On M&M you make 225% (starting with FTL Exec, otherwise 200%) which seems to get you SEN (*G, more valuable with LH, I think also full free lounge access when flying within the US on domestic flights) - might be an idea, as with C only 50k would do to reach, and other 50k could get you any other programs *G too (I think there is still that thing with free upgrades within US domestic flights for "own" elites)

My primary allegiances is with OneWorld (BA Gold for the last 10 years, Platinum for Life on AA) but have a Canadian spouse and now a child starting university in Canada. So, I wouldn't mind accumulating miles to get her back and forth. I'm on the board of one company in Canada and sometimes have clients in Canada. Also, I've just started work with a Singapore client and credited all the miles for the EWR-SIN flights to AeroPlan. There will likely be more of those flights. But, will keep BA as primary allegiance.

I'm trying to figure out which Star Alliance airline it would be easiest/best to get meaningful elite status. This year, I have 35K miles on AC, but could switch Star Alliance allegiance to another airline with no problem after this year.

(1) What is your home airport? BOS
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Usually Y for personal and short flights, J for business. I fly BOS-YYZ a number of times a year and typically do that with Y fares. I occasionally fly to YVR or YYC, usually with F. Most of my flights to Europe are business class (and on BA). I do one or two trips a year coach to Denver.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? No doubt over 100K but I've never counted.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? AC Elite (useless, I know). BA Gold. Plat for Life AA.
(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 lounge access; redemption for kid flying
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? BOS-LHR (6 to 10 times a year), BOS-various cities in Europe, BOS-YYZ, Domestic (BOS to Denver, EWR, DCA, etc.), BOS-SIN, sometimes BOS-SYD.
(7) Preferred Airlines SQ gives best service, lots of preference for BA because they treat me very well in terms of upgrades, lounges, Qantas, Cathay. Hate US, am never treated well by UA. AC is OK.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both. For business travel, I can choose airlines within reason (e.g., I will take BA over AA if the business class fare is $1K higher but not $3K.) For personal travel, I choose -- typically several vacation trips a year (this year, just did a trip on Swiss to Italy, did spring break on BA to Athens on miles, likely a Christmas break, plus visiting family in EWR, YYZ, DCA, Denver.

Look at the post above yours by yuropflyer (its quoted below as well). a few of those EWR-SIN flights should get you LH SEN status. Thats a real good status to have. You can do your TATL on LH / LX...and you have some chances at operational upgrades.

For other flights, you can continue crediting to AC or just keep LH. For someone like you who does a lot of Paid-C travel, LH is real good to credit to.

If I weren't doing the EWR-SIN flights, would I prefer Aegean as I'd be elite after 20K miles? I have been paying for a Maple Leaf Club card, which I could get rid of if I were to accumulate enough miles to make Gold-equivalent on LH.

Yes, the 20K miles on Aegean will give you lounge access through the system including USA.

So, if you dont plan on EWR-SIN regularly, then choose Aegean.

Hello,

Before I answer the questions, I feel like I need to explain that I have two types of travel: domestic and international. The international ones are always BOS - SIN (singapore), and the domestic ones are anywhere within the US.

(1) What is your home airport? BOS
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y or H for international, for domestic it's either Y or Orbitz :P
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 20 international and 20 domestic
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? United Premier
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? upgrades (either op-up or redeemed). I also like lounge access but figure that I'm willing to pay for priority pass if I can't get a Star Gold.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often JFK - SIN
(7) Preferred Airlines SG or UA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? A mix

I'm currently at UA, but wondering if it makes sense to switch to KrisFlyer since I'll be going to Singapore a lot.

(1) What is your home airport? MEL in 2011 / PVG in 2012

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y Mostly, J on occasion

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25-30k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? QF Silver

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? award redemption rates, lounge access

(6) Which routes do you fly most often Australian Domestic, Internationally PVG-MEL a 2-3 times a year

(7) Preferred Airlines QF but no real loyalty especially poor product between PVG&MEL

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? pleasure occasionally work (in Y)

So basically I'm relocating to PVG next year for work, and looking for a suitable program that would be easy to redeem awards. No real loyalties for any alliance besides OW given my use of QF domestically.

