Awesome thread - can't believe I didn't see it until now, and I don't think I've posted for over 3 years. PLEASE help me! :) I'm going nuts now trying to figure out my accrual strategy and have been doing some stupid things lately.

Background: I'm a US citizen living and working in JNB and I return regularly every 4-5 months to JFK and/or SFO for personal travel usually in DDE or reward fares (and occasionally on business). I previously was working in a consulting job with only intra-SA travel and flew mostly discount carriers, and have now taken a new position where I have almost intra-African travel, predominantly on SA and KQ, with at least one trip a quarter to Europe or the US, predominantly on SA, LH, and DL. I haven't been smart about my accrual in the last few years - I burned down all my balances I built up in the past to visit the US on reward tix.

I used to fly mostly UA and AA in the USA and have (multiple) mileage CC's for both programs that I still hold and use; hold SPG Amex, Amex Plat, and a dozen or so other CCs (no other mileage earning I don't think at this point.)

Current notable balances in FF programs:
UA: 45k (some BIS; rest CC)
LH: 16k (all BIS; probably should have accrued on a partner airline but it was booked 3 hours before I flew and I forgot)
DL: 25k (all BIS and last minute travel; will be transferring 70k via Amex MR soon and planning on using for a JNB-SFO redemption; am indifferent to earning any more on DL after that)
SA: 20k (all BIS; was originally thinking to start accruing SA but am not sure)
SPG: 15k (1/2 CC; 1/2 stays)

Have 20-40k hotel points each in a bunch of different programs and have no real loyalty for business travel but prefer redeeming SPG points for W stays for personal travel so try to accrue SPG when travelling in the US or Europe (also many cities for work I end up staying in a non-major program hotel or Southern Sun brand hotels, though would probably prefer Radisson for my DKR trips as it's a lot nicer than the Le Meridien there)


Current booked travel (both work and personal):
1) JNB-FRA-JFK-FRA-JNB in early June (DDE L-class on LH with one segment on UA)
2) JNB-LHR-EWR-LHR-EWR in late June/early July (JNB-LHR on BD operated by SA; LHR-EWR on CO. Booked in S-class as per CO website; earns at least 100% on each leg and CO tells me that the JNB-LHR leg earns 150%; BD website tells me that the outbound legs are S and the return in W though)
3) JNB-MPM-JNB (SA) next week
4) JNB-HRE-JNB (SA) in mid-June
5) JNB-NRO-JNB (KQ) late May
6) JNB-GBE-JNB (SA) late June


(1) What is your home airport? JNB
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? usually DDE for personal travel; Y (full-fare economy or at least a 100% earning class) for work usually as most trips are relatively last-minute (7-10 days notice max; many are same-day or day before - no business or first for work as per global company policy)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 75k-100k it looks like at this point; could be more
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1st - Earning economy reward tix from JNB to SFO and JFK; 2nd is lounge access in LHR/FRA/CDG where I can sleep where the lounges via PP (Amex Plat card holder) are crappy and don't have sleep rooms; 3rd - free upgrades on travel for long-haul overnights ex-JNB to DKR, JFK, FRA (which is mostly SAA at this point)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? 1st - intra-African (JNB-HRE, JNB-NRO, JNB-DKR, JNB-CPT, JNB-LOS, JNB-MPM, JNB-GBE) 2nd - Africa-USA (JNB-NYC, JNB-SFO) 3rd - Africa-Europe (JNB-ARN, JNB-BCN, JNB-FRA mostly)
(7) Preferred Airlines? Depends on where, but for personal travel it's whatever's cheapest; for work it depends on who has more shoulder and leg room and better planes, but it's been SA pretty much every flight for the last month. I often don't have choice in work travel - I get booked on whatever's cheapest and not many airlines fly to some of the smaller airports in Africa.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both - I have a significant amount of work travel and I do a lot of personal travel.

Thank you in advance FTers!

For your level of flying and the routes you fly, you will be unable to make LH SEN (thats 100K of flying per year).

