(1) What is your home airport?
EWR/JFK Asia Pacific MNL
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Y if eligible J
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
25-50k based on the flights I have done with family
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
None at all on Skyteam Alliance KE Skypass since December 2006, Oneworld Alliance CX Asia Miles account dates back from December 2005, Non-airline alliance PR
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Alliance Perks Lounge Access and Priority services
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Domestic EWR with Family. If there was a need to do international EWR-MNL via SIN on SQ21/918
(7) Preferred Airlines
(SQ, TG, BR OZ NH,UA,AC) The first three are from what my father used to fly with to or from MNL when my family used to live there
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
For Pleasure with Family. Airlines that I have flown on are Oneworld Alliance AA & CX Skyteam Alliance Korean Air former Virgin America now merged with Oneworld Alliance AS and non-airline alliance PR
Note: My father has an active TG Royal Orchid Plus Star Alliance Gold and my Mother holds a Krisflyer. Based on those should I go TG/SQ over the EWR/Guam-based UA Mileage Plus

What do you mean "Y if eligible J"? For lounge access, Star Gold will only get you one guest, not sure how much family you have. The frequent flyer programs your parents have doesn't affect you. Note that UA has launched SFO-MNL. FF status with the airline you fly with the most always makes the largest impact.

Thanks for the answer. For Y to J I was referring to the FFQs in star alliance that allow me to upgrade from Economy to Business Class if allowed

Most programs have Star Alliance Upgrade Awards, they are generally not a good deal because they require a high economy fare class.

And usually also I class availability, which can be booked directly with partners anyways.

(1) What is your home airport? ZRH
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y in Europe, C long haul
(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? M&M SEN exp. 2/25
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? free lounge access, priority services at airports
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? 10-20 times a year within the EU, 1-2 times a year to US, 1-2 times a year to Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines LX
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 50-50. Y in EU and C long haul, for both work and pleasure

I want to move away from M&M due to their program reboot, I was thinking EuroBonus but SAS is leaving *A. Asiana might be leaving *A soon too. Not sure what to do.

Thanks!

I'll depend on your flights and booking classes. P-class to the US/Asia will be a different story compared to C-class. Also, intra Europe, is that dirt cheap (e.g. K-class) or more mid-range like H-class? Assuming you want to continue flying (mostly) LX you'll have to check earning tables with the other programs. 10-20 (return?) Eco within the EU assuming it is not the (S)LKT fare group will work IMO with many programs. If you have a lot of (S)LKT fares it can get trickier.
Aegean needs 4 min segments on them, else their requirements are very low; however, LTK does not earn! If you can fly your USA flight on United and that ticket is not terribly cheap, you might be able to quickly get UA*G. UA will also give 50% Elite bonus on LX flights and redemption on s/h Swiss intra-Europe can be a good value w/ UA and no YQ nonsense.
A third one to look into is Turkish. They have weird earning tables for Swiss, so check very carefully! You can earn status for 2 years like it used to be the case with M&M, if that is attractive to you. Run your Asia and USA flight via IST and you should be able to earn status with them very quickly.

Advice on FF Program (AMS-SEOUL-TOKYO)
 

Hey everyone,

New to the forum here, thank you for reading in advance! I would like to hear your thoughts on my situation as I will be flying around 4/5 times per year to Seoul and Tokyo from Amsterdam in Premium Economy (probably booking class G). I'm looking for the best FF to join and doubting about the right Alliance for me. My current situation:

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access, etc.
>>> Reply: Baggage Allowance, Lounge Acces, Upgrades.

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
>>> Reply: Around 20 flights per year (business and personal)

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: Premium Economy for Business (around 12 flights per year) and Economy for Personal flights (around 8 flights per year)

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: I can usually pick the airline myself depending on the availability and travel time. I traveled to Tokyo and Seoul with both Lufthansa/ANA and KLM this year. For personal travel, I flew to Almaty with Turkish Airlines through Istanbul which I do 2 times per year on average.

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: AMSTERDAM - SEOUL - TOKYO & AMSTERDAM - ISTANBUL - ALMATY.

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: AMSTERDAM (EHAM)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: Both accounts with Flying Blue (34 XP and 5300 miles, 4 flights) and Miles & More (10k status miles with 3 flights), no status yet.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: I liked ANA very much as well as KLM. Turkish Airlines is also quite nice, but the fact they don't have a premium economy class is a bit disappointing.

