I don't see any recent answers to many of the questions, but nothing to lose so I will give it a try:

(1) What is your home airport? TPE/TSA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Discount economy, economy, business for trans-Pacific
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >50K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Yes, *S via Marriott Platinum, was *G for a year with another job. Delta Platinum Medallion = SkyTeam Elite+, which I barely kept last year and hope to keep this year again.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Priority check-in and lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: TPE-CNX 8-12 times/year, TSA-SHA or TPE-PVG 12 times/year, TPE-LAX 1-2 times/year in business
(7) Preferred Airlines: For this question it would be BR, TG, and UA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both

I have kept SkyTeam Elite+ for 4 years now, but my second home is served by TG and BR from Taipei. BR just started a non-stop service to CNX so it has become more of a priority to get back to *G, if possible. I have been using my UA number for TG flights, but it does not get me anything at *S. Wondering if it is easier to reach *G with BR or TG based on my travel patterns. Difficult to switch the SHA-TSA flights to * because the CI/MU alliance has much better availability and pricing than BR.

Based in ZRH which *A FF scheme
 

Wanted to ask your advice on which scheme to join from my current M&M, where I'm having difficulty maintaining *G due to change in the job, where no business class. Need about 60k status miles to do so by year end.

(1) What is your home airport? - ZRH
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? - mainly economy / occasionally premium economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? M&M Senator till year-end 2018
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? free lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often - mainly European short-haul, occasionally Europe-US, Europe-Central Asia, Europe-Africa
(7) Preferred Airlines - mostly flying Swiss, Lufthansa and Turkish
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? - mainly for work, but no business class

Decisions...
 

Hi all, been a long time reader but first time posting. I live in the UAE and have been a loyal Etihad guest member up until now and with the recent news I think it might be time to start looking elsewhere. Unfortunately it's hard to get a credit card for anything other than EK/EY unless you use a generic such as American express or citi bank which won't give status points.
​​​​​​
(1) What is your home airport? - DXB/AUH but also happy to fly out of neighbouring countries for the right fares. CMB, DEL, CAI etc
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? - economy for shorthaul business for longhaul.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k+
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? Etihad platinum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Mileage redemption and lounges
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Middle East to Australia/NZ annually + 5 or so holidays a year mix of medium and long haul
(7) Preferred Airlines - My experience on carriers other than the ME3 is almost 0.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? - all for pleasure

Caesium Welcome to FT
You have posted in the Star Alliance forum, but Etihad EY is ff partner of AA. AA is in the Oneworld alliance as is Qatar QR, BA, Cathay Pacific CX, SriLankan UL (CMB) & others. AA does not have a 4 own airline flight rule for status. Others like BA & QF do have own airline flight rule for status. AA has good mileage redemption chart, and no surcharges, unless on a BA flight.

However frequent flyer partners can change. A little more so if the airline is not in one of 3 major alliances.

Very few credit cards give status earning. A lot give redeemable ff miles/points.

If flying business class that should give lounge access. Otherwise you need mid level status (in an alliance)

Still the airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, better service when disruptions, ability to upgrade flights, possible operational upgrades and simpler to earn non flying ff miles/points.

Thanks for the response.
Sorry should of clarified a bit better. I'm aware of EY being outside of any formal alliance. I guess I am more wanting to know if there is any one program on *A that I would benefit from joining to credit my flights towards. Turkish obviously have a large network but don't fly to Australasia however I believe they would transfer my status to Gold fairly easily.
If I was to stop flying exclusively with Etihad I think the Star alliance members are generally the airlines I would be using. SQ/TG for Asia Pacific and TK for elsewhere.

Many thanks,
Cs

I had ~30k miles in my SQ KrisFlyer account that were expiring and could not find an appropriate award flight, and so ended up purchasing a flight with Scoot at the terrible value of ~0.6¢/mile. This got me thinking about switching to bank my miles in a different FF scheme. Given that I'm trying to redeem for US Domestic flights, United seemed like a reasonable choice, but the earning rate at 5x ticket price seems like poor value for Transpacific flights that retail for ~$1000 but are a total of 16k miles travelled r/t. Are there any other options I should consider?

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

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

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

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
No status; ~30k Avios banked with SQ KrisFlyer.

(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.)
Good award redemption rates, availability (and simplicity of booking) for US Domestic flights --- I don't think I fly enough or in a high enough class to collect miles for more expensive awards.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
US Domestic (~5 per year), Transpacific (~2 per year)

(7) Preferred Airlines
SQ, ANA (but I fly most often in United)

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Travel primarily for pleasure. Can choose airlines but generally am sticking to cheapest economy ticket available.

