Is that 6000$ spend on UA flights or also partner *A airlines?

PQP is dollar based on 016 tickets, regardless of the metal flown, or other tickets on UA metal.

But it is mileage based with caps on non-UA metal, non-016 tickets, so it might be possible to get more PQPs per dollar.

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ner-metal.html

Just wanna let you know TK elite is still *gold status.

I've now flying YYZ-WAW quarterly, and there's only one direct flight so it's LO by default. Company pays for Y (M), but I tend to upgrade to PE (R) or J (Z) out of pocket. Been a longtime Aeroplan member with a bunch (>200k) of miles for award redemptions earned through credit cards that I've churned through, but the AC codeshare for the LO flights are 3x the price and the company won't pay for that so I have 0 SQD. If it wasn't for the SQD, which was introduced for non-Canadian residents in 2022 I would be all in on Aeroplan. Currently M&M FTL, but there's no way for me to hit SEN. I'm earmarking any award miles for upgrades to avoid paying out of pocket though the fare class restrictions usually torpedo that. Even without premium fares, I have lounge access on both sides through credit cards sorted, have NEXUS for expedited security at YYZ and PE gets expedited security at WAW anyway.

Is it worth trying for *G with TK? It's only 125% for LO Z, but everyone else only values it at 100% (105% for A3). I really only need the miles for status there, award redemption will probably come from AC where it's fairly easy to churn credit cards. *G vs M&M FTL.

(1) What is your home airport? YYZ, WAW
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? PE (R), J (Z)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 4 (quarterly) * 4303 * 2 (return) = 34,424 + whatever minimal personal travel, most was in Z so far this year
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? M&M FTL
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? I'll take what I can get, but would be nice to upgrade more easily/cheaply. Something like Aeroplan's travel with sports equipment benefit (including bikes) would be nice
(6) Which routes do you fly most often YYZ-WAW
(7) Preferred Airlines LO
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Almost exclusively work, LO is the only direct YYZ-WAW flight. I tend to upgrade out of pocket. Pleasure is usually AC.

Because of a job I will be starting soon, I will be flying a-lot. Sometimes 3 times a day. This will include short and long-haul flights in Asia, Americas, Europe and the Middle east, rare visits to Africa. I've not flown more than 20 times in my life. I'm new to all this so thank you for taking the time to read.


(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
Based in Europe but fly out of different airports constantly

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Economy (I do not get to pick flights of seats)

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
I will end up on about ~200 flights yearly

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

(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.)
No matter the program I will end up at the highest tier so difficulty to reach the highest tier isn't a concern. It'd be fair to just compare highest reward tiers.

In general the most important things for me will be comfort in airports and flight e.g. extra legroom, upgrades, lounge access, priority bag collection and security.

Benefits that decrease my expenditures while abroad will be immensely useful for helping with my savings. (I'm a contractor so free food and drinks will be useful as I cant expense them to a company, the only thing that gets payed for is hotel and travel).

I also really put value in earning miles and membership benefits that extend beyond my job. e.g. miles expire after a longer time, Miles from specific airlines buy better things or I get a travel benefit I can keep in the future (Asiana gives me the ability to get lifetime gold membership) I may not have this job in two years time so if I can get more out of it I will.

Partnerships with hotels will also help as I need to sign up to many hotel loyalty programs too.


(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Mainly around Europe to begin with but I will travel globally

(7) Preferred Airlines
No choice in flights

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

This is actually not a given at all, and this is the most important thing you need to understand. Being based in Europe comes with a lot of strings attached, namely:

1) Low-cost carriers are ubiquitous and offer direct connections between almost any major city pair on the continent. If your company and/or travel agency includes low-cost options, you will be screwed out of any earnings.

2) Even with low-cost carriers out of the picture, if you have no choice whatsoever of the operating carrier, you will frequently end up strung between different alliances, especially to and from major hubs.

3) Virtually all European airlines (and frequent flyer programmes) have switched to fixed mileage earnings for intra-European travel. If you routinely end up booked on the cheapest Economy tickets, your mileage accrual may be way less than you expect. For instance, 200 flights in low Economy on Lufthansa Group will net you a mere 25-30k miles in many Star Alliance programmes (and zero in quite a few others!). This isn't enough even for Star Alliance Gold status, let alone the top tier.

In short, unless we get more clarity on the city pairs you are likely to fly and the most frequent airports you'll be flying out of, it's impossible to give a good answer. How far in advance your tickets will be booked also plays a major role.

Best program for kids for redemption?
 

I have a child, and am wondering what program to accrue their (and future children's) miles to for purposes of redemption. I don't anticipate status in the near future for myself. I have ~785k lifetime flight miles on United so I'm inclined to keep crediting my UA flights there (in... oh, 30 years... I may have MM!)

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
New York - any.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Economy as a family.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
~15- 20k as a family
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
None for my child.
(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.)
Redemptions: I want to be able to use these points for flights or upgrades (I don't care what as long as I get reasonable value per common valuations - say > 1.3c/mi). Ideally I could transfer credit card points (either now or when they are 13, directly or via pooling) to top up and redeem.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Expect ~4 US/NA domestic + 1 trans-atlantic/pacific each year.
(7) Preferred Airlines
No strong preferences. Whatever is cheapest for the enough legroom (E+ or a different airline)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Pleasure - completely free choice here.

Thanks for the help!

