A3 is the way to go.

Only 3-4K bonus miles left in account or just need 3-4K miles to maintain MP status? Either way, ditch MP starting 1/1/2014, but stick with Star Alliance. Both TK and OZ are good choices. If you fly UA domestic a lot, OZ's Asiana Club will be the way to go since N fare gives you 100% miles, you might even reach Diamond Plus within 2 years based on your travel patterns.


20000 miles in Z from NH will accrue 40000 miles (200%), but I still recommend A3 if she doesn't fly much, as long as she takes UA flight once a while to keep the status, and those 40000 miles don't expire, unlike most *A programs.

OTOH, if she goes to Morocco via TK, she might even be able to maintain TK Elite (plus upgrades occasionally).

I spend 3-4k a year on tickets so I wont be meeting the min required qualifying dollars spent to maintain gold status. I have tons of miles on MP.


Thanks for the tips, I will look closely at TK. I already looked at OZ and its for sure a decent choice.

Hey everybody!

Been lurking around this forum for a long time.. now I think I need some help with this decision.

(1) PVG, possibly by end of next year NRT/HND
(2) leisure travel (40%) Y, Y+ / business travel (60%) J (70%), Y (30%)
(3) 80-100k
(4) AC 75K
(5) *G, award redemption, upgrades - in that order. *G is imperative
(6) a lot intra asia, biz and leisure to Europe, leisure to NA
(7) depends on destination - LX to Europe, AC to NA, intra Asia SQ but their fares are usually not competitive if compared with TG, OZ but their intra Asia network is not good for connections from PVG
(8) generally I can choose airlines

I've been thinking about leaving AC for a while now, now with the new "enhancements" even more. Though, I might make it to SE100K this year (one reason to stay).

At the moment I am leaning towards staying with AC.

For this and the last year I've been keeping track how many miles I've flown with Star Alliance and how many miles I would have earned with another program, here's the data:

year 2012 --- 2013 (currently booked travel by end of year)
miles flown 59,134 --- 79,441
earning LX 83,764 --- 112,312
earning TK 66,695 --- not calculated
earning AC 62,306 --- 89,712
earning OZ 61,572 --- 88,508
earning SQ 58,247 --- not calculated
earning BR not calculated --- 80,473
earinng NH 52,754 --- 77,579

Pro/Con
LX:
pro: good recognition within LH/LX (e.g. exit rows SEN exclusive), Status good for 2 years, 2 upgrade vouchers per year
con: unclear if I make 100k with them every year
TK: out due to removal of Y+ long haul as I would only fly them privately and take the hassle of changing on IST if they offer Y+ long haul (even though the IST lounge is awesome)
AC:
pro: good recognition within AC, SE100K good availability of upgrades, low *G qualifier
con: co-pay for non SE starting next year
OZ:
pro: lifetime *G with 500k miles, low *G qualifier
con: hard to connect from PVG (e.g. impossible to book PVG-ICN-Europe on their website)
SQ: out due to too high mileage redemption levels and bad recognition with SQ unless you're PPS (which I won't)
BR: new member, no real insight into them yet
NH: hard to qualify due to NH metal miles, low mileage earning levels

Overall it seems I am either stuck with AC (and doing an MR to get SE if I don't make it anyways as its 500/750 USD co-pay per upgrade which is easily "redeemed" with one/two upgrades), take my chances with LX or go with OZ and next to never fly the airline I hold the membership with.

With AC I will get my *G for sure every year as with OZ. With LX it might be a stretch. Or am I missing something?

Thanks for your input!

F

...as additional info, this is the percentage I've flown the following airlines in the last 5 years:

CA 19%
LX 12%
AC 11%
TG 10%
SQ 7%
LH 5%
TK 5%
OZ 4%
rest 27% (all over the place)

and no, I don't think I want to join CA. ;)

Take a look at UA. You'd need to plate some of your travel on 016 stock , but it is the most generous FFP in *A for people earning 100-150k miles a year.

Thanks PVDtoDEL, same idea with AC, minimum requirement is 10k miles on AC metal compared to the 4 flights on UA.

I'll have a more detailed look at the program.

First one is always important haha
 

Newbie here, so please go easy =p

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

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Unsure, however usually cheapest price through booking agent

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) Usually a weekend away every couple of months, however this may change if worth it <25k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) None

(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.) Anything I can get =p

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

(7) Preferred Airlines Open to all

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) Purely Pleasure, however this may change in future due to job prospects

Seeing as I currently have no credit card, any suggestions on credit card choices which could benefit me would be a nice bonus too =]

Advice on Programs
 

(1) What is your home airport?

