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Old Oct 22, 2018, 12:16 am
  #1  
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Best strategy from SEA

Hey guys,

Apologies if this is in the wrong place but it doesn't fall neatly into a single airline program.
I've done most of my previous travel on AA/OneWorld but not been traveling much for work recently.

AA was great out of LAX but now is quite painful out of SEA, especially with miles not being awarded on AS domestic flights as they are usually cheaper than the AA ticket

I'll be flying for business more often going forward, mostly to SIN and not sure what's the best strategy. Domestic travel is mostly LAX/BUR for family trips

Just flew Singapore Airlines via SFO and the service was second to none (although food mostly inedible in coach). Credited the miles to Alaska but there are so many Elites on AS from SEA that I don't know if its worth to continue that

Options
1. Fly Singapore air and credit to AS
2. Fly Singapore and credit to KrisAir -- may be better than AA for me, but I hate United with a passion
3. Fly AA/JAL through LAX (Or ugg DFW ??) and credit to AA - Lifetime gold is in reach shortly here
4. Something else entirely ...

Company also only pays for coach although may be able to stretch it to PremiumEconomy if a good deal comes up.

Does anyone have any thoughts or better ideas ?
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 1:38 am
  #2  
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Well , how “ shortly “ is ‘ Lifetime gold is in reach shortly here ‘ ?
Will flying AA for personal get you here / there ?

Would still do 1 .
Unless you fly at least J , best hold off 2



1. Fly Singapore air and credit to AS
2. Fly Singapore and credit to KrisAir -- may be better than AA for me, but I hate United with a passion
3. Fly AA/JAL through LAX (Or ugg DFW ??) and credit to AA - Lifetime gold is in reach shortly here
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 6:27 am
  #3  
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Originally Posted by FlyerEC
Well , how “ shortly “ is ‘ Lifetime gold is in reach shortly here ‘ ?
Will flying AA for personal get you here / there ?

Would still do 1 .
Unless you fly at least J , best hold off 2



1. Fly Singapore air and credit to AS
2. Fly Singapore and credit to KrisAir -- may be better than AA for me, but I hate United with a passion
3. Fly AA/JAL through LAX (Or ugg DFW ??) and credit to AA - Lifetime gold is in reach shortly here
Need around 100K miles for lifetime gold, so with family trips around 75 years haha!
Assuming the JAL flights when booked with AA flight # still count for lifetime this would come down to about 1.5 years or less
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 7:40 am
  #4  
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Patience, grasshopper. You must have missed the announcements that JAL is starting SEA-NRT service in March and Cathay Pacific is starting SEA-HKG on April 1.
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 7:42 am
  #5  
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Where do you plan to redeem your award miles? For awards, are you usually date-flexible or pretty locked in on specific times you can travel?

AS has some great sweet spots (mainly to and within Asia) but they have a lot tighter availability than, say, searching across the whole Star Alliance with UA miles.
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 7:48 am
  #6  
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Originally Posted by limeyx
Need around 100K miles for lifetime gold, so with family trips around 75 years haha!
Assuming the JAL flights when booked with AA flight # still count for lifetime this would come down to about 1.5 years or less
Best check out if the JAL will qualify with AA # .

Enjoy SIA while you can . Like AS too . Perhaps try both routings though personally prefer SFO .
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 8:26 am
  #7  
 
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In OP's shoes I would probably fly JAL, especially with the SEA nonstop coming soon (they also fly out of SFO and YVR), then credit the miles to AA and burn the miles for the personal trips to California (either on AA or AS metal, most likely AS because of AA's silly award redemption routings).
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 9:43 am
  #8  
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Originally Posted by Gardyloo
Patience, grasshopper. You must have missed the announcements that JAL is starting SEA-NRT service in March and Cathay Pacific is starting SEA-HKG on April 1.
Interesting, did not know about that one .... could definitely be a good option, thanks for pointing it out !
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 9:45 am
  #9  
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Originally Posted by pinniped
Where do you plan to redeem your award miles? For awards, are you usually date-flexible or pretty locked in on specific times you can travel?

AS has some great sweet spots (mainly to and within Asia) but they have a lot tighter availability than, say, searching across the whole Star Alliance with UA miles.
I usually credit everything to AA, save up enough miles to take the kids to visit the (other) family England on the 1/2 price business awards and then have a miserable time lumping half my house around visiting my folks in England in February because thats the only time the awards seem to be available !

This worked less worse out of LAX though, before i moved to SEA
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Old Oct 22, 2018, 2:18 pm
  #10  
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AA has been my long-time go-to for off-peak awards to Europe. Just gotta avoid the BA metal, but overall availability hasn't been too awful for me.
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Old Oct 23, 2018, 4:01 pm
  #11  
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Originally Posted by pinniped
AA has been my long-time go-to for off-peak awards to Europe. Just gotta avoid the BA metal, but overall availability hasn't been too awful for me.
Thanks, mine too and kind of like to keep it that way
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Old Oct 23, 2018, 9:37 pm
  #12  
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Originally Posted by limeyx
Options
1. Fly Singapore air and credit to AS
2. Fly Singapore and credit to KrisAir -- may be better than AA for me, but I hate United with a passion
3. Fly AA/JAL through LAX (Or ugg DFW ??) and credit to AA - Lifetime gold is in reach shortly here
4. Something else entirely ...
s ?
Don't do option 3 via DFW. That is unnecessary back tracking. Option 4 has to many stops (SEA-LAX-NRT-SIN) and 3 separate aircraft.

Option 1 versus 2, seems like option 1 is better.

Consider EVA SEA-TPE then to SIN (or SQ TPE-SIN). Consider ANA stopping in NRT. Consider option 1 (SEA-SFO-SIN or SEA-SFO-HKG-SIN).
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Old Oct 23, 2018, 9:43 pm
  #13  
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If the OP weren't close to lifetime status, I'd suggest also considering DL SEA-TYO/NRT-SIN although I'm unsure whether the DL nonstop from SEA currently serves NRT (easy) or HND (painful change of airports, posssibly forcing an overnight in Tokyo).
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Old Oct 23, 2018, 11:22 pm
  #14  
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Originally Posted by Toshbaf
Don't do option 3 via DFW. That is unnecessary back tracking. Option 4 has to many stops (SEA-LAX-NRT-SIN) and 3 separate aircraft.

Option 1 versus 2, seems like option 1 is better.

Consider EVA SEA-TPE then to SIN (or SQ TPE-SIN). Consider ANA stopping in NRT. Consider option 1 (SEA-SFO-SIN or SEA-SFO-HKG-SIN).
Thanks.I really appreciate the advice (and from the poster below too!)

This is all really helpful
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Old Oct 24, 2018, 8:08 am
  #15  
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Strong “ rumour “ : SIA possibly by sometime in April 2019 SIN SEA SIN !
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