Best *A FFP for Bay Area traveler?
 

Hello,
Just seeking expert opinion--I've got another thread on the OW board--on how I should approach the FF game. I'm currently an Alaska Airlines MP member and book my international travel on AS partners. My travel requirements are about to change, though. Would it be better to switch to *A? And if so, to which *A? My work-related travel concerns the following routes:

SJC-SEA in Y: Once a month
SJC/SFO-HYD in J: Once a quarter. Air India is not an option, ever.
SJC/SFO-TLV in J: Once or twice a year
Random customer-related visits to overseas customers (major metro areas, but unpredictable which): Once or twice a year in J

Home Airport: SJC
Current Status: Alaska MVP (after years of MVPG75K)
Current Miles Balance: 150k Alaska; 110k Amex MR
Preferred Airlines: Unsure; definitely anti-Air India.


Alliance Status and Redemption are equally high priorities for me. My current thinking is that I may as well stay on AS MP, since I can fly EK to HYD. But even if I were to do that, what should my secondary program be? Etc. Any advice would be much appreciated.

Wrong forum

Guys, is it feasible at all to maintain *A status with an AU base? I've got a QF gold, working towards plat, but the redemption rates are really poor and upgrades are difficult with miles and am looking to switch.

(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Upgrades, redemption rates and lounge access

(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
30,000 - 50,000nm, <10 flights a year, mostly premium, c. $8,000

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Cheapest for the class

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Yes, leisure only

(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often?
AU-Asia/China, AU domestic, AU-NZ, China domestic

(6) What is your home airport?
Sydney

(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in OW or other airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?
QF gold, 300K

(8) Preferred Airlines? Most common Airlines flown on?
Flown mostly QF, CX, JL, MU, CZ but wouldn't mind others e.g. NZ, CA...etc

So right now I'm gold elite with Air NZ. I love flying Air NZ because they have the best flights usually for leaving our little country and getting to either North America (my usual destination) or the occasional trip to Asia. The thing with Air NZ though is that once you hit their top status, there is no real incentive to continue to accrue on their FFP as the rewards are meh. It takes 3 1/2 return premium economy flights combined with my credit card to hit it. With Air NZ, if I'm flying in economy or premium economy I'll be using upgrades to go up a class the majority of the time which is why I avoid booking J with them.

I do a lot more travel than this though, and I want a separate FFP to credit any extra Air NZ flights I take + my partner Star Alliance flights to. My goal with the second FFP is to pick one that gives me good mile earnings so I can put them towards award J flights on segments I rarely fly and that Air NZ don't cover (Asia - Europe, Europe - USA, Asia - USA).

I've currently got 1 flight later this year I know I'll be able to credit to an airline (Singapore to Christchurch return with Singapore Airlines in J) and one early next year (Christchurch to San Diego return with Air New Zealand in PE).

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
CHC in New Zealand

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
With Air NZ I buy premium economy for my long haul flights.

For other long haul flights, if it's in the daytime I'll book either economy or premium economy. If it's a night time flight I'll do my best to find discounted J seats. My travel has trended towards premium cabins in the past year. If it's a short flight (under 6 hours) I'll usually book economy. So it's a mixture.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Over 50k a year. The majority of my flying is long haul.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
Gold Elite with Air NZ.
​
(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.)
The only thing I care about for this FFP is being able to use it to get miles/points to apply to award J fares on the routes that Air NZ doesn't serve. That is it.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)

• I travel CHC to LAX/SFO/IAD with Air NZ at least 3 times a year (I plan to credit this travel to Air NZ).
• I tend to travel at least once a year to somewhere in Asia with Air NZ - booking economy there and PE back (I plan to credit the PE flight to the new star alliance partner).
• I fly around USA with United and plan to credit that to the new star alliance partner (fly economy, will consider J for 3+ hour flights if it's discounted).
• One route I'll probably take next year is Edmonton to LAX with Air Canada (could be economy or J depending on prices) and that will be credited to new FFP.
• I can't really anticipate all of my upcoming travel for the year but if it's for business and it's not with Air NZ it'll probably be booked in J.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Air New Zealand, United & Air Canada

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
I travel for both. When it's for business if it's with Air NZ it'll be in PE (using upgrades to go to J). But if it's not with Air NZ for daytime flights I'll book PE if available, otherwise J, and I'll book J for night flights. For flights less than 3 hours I'll go in economy (unless deeply discounted).