A couple of side notes here:

- I have been looking into Lufthansa's Miles & More, but I'm not sure if the new program change (01.01.2024) is beneficial for premium economy travelers as some German sources claimed there will be no difference in mileage accrual between economy and premium economy classes anymore starting in 2024. Does anyone have some more information on this?
- Flying Blue is also an option and seems a great option to reach a Gold status relatively fast (being able to buy XP through fuel compensation packages through KLM, for example) but I'm not sure about SkyTeam as an alliance and the fact that most of my destinations lie within the Star Alliance network with bigger hubs from my preferred airlines (Almaty, Istanbul, Tokyo, Seoul)
- ANA's Milage Club seems like a great option, given their price per mile (2.8 cents) but the price can get quite steep for a Premium Economy ticket if not booked in time (2/3 months before departure). Do you have any experience with the Milage Club?
- I also looked at One World's programs like British Airways and Japan Airlines but they can get quite expensive as well.
- I currently have an AMEX Gold Card so I'm saving up points to convert into miles, if needed.

I would love to know your thoughts and any tips and tricks are welcome!

Thank you in advance!

Hi all and Happy New year!
Today I was just downgraded from Aegean Miles+Bonus Gold to Silver (didn't meet 4 Aegean flights for the year). That was a bummer since I am flying with Austrian tomorrow to IAD and needed that free checked bag :( (even though I checked in 48 hours before departure while I still had Gold status, the free checked bag didn't kick in..) So here's my picture:

(1) What is your home airport?
IAD (Washington DC)
(2) Do you currently have any status?
A3 silver.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Economy
(4) Which airlines/routes do you usually fly?
IAD-ATH round-trip twice/year with Star Alliance + roughly 2-3 domestic roundtrips in US on average with United + 1-2 roundtrips in Greece on average with Aegean
(5) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 20k on average
(6) Do you mainly fly for work or for leisure? / Do you have any flexibility in choosing the airline/fare bucket etc.?
80% leisure, 20% work
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free checked bag

I also got the United explorer CC which normally gives 1 free checked bag but a) this perk is not valid for other SA carriers and b) I usually book my cross-atlantic roundtrips ATH-IAD (and not IAD-ATH) to get cheaper rates, meaning I can't use the United CC to get the lower rates (need to use a CC with a Greek bank).

From my understanding my best choice would be Asiana, since 40k miles/24 months are feasible. I would need to start from scratch though, and I don't think I will ever fly with Asiana. Thoughts?

No guarantees Asiana will be around even next year, since there's a pending merger (blocked by antitrust atm) with Korean. Consider Turkish? It's only 40k/1 year to start, and then 30k/1 year or 45k/2 years.

Ok about Asiana, but I don't think I will make 40k in 1 year..
How about EgyptAir? I read it only needs 30k in 2 years initially.. also I read that relatives can help with pooling miles? That would work best for me as I frequently travel with my family..

LHR based, leisure travel
 

(1) What is your home airport? LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y on shorthaul, Premium Economy on intercontinental
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 30-60
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? A3 Gold; wife has A3 gold renewed to August 2025 mine expires in May 2024 only needs 4 A3 flights to requalify, but see little point in both of us being *G with same airline. Anyway non-A3 flight requirement with A3 has jumped up substantially. Have AC no status (was *G once upon a time,but would not qualify now), some 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 checkin, lower - possibility of joining accounts for redemption purposes
(6) Which routes do you travel - intra Europe (economy), intercontinental at least once a year in premium economy (Europe to Asia, maybe Australia, Canada), various others within Europe on nearby countries (middle east - on hold for now, North Africa, East Europe, Central Asia)
(7) Preferred Airlines - Non US
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) - Leisure only

As wife has *G until mid 2025,giving us lounge access, would be happy with 2 year qualifying period. Would prefer start on anniversary date. However have BKK-LHR flight in PE on Friday could get started with a new program then. Also wife interested in another as there is another 6 months before with A3 status, and suspect miles added there might not count for much. She also has some miles on Asiana, but future uncertain.

id be pissed if I had lifetime *A from Asiana and the merger goes through and they leave *A

If the merger goes through, they will definitely leave *A because KE will completely absorb them. That's IF though - apparently, the US government has been giving the merger a hard time in the recent past, so we'll see.

Not wanting to throw more good qualifying miles after bad, I already switched to TK and am starting all over. Sheesh what a waste of effort with OZ for those years.