(1) What is your home airport? LAX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy/Cheap
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? <25k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? No Status
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often LAX-TPE or LAX-KHH
(7) Preferred Airlines no
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Traveling for pleasure

Being able to upgrade with miles would be a plus

Thanks!

I know nothing! :(
 

(1) What is your home airport? SBA/LAX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? C
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Nope :(
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free trips (im a fan of south america, brazil; and asia), i would also enjoy priority access: boarding, luggage.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often US Domestic
(7) Preferred Airlines? United, AA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work, I have flexibility with airlines, but not with classes, stuck in coach.

I have a love of south america and im planning to get to Brazil for the world cup, so any working towards that would be neat. I would also love to go to asia off some points/miles/free flights/what have you. Sorry for the broad scope, its a bit overwhelming as a newbie.

Thanks in advance for any and all help.

It looks like for you, it would be a choice between AA and UA. You also mentioned that you fly 50k+ miles per year, which equates to AAdvantage Platinum or United Premier Gold (the 50k miles statuses). They are similar in the benefits they give: priority check-in/boarding/security and lounge access on international itineraries. One difference is the baggage allowance: United allows 3 x 70 lbs, while AA is 2 x 50 lbs. Also, United only gives 50% bonus miles for Premier gold elite members, while AA gives 100% bonus. United also has Economy Plus on most planes, which is usually the first few rows of the aircraft, offering 4-6 inches extra leg room. AA will be adding their own version of Economy Plus some time this year.

Compare AAdvantage elite benefits and United elite benefits.

Since it seems like you're paying for Business C class, then free upgrades shouldn't be too much a problem, but I will say that it's been almost impossible to get complimentary upgrades on hub routes with United. AA does a different system of 500-mile stickers, which I hear has made upgrades easier, but I cannot say from first-hand experience.

Both United and American have routes to South America. In terms of partners, American has LAN (OneWorld) based in Santiago, United has TAM (Star Alliance) based in Sao Paulo. The two will be merging and the current fate of which alliance they will choose is unknown.

Star Alliance, however, is a great asset to have depending on where you are traveling. One thing I noticed is that American's route network in Asia. You can connect to JAL or Cathay, but many of their Economy tickets do not accrue miles on AAdvantage.

Based on both of their programs I think going harder on *A (united) will serve me better solely based on membership duration. Ill get a few miles because most of my flights out of SBA are American Eagle, but those are just 100 mile drops in the bucket.

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Also the A train is nice. I prefer the Lex lines though.

Cheers :)

(1) What is your home airport?
OTP (Bucharest, Romania)

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
economy, premium eco, low business

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
lately >50K.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
QR silver.

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
redeem on exotic places like Male, Bali, Fiji and being able to pay taxes with points; lounge access.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
I think it’s easier this way: http://flightdiary.net/andreim

(7) Preferred Airlines
BA, QR, TK, AF

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
mostly work but i hope to start enjoying leisure :)

Many thanks for your thoughts!

(1) What is your home airport? JFK
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k-50k,
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? No

I'm going to increasing my spending on a CC and looking for what is the best credit card for Star Alliance airlines since I mostly travel through them. (Prefer Lufthansa/Swiss)

I currently have Chase Sapphire Preferred with nearly 60k in UR points. Looking at signing up for either Ink for Amex Starwood.

My goal is to earn points through spending and transfer them to mileage partners in order to get free business class or better on transcontinental flights. (I heard 50k points one way is what it usually takes) I assumed Sapphire was the pick since it had BA as an option, but have since learned they high taxes/fees on reward travel.

Would Chase or Amex Starwood be the better option for accruing points?

This travel is for pleasure as I'm looking at traveling the world more. Plan on going to South America & Asia eventually but will mostly be heading off to Europe on these trips.

(1) What is your home airport? SFO
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? economy
(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? Air Canada Elite
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? upgrades on travel, lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? SFO <-> YYZ with some international
(7) Preferred Airlines? Don't care, I fly Air Canada often on SFO-YYZ
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both, I can always choose airlines though

I was happy with my AC Elite card but I don't think I'll necessarily make 50k of travel in a year. I'm currently entertaining the AEGEAN AIRLINES card...

(edit: oh and, haha, first post after 4.5 years of lurking)

Any chance for some inside tips ? :) once again a big thanks for you help. Cheers

(1) What is your home airport? MXP/DME (Milan, Italy / Moscow, Russia)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? 90% Economy, Business on flights longer than 10 hrs
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k or a bit more
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? BA *G, BD *G, LH *S
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Award flights to Oceania or South America, lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? MXP/MOW to Germany/UK/Norway
(7) Preferred Airlines? Don't care.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work. I can choose airlines/connections/flex or restricted economy.

BD Diamond Club was my primary programm so far. Thanks to the recent events I have been matched to BA *G. However it seems quite difficult to requalify *G flying mostly in economy and not very generous after Diamond Club. Also Star Alliance better fits my flying profile. I'm thinking about A3 just for *A lounges access and maybe enroll in another Oneworld/Skyteam programm with more affordable redemption table.

My mind is mostly made up, but maybe I missed something while looking for another programme to replace DC...

(1) What is your home airport? BSL, STR, LUX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Discounted business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~50k bis miles on *A
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? BD Gold (soon to be BA Gold), Flying Blue Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? free flights as I fly business, so I get lounge access anyway (I don't fly to the US)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often ? Intra-Europe, Europe-Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines? ANA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both

Basically, I am looking for a program that will provide me with the best earn/burn ratio for my travel pattern. I've read a lot of good things about US-based programs, but I don't fly LH nor US Air so I won't get any elite bonus, and I don't fly to the US, so I can't make the 4 segments a year to get status with United. As I don't care about earning in Economy, I am left with Aegean, which has actually better redemption table than M&M and 200% in C. What I am missing here?

Welcome to Flyertalk, garrik2.

Sorry, but this doesn't make any sense.

cheers,

Henry

AS BMI DC is now all but gone, I am looking for a suitable *A replacement, already collecting with Avios, but the availability is shocking!

I am looking to launder miles from Amex Plat, through SPG to *A but what carrier?

What is the best carrier for the cheapest miles additional purchase plus offers the cheapest miles+cash deals. DC used to be amazing for this!

(1) What is your home airport? LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Discounted Business, economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k+ - flying + Amex + MC
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None, and not concerned about status
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Business & First flights - using minimal miles (i.e. miles + cash deals)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? UK-ASIA
(7) Preferred Airlines? Thai
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both

Thanks all

I think it's safe to assume that garrik2 included the Star alliance asterisk by mistake and is referring to BAEC Gold (which will be coming your way as well fairly soon, henry999).

henry999 thank you for the welcome. IMH is right. Sorry for this confusion.

I enjoyed reading that, thanks. ;) Welcome to FT.

Turning to your question, in your shoes I'd probably choose UA's Mileage Plus unless (like Richelieu) you rarely visit the US and cannot be sure of meeting the four segment requirement.

A3 is probably a reasonable choice for both of you and for paulbroughton (welcome to FT, you long time lurker!). Just don't forget the lessons learnt during your time with BD's Diamond Club: change can come at any time and you may find yourself looking for another FFP in a year or two.