For pleasure it's, funnily enough, a different story. I'm much more price sensitive. If it's a night flight I'll still probably book J but look for as discounted as I can get. If it's daytime then economy or PE is what I'll usually do. As I said though, I've been choosing more and more premium cabin travel as time has gone on so I suspect that trend to continue.

When it comes to airlines, I can choose but I'm reasonably price sensitive. What I'm usually looking for is the cheapest way to get into premium cabins, haha. I also have a fear of flying (ridiculously) so I only fly with "large" airlines. When it comes to that, I'm NOT price sensitive.

Hey Guys!
Im new here and I hope im doing everything correctly. If not dont hesitate to correct me.
Im currently not sure if I should go with SAS Eurobonus or LH M&M. Through a friend I got a SAS Gold card but I hardly use SAS and mainly LH. I started out with M&M and I got around 15k status miles on there since May. Compared to SAS it seems ridiculously difficult to become Lufthansa Senator (100k statusmiles vs 45k points) and LH's Frequent Traveller has mostly only benefits in Germany not in other European Countries. Therefore Im not sure if I should just leave M&M and go for Eurobonus. On the other hand M&M have lots of partners here in Germany which would help me collect "Prämienmeilen". Any help on what to choose is appreciated!

1) What is your home airport?
FRA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
B, H, O, S, V, W, Y, Z, (I get my flights booked so no influence on what fares get booked)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
25-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
SAS Eurobonus Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Free Lounge Access,Priority Boarding,Fast Lanes. Basically everything that makes the trip itself more comfortable. I dont really care about the redemption of miles.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Most of the times only in Europe.
(7) Preferred Airlines
Lufthansa
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Work

Welcome to FlyerTalk, VorlautBoy!

You already have the SAS Gold card, so you don't really need to chase *G (Gold status) elsewhere. You also said that the most important things to you are lounge access, priority boarding and fast track, which are benefits you get from being Gold, in preference to miles for redemption (which you don't care so much about).

The fares that you have to book will likely earn you nothing to get you anywhere near LH SEN anyway. Crediting these flights to other airlines won't be much better, but considering LH now use revenue based pricing for award miles you could still be better off putting them in Eurobonus (use the wheretocredit site to calculate your earnings).

You can still collect the award miles on M&M with the special offers, etc., but you will need to make sure they're used before expiry (36 months). For this reason, having FTL status could be useful as it prevents mileage expiry (another option is to have an active M&M credit card).

Thank you for the fast reply!
Since I'm halfway there i will probably go for LH FTL and switch afterwards. Do I get the same amount of points on Eurobonus as I would get on M&M when I Fly with a Lufthansa flight / Star Alliance flight?

No, they are not necessarily going to be the same (except by coincidence), especially now that LH has switched to revenue based award mileage.

You need to check the potential earnings on http://wheretocredit.com - again, it's not so transparent for LH because it depends on the base fare plus fuel surcharge (YQ), multiplied by a factor that depends on airline and status (4-6).
Again, there's another advantage from FTL as you can get fare * 6 instead of fare * 4, but with Eco bookings on LH your earnings are going to be fairly modest anyway!

Hey guys, I'm a brazilian frequent flyer and every since TAP has increased their mile redemption this last April, I don't think it's worth keeping up with them. So I think now it's time to change programs and I really don't know where to put my *A miles.

Se here are the answering of the wikiquestions:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
- Pretty much SJP (look it up lol), GRU and GIG

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
- Y fare whenever I fly domestically and other than that some discounted business class (P, J). Sometimes I give myself a First Class ticket, but not so often as I would like.

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
- around 30k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
- I am currently Latam Fidelidade Black signature (OW Emerald), AA Executive Platinum, Delta Platinum Medallion (Skyteam Elite Plus), Gol Diamante, Tap Victoria Gold.

(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.)
- For OneWorld it would be frequent upgrades on travel;
- For Star Alliance it would be good award redemption rates (without these terrible YQ taxes);

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
- I do a lot of South America to US (MIA, JFK,DFW,ATL) and South America to Europe (LIS,MAD, LHR,MXP,FCO,FRA). From US or Europe I usually fly to Asia (TYO, ICN, SIN, BKK)

(7) Preferred Airlines
- Lufthansa and Swiss
- while flying in Asia: Singapore Airlines

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
I do both and I can choose my airlines


I have two upcoming trips flying LH + LX, being:
- GRU-FRA with LH + LX in P fare . R/T
- CDG-GIG with LH in A (transatlantic) and J (europe) fare. R/T

Other than that, I only need 38.000 status miles with TAP to keep up with VictoriaGold. But once I get there I doubt how I would be able to use the miles to make any redemption (even though I can transfer them from my creditcard).
I also have Avianca Brasil (O6) as an option, but they don't earn any miles in the P class of the LH group. The good thing is that I can also transfer from my credit-card and sometimes they give 100% bonus on transfers. But they don't serve my city (only Latam and Azul does)
The only good think I can see in TAP right now is that I can nominate another person to have Gold status as well. My partner loves it, lol.

