I am not sure if you get me right.

Aegean Gold = Asiana Diamond = United Gold = Star Alliance Gold (status-wise)

Aegean Blue = Asiana Gold = United Silver = Star Alliance Silver (Status-wise)

Star Alliance Silver does not give any really benefits. You cannot get priority ground service with Star Alliance Silver.

The only way to get priority ground service is Star Gold.

BTW, you don't need to fly 40k in one year to get Asiana Diamond. It is 40k in two years.

With United Silver, the thing you get would be good redemption on award tickets, nothing else basically.

With Aegean Gold, you get the status, which gives you good ground service, lounges, etc., but the redemption rate is not as good as United.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) TLV
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Coach
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)around 40K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) DL 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.) upgrades, priority boarding, good award redemption
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) International: TLV-Europe (mainly MUC) TLV-JFK
(7) Preferred Airlines LY only because of the many direct routes to Europe, and its direct to HK and India
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
work and school

I am trying to decide who to match my DL gold with. Ideally I would want it matched to M&M but I cannot seem to get an approval for that.. looking for advice to see how I can get around it (if possible at all?) and match. I looked into Turkish, but it's also not ideal since they dont have a direct to MUC. UA is not an option for me. I would vey much like to match at a *alliance, but it appears that other than M&M there isnt a good option.

As for LY, I am trying to leverage my gold with their plat. anyone has any advice about that at all? people at the Matmid thread are shifting me away from matching with them altogether but their direct routes have an appeal for me.

what do you think I should do?
thanks!! :)

95k p.a. on South African Airways..?
 

G'day all,

I'm hoping some of the more experienced FFlyers can help me with this particular issue:

Later in the year, I'll be starting a regular monthly trip to and from Nigeria, from Perth (that's right, a 28/28 FIFO job from Perth to Nigeria! :eek:); basically, twelve trips a year (PER-JNB-LOS one month, LOS-JNB-PER the next). Work is paying, and it looks like I may be flying South African Airways business class the whole way. This will go on for around three years.

I was hoping someone could help me pick a way to apply these trips to a *A airline to maximise their utility. I'm fairly familiar with the OW programme, but this is the first time I've ever had to look at anything on the *A side of the fence... Answers in the below are per the above.

(1) What is your home airport? PER
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 96k (12 * 8k one-way).
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? OW Sapphire (via QantasFF Gold).
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good earn/redemption rates, lounge access, priority boarding
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? PER-JNB-LOS / LOS-JNB-PER
(7) Preferred Airlines? I'm only really familiar with the OW airlines. I like Qantas quite a bit.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work. Cannot choose airlines, but will always be business (never economy or first).

Would love to hear your thoughts on this! :p

Hello, im trying to figure out the best *A carrier to get the best value out of my miles (being based in Singapore). I will be flying mainly SQ economy on business trips withing the region and cheapest fare available when on personal travel

Here is how i see the options i selected (Avianca, United, SQ)

Avianca
+ no fuel surcharge
+ cheap buying of miles
+ relaxed miles expiry rules
+ reasonable award chart
- doubts about customer service telephone
- no chance of getting status since it requires flying on Avianca

United
+ no fuel surcharge
+ relaxed miles expiry rules
+ reasonable award chart
+ user friendly booking system
- award chart looks less attractive than avianca
- little chance of getting status since it requires flying on UA


Singapore Airlines
+ 25% bonus mileage from silver onwards
+ abilty of accrueing credit card spending
+ chance of getting status
-very high fuel surcharge
-miles expiry rules
- award chart on partners unattractive


would be great if you could let me know if there is any parameter that i have missed and if you could give me advise on the choice

(1) London (LHR/LGW/LCY)
(2) F
(3) >50k but enough to get and keep BA gold
(4) BA gold
(5) Good award redemption rates and miles that don't expire each year
(6) LHR-JNB, and LHR-SFO/LAX, SFO-BOS/YYZ and BOS/NYC-LON
(7) BA but have to fly United/Lufthansa/Swiss/Air Canada on certain routes and pick up "bitty" miles.
(8) Generally work with some choice.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.): PHX
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.): C or domestic F
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k): >150K, but most are on OW now that US has merged with AA. Most *A now will be on intra-Europe LH/LX, OZ, or SQ where a OW option doesn't make sense. This may be anywhere from 0-50K/year and is not predictable.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) BA 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.) Lounge access, and/or the option to book into F on LH/LX/SQ/OZ
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) by number of flights, half domestic, half TATL/TPAC, though the mileage is skewed towards international
(7) Preferred Airlines on *A, OZ, SQ, LH, LX, NZ, TK
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) Work, and I usually have a choice.

