OZ - *G and the lowest lifetime requirement for *G in *A

Is *A for me?
 

(1) What is your home airport?
LOS/ABV

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Y (~50% of the time, never full Y but not the deeply discounted types either), Y+(~30%of the time), J(~20% of the time)

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
5 - 8 R/T to LHR and, some years, 1 R/T to the US. So in total ~30k - 60k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
VS silver, AF FB gold (will probably drop to silver or ivory)

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority check-in/boarding and ease of redemption. Lounge access would be nice but not crucial as I have a PP card, upgrades would be nice but more a bonus than an expectation

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
LOS/ABV-LHR, then occasionally LOS/ABV - JFK

(7) Preferred Airlines at the moment?
Never flown a *A airline so have no opinions on those. VS has to be my favorite right now (also dont mind W3 or BA but ONLY if in J)

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
about 70% leisure, 30% work.

I'm trying to decide on an alliance to stick with. I've always collected miles but tended to just go for the cheapest and/or most convenient schedules. However this year, without trying, I reached silver on VS and after a couple of op-ups from PE to upper, plus finding that priority check-in/boarding makes a world of difference in a chaotic airport like LOS when flying in Y, I'm giving more serious thought to trying to get status somewhere.

*A members LH and TK can get me to LHR from LOS, and LH from ABV. The TK option is a bit weird as IST it quite the eastward deviation from any EU carrier - which would essentially be due north (but would probably allow for more/quicker mileage/status accrual). There's UA (and CO from November) if I need to go to the Americas. There's also Egyptair but dont think I'd want to fly on their metal.

Skyteam also has good coverage from LOS/ABV and is another alliance I'm considering. But I've done a fair bit of travel in J on both AF and KL and dont see why ppl like schipol so much - I actually prefer CDG. Also that "lie flat" catastrophe in AF/KL is really poor value in J. My FB gold status is thanks to soft landings from platinum. But I dont foresee doing nearly as much flying in J & F on AF as I got to do in the past; and might even drop to ivory if I cant make a roundtrip on ST this year - which I struggle to do even in Y now that I have to pay for it myself these days.

OneWorld seems to me a tough alliance to get status on. I'd struggle to reach silver on BA and have vowed to stay off IB unless it's life or death. None of the others fly my routes.

I quite like and could possibly hit gold on VS but their route network is somewhat limited and I found I've been unable to use them for some trips and wasted the mileage/status earning opportunities on BA or W3.

Any insights or advice would be greatly appreciated.

I would suggest the TK Frequent Flyer Program for you. You can get Star Alliance Gold Status for 40k miles. For this, you get lounge access, priority and free bags, priority boarding, etc.

The Star Alliance lounge in IST is the best *G lounge in the world I have visited in my life. It's absolutely incredible.

What a fantastic idea - thank you:

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

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

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

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

(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.)
Using miles to upgrade - my business travel pays in miles for my J-class when traveling on pleasure

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
UK - Asia & UK - Australia

(7) Preferred Airlines
VS, SG, QF, BA. Also, have just used up all my KrisFlyer miles and although love flying SG find it expensive (miles-wise) to use. Am thinking of jumping ship to another programme.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Work so have complete control, but small business so need to keep costs as low as possible.

Thank you!

If you want something that is easy to requalify and you don't have to worry about losing your status/spending extra to earn extra miles, I'd suggest Aegean Airlines Miles & Bonus. Otherwise, I'd suggest Turkish Airlines FFP, or Asiana Airlines FFP depending on which airline you think you can fly more often. Asiana isn't very good for redeeming miles though unfortunately. Aegean allows you to earn miles on any hotel stay, as long as you book on their portal at http://hotel.aegeanair.com

hope this helps

Cheers,
PVDtoDEL

Thanks PVDtoDEL.

I forgot to mention I have a J trip coming up LHR-SIN with TK. I guess that answers my question, with you guidance - I'll sign up with TK.

Do you know if TK is easier/cheaper to book reward flights?