Other options I'm thinking about it:

- United: easy to use miles. Credit LH P fare and I just need to make 4 flights with them (which I could arrange since I'll be in the US next november).
- Aegean: I once use to put my miles there. They do credit LH P fare. The only thing I'm afraid is their fuel surcharge cost.
- Asiana: look really good, but other than that I dunno if it would be a good option for me.

This is it. What would you guys, *A masters, would do?

Thank you in advance!

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

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

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
New job, so hard to say. Likely 4 flights per month, 2 dom and 2 intl. Roughly 150k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc)
UA Silver through Marriott PP. 24k EQM with UA thus far.

(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.)
Good redemption

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
A little of everything. Some intra Europe. Some Europe-Middle East. Some US Domestic. A decent amount of transatlantic.

(7) Preferred Airlines
Nothing in particular.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Mostly business. Not much choice, typically J international.

I have two upcoming trips, one DUB-FRA-KWI on LH in J and then FRA-DFW in J airline to be determined. I currently have the KWI trip set to earn UA miles, but I'm wondering if there is a better option.

I have roughly 70k UA miles and 140k AA miles and would like to take a honeymoon next year to either Maldives or Tahiti in F or J on an award.

Thank you in advance

The grass in not always greener on the other side.
So stick with UA & AA.
Have you looked at award cost (& surcharges) & ff miles expiry of other ffp's?

Several recent threads on awards to Maldives & Tahiti. Is hard to get a premium award. And magnitude harder for 2 people. Need to start looking/booking from 355/330 days out.

I have recently taken advantage of the LH offer to fly to DEL ( GLA - MUC in J, MUC-FRA in J, FRA-DEL in A and return DEL -FRA in A then FRA-EDI in J) and hope to build on that to gain status. Looking for advice on where to credit miles to build on them with view to gaining *A status, if possible whilst maintaining BA status. Was planning to credit to MM, but A3 /Asiana seem to be the easiest to gain status, (?) but unlikely to fly either as part of my travelling plans- is that an issue ?

1) What is your home airport?
EDI- happy to position ex EU for a deal
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Intra Europe mostly discount economy but occasionally business if feeling flush! Long haul in business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
20-30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
BA Silver, hold basic SAS and MMBasically everything that makes the trip itself more comfortable. Redemption of miles is less important but will never refuse the chance to use 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 boarding- good redemptions to a degree, but less so
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Mostly intraEurope Spain, Germany, Scandinavia mostly and 1-2 long haul in business per year US or far east
(7) Preferred Airlines
Lufthansa, SAS but open to utilising others if price etc balance out
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Pleasure- now retired so have plenty time!

Thanks for any advice

I am a skyteam member who will fly a lot of UIO - GPS - UIO or to GYE flights with Avianca in the next year in Business. I want to collect the points but will have to join a Star Alliance carrier as currently I am not a member of any. I am based in Amsterdam and have a Platinum Elite level with KLM / AF.

Any suggestions? Are there carriers matching status?

Appreciated for any suggestions

UA MP. With enough business class travel @ 200% on LH/LX you should be able to get to 50k qualifying miles which will get you SAG and thus Sen lounge access etc. Wrinkle is ... you need 4 UA segments a year ... if you have 1 trip a year to the US that is easy to do. Redemption with UA is pretty good as well. Earnings will be mediocre, but still better than if you credit to M&M.

Many thanks, I will investigate that

8-9 RT between SFO-CCU (India) in Business
 

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) - SFO (Intl) and SMF (domestic)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) - C
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) - 8-9 RT x 20,000 miles (actual)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) - AA Plat Exec
(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.) - good award redemption/availability and hopefully low award fees (though I am wiling to pay higher fees in return for good availability.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) - Mostly transpacs to India. Other than that, I fly mostly on Southwest in the US.
(7) Preferred Airlines - SQ, CX.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) mostly for work. I can choose carrier and fly J.

Hello.

I travel 8-9 times per year RT between SFO and CCU in business. Currently, I travel on CX/KA and collect miles on AA. I am looking to change to SQ for the following reasons:

1. The 4-4:30 flight between CCU-HKG on KA is horrible The seat is pathetic, and the Indian Veg Meal and servicel is worse than SQ economy
2. The India Vegetarian Meals on CX are cheap economy class meals, which almost never change. I have literally been served the same exact pre-landing breakfast on HKG-SFO for the past 25 flights in the last 3-5 years.
3. Fares are about US$500 cheaper on SQ - which admittedly is not the biggest factor.
4. The hard/soft product on SQ is much better than CX.

