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-   -   Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here (https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-alliance/1144878-need-advice-ff-scheme-join-please-post-here.html)

efe83 Apr 9, 2013 8:40 am

Canada based *A
 
(1) What is your home airport?
YUL (Montreal)

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Y

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
roughly 25K on average, but quite variable, only about 10K this year and probably 35K last year

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
none. I have never been strategic in my FF collecting so far, I usually go with my cheapest options (excluding charter) when I am searching. So I am going to have around 13000 with SkyTeam now. I have recently emptied my M&M account and just opened a Oneoworld (BA) account.

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Good redemption rates/options from YUL to anywhere in the world or the occasional domestic flight, or the occasional upgrade. I have figured that I am not going to gain status as long as I am at my current job with no travel and not enough vacation for travel for pleasure

(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Transatlantic (mostly to Turkey) and within North America / domestic Canada

(7) Preferred Airlines

I really love Lufthansa!

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Pleasure


I am a Canadian resident but have family in Turkey, so I feel like both AC and Turkish make sense, but I don't like AC that much.
i don't fly enough to accrue status points but I can get reward miles through Amex in canada or other CC for points transferable to Aeoroplan. I may also be able to get a Turkish CC since I am a citizen but would probably have to find a way around residency address.

PS: I think after reading through these forums and some websites, I decided to start collecting at Oneworld even though I almost have never flown with them, but my current credit card offers 1:1 to AA and avios so I'd like to take advantage of that. However I am still considering *A because I just think it makes sense given my connections to Canada and Turkey.

Montbrose Apr 11, 2013 8:08 am

Hello,

I'm new here at Flyertalk.
I hope you could help me out which Frequent flyer program is the best for me.

(1) What is your home airport?
Reply: AMS
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy?
Reply: Economy and occasionally Business for long-haul flights.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
Reply: 40k - 60k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
Reply: None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Reply: Lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
Reply: Intra-Europe, Netherlands-US and Netherlands-Australia
(7) Preferred Airlines
Reply: Singapore Airlines
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Reply: Pleasure

mssoa7 Apr 11, 2013 1:12 pm

Hi, I am new here, hope to get the experts advice.

(1) What is your home airport?
FRA, BER, WAW, PRG
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Deep Discounted Economy, it's usually V,W,K,L
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
15-25K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
I'm in M&M but no status, looking at my less frequent travel and low mileage earnings.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
I'm in for award redemption Europe to far east in premium class, additional luggage.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
1-3 return Intra europe,
1 return Europe-SE asia in summer.
(7) Preferred Airlines
Usually fly with LH, LX, but into TK for long haul flights.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Pleasure.

My upcoming trips;
I have oneway TK J WAW-IST-KUL this summer, and would like to use it for accumulating miles for redemption and/or *AG
Also planning a holiday trip to Male/Middle East this winter.

I am thinking of
1) go for A3, but they change the earning to only 100% for TK J. Also no mileages for most of my intra Europe flight.
2) Lifemiles or UA as they have buy miles promotions in case I don't have enough miles for getting award flight in C/F.

So what's your opinion? Should I go for A3/lifemiles/United? Or any any other options?

Thanks.

vincewy Apr 11, 2013 9:06 pm


Originally Posted by mssoa7 (Post 20575509)
I am thinking of
1) go for A3, but they change the earning to only 100% for TK J. Also no mileages for most of my intra Europe flight.
2) Lifemiles or UA as they have buy miles promotions in case I don't have enough miles for getting award flight in C/F.

So what's your opinion? Should I go for A3/lifemiles/United? Or any any other options?

Thanks.

Have you considered Asiana Club? Seems like your travel patterns and habits may get you *AG (Asiana Club Diamond).

To reach *AG, you need 40,000 miles within 24 months from join date and you get 125% of miles from TK J. I'd join few days before TK's J flight.

http://us.flyasiana.com/Global/US/en...?fid=CLUB15200

In LX, you earn 70% to 100% of miles from your aforementioned fare buckets but 0 miles for LH's L and K fares. If you get 40,000 miles within less than 24 months you get Diamond for the remaining months plus another 24 months.

vincewy Apr 11, 2013 9:31 pm


Originally Posted by Montbrose (Post 20573689)
Hello,

I'm new here at Flyertalk.
I hope you could help me out which Frequent flyer program is the best for me.

Sounds like TK's Miles and Smiles might be a good option. Not only would you get 40K for *AG easily, you might even reach Elite Plus if you plan ahead so you accrue 80000 miles within 12 rolling months. On top of lounge access, you also get free vouchers for business class upgrades on 2 segments each year.

Even flying SQ you get 100% miles on Flexi Saver (W - lowest fare class to receive miles, double check the fare class by expanding the itineraries when you review it at check-out). AMS-SIN-SYD RT alone you're halfway toward *AG.

http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-in...apore-airlines

ExGleiwitz Apr 16, 2013 3:21 am

Any advices ?