No experience booking rewards with TK unfortunately. However, the amount of miles charged on types of awards are reasonable..

Thanks PVDtoDEL.

I'll prolly make the jump to TK but first I'll do some research into the kinds of fare buckets I'd be buying and what kinds of % accrual I'd get across airlines. I'll probably end up mostly on LH. I struggle to justify to myself 14-22h treks via IST to get from LOS-LHR when I could do it in 8h via FRA on LH - especially since till now I've done it nonstop on VS or BA.

Thanks PVDtoDEL, really appreciate the help.

Hello, this is my first time posting to FT. I am sort of new to the FF programs, most recently I have been a CO silver elite member and have tremendously enjoyed the checking in my luggage at First Class and by-passing the security lines at the airport. I am also considering a new Credit Card, so if there would be anything that anyone can think of that would also tie into FF premier stuff, I would be interested in that also.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
Currently it is HNL, but I am active duty military, so that will change again in the future.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Usually the cheapest.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
The last few years I have been flying right around the 25k mark
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
I am currently a Silver Elite with CO
(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.)
I really like the priority services.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Mostly Domestic with an occasional trip to Japan
(7) Preferred Airlines
Usually Continental, but with all the changes not sure. Also, I am not open to anything. I believe in the old saying of you get what you pay for, so while I try to save as much as I can on an airline ticket, I will pay a few extra bucks to stay with an airline that I know I can earn perks with.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Usually pleasure


Also, I have a sort of side question, but I guess could follow in line with this section. Earlier this year I flew a paid United Flight 7969 from Dulles to Qatar, but since it was Qatar Airlines I did not earn any miles with my CO onepass. However, I did after that flight sign up for United MP program and they added those miles to that account, which I guess will be combined with my CO Onepass account. So, that being said, does the flight from/to Qatar count towards Elite qualifiction? The ticket was purchased as a United Flight and even on the Qatar boarding pass it says, "Sold as UA7969".

No, only flights operated by *A airlines count towards elite qualification. With your flying profile, with only 25k a year, I'd suggest Aegean Airlines Miles and Bonus. It will allow you to get to Star Alliance gold, which will get you more perks with Continental than Continental Silver (except for UDU, which your chances for are low due to the massive amount of elites after the merger)

PVDtoDEL - Sounds like a plan. I just read a bunch of the posts on the "Aegean Airlines Miles & Bonus," it sounds like a great suggestion. I think I have a new FF program. However, I now have a new question. I am not sure if this is a rookie dumb question, but with Aegean, if you earn miles from ie Hertz car rental, do those miles qualify towards any status? or is it like all of the other FF programs which the answer would be no. Either way, I am going to sign up with Aegean and hopefully extend my silver for next year. Thank you for the input.^

Nope, miles from car rental/hotel/tours don't count towards status unfortunately. With Star Alliance, only flights on star alliance members count towards status. This is an alliancewide rule I'm pretty sure.

Another important thing to note if you want miles for car rental/tours/hotel - you have to book through the Aegean Airlines Portal. For example, to get hotel miles, you have to book at hotel.aegeanair.com

final thing to note: some fare buckets don't earn miles/only earn 50% miles. This is common among *A carriers... All USairways flights credit 100%, but they don't have 500 mile minimums. So on long flights, US is better than CO, while on short flights CO is better than US. You can see the full table here: http://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbonu...on/earn-miles/

(1) What is your home airport?
LAX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Y or CA for work, O for personal
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
Varies. Currently on track for ~40k.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present?
Not yet.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades, less cattle treatment, free travel
(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
LAX-ORD 3-4x year, LAX-WAS 2-3x, occasional transpac/translant travel for work.
(7) Preferred Airlines
For personal, anything but UA (lost bags, surly FA, bumps circa 2007-2008). Prefer a large dog-friendly airline, everything else being equal.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
~80% work (contracted carriers, mostly US or UA tix on UA/ANA/SQ metal), LAX-ORD for personal. Would like to travel more, but lack $ and leave

Thanks!

A3 is for you too!