The option I am looking at is traveling on SQ, with their non stop flights. The food, service, and seat are all better. While CX has more flights to SFO daily, both have about the same frequency to CCU.

Besides SQ, I know the other *A option is AI, but I don't fee safe flying with them, aside from their poor hard/soft product.

My other option would be to stick to One World and fly QR, but I don't like traveling on ME airlines. When things go wrong with schedule changes/missed flights/lost baggage, they are difficult to deal with.

I used to fly EK, but they have a 7-8 layover in Dubai (each way), which I want to avoid now.

My question is which *A carrier should I fly on to get max mileage with the optimal combination of reward availability and reasonable award taxes, should I decide to switch to SQ.

If it makes any difference in choosing a FFP, I can list an India address or US address.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hello,


Recently I took a SWISS flight from Europe (Barcelona) to South America (Brazil).

- In my Mileageplus account I received 6420 miles (3.2k per each way)

- My girlfriend’s Miles&More account received half my miles. (like 1.6k status miles per each way). –> I still need to claim the return’s trip.



Is normal to receive 50% of miles in M&M than MP? I understand the miles value (when spending) is similar. (in M&M I haven’t seen flights 50% cheaper).

I’m not sure if She should claim returning trip with another FPP, or keep using M&M. She only have these miles in M&M FPP.



What do you suggest based on below details?

Hello,


Recently I took a SWISS flight from Europe (Barcelona) to South America (Brazil).

- In my Mileageplus account I received 6420 miles (3.2k per each way)

- My girlfriend’s Miles&More account received half my miles. (like 1.6k status miles per each way). –> I still need to claim the return’s trip.



Is normal to receive 50% of miles in M&M than MP? I understand the miles value (when spending) is similar. (in M&M I haven’t seen flights 50% cheaper).

I’m not sure if She should claim returning trip with another FPP, or keep using M&M. She only have these miles in M&M FPP.



What do you suggest based on below details?







(1) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Save miles long term and exchange for long round-trip flights.
(2) How many miles do you usually fly each year & in what class? How many flights/sectors?
<25000

(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Cheapest

(4) Can you choose your airlines and/or class of service? Airline most flown? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Pleasure
(5) Which routes and airlines do you fly most often
Europe domestic flights and European to Argentina/Brazil flights.
(6) What is your home airport?
BCN (Barcerlona)
(7) Do you have FFP status of any kind in an airline? What is it? Do you have any miles banked in a FFP?



Girlfriend:

M&M: 1.6k status miles.



Me:

MileagePlus: I have 100k miles

KLM: I have gold status but low miles (Not applicable for this question).


(8) Preferred Airlines
N/A

Earning are based on the fare booking class. This information will be in the airlines ffp web site. 50% 25% & 0% is not unusual on low prices fares.
https://www.wheretocredit.com/swiss

FF miles are not always equal to earn or burn between ffp's. There can be big differences

Status miles & redeemable ff miles are not the same.

Having multiple ffp’s with low balances is never a good idea. You may never get enough ff miles/points to be of use before they expire. Adding frequent miles in a ff program that you can use, are worth more than ff miles in an orphan ffp that you will never use, even if the earning rate is nominally better. FFP’s are for the medium to long term.

Be mindful of expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) - SFO
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) - R,E (Premium Economy for work), lowest fares for personal
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 60Kish
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) - CX gold (OW sapphire)
(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.) - Good award reception first with lounge access a close second.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) - work: (R,E codes) SFO to HKG 4x a year and SFO to PVG 2x a year. Personal: (cheapest fare class): family of 4 trip of SFO to CDG 1x a year, SFO to other westerns/midwest cities 3x a year.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) mostly for work.

Part of the CX MP club. Biggest issues with CX are (1) the miles repetition for domestic flights. It is hard to book AA redemption flights with Asia miles. AS offers some domestic redemptions but most redemption flights go through PDX or SEA which is not acceptable when I am going to Chicago, Houston, or Hawaii (maybe the Virgin America merger will fix this but i have not seen any improvements). And (2) when I fly from SFO to PVG, I have to connect in HKG or take a AA flight and connect in LAX.

Looking at Star Alliance because of the amount of options for flying to Asia and SFO is a United hub. United is not the best option for Asia travel because they do not (currently) offer Premium Economy seats so if I choose them, my work would book the cheapest economy seat and I would not get full miles (got less than 5K redemption miles on an actual SFO to PVG 12k mile trip earlier this year) and it would be difficult to reach the PQD minimum requirement for status.

