ChrisHubbard

Good evening,

I have started a new job that has me airlining fairly often, roughly 3 or 4 flights per month, the majority of which will be international in J.

Unfortunately, I have little control over the airline booked. I live in DFW and the only status I currently have is UA silver through my Marriott PP, although I have 24k EQM on United so far this year.

I have an upcoming flight on Lufthansa DUB-FRA-KWI in J, am I better off earning UA miles or LH M&M?

Many thanks!

mahasamatman

I recommend this thread in the Star Alliance forum: Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here

Mwenenzi

UA

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, better service when disruptions, ability to upgrade flights, possible operational upgrades and simpler to earn non flying ff miles/points.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recent changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the useful benefits are somewhat limited. Low cost fares are tending to earn few ff miles, but depend on the ffp. Earning miles from non flying activities is easier with an airline ffp of your home country.

LH ff miles have a hard expiry if you do not have elite M&M status. Expiry---> Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

WineCountryUA

Due to expiration issues, the need to get a critical mass for award travel and status, and problems with orphan miles (miles in programs you effectively can not use) it is best of focus on 1 or max 2 airlines per alliance if you do not have a choice on the carrier.

Don't look at a single flight but rather what you might expect to do over the next year or two. Do you have any idea of your future flight pattern?

Repooc17

As a DFW-based flyer, and given you'd have no control over acquisition of tickets, one would think AA (oneworld)'s ffp might be better suited on going forward basis.

By the way, congrats on your new job.

WineCountryUA

For OW alliance flights, but will not help for crediting the LH flight.

Repooc17

Exactly! The LH ticket should be credited to LH ffp, or one of its partners. Going forward on future flights, one of oneworld ffps might be more useful, given OP's home base.

jsloan

If you're flying international J 3-4x per month, you have two options: aim for the absolute top-tier status on a single airline (e.g., United Global Services) -- difficult to do without the ability to influence your airline -- or go for the almost-top-tier status (UA 1K) on two or three airlines, spread between the various alliances.

What I would do in your situation is try to determine the most likely airlines you'll be flying -- ask your colleagues, for example -- and pick the most appealing program out of each alliance. Then, whenever you're flying that alliance, credit to the corresponding account. The default choices of UA, AA, and DL for a US-based flyer make sense, but you're going to find it difficult to earn UA status unless you take quite a few UA-operated flights.

As a reality check, BTW, 3-4 international J trips per month is a lot of flying. Do you mean 3-4 round-trip flights per month, starting and ending in DFW? Unless "international" often means Mexico / Central America, you're talking 5-10% or more of your year spent inside an airplane.

ChrisHubbard

Hipplewm

Be aware, you can "Credit" your LH flights to UA, but you won't earn status with UA unless the tickets are purchased thru UA (016 ticket vs 220) as you will not earn PQD. You can spend on the CC for a waiver up to Plat level, but not for 1K.

Also, if you fly Int'l J that much consistently, you will 99% be eligible for whatever top tier invite only access, but you probably should pool your point into one program and all of THOSE programs require you to fly the metal of their company. For instance spending 200K with united to fly Lufthansa gets you nothing extra, but if you flew UA metal and spent 60K, you would most easily become a GS and open up a whole new realm of possibilities for travel incentives.

jsloan

Ah, OK. That's much more reasonable. It's still a lot of flying.

Right, that's exactly what I meant when I said that it would be hard to earn UA status without flying UA metal often. Since OP isn't controlling his own ticket purchases, I don't think flying Lufthansa (LH) on United (016) tickets is very likely. (OP: If that's your goal, it would be worth asking if UA codeshares were available -- UA-coded LH flights would likely be issued on United tickets).

Something like GS would be great but likely requires having some input into the ticket purchases. Somebody based in DFW is unlikely to become GS without making an effort to fly UA.

Hipplewm

@ChrisHubbard When you say you have "little Control" over what flights/airlines you get booked on. Can you be more specific. I mean you have an oppurtunity to make your life very easy for pleasure flying if you can do a few things in your bookings. If you have literally zero control, well then cest la vie. If we had a slightly better idea, then we can maybe help. Like, are you required to use concur, with sliders for what time you want to leave etc...

ChrisHubbard

Thanks for the replies guys.

My DFW-FRA flight was on UA through IAH. I had a flight a couple months ago GDN-CPH-EWR-DFW on SAS, but the last leg was on UA, I'm at $7.5k PQD thus far.

I was talking to a co-worker who tells me he routinely influences the travel department to work with him, but he's also worked here for 11 years. I'm brand new and don't want to rock the boat.

findark

With 7.5k PQD year to date, I think you should be fine. You just need to get over 12k one way or another and then it doesn't matter.

ChrisHubbard

I will know potentially a week in advance what my city pairs might be, and then roughly 24-48hrs prior to departure I will know my PNR and airline. I do not book anything myself. One upside is that they are buying fairly late minute meaning high PQD and usually full fare J.

From taking to my co-worker, once he knows the city pairs he will start looking at flights on kayak or whatever, and once he finds one he likes he'll email our travel department and request it. Like I said, I am a little hesitant to do so myself being that I'm new to the company.