MUC

(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)

>50k

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

M&M FT

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?

Frequent upgrades on travel/Good award redemption rates/Free Lounge Access

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

50/50 mix of Transatlantic and Europe/Asia

(7) Preferred Airlines

Transatlantic: US Airways & United
Europe/Asia: LH and Turkish

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)

Work: I cannot choose airline or class of service.
Pleasure: I can (and prefer to utilize my accrued membership benefits). Would like to also combine my mieage/membership benefits with my AMEX Platinum benefits, if possible.

(1) What is your home airport? DCA.IAD.LAX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k+ willing to break 100k doing mileage runs if need be.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? EVA gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? upgrades, lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often 50-50 between dc-lax routes and us-asia routes... so maybe 2-3 trips to asia a year, 5-6 trips to lax a year
(7) Preferred Airlines: probably united/us airways domestic, and EVA for trips to tw
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? mostly pleasure

trying to figure out if united would match my gold status, and if it would be difficult to upgrade to business class seats on eva flights using united miles... since i live in the states, figured that it would be easier accumulating united miles with credit cards and such.... thinking about switching over to united because eva gold and *a gold pretty much has the same benefits, but with united, i think i will get better perks when i fly domestic?

thanks!

Another "Which Scheme is Best" Question!!
 

Hi,

I used to fly frequently between the UK and Middle East using bmi, Lufthansa and Swiss, with all mileage being credited to a bmi account. Since the bmi takeover, my miles were transferred into Avios, but it looks as if I may be restarting my visits to the Middle East, so would be grateful for advice on the best airline scheme to join, with redemptions generally used for flights to the USA. So here goes:

(1) What is your home airport? MAN
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Not sure of code - usually flexible business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? No *A status but BA Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Availability of rewards flights to USA
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? MAN-JED/RUH/ABU (LH/LX,Etihad)
(7) Preferred Airlines: United for visits to the USA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work

I was thinking that the United scheme may be best from a point of view of travelling to the USA, but would appreciate confirmation if this would be the best option and that any travel made on LH/LX could be credited.

Many thanks.

United is having a massive devaluion: be careful. :( But other airlines may follow "to be competive"
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...eb-2014-a.html

Will you have the choice of airline to be used or will this be a corporate edict ?

Thanks for the quick response. Although the company's travel provider generally gives us the best (i.e. cheapest/changeable) business class fare, LH and LX do seem to predominate.

(1) What is your home airport? Based in YYJ currently but home airport is YEG
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy, usually discount.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? <25,000km with the exception of 2014 where I will likely fly >30,000km due to a mini round the world trip (sort of) booked throughUnited.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? Nothing at the moment.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Most of my flying is short haul domestic (YEG-YYJ or v.v.) so redemption for something like that is key, as well as just a more comfortable flying experience (lounge access/priority)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often Short haul domestic in Canada, usually (YEG-YYJ) aside from my big trip at the beginning of 2014 and possibly a TATL or two in 2014/2015.
(7) Preferred Airlines No preference, usually whatever is cheapest.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure, on my own expense.

Hi guys! I'm a lowly university student here, and I don't fly all that often. When I do its usually short domestic trips back home on holidays during the school year or on holidays during the summer (YEG-YYJ and v.v.). Usually this means I don't really care about frequent flyer points and the like, but I've planned a mini round the world trip (Canada-Florida-Europe-Australia-New Zealand-Canada) and I'll probably earn around 30,000 miles over the duration. I haven't much experience with FFPs but I want to get some decent value out of my trip and wanted your guys' expert opinions. I'm not sure if I should forego crediting mileage to my AC account to get *G with A3 or possibly with TK. I could likely qualify for E35K with AC and get similar perks when flying on AC (which I probably do most of my flying on) and get upgrades (not that I would likely use most of my eUps anyway), but could also qualify for *G through A3 or the Elite Card through TK. The only reason I'd consider A3 and TK is that their status is good for two years (Or more in A3 from what I understand) which might be good for me as I won't be able to maintain my AC status every year.

Any direction would be lovely. Thanks!

Hello everybody! I am a new follower,I would like to ask you guys if you can suggest me any ideas about the best *A program for my flights. Last month I have done two flights with Singapore airlines SIN-SYD and PER-SYD in class N (economy) and in 2 months I will fly with Lufthansa NAP-HKG via Frankufurt in class L (economy, round trip).
During the next year I will fly more with Lufthansa and I would like to know which frequent flyer program you suggest me to earn more miles for the flights above.
My target is to get the Gold status soon to have access to the lounge. THanks for any suggestions you can give me! Great forum this one.