel concerns the following routes:

SJC-SEA in Y: Once a month
SJC/SFO-HYD in J: Once a quarter. Air India is not an option, ever.
SJC/SFO-TLV in J: Once or twice a year
Random customer-related visits to overseas customers (major metro areas, but unpredictable which): Once or twice a year in J

Home Airport: SJC
Current Status: Alaska MVP (after years of MVPG75K)
Current Miles Balance: 150k Alaska; 110k Amex MR
Preferred Airlines: Unsure; definitely anti-Air India.


Alliance Status and Redemption are equally high priorities for me. My current thinking is that I may as well stay on AS MP, since I can fly EK to HYD. But even if I were to do that, what should my secondary program be? Etc. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Wrong forum

Guys, is it feasible at all to maintain *A status with an AU base? I've got a QF gold, working towards plat, but the redemption rates are really poor and upgrades are difficult with miles and am looking to switch.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades, redemption rates and lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
30,000 - 50,000nm, <10 flights a year, mostly premium, c. $8,000

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest for the class

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, leisure only

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
AU-Asia/China, AU domestic, AU-NZ, China domestic

(6) What is your home airport?
Sydney

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
QF gold, 300K

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Flown mostly QF, CX, JL, MU, CZ but wouldn't mind others e.g. NZ, CA...etc

So right now I'm gold elite with Air NZ. I love flying Air NZ because they have the best flights usually for leaving our little country and getting to either North America (my usual destination) or the occasional trip to Asia. The thing with Air NZ though is that once you hit their top status, there is no real incentive to continue to accrue on their FFP as the rewards are meh. It takes 3 1/2 return premium economy flights combined with my credit card to hit it. With Air NZ, if I'm flying in economy or premium economy I'll be using upgrades to go up a class the majority of the time which is why I avoid booking J with them.

I do a lot more travel than this though, and I want a separate FFP to credit any extra Air NZ flights I take + my partner Star Alliance flights to. My goal with the second FFP is to pick one that gives me good mile earnings so I can put them towards award J flights on segments I rarely fly and that Air NZ don't cover (Asia - Europe, Europe - USA, Asia - USA).

I've currently got 1 flight later this year I know I'll be able to credit to an airline (Singapore to Christchurch return with Singapore Airlines in J) and one early next year (Christchurch to San Diego return with Air New Zealand in PE).

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
CHC in New Zealand

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
With Air NZ I buy premium economy for my long haul flights.

For other long haul flights, if it's in the daytime I'll book either economy or premium economy. If it's a night time flight I'll do my best to find discounted J seats. My travel has trended towards premium cabins in the past year. If it's a short flight (under 6 hours) I'll usually book economy. So it's a mixture.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Over 50k a year. The majority of my flying is long haul.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
Gold Elite with Air NZ.
​
(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.)
The only thing I care about for this FFP is being able to use it to get miles/points to apply to award J fares on the routes that Air NZ doesn't serve. That is it.

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

• I travel CHC to LAX/SFO/IAD with Air NZ at least 3 times a year (I plan to credit this travel to Air NZ).
• I tend to travel at least once a year to somewhere in Asia with Air NZ - booking economy there and PE back (I plan to credit the PE flight to the new star alliance partner).
• I fly around USA with United and plan to credit that to the new star alliance partner (fly economy, will consider J for 3+ hour flights if it's discounted).
• One route I'll probably take next year is Edmonton to LAX with Air Canada (could be economy or J depending on prices) and that will be credited to new FFP.
• I can't really anticipate all of my upcoming travel for the year but if it's for business and it's not with Air NZ it'll probably be booked in J.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Air New Zealand, United & Air Canada

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
I travel for both. When it's for business if it's with Air NZ it'll be in PE (using upgrades to go to J). But if it's not with Air NZ for daytime flights I'll book PE if available, otherwise J, and I'll book J for night flights. For flights less than 3 hours I'll go in economy (unless deeply discounted).

For pleasure it's, funnily enough, a different story. I'm much more price sensitive. If it's a night flight I'll still probably book J but look for as discounted as I can get. If it's daytime then economy or PE is what I'll usually do. As I said though, I've been choosing more and more premium cabin travel as time has gone on so I suspect that trend to continue.