I suggest you consider either Air Canada or CO/UA.
With AC, Star Gold is easier to reach than CO/ UA.
(which ensures lounge access for international travel).

CO almost never does op-ups. UA rarely does do op-ups.
I dont about AC and op-ups.

But, my 2 cents: AC/CO/UA in that order...soon, CO/UA will be one.

Considering that you will go more than 100K miles per year, LH SEN will be a good choice for you. That status increases your chances of op-ups in case of oversold flights. That status also gives you lounge access everywhere including domestic US Star Alliance flights.

LH M&M is becoming somewhat worse for redeeming miles (i am no expert, but this is the generalized idea I have).

LH M&M has access to SQ's premier upper class reward seats. Thats a plus.

One big downside for LH program (for you) is that those Deep discount fares may only earn 50% miles.

Another option to consider is CO/UA....fares on CO/UA metal are always 100% earning. (However, those cheapo LH fares may earn only 50%).

With CO/UA you get systemwide upgrades. UA SWU's can be printed and used on LH flights as well (this is done at airport before flight).

these are my thoughts.

i dont know much about SAs program.

Thanks for your advice!

Reading Aeroplan requirements for their version of *G, it seems that I'll need to make 5 trips or 10k exclusively on AC or AC-affiliate metal to qualify within a fairly low 35k ceiling for *G. Do I understand it right?

One new thing that came up today is that I might be running a bi- or tri-weekly PWM/BOS-SFO commute starting September and lasting about nine months. (for the total of 15-18 roundtrips) I saw you mentioning that CO/UA earn 100% mileage regardless of travel class (these trips would probably often be in (D)DE, rarer in Y). Would CO/UA make more sense then? Can I still use my existing MM FTL perks when earning for AC/CO/UA?

Very good questions.
For Aeroplan, you can earn status by flying partners such as CO, UA.
And you need 35K in first year;
Only downside...if you fly AC itself, some fares dont earn 100% miles. But all UA/CO/ US fares do earn 100%
http://boardingarea.com/blogs/viewfr...e-gold-status/

For your new potential PWM/BOS-SFO trips...definitely consider AC or CO/UA
They will all earn 100%.

Yes, you can use your LH status for baggage, priority boarding.
No lounge access unless you are LH SEN.

Air Canada's 35K limit for *G does sound pretty amazing. Is then Aeroplan any different from AC Top Tier? The wording on the website is fairly unclear:

I understand it as meaning that within these 35K on *A partners, I have to fly 10K or 5 segments on AC. Am I reading it wrong? This does not sound unreasonable, as routing there and back on WAW-SFO is 6 segments, but always two of them are operated by LO or LH. Oh well.

UA Premier Exec, while requires 15K more to qualify for *G then AC, does have the advantage of free upgrades to Economy Plus, and does provide 100% mileage on nearly all LH, OU, and LX bookings and on all UA/CA. (which are respectively the airlines I fly most out of EU, and most in the US) But then - from what I have heard, and I might have heard wrong - it has a constricted award availability, and they are pretty expensive.

No silver bullet I guess. Thank you for your help so far!

Need help with figuring out the best airline option.
 

(1) What is your home airport? SBA)

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? L, T, U

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >100K

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? SKYMILES PLATINUM - WILL BE DIAMOND IN 3-4 MONTHS

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1)Frequent upgrades on travel, 2)Good award redemption rates & 3) Free lounge access IN THAT ORDER

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?- SBA-MSP TWICE A MONTH. MSP TO PWM ONCE OR TWICE A YEAR. LAX TO BOM ONCE A YEAR (USUALLY ON BUSINESS CLASS USING MILES).

(7) Preferred Airlines - CURRENTLY DELTA. HOWEVER, I AM TRYING TO FIGURE OUT IF THAT IS THE BEST OPTION.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? MOSTLY BUSINESS (HOWEVER, IT IS ON MY OWN DIME AS I AM SELF EMPLOYED)

Thank you very much for starting this thread. Any help is deeply appreciated. I am new to this site and not sure if I am doing the right thing.

