Jan 20, 2016, 10:53 pm
Last edit by: jtet
A number of threads have been started with members asking for guidance on which mileage programme they should join. In order to help users I have started this thread to allow people to post their requests for information here and to allow people to offer assistance.
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
(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.)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
(7) Preferred Airlines
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
GENERAL INFORMATION:
If you fly less than 50k miles per year: it is almost guaranteed that your choice will be between Aegean Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Asiana Airlines. Please look up these airlines' frequent flier programs, and make a decision as to which best suits your needs.
Some considerations to take into account:
Airlines tend to treat members of their own frequent flier program better than members of other frequent flier programs. If you fly one of these airlines, it is recommended that you choose that airline.
Some airlines have better earning/redemption charts for your pattern. For example, if you fly on cheap fares on a certain airline often, Turkish might give you miles for it, while Aegean might not. However, Turkish Airlines might charge much more for the redemption that you want to make than Aegean.
Asiana Airlines offers lifetime Star Alliance Gold for 500k miles over life. The other 2 airlines do not offer this benefit.
Asiana Airlines has a credit card in the USA and some other countries. If you are interested in credit cards, check to make sure that the program that you join has a credit card in your country.
If you still aren't sure which frequent flyer program is for you after looking these up, feel free to ask on this thread.
For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:
(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
(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.)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
(7) Preferred Airlines
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
GENERAL INFORMATION:
If you fly less than 50k miles per year: it is almost guaranteed that your choice will be between Aegean Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Asiana Airlines. Please look up these airlines' frequent flier programs, and make a decision as to which best suits your needs.
Some considerations to take into account:
Airlines tend to treat members of their own frequent flier program better than members of other frequent flier programs. If you fly one of these airlines, it is recommended that you choose that airline.
Some airlines have better earning/redemption charts for your pattern. For example, if you fly on cheap fares on a certain airline often, Turkish might give you miles for it, while Aegean might not. However, Turkish Airlines might charge much more for the redemption that you want to make than Aegean.
Asiana Airlines offers lifetime Star Alliance Gold for 500k miles over life. The other 2 airlines do not offer this benefit.
Asiana Airlines has a credit card in the USA and some other countries. If you are interested in credit cards, check to make sure that the program that you join has a credit card in your country.
If you still aren't sure which frequent flyer program is for you after looking these up, feel free to ask on this thread.
Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here
Oct 15, 2024 | 7:31 pm
#2581
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: MEL CHC
Posts: 22,932
Has onerous t&c's.
Fewer airlines/routes/aircraft have long haul F. F is disappearing. With some airlines the newish "business class suites" are better than F on other airlines or/and better than F of 5~10 years ago. More companies have policies not to pay for First fares, but will pay for Business fares. Even in the $$ for business is more (all about perception)
Is the fare code table below universally applicable to all airlines?
Oct 16, 2024 | 10:10 am
#2582
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, AS MVP Gold, MR LTT, HH Dia, IHG Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 37,468
TK booking classes do not align with the rest of *A. K class is above J class and below D class.
To the very best of my knowledge SQ does not have SQ metal requirements. However, if you are not planning on flying SQ (how to do get to Oz???) then it may not make sense for you.
I get you on wanting to upgrade to First - I am the same. Why UA works for me since they allow LH and NH upgrades quite easily and that is what I need. SQ is the hard one here ...
To the very best of my knowledge SQ does not have SQ metal requirements. However, if you are not planning on flying SQ (how to do get to Oz???) then it may not make sense for you.
I get you on wanting to upgrade to First - I am the same. Why UA works for me since they allow LH and NH upgrades quite easily and that is what I need. SQ is the hard one here ...
Oct 16, 2024 | 12:21 pm
#2583
Join Date: Jan 2024
Posts: 13
Thanks. It is not that I do not fly SQ metal; I would just like to opt for better price options when they are available. For flying to Europe and hoping over the eastern USA TK is very competitive. When I fly to Oz I would likely be flying SQ. That is when I would be interested in upgrading to First 
.
I just spent some time this evening online live chat with KrisFlyer's agent. As far as I can ascertain from the agent SQ indeed do not have SQ metal requirement for status upgrade to Elite Silver and Elite Gold. However to get to PPS Club one must earn PPS Value which can only come from flying SQ metal. And the SQ KF miles can indeed be used to request upgrade from Business to First ... Although I am sure the PPS Club members have priority over Elite Gold and Elite Silver.
It is possible to request Business to First upgrade on LH and NH using SQ KF miles, right? Do you mean that is hard to do?
.I just spent some time this evening online live chat with KrisFlyer's agent. As far as I can ascertain from the agent SQ indeed do not have SQ metal requirement for status upgrade to Elite Silver and Elite Gold. However to get to PPS Club one must earn PPS Value which can only come from flying SQ metal. And the SQ KF miles can indeed be used to request upgrade from Business to First ... Although I am sure the PPS Club members have priority over Elite Gold and Elite Silver.
- For UA it is impossible to raise status to even Silver without flying at least 4 segments of UA. This makes it tough for me when UA do not fly Singapore - Japan these days.
It is possible to request Business to First upgrade on LH and NH using SQ KF miles, right? Do you mean that is hard to do?
TK booking classes do not align with the rest of *A. K class is above J class and below D class.
To the very best of my knowledge SQ does not have SQ metal requirements. However, if you are not planning on flying SQ (how to do get to Oz???) then it may not make sense for you.