When it comes to airlines, I can choose but I'm reasonably price sensitive. What I'm usually looking for is the cheapest way to get into premium cabins, haha. I also have a fear of flying (ridiculously) so I only fly with "large" airlines. When it comes to that, I'm NOT price sensitive.

Hey Guys!
Im new here and I hope im doing everything correctly. If not dont hesitate to correct me.
Im currently not sure if I should go with SAS Eurobonus or LH M&M. Through a friend I got a SAS Gold card but I hardly use SAS and mainly LH. I started out with M&M and I got around 15k status miles on there since May. Compared to SAS it seems ridiculously difficult to become Lufthansa Senator (100k statusmiles vs 45k points) and LH's Frequent Traveller has mostly only benefits in Germany not in other European Countries. Therefore Im not sure if I should just leave M&M and go for Eurobonus. On the other hand M&M have lots of partners here in Germany which would help me collect "Prämienmeilen". Any help on what to choose is appreciated!

1) What is your home airport?
FRA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
B, H, O, S, V, W, Y, Z, (I get my flights booked so no influence on what fares get booked)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
25-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
SAS Eurobonus Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free Lounge Access,Priority Boarding,Fast Lanes. Basically everything that makes the trip itself more comfortable. I dont really care about the redemption of miles.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Most of the times only in Europe.
(7) Preferred Airlines
Lufthansa
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Work

Welcome to FlyerTalk, VorlautBoy!

You already have the SAS Gold card, so you don't really need to chase *G (Gold status) elsewhere. You also said that the most important things to you are lounge access, priority boarding and fast track, which are benefits you get from being Gold, in preference to miles for redemption (which you don't care so much about).

The fares that you have to book will likely earn you nothing to get you anywhere near LH SEN anyway. Crediting these flights to other airlines won't be much better, but considering LH now use revenue based pricing for award miles you could still be better off putting them in Eurobonus (use the wheretocredit site to calculate your earnings).

You can still collect the award miles on M&M with the special offers, etc., but you will need to make sure they're used before expiry (36 months). For this reason, having FTL status could be useful as it prevents mileage expiry (another option is to have an active M&M credit card).

Thank you for the fast reply!
Since I'm halfway there i will probably go for LH FTL and switch afterwards. Do I get the same amount of points on Eurobonus as I would get on M&M when I Fly with a Lufthansa flight / Star Alliance flight?

No, they are not necessarily going to be the same (except by coincidence), especially now that LH has switched to revenue based award mileage.

You need to check the potential earnings on http://wheretocredit.com - again, it's not so transparent for LH because it depends on the base fare plus fuel surcharge (YQ), multiplied by a factor that depends on airline and status (4-6).
Again, there's another advantage from FTL as you can get fare * 6 instead of fare * 4, but with Eco bookings on LH your earnings are going to be fairly modest anyway!

Hey guys, I'm a brazilian frequent flyer and every since TAP has increased their mile redemption this last April, I don't think it's worth keeping up with them. So I think now it's time to change programs and I really don't know where to put my *A miles.

Se here are the answering of the wikiquestions:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
- Pretty much SJP (look it up lol), GRU and GIG

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
- Y fare whenever I fly domestically and other than that some discounted business class (P, J). Sometimes I give myself a First Class ticket, but not so often as I would like.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
- around 30k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
- I am currently Latam Fidelidade Black signature (OW Emerald), AA Executive Platinum, Delta Platinum Medallion (Skyteam Elite Plus), Gol Diamante, Tap Victoria Gold.