I originally asked in another thread where to post my question and I was directed here. I just realized this is only for star alliance airlines and I had not narrowed it down that far yet. I am open to any airline for travel, is there somewhere else I should post or could anyone tell me if *A is, in fact, the best option for me?

As of now, I don't know if most of my flights will be transcon, midcon or short hops, or even if there will be a regular flight length. Not knowing this, should I go for A3 or United Mileage Plus? By the way, it doesn't matter that I won't be flying A3, I can still rack up miles by joining their program?

Thanks!

For your profile A3 sounds good.

Better option than Mileage plus, especially with the merger and the complete overload of elites.

And yes, you don't have to fly A3, although their planes and lounge is incredible...

if you only fly 25-30k miles a year, and you don't concentrate on one alliance, there is no doubt that A3 is the only option for you...

(1) What is your home airport? BKK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k-30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? NO
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free Lounge access and Frequent upgrades on travel if available
(6) Which routes do you fly most often BKK -> LHR
(7) Preferred Airlines? THAI
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Study

A3 will be your best option as well...for 25-30K miles a year....it will get you lounge access throughout the system. It will not really get you free / frequent upgrades though.
If you plan to fly 50K miles, then you can consider Thai's program.

(1) What is your home airport? Washington DC.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? 2-3 business trips (in Business) to Europe, 2-3 cheapo economy for vacations/citybreaks
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? don't know - 40k?
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? no, but 20k miles in M&M
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Points flights to visit family in Europe, Lounge access, free baggage check in for US domestic travel
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Washington Dulles - Brussels Intl.
(7) Preferred Airlines? Don't know
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? equal for both

I saw the Aegean *A quick path to Gold. Could that work for me, or am I better off with Continential etc? thanks!

Spanair plus
 

Hi,

I am quite new in comparing the different *A points scheme

Having read a couple of pages of this thread and browsing some websites, I noticed that none of you talked about Spanair(JK) frequent flyer scheme.

only 10k are required to gain *G memberhsip. Is this correct or is there any catch? http://portal.spanair.com/web/en-gb/...r-Plus/levels/

Flying from GVA to BKK and back which should give me 10-12k so I would be *G in one trip? I am correct?

Many Thanks

EDIT : I think I might have found the catch, it is only possible to redem miles on JK

Interesting thought
However, you need to earn 10,000 points to get Star Gold with JK.
Its not just 10,000 miles.
e.g., a reduced economy TATL on LH/CO/UA will only earn 1000 points when credited to JK!!
Thats just way too low.

here is the file to look at earnings table.
http://portal.spanair.com/web/upload...ENG_170611.pdf

ALso you can redeem points on any Star Alliance route.

If you are unsure whether you will get to 50K or not, CO/UA does not make sense. Stick to A3.
Also, you seem to get your miles more by flying to Europe. In this case, CO/UA is not going to give you any free upgrades, etc. All you need is status to use the lounge, etc.

which is the best FFP to join?
 

(1) What is your home airport? HKG
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k-30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Asiamiles green
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Frequent upgrades on travel if available
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? HKG-BKK, HKG-LAX
(7) Preferred Airlines? no preferrence
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? mostly work

Asia Miles may indeed be your best choice if you want any shots at upgrades.

If you can reach 50K per year, perhaps Thai (TG) will be a good choice.

If you simply want lounge access through the system, then consider Aegean.

Otherwise, stick to Asiamiles.

(1) What is your home airport? MAA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy for the most part, Biz class sometimes
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 40K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Jet Airways Jet Privilege Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? MAA-SIN, MAA - CMB
(7) Preferred Airlines? no preference
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both

Air India is slated to join Star Alliance, but not too kicked with their service out in Economy.

HI Quarryking! Long time! We still have to do the Mini-DO at MAA.
Will keep you posted,

In your case with Star Alliance, it is best of course, if AI joins.
However, that has not happened yet.

For MAA-SIN, it is easiest to fly SQ for Star miles. Cheapest SQ economy fares do not earn miles on any airline including SQ. So, be watchful of what fare class you are buying.
If you can route MAA-SIN and then SIN-CMB for work, then you can fly SQ all the way. (instead of doing MAA-SIN-MAA and MAA-CMB-MAA).