So, If I move to a STAR airline, I am looking to book the SFO>HKG flights on the Singapore Premium Economy for most of my Asia travel with the occasional SFO>PVG on United. Then all domestic and EU trips to be books through United.

Would it make sense to sign up with the Singapore awards program? Or suffer through the United awards program until they one day get Premium Economy on these Asia routes? I understand that I would not get any United PQD if I book that Singapore flight. so that is why I am hesitant to choose United initially.

And... If I do choose the Singapore rewards program, would I run into the same issues of having trouble redeeming flights for US domestic and EU flights?

SQ is known to have one of the worst program in *A. Are you so sure this is the right choice?

Switch or Stay?
 

Just some context before I begin: Currently with Krisflyer. 13,030 miles to silver status by 31 July 2019. Not sure whether I should stay or jump ship (looking seriously at Asiana) as I'm doing 3 major intl' trips next year to CAN (Feb 19), SIN (Aug 19), BNE (SYD, MEL, AKL as well) [Dec 19)

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) YVR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Y or X (economy or discount economy)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) <25K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) Krisflyer
(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.)
Good award redemption rates, frequent upgrades on travel, free lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Transpacific, then South-east Asia routes
(7) Preferred Airlines
Out of YVR, EVA Air, but usually aim for cheapest *A member.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Pleasure

Thanks for the help!

Help! what's best for US/EU citizen transatlantic and intraeurope?
 

Long time lurker, first time poster! HELLO TO ALL!
deciding to jump into the miles and credit card game since I've seen that with time+money+work+travel hacking I can end my misery in ECON class.
Half of the year I live in the US (US citizen) and other half I live in London,uk with frequent trips for pleasure to see family or a new city/country. Mainly Poland (KRK,WAW,LCJ) Italy, and soon to add Spain to the mix (madrid,barcelona,malaga)

(1) What is your home airport? LAX/ LONDON
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y or X (economy or discount economy) open to buy IntraEurope BIZ occasionally( to get miles/staus/pts)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50-75K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) not yet; deciding
(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.)
Good award redemption rates, frequent upgrades on travel, free lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: TRANSALTANTIC 2x-4x/yr and UK.EU.UK
(7) Preferred Airlines: sick of low cost ryaniar/easyjet im ok with Norwegian. but i want to accumulate with any Star Alliance.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? a mix of both.

ive seen Aegean is easiest for Gold status which is something I would ideally strive for to use for transatlantic flights mainly. Lufthansa's M/M reedem/surcharges are too hefty.

However, since im also based in the USA, I was thinking United and/or Avianca combined with the CSR/ink/CFU cards and shopping portal/purchasing LifeMiles would be a good option as well. I am stuck deciding what would be best. Ultimately, my goal is to redeem for a nice LH/LX biz or first class seat once or twice a year whether outright or via upgrade(s) Just to be clear, I would aim to spend around 1200-2000 USD per month on the chase credit cards and then transfer to United if I decided to join them.

Thanks!

Keen to hear everyones thoughts. Not sure if I should start crediting to Asiana?

(1) What is your home airport? SYD (Keen to hear from any other Aussie's chasing Star Gold!
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Premium Economy for work & Economy for holidays
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25K-50K - possibly over 50K this year
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? VA Platinum but keen to drop this down to Gold. Also UA Platinum Premier (to 31 Jan 2019) and NZ Air Points Gold (31 March 2019) - both with a status match.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free Lounge Access is the big one
(6) Which routes do you fly most often SYD-SIN, SYD-LAX, US Domestic and Flights throughout S-E Asia (China, Thailand, etc)
(7) Preferred Airlines: Singapore Airlines for Asia and NZ across the ditch.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Can choose the airline and can book Premium Y for work and Economy for pleasure

Morning all!

Firstly thanks for those that have answered questions I have posed in the A3 and TK forums. I have held status with OW (either AA or BA) solidly for the last 10 years. However, for various reasons, I am now looking to change and dive into unchartered (for me) *A waters.

I have narrowed it down to either A3 or TK.

My home airport is London (at this precise moment LHR is easier, but by mid-next year LGW will be easier, but honestly either are doable). I travel all over, and whether business or leisure the funds come out of my pocket.

I usually book a combination of discounted economy and sales fare business. When travelling straight north - south (UK to southern Africa - 3 times a year), I usually just take the cheapest shortest route. When travelling east-west I do try to get a flat bed. And throw in a few European hops during the year.