(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.)
- For OneWorld it would be frequent upgrades on travel;
- For Star Alliance it would be good award redemption rates (without these terrible YQ taxes);

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
- I do a lot of South America to US (MIA, JFK,DFW,ATL) and South America to Europe (LIS,MAD, LHR,MXP,FCO,FRA). From US or Europe I usually fly to Asia (TYO, ICN, SIN, BKK)

(7) Preferred Airlines
- Lufthansa and Swiss
- while flying in Asia: Singapore Airlines

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
I do both and I can choose my airlines


I have two upcoming trips flying LH + LX, being:
- GRU-FRA with LH + LX in P fare . R/T
- CDG-GIG with LH in A (transatlantic) and J (europe) fare. R/T

Other than that, I only need 38.000 status miles with TAP to keep up with VictoriaGold. But once I get there I doubt how I would be able to use the miles to make any redemption (even though I can transfer them from my creditcard).
I also have Avianca Brasil (O6) as an option, but they don't earn any miles in the P class of the LH group. The good thing is that I can also transfer from my credit-card and sometimes they give 100% bonus on transfers. But they don't serve my city (only Latam and Azul does)
The only good think I can see in TAP right now is that I can nominate another person to have Gold status as well. My partner loves it, lol.

Other options I'm thinking about it:

- United: easy to use miles. Credit LH P fare and I just need to make 4 flights with them (which I could arrange since I'll be in the US next november).
- Aegean: I once use to put my miles there. They do credit LH P fare. The only thing I'm afraid is their fuel surcharge cost.
- Asiana: look really good, but other than that I dunno if it would be a good option for me.

This is it. What would you guys, *A masters, would do?

Thank you in advance!

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

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

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
New job, so hard to say. Likely 4 flights per month, 2 dom and 2 intl. Roughly 150k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
UA Silver through Marriott PP. 24k EQM with UA thus far.

(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 redemption

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
A little of everything. Some intra Europe. Some Europe-Middle East. Some US Domestic. A decent amount of transatlantic.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Nothing in particular.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Mostly business. Not much choice, typically J international.

I have two upcoming trips, one DUB-FRA-KWI on LH in J and then FRA-DFW in J airline to be determined. I currently have the KWI trip set to earn UA miles, but I'm wondering if there is a better option.

I have roughly 70k UA miles and 140k AA miles and would like to take a honeymoon next year to either Maldives or Tahiti in F or J on an award.

Thank you in advance

The grass in not always greener on the other side.
So stick with UA & AA.
Have you looked at award cost (& surcharges) & ff miles expiry of other ffp's?

Several recent threads on awards to Maldives & Tahiti. Is hard to get a premium award. And magnitude harder for 2 people. Need to start looking/booking from 355/330 days out.

I have recently taken advantage of the LH offer to fly to DEL ( GLA - MUC in J, MUC-FRA in J, FRA-DEL in A and return DEL -FRA in A then FRA-EDI in J) and hope to build on that to gain status. Looking for advice on where to credit miles to build on them with view to gaining *A status, if possible whilst maintaining BA status. Was planning to credit to MM, but A3 /Asiana seem to be the easiest to gain status, (?) but unlikely to fly either as part of my travelling plans- is that an issue ?

1) What is your home airport?
EDI- happy to position ex EU for a deal
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Intra Europe mostly discount economy but occasionally business if feeling flush! Long haul in business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
20-30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
BA Silver, hold basic SAS and MMBasically everything that makes the trip itself more comfortable. Redemption of miles is less important but will never refuse the chance to use miles
(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, priority boarding- good redemptions to a degree, but less so
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Mostly intraEurope Spain, Germany, Scandinavia mostly and 1-2 long haul in business per year US or far east
(7) Preferred Airlines
Lufthansa, SAS but open to utilising others if price etc balance out
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Pleasure- now retired so have plenty time!

Thanks for any advice

I am a skyteam member who will fly a lot of UIO - GPS - UIO or to GYE flights with Avianca in the next year in Business. I want to collect the points but will have to join a Star Alliance carrier as currently I am not a member of any. I am based in Amsterdam and have a Platinum Elite level with KLM / AF.

Any suggestions? Are there carriers matching status?

Appreciated for any suggestions

UA MP. With enough business class travel @ 200% on LH/LX you should be able to get to 50k qualifying miles which will get you SAG and thus Sen lounge access etc. Wrinkle is ... you need 4 UA segments a year ... if you have 1 trip a year to the US that is easy to do. Redemption with UA is pretty good as well. Earnings will be mediocre, but still better than if you credit to M&M.