The MAA-CMB-MAA sector is a problem one with respect to Star alliance. But, its a short flight anyway...so you could continue on 9W for that one.

In terms of collecting miles, it seems that your goal is award tickets.
Some reports in this thread say Aegean (A3) does have good redemption rates.

Another program to consider collecting miles would be TK (Turkish). You need 35K miles (I believe...dont remember just now) for Star Gold. That will give you lounge access throughout your travel.

One more option to consider is TG. Actually, if you can fly MAA-BKK-SIN/CMB, you can collect way more miles quickly!! (but it will add some hours to travel) And TG seems to be a good program to collect miles in......50K for Star Gold. They give you upgrade vouchers after you reach Star Gold.

I actually liked the TG MAA-BKK-MAA flights. Nice service. Decent timing (arrival / departure).

Thanks so much for doing this thread, and the opportunity for some expert help! It's perfect timing because I've been considering a change and I'm leaning towards M&M but very keen to hear what you have to say

(1) What is your home airport? Sydney
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? 2-3 times yearly to Europe in J, around Asia Australia and NZ in discount economy.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k+
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? QF Platinum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (This is the hard bit! I really want a good points earn, definitely ease of redemption (online or efficient call center), and would also love reaching a reasonable status fairly quickly. But I know you can't have it all ;)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often SYD-AMS (most often), SYD-AKL & SYD-SIN (less often). Also Australia domestic in discount Y
(7) Preferred Airlines: Right now QF (thanks to Platinum status)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? I can choose my airlines, class of service depends on route.

Thanks and looking forward to your comments!

syd_tlukec, it might be that you could become SEN (*G, probably the "best" *G status on any carrier) with LH, which is, despite all the major "improvements", still rather good. in C, you earn 225% (200%+25% elite bonus)

Depending on where exactly you've to go in Europe (each connecting C flight will also earn 2000+25%) you could make around 40k miles for each roundtrip to Europe.. you need 100k miles, but only to requalify every second year.. so with 2-3 trips you should be able to make it (first year will definitely need 3 trips, as the first trip won't get you the 25% extra bonus yet due to not yet *S, which you'll get at 35k miles) - then, 2 trips and some more flights, or 3 trips will do, and as said before, requalification only needed every second year (you get to choose, which one, if you qualify early, you get the status for 3 years+)

I think this is an excellent idea for syd_tlukec.
LH M&M is great for people buying C fares. Redemption of miles aint bad either. (and they can redeem certain "newer" SQ seats which are off limits for most other star partners).

YyuropFlyer and snod08 thank you both very much! Yes, I think LH is the way for me to go. Scary how much thought and effort we put into our FQTV programs isn't it? :)
Thanks again.

Which frequent flyer miles program to join?
 

Hello!

In october we're leaving for an around the world trip starting in Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (our home base), which means we'll be making al lot of flying miles. We decided to see if we can collect frequent flyer miles. We're going to fly with British airways, Qantas (both Oneworld), South african airways, New zealand airways (both Sky alliance) and LACSA/TACA (AviancaTaca). For what we learned so far, we only have to become a member of one airline of an airline netword.

So we're considering to join the frequent flyer miles program of:
-British airways OR Qantas
-South african airways OR New zealand airways

Do you have any tips how to choose which program to join?

We simply have to join the frequent flyer miles program of TACA.

Thank you very much for your help,

Greets!

(1) What is your home airport? LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Dont know, I would probably make 2/3 trips to USA per year on this alliance.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Silver with BA but when cannot get cheap fares with oneworld need alternative.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Actually getting to use miles
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? LHR to Indianapolis (routed through Chicago O'Hare)
(7) Preferred Airlines? no preferrence
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? work

Also, im sure this is the wrong place to ask, but how do US Airways/United/Delta business class compare to BA club world

If you don't fly often, and it seems like it, I'd suggest Aegean.

Thanks for the detailed reply. As you have rightly mentioned, the only downside to the cheapest SQ fares would be that one wouldn't earn any Kris flyer miles on them. But the TG suggestion is something i should probably look into.

Am up for a 'MAA FT do' anytime.. any trips to MAA for you on the cards..??