I get you on wanting to upgrade to First - I am the same. Why UA works for me since they allow LH and NH upgrades quite easily and that is what I need. SQ is the hard one here ...
To the very best of my knowledge SQ does not have SQ metal requirements. However, if you are not planning on flying SQ (how to do get to Oz???) then it may not make sense for you.
I get you on wanting to upgrade to First - I am the same. Why UA works for me since they allow LH and NH upgrades quite easily and that is what I need. SQ is the hard one here ...
Oct 19, 2024 | 2:25 pm
#2584
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, AS MVP Gold, MR LTT, HH Dia, IHG Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 37,468
Don't know how easy/hard it is to do. It is possible, however.
Oct 30, 2024 | 9:51 am
#2585
Join Date: May 2024
Location: Canada
Programs: UA Gold, AC 35K, FlyingBlue Gold, RJ Silver
Posts: 44
If your flying already gets your UA Gold and AC SIlver - consider consolidating it to get e.g. UA Platinum (much better UA business redemption options). The new AC program is not bad either to be honest - I'd calculate what makes the most sense. Neither airline these days gives frequent upgrades.
Just that the AC metal requirements may be too high to meet (CAD$6K for 50K, I only fly Y with them and it's usually a low fare, I'd have to do probably 10 R/T with them).
Nov 1, 2024 | 3:31 am
#2586
Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: Western Europe
Programs: Yeah, well, don’t really care anymore
Posts: 1,146
Just out of interest ...
Just out of interest, since I'm not really that bothered, but if I should chose to sign up for a miles program with a Star Alliance carrier, which one to chose? I'm based in Europe, most trips are to/from the US with a smidgen of Asia thrown in for good measure. It's all company travel, and the company pays for business class.
Nov 1, 2024 | 6:18 am
#2587
Join Date: Apr 2002
Location: NYC
Posts: 9,783
Just out of interest, since I'm not really that bothered, but if I should chose to sign up for a miles program with a Star Alliance carrier, which one to chose? I'm based in Europe, most trips are to/from the US with a smidgen of Asia thrown in for good measure. It's all company travel, and the company pays for business class.
Nov 2, 2024 | 12:11 pm
#2589
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Dec 2003
Location: Not here; there!
Programs: AA Lifetime Gold
Posts: 35,041
Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here
Nov 4, 2024 | 7:27 am
#2592
Join Date: Mar 2015
Programs: UA 1K
Posts: 296
if you're referring to my post, no, I didn't say or imply that you can get UA MM while crediting to a non UA program. My question has to do with my options after I get to 1MM on UA.
Nov 10, 2024 | 5:00 am
#2593
Join Date: May 2009
Location: EDI
Programs: FB Plat, BA Bronze, OneKey meh
Posts: 532
I have my first ever Star Alliance flight coming up in December and wondering which FF shceme I should join. Any advice most appreciated.
This flight is LH ticketed, connecting in Frankfurt with two legs on UA. This intial ticket is a multi-leg:
EDI > FRA > SFO > LAS
SEA > FRA > EDI
Based in Edinburgh.
Fly long haul multiple times a year for a mix of business and pleasure. Travel is both to the Americas and Asia, with some middle east travel likely to come.
Most european travel is point to point with low cost due to convenience.
Tend to stick to SkyTeam and AMS where possible. But I'm primarily cost & convenience orientated when choosing rather than loyalty driven. (e.g. this ticket was 3K with LH vs 4.7K with KLM)
Long haul travel is typically business class.
Miles, I rarely spend them.
Have a preference to connect in Europe vs USA when travelling back to Edinburgh (e.g. one of the european hubs giving me one long flight and one short flight rather than two medium flights with a connection in New York etc.)
By far the most important to me is as much preferential treatment as possible when I need to change a flight or there is disruption.
This flight is LH ticketed, connecting in Frankfurt with two legs on UA. This intial ticket is a multi-leg:
EDI > FRA > SFO > LAS
SEA > FRA > EDI
Based in Edinburgh.
Fly long haul multiple times a year for a mix of business and pleasure. Travel is both to the Americas and Asia, with some middle east travel likely to come.
Most european travel is point to point with low cost due to convenience.
Tend to stick to SkyTeam and AMS where possible. But I'm primarily cost & convenience orientated when choosing rather than loyalty driven. (e.g. this ticket was 3K with LH vs 4.7K with KLM)
Long haul travel is typically business class.
Miles, I rarely spend them.
Have a preference to connect in Europe vs USA when travelling back to Edinburgh (e.g. one of the european hubs giving me one long flight and one short flight rather than two medium flights with a connection in New York etc.)
By far the most important to me is as much preferential treatment as possible when I need to change a flight or there is disruption.
Nov 26, 2024 | 5:51 am
#2595
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: BOS/EAP
Programs: UA 1K, AS MVP Gold, MR LTT, HH Dia, IHG Dia, Amex Plat
Posts: 37,468
You need to add a bit more info. Are these P-class tickets, J-class tickets. Spent per ticket.
If you want *A, irop protection and ticket flexibility and you are buying more expensive J tickets then definitely UA - they have the most flexible ticketing policies and you earn well on UA-issued tickets in J. Now, if you have EU-South America via say LH/LX - you can't ticket that on UA ... so tell us more about your usual travel
If you want *A, irop protection and ticket flexibility and you are buying more expensive J tickets then definitely UA - they have the most flexible ticketing policies and you earn well on UA-issued tickets in J. Now, if you have EU-South America via say LH/LX - you can't ticket that on UA ... so tell us more about your usual travel