Hello. I'm planning to switch from OneWorld to *A, mainly due to the fact that my girlfriend is moving to IAH, a UA hub, which will be my only choice if I want to visit her non-stop. I currently have OW Sapphire (AA PLT), but I'm starting to fly a little bit less next year.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
PIT
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
Usually the cheapest Y available
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
35k-40k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
AA Platinum
(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 and redemption
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Twice a year on TPAC, and a few US domestic trips
(7) Preferred Airlines
UA for domestic, NH and UA for TPAC
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Because I pay for myself, I'd prefer to go with the cheapest available Y. But I surely will go with *A on all my trips.

I was thinking about OZ, but apparently OZ doesn't offer a status match. I'm also considering matching to UA Gold (I can do 12.5k in 90 days), go with that for a year, and get a TK elite with a match again. Which one do you think is better, or do you have any other recommendations?

Thanks for your help!

I just took a promotion that has me moving to Singapore in August. Is there any reason for me to consider an arirline to status Match to besides Singapore Air?

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) SIN
(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 not sure how much, but, I guess after a year it will be north of 100K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc) Delta Diamond
(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 rates, then Priority service, then lounge and Upgrades
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) This will me mostly intra Asia, with one flight a year to the US
(7) Preferred Airlines
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) I travel for Work, but, I can choose my airlines as long as not much more expensive then other Full Service Airlines

(1) What is your home airport? HKG
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Under 5h Y, Over 5h J
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? ~140k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? CX (SL), AC (SE)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good award redemption rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? HKG-ZRH/SIN/YVR/MEL
(7) Preferred Airlines? SQ
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) Both. Can choose any airlines.

Thanks for the advice!

Would appreciate a bit of help.
Currently trying to defect from UA Mileage Plus because of the new changes (and the old changes--the PQD requirement). I also generally do not fly UA so much but tend to fly other * Alliance carriers.

I have read around a bit but can't figure out if Turkish or Air Canada or Miles and More or others are the best for me. Would prefer to get *Gold to add to my Delta Gold. Will sometimes do the odd MR to get status. Currently have one of the UA ICN F mistake fares booked, if that's any help.


1-NYC (JFK or EWR)
2-Usually buy cheap economy fares.
3-Overall around 100k, although at least 40K or so go on Delta where I have gold status. I generally do not travel on One World carriers except Cathay and the odd AA flight.
4-UA Silver, Delta Gold.
5-I would like a program that has good award redemption value and availability and if possible allows upgrades, although I realize that from my fare buckets those are unlikely. Alternately, if upgrades aren’t happening, at least priority travel services including premium econ. seating discounts when available, would be good to have. Use my Delta Gold, United Club membership and Priority Pass to get into most lounges.
6-Most often fly transatlantic and to the Middle East. Sometimes to Latin America and Asia, although again my preference is for Cathay and Delta to Asia.
7-Like Turkish a lot. Would like to try Austrian, Thai and Singapore. Haven’t flown Lufthansa for years. Also like Brussels Airlines. Air Canada is ok.
8-Mix between work and pleasure.
9-Do not want to pay YQ on award flights.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Hello there, I'll be flying Amsterdam-Christchurch-Amsterdam with Singapore next week and am deciding which FF program to join. I did a lot of research but that just made my head overheat. Hope you guys will help :-)

(1) What is your home airport? VIE, PRG, BTS
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Economy, I'm price-sensitive
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? NA
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good award redemption rates. I'm not looking for status and lounge access, as I use Diners Club card that lets me in those lounges (I was thinking of joining Aegean, but then figured the gold status would be of not much use to me)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? within Europe
(7) Preferred Airlines? none
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Can you choose your airlines, class of service?) Pleasure, I can choose any airline I wish

Hopefully you folks will help me with my struggle, I myself suffer when choosing among too many options - choice paralysis at its best :-)

Welcome to FT

What booking class with SQ? Will not be Y. Probably will be the first letter of the fare info. It is not your 6 character booking reference
Who do fly with in Europe?
Are you a member of any freq flyer program now?

Hi Mwenenzi and thanks for such a quick reply!

My AMS-SIN and SIN-CHC are booked in Economy W, CHC-SIN and SIN-AMS are Economy Q.

For flights in Europe I mostly use lowcost airlines and those outside of SA, from within Star Alliance I've used Austrian and SAS in the past. In the confusion of past few weeks I've signed up for Aegean, Miles&More and KrisFlyer, but haven't credited any of those with any miles, except for the welcome bonuses.

Hope this helps, thanks!

You won't get any miles on any other FFP other than KF for your flight in Q. I think you only get 25% on Krisflyer. You will get 100% on W class on both KF and other FFP. You might want to contact whoever you issued the ticket with that you want to upbuy your return sector to W class so as to get full miles.

Here's the mileage earning chart for SQ and MI operated flights for reference. Q fares get 50% mileage.