Questions and Answers

Based in Phuket, my friend is planning using MH to fly RT to Manila in business about 2x a month for the next 12 months. He is asking what program to credit them to (AA, BA, MH, IB, QR, CX,..)? He will redeem the miles mostly for award trips from HKT to SE Asia and Europe. Thanks.

Hi,

I’m OW Emerald with Airberlin and have already requalified for next year. However there are still 2 more business flights with LAN to South America and CX to Asia coming up this year.
Since you can’t buy first class award tickets with Airberlin topbonus miles I’m looking for another OW program to credit the miles for those flights. I’m especially