Originally Posted by ExGleiwitz (Post 20530580)
(1) What is your home airport? KTW KRK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? economy / coach
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~30-40k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? *A MM basic (have like 120K miles in total gathered)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access/op-ups/cheap awards
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? EU-USA 2 times a year.. intra-EU 2-3 times a year
(7) Preferred Airlines? LO/LH
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? 100-0

I am M&M from several years, but this program is getting less&less.. I actually have 120K miles, that I am not able to spend much, since for upgrades, I am on last position (on US route, anyway bussines is usually fully booked), so I wanted to switch to something, that can give me ANYTHING greater that ZERO, that M&M gives


theworld Apr 18, 2013 8:00 pm

FYI, saw this on Lifehacker today:

http://lifehacker.com/earn-faster-go...mile-474951505

vincewy Apr 19, 2013 9:51 pm


Originally Posted by ExGleiwitz (Post 20599070)
Any advices ?

This is tricky, since you're based in KRK, if you're in WAW or can re-position to WAW easily I might have recommended TK. Even so, you need to plan your trips to US carefully so at least 3 trips with TK within 12 months along with intra-Europe trips in between with LO (these earn 100% of miles). If the above scenario gives you nearly 40000 miles within 12 months, perhaps take TK Comfort Class to help boost your miles and status.

pkoo Apr 27, 2013 8:51 pm

SkyTeam is my #1 choice, then oneworld, but I fly about 10k miles every year on staralliance carriers:

1. lax-icn rt economy w/ asiana once a year (company)
2. various destinations to the ME from the EU with turkish airlines

So staralliance being my last alliance of choice, I'd like a program where I can park my miles without fear of expiration. Turkish airlines seems like an obvious choice at first but i don't like their points expiration policy. Is there an alternative to miles & smiles?

International redemptions are most important to me in this case

PVDtoDEL Apr 28, 2013 8:23 am


Originally Posted by pkoo (Post 20663178)
SkyTeam is my #1 choice, then oneworld, but I fly about 10k miles every year on staralliance carriers:

1. lax-icn rt economy w/ asiana once a year (company)
2. various destinations to the ME from the EU with turkish airlines

So staralliance being my last alliance of choice, I'd like a program where I can park my miles without fear of expiration. Turkish airlines seems like an obvious choice at first but i don't like their points expiration policy. Is there an alternative to miles & smiles?

International redemptions are most important to me in this case

A3. Miles don't expire for Gold members. With effective timing, 10k miles a year is enough to get Gold.

MegatopLover Apr 28, 2013 9:24 am

I'm a SkyTeam hub captive, though I'm fairly happy with Delta, with a few exceptions. I fly about 125,000 MQM's on Delta or SkyTeam carriers each year, mostly domestic and TPAC, though occasionally elsewhere. Outside the US, my travel within regions is usually within Asia, with Bangkok as sort of my base of operations. Since SkyTeam is fairly weak in Asia, some of my destination or routing needs have forced me onto * carriers, mostly TG and SQ. I prefer SQ. Most of this kind of flying is in paid Business Class, at my personal expense.

For the last couple of years, I've been putting my orphan * miles into a TG ROP account. But my pace of earning on * is very slow, rarely more than a few thousand miles a year. The problem with TG is that the miles expire after two years, so they're expired before I've built up enough credit in the account to actually redeem the miles. I'm tired of this, so now I'm looking for another program to put my orphan miles into. The miles not expiring is the most important consideration, followed by ability to redeem for Business Class or First Class tickets within Asia.

FT's advice on where I should turn would be much appreciated.

Here are the answers to the current form questions:

(1) What is your home airport? ATL, secondarily BKK.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? On *, Business.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? On *, fewer than 10,000 miles per year.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? DL DM. Nothing on *.
(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.) Miles not expiring, at least if I keep posting account activity yearly. Secondarily, redemption of F and J awards within Asia.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) On *, intra-Asia.
(7) Preferred Airlines? SQ, secondarily TG. Never flown by willing to try NH, OZ.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) On *, basically all for pleasure. Can choose airlines, subject to operating the needed routes. Can choose class, want Business, First is nice when available.

Thanks, FT * fliers.

pkoo Apr 28, 2013 1:14 pm


Originally Posted by PVDtoDEL (Post 20664685)
A3. Miles don't expire for Gold members. With effective timing, 10k miles a year is enough to get Gold.

But i would need 12k in one year from the day i reach blue. So how would this work?

PVDtoDEL Apr 28, 2013 8:34 pm


Originally Posted by pkoo (Post 20665784)
But i would need 12k in one year from the day i reach blue. So how would this work?

You need to fly 16k miles within 1 year (after flying 3k miles within 1 year). But that year isn't necessarily a calendar year. If you flew 10k miles in 08/2013 and another 10k miles in 07/2014, you have Gold.

pkoo Apr 29, 2013 7:20 am

ah ok.. thanks :)

Tired_Traveller May 1, 2013 11:08 am

Thinking of switching from Aeroplan
 
(1) What is your home airport? YOW and HRE (Harare)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Cheapest fare within *
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?>50K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? I have AC Elite 50K
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Extra luggage, lounge access & redemption for travel.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? HRE-JNB-LHR(or some other Europian airport)-YOW; HRE-JNB-IAD-YOW
(7) Preferred Airlines - Anything but Ethiopian. They are hand luggage Nazis. The choices are between SAA, EgyptAir, Luftansa or possibly switch to BA & join OneWorld.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work but I pay my own way

AC was OK but making the 10K miles is tough esp with 50% award for long haul like YOW-LHR. This is the only flight that allowed me to earn status with AC.

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!


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