Gautam

You should post that AC qualification question on the AC board. The AC experts dont seem to be frequenting this thread.

However, its not necessary that UA/CO has poor award availability. But AC traditionally does have some cheaper award deals.

Also, yes, with UA/CO elite, you get E+ always. This is a big plus if thats who you fly the most.

Welcome to FT GKP67!

Every FF program has good and bad.
DL has been known to have very poor award availability in the "low levels".

If you fly 100K largely domestic USA miles, consider UA/CO or AA.

With UA/CO , you get CR-1's (can be used for domestic upgrades); and SWU's (with fare-class restrictions).

With AA, you get those SWU's (or EVIP's as they call it I guess), that have no fare-class restriction.

CO has a non-stop EWR-BOM
AA has non-stop ORD-BOM
(for your annual trips).

As you know, UA/CO is going through a merger. And there are some merger related pains that are happening.

It is reported in these boards that AA EXecPlat gets a very high percentage of domestic upgrades (free). UA 1K also seems to have a high upgrade percentage but not as high as AA EXP.

You will earn 100% mileage on low economy fares on UA/CO or AA, as long as purchased through published means (no opaque priceline fares).

I would say, pick the airline that has the most service to your home airport. That will make your life easy overall.

First of all, great thread! I'm new to this forum but I'm spending more and more time on it to learn more.

I'm not sure if this is the right thread for my question, but here goes:

(1) What is your home airport? AMS
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? C for work, discounted economy for private travel.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 100K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? M&M Senator, Flying Blue Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1. lounge access/2. upgrades
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Mostly within Europe and occasional flights to US
(7) Preferred Airlines: none really, but have spent most time on LH and LX
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) 80% work, 20% pleasure - can choose airline and class (except F)

Right now, I'm thinking of trying to maintain my M&M status as I mostly fly LH and LX, but is it worth trying to get *G status on a different program? Or should I place more flights/miles on a different alliance?

I would say, get to mid-tier status on possibly OneWorld. That would help you.
Your LHSEN will get you lounge access with Star, everywhere including the US.

FlyingBlue program seems to be very restrictive in terms of the miles earned on cheaper fares.

I'm posting this on behalf of a buddy of mine, as I couldn't provide a solid advice to him based on my limited experience (even though I fly slightly more):

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

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

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Flies only once per year, round-trip to SIN. So I would say 15-20K annually maybe? Depending on routing.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
None

(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.)
Ease of upgrades (i.e. best earn/burn ratio) to C/J would be the most important.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
TPAC/TATL. I believe routing does not matter to him as he just wants to get from YEG to SIN annually in a reasonable timeframe and cost.

(7) Preferred Airlines
I don't think he has a preference, but he does not want to fly US carriers on long haul.

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

Note that he is also open to OneWorld if that matters. CX is the only one that comes to my mind given his homebase and destinations. But with his low # of miles flown per year, I couldn't really advise him on CX.

Given his location (YEG) and final destination (SIN), I mentioned in passing that one possible way to maximize his mileage and still have it at a reasonable price and timeframe is to do a YEG-IAH on CO, and IAH-DME-SIN, on SQ metal (unfortunately SQ is the primary airline I fly with so my experience is limited to that). However even on that route, he's not going to get KF Silver for the additional 25% miles benefit, just by flying that route once a year, so I can't recommend that to him.

Thanks for any advice in advance :)

With that kind of mileage, the only thing he could get (worthwhile) status on is A3

Absolutely.

I think its going to be Aegean for the OP's friend.

Have you thought of using BD's diamond club? Considering you're flying Star Alliance airlines, BD gives you one of the best earnings/redemption programs out there. Easy to get gold, and with *A Gold, you can access most *A Gold/Senator lounges in the world regardless of class of travel. Other perks include a family plan for pooling miles, and occassional miles sales on BD.Com that let you buy miles for 1.5-2.0 cpm which makes it an attractive proposition. With Diamond club, I have found it very easy to find redemption availability as well (especially on LH flights in Biz and First).

LH Miles/More is another option but you need nearly twice the miles to get to *A gold