As far as I can tell, the advantage of A3 is they only require 12k miles to requalify for Gold after the initial qualification (if doing 4 sectors on A3) which is frankly ridiculously low, but I am not complaining. However, I do not know how easy award redemption is with them?

The benefits with TK are that the status lasts for 2 years, allowing for a year of no activity if necessary, or 25k in a year to requalify, which is still not bad at all. They also would early on lower-fare buckets than A3 on the SAA flights LHR-JNB. They have the advantage it seems of being able to upgrade on deeply discounted flights (TK awards only), and their award table seems to be the most competitive of all the *A carriers in terms of number of miles for pure mileage based tickets.

As someone who is new to the world of *A, any advice given as to which way to go from your past experience I would be most grateful.

1) What is your home airport? YVR
2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy with a paid or free upgrade to extra legroom
3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k on Star Alliance, 10kon non-Star alliance flights
4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? United Gold
5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Upgrades (to extra legroom and/or business) and good award redemption
6) Which routes do you fly most often YVR -> SFO, YVR -> EWR, YVR -> Europe, YVR -> Random US city.
7) Preferred Airlines: Tallest midget. On Star I fly 50% AC, 25% UA, 25% LH.
8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mostly work. I have almost complete freedom in choosing flights - however I have a tight budget that I need for other things.


I'm currently with United but debating on whether to switch to Air Canada since I fly 50% AC flights and 25% UA flights. What's holding me back:

A) It seems like AC's plan only makes sense if you purchase Flex fares. Flex fares cost significantly more, you get much of that back (but not all) through cheaper preferred seats (which I purchase anyway).

B) Air Canada upgrades seem like a worse deal (although I'd be happy to be convinced otherwise). I pay $100 more at booking to get into Flex which allows me to use credits to get onto a waiting list where I might need to pay per segment if I get it? It seems much more complicated than UA's system.

C) Switching programs seems like a hassle, with using one number of my bookings and then changing it at the gate. I also have a few hundred thousand UA miles and it's annoying to have multiple programs.

D) Aeroplan seems much worse than UA MP due to fuel surcharges, at least on economy flights (which is what I mostly purchase).

Based on the above, it seems like switching isn't worth it, despite flying AC most of the time. Am I wrong? Happy to hear feedback.

Hi,
After many many years of being Solitaire with SQ I have relocated and will fly SQ a lot less going forward. Should I stick to SQ or should I consider another *A program?
Same question for OW. The Qatar program now totally sucks so I want to move away from it. Thinking of AA or Finnair Plus, please advise.
For Skyteam I am satisfied with FB so that one I keep.

(1) What is your home airport? BKK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Mostly C, occasionally F
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (>50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? FB Platinum, Krisflyer Gold, Qatar Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good earning and redemption rates, booking award travel online.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often Longhaul anywhere, shorthaul within Asia and Europe. Flying mostly Skyteam and *A. OW occasionally only.
(7) Preferred Airlines QR, TG, OS, LX, KL, TG, AY, LH, TK, ET, BR, PG, KE, OZ, NH, JL, GA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure. Free to choose how to fly.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) - YYZ
(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) - In 2018, about 60k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) - Air Canada Altitude e50K (Star Alliance Gold)
(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.) - Frequent upgrades on travel and priority services
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) - Canada to Africa, Middle East and India
(7) Preferred Airlines - Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa and outside of Star Alliance: Emirates
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) - Work, so always Economy.

I fly out of YYZ and my work requires me to make 4 to 5 long-haul round trips per year from Canada, mainly to India, the Middle East and Africa. Once I am in those regions, I often do multiple regional flights as well from city to city and while I always try and fly Star Alliance partners in those regions, I also find myself frequently on Jet Airways flights (in India) and Emirates flights (within the Middle East). I just hit e50K/Star Alliance Gold for 2019.

I am considering requesting a status match and shifting loyalty to a different carrier that a) has a better Economy product than Air Canada b) Has a much better prospect for upgrades as Air Canada's program is awfully restrictive in upgrading economy passengers and c) provides good coverage in their route network for the regions I travel to - right now, the smart option looks like Turkish but open to all of your advice please, thanks!

Sorry for re-posting the question, still looking for a 'solution'.

After many many years of being Solitaire with SQ I have relocated and will fly SQ a lot less going forward. Should I stick to SQ or should I consider another *A program?