Hi,

I used to be a OW elite back in the day when it was still easy to earn status with AA & BA. When that stopped I haven't been loyal to any airline, it just seems that it is so hard to benefit from the programs these days. Both in terms of collecting a meaningful amount of miles as well as getting to elite status. But I hope that you can give me some helpful insights. Here's my info:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) : BRU, fares from DUS or AMS are sometimes significantly cheaper and then I fly from these airports.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) : I usually fly discount economy, sometimes premium economy. I have never booked Biz, only used miles to fly Biz
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k): 25-50K (close to 30K) These are the miles I fly, because I fly discount economy I usually only earn 25% of this
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) Nada, nothing
(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.): Benefits like seat selection, the occasional upgrade, early boarding, perks that come with elite status. (I've got a priority pass so the lounge access is more or less taken care off although many lounges don't accept the pass when it's busy)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) Nothing particular. I'm writing this from Canada, next year we go to Equador, Japan, & probably also Vietnam. The year after it will be somewhere else.
(7) Preferred Airlines : I'm not familiar with * Alliance airlines except Brussels & TAP. Those are nothing special. I have used those during Covid for EU travel where I just picked those that offered direct flights. For longer trips I don't mind making a connection to fly on an airline that can earn me a little extra.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Yes I can choose the airline

*Extra: I've got a Miles&More CC that stops miles from expiring after 3 years and helps in building up a meaningful balance of these miles. It looks like this would be the program of choice but if you fly discount economy it's almost impossible to get elite status with LH.

Yeah I had it until a few weeks backs. Sorry, now I have TK Classic Plus (=silver)
Still looking into the right program to get my GOLD again flying mostly in Asia.
If I stay on TK, I need 40,000 miles in 12 months. If I switch probably more interesting programs out there. I got about 10 business flights to book and about 8 economy so far for febryary/March 2023... Decision time soon which program of what airline.

Long Time UA 1K until COVID - travel FINALLY starting up but wondering if it's time to make a move.

I've had Premier 1K status on United for several years before Covid - lifetime miles of about 800,000. But after COVID, a lot of my clients are now working 100% remotely and I've only made three trips this year with 1 - 2 more domestic trips to go. So if I stick with United, I'm probably not going to make Gold this year, and I know United treats its non-status pax terribly. I'll end up paying for preferred seating and bags until I re qualify mid next year, but if that's the case I don't feel the need to be loyal to them. If I was qualifying on miles, I would have made Gold already and be on my way to Platinum but United seems much stingier on PQP so I I'll miss Gold unless I add another trip.

To be honest I've struggled with United since they moved to PQP based on revenue only and Plus Points. They've been extended multiple times but I think I've successfully used them once, even when I've purchased a more expensive fare. So I'm a bit burned out on them.

I'm considering burning down my miles for the upcoming trips I have while my elite status still gives me preferred availability, and then making a fresh start in 2022, when I know I have at least three trips to Europe and one trip to Australia/NZ in the first part of the year.

(1) What is your home airport? PDX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Business or Premium Economy overseas depending on clients; coach domestically
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Next year, approx. $50K in spend; 75K in miles
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Premier 1K, United for 2022 but not for 2023 - only Silver status.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Perks - free bags, premium seating, upgrades, priority service plus EASE of travel
(6) Which routes do you fly most often PDX - SFO, IAD, BOS, AMS, CDG, CPH, ARL (Stockholm)
(7) Preferred Airlines This is where I'm open - been flying United so long don't know what else is out there.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) I can choose airlines, class of service within reason

After burning UA ff miles and losing status do you want to stay with Star Alliance? Or Oneworld (AA AS) or Skyteam (DL)
AA & DL are also revenue based ffp's. BA is going to revenue based in 2023. The way ffp's are tending to:- frequent spender programs and less of a frequent flyer programs
Any of the alliances will get you to the international destinations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portla...tional_Airport

Generally better to be a member of airline you fly most.

The grass is not always greener on the other side

$50k expected in 2023? Stick with UA IMHO. PDX does not offer other great options IMO.

I've been flying AC for a while, but only recently started actively working to accumulate AP points for redemptions. Trying to see if it's worth switching my FFP to Asiana to feasibly make SAG one day or continue crediting my revenue tix to AP for more redemptions.

(1) What is your home airport? YUL
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? <25K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? N/A
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Collecting AP for ease of accumulation and flexible redemptions but given my yearly SQM any status with them is a mere pipe dream. At this point, any FFP status would be better than nothing.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often CAN Domestic + Transpacific
(7) Preferred Airlines ANA, but I have an upcoming Avios redemption in mind if I can find workable dates. I hear good things about QA.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Leisure

Generally better to be a member of the airline ffp you fly most or of your home country, due to ease of earning non flying ff miles. Earning ff miles from non flying activity is very common.

Be careful about expiry https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/mile...-t-expire.html

From "but I have an upcoming Avios redemption in mind if I can find workable dates. I hear good things about QA." do you also have avios?
British Airways BA, Qatar QR, Iberia IB and Aer Lingus IE all now uses avios as the common ff currency,which can be moved between the ffp's, subject to detailed rules.

The grass is not always greener on the other side

Edit
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asia...ge-status.html
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asia...orean-air.html

Most of my AP earn is already via CC spend and other offers. Problem is with my actual miles flown and fare class it's virtually impossible for me to achieve status with AP, whereas if I credit my flown miles to Asiana, FF status is more realistically achievable. Does that line of thinking compute or am I missing something?

My daily driver CC converts quite favourably to BA Avios, but I've yet to fly with any airline that uses that currency.