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
SEA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Y domestic, C transpac.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
Around 50k: a couple trips to HKG, a few trips to SFO/OAK, and maybe some to BOS.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
None at all.
(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'd most like good award redemption rates.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
I fly most to OAK/SFO, sometimes to BOS, and a couple times a year to HKG.
(7) Preferred Airlines
No real preference.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?)
I travel for both work and pleasure; for work I can generally choose my airline.

Thanks in advance!

Given your transpacific flights in C, I would look over at M&M, 100k will give you *G/SEN, with upgrade vouchers, AND lounge access while flying domestic in the US of A.

And those 100k will only mean 44.5k actual miles flown in C, as (starting from 35k miles aquired when you gain FTL/*S) their Status costumers get another 25% extra, and C does yield 200%. So it's 225% of the distance flown. Not that many transpacific's for that, and you only need to hit it once every 2 years.

Back to lounge access, you get free lounge access with a non-domestic(usa)-*A-Gold-status when flying domestic in the usa, so this might be worth something, but I think they (each us airline) are handing out free upgrades but only for their own elites. If you'll be splitting your travels over several carriers, lounge access might be worth more than having an update once in a while. That, and the much better earning in C to M&M makes me believe that if you can make the above mentioned "100k", you should go with M&M

Thanks for the super-fast reply! I agree that I'd rather have lounge access than the occasional upgrade. Your numbers have me convinced—I've gone and signed up for M&M. Hopefully I'll soon get my 100k and my *G status!

Thanks again!

I will keep you posted on travel plans.

Hope you can get the TG flights! they are nice (seat pitch is good!).

(1) What is your home airport?DCA or BWI, want to avoid IAD...don't mind multiple connections
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?Cheapo Y Tickets
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?60-100K depending on the year
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?DL Gold...was NW Platinum for about 8 years until DL merger
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?In order: Upgrades, Lounge Access, good redemption
(6) Which routes do you fly most oftenDifferent city every other week. Both domestic and intl.
(7) Preferred AirlinesTotally open
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?Both, but flexible with airlines

What do you think folks? Thanks for the advice in advance!

It appears that you have plenty of domestic US flying, apart from international flights.
If you can make 100K per year, in your case, UA would be a good choice. Because, your upgrade chances get higher on domestic trips (no free upgrades on international).

But, one problem is that you wont get lounge access unless you are flying an international flight that day.

As I just suggested to somebody else with a similar profile on the UA board, US is the best option for you. They have been building up a solid operation on the East coast, especially out of DCA, their FFP is ok - almost all of the downsides are made up by the fact that most flights are a guarenteed UDU....

Agreed, 1Ks report very high percentage of upgrades.

thanks y'all. i'm considering getting *G with aegean for the domestic lounges and then crediting all my miles to UA afterwards. i was going to do the status match, but it looks like only UACO metal qualifies. i have a couple of LH flights coming up and also one TK long haul...i think those flights alone should get me to *G on A3.

Getting A3 status is definetely worth it - it's a nice little program.

However, I will say it again, if you are after upgrades, anything short of 1K pretty much means no UDU on COUA. US is a great alternative that I'd REALLY STRONGLY suggest.

(1) What is your home airport? WAS--very close to DCA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? cheap Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) This year just over 25k. more like 5ok next year.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Nothing.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? International upgrades especially, and international reward redemption, then lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often US-EU, US-Caribbean, a few domestic flights a year.
(7) Preferred Airlines None. Probably want to pursue *A
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both. Work will fly me business class. Work trips are usually 2-3 domestic and 1 international a year.


Markie - Co-Mod *A[/QUOTE]


I was thinking UA, but after reading about no free upgrades internationally, I'm not so sure. I need to decide in a hurry. I have 4 international flights coming up, all on *A, which will give me initial status with someone.

Many thanks for suggestions!

No free international upgrades on any carrier in *A...

Your best option is joining the FFP of the operating carrier that you are flying, that gives you the best shot at op-ups.

Alternatively, if you can choose any *A carrier that will get you *G with under 25k a year, like A3, TK, OZ, etc... This generally gets you improved service, and guaranteed lounge access (for a non-US FFP)...

I personally am a member of A3's FFP, and I am very happy with it^