(1) What is your home airport? BKK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Mostly C, occasionally F
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (>50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? FB Platinum, Krisflyer Gold, ThaiROP Silver, Qatar Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good earning and redemption rates, booking award travel online.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often Longhaul anywhere, shorthaul within Asia and Europe. Flying mostly Skyteam and *A. OW occasionally only.
(7) Preferred Airlines QR, TG, OS, LX, KL, TG, AY, LH, TK, ET, BR, PG, KE, OZ, NH, JL, GA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure. Free to choose how to fly.

The options I see: stick to Krisflyer, concentrate on Thai, move to TK Miles&Smiles.
Any suggestions/help is very welcome.
Thanks

Hey team!

I have been living in Japan for quite some time, and was generally happy w/ United MP, but recently my company policy changed to allow Premium Economy (which US airlines don't do) so I find my self flying NH almost exclusively on ~3-4 trips overseas each year. Typically Tokyo <=> NYC, SFO, ORD, w/ maybe a Europe trip mixed in here and there.

This was the first year that I almost missed getting status due to the '4 United metal segment' rule (will hit Premier Platinum in the end), so I'm wondering if this is the year to switch to the ANA program and whether the benefits make sense.
(Assuming this pattern continues, i.e., 3-4 Int'l trips, Premium Economy, 50-75k miles).

I already have switched spending to Chase Sapphire Reserve so I'm not super concerned w/ where my miles go, but do care about redemption, ideally for business class Int'l trips.
Also, it looks like once I reach Platinum? Diamond? (*A Gold) I can get a ANA credit card here that keeps me at Gold indefinitely, which seems like a good option.

If anyone w/ insight into the two programs (or any other programs I should consider) has ideas, please let me know!

(1) What is your home airport? HND/NRT
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Premium Economy (ANA) to the US
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50-75k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? UA Premier Platinum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Redemption for vacations, lounge access, being treated nice/upgrades
(6) Which routes do you fly most often Tokyo to NYC/SFO, sometimes via ORD
(7) Preferred Airlines NH, UA, SG (when flying to SG)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mostly work in Premium Economy

AA have real premium economy on some aircraft and no longer have a 4 segment rule.
How long will you living Japan for? For ever or some months/years?

Hey thanks! I didn't know AA was doing a Premium economy now. That might be a good idea, and they might even status match me from UA, but it looks like it is only NRT-LAX at this point, and I do a lot more SFO/ORD so I'm most likely to stick w/ Star Alliance.
I've been in Japan 10 years, and who knows how long, but yes could be a long time (I am a permanent resident).

Altitude or Sheba or something else
 

(1) What is your home airport? YYZ

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

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

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) Altitude 35K (flown more than 50K miles but not enough AQD).

(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.) Upgrades and redemption. Lounge access is not important as I can get it reimbursed.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) Toronto to East Africa (ADD, KGL, NBO)

(7) Preferred Airlines - none

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) This is my first year on a traveling job. Company policy is lowest fare (work in an NGO). About 70K miles on work travel and flew 4 times for vacation but did not earn any points on them (Swoop, BA, AirTranSat)

Joined a new job earlier this year that takes me to East Africa every 5-6 weeks. My most frequent route is YYZ ADD. I have tried to get status on AC but fell just short of 6K AQD for *A Gold. I am thinking of switching to ET (Sheba Miles). I have a few questions -
a) I want to use the miles for personal travel/vacation. If I switch to Sheba miles, will I be able to redeem miles for US/Canada travel from YYZ? (I have not yet redeemed any miles from this year)

b) There is a direct flight from YYZ to ADD. I had signed up for Altitude/Aeroplan but flew on ET tickets for the first few trips this year. I only realized it mid year that I was not earning any AQD. So I switched to AC flights, but all of them have a stopover in Europe which is usually 4-10 hours. With my frequent trips, I am finding the long layovers are increasingly painful. For 2018, I have earned ~70K miles in my Aeroplan account.

c) Apart from Altitude and Sheba miles, is there any other program that I should consider? I would fly at least 7-8 YYZ-ADD trips in 2019 and some more to Kigali and Nairobi.

Thanks! FF Newbie

1) What is your home airport? LJU
2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? mixed economy, Q, K,V,Y
3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~ 90 segments, ~66000 miles
4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? no
5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Fast track, lounge access, isle seat preferance
6) Which routes do you fly most LJU-MUC-AMS, LJU-...-ORD-STL

I am doing tons of short europeam flights, usually on low economy fares, lije Q,K,V, sometimes I get Y.

I am also traveling to US almost every month. Ussualy on liw economy class K, V, Q, sometimes Y.

I am doing way more segments than miles. Europen flights are ussualy 600 miles or less long. My primarly goal is fast track access, busines lounge and better seats (isle seats).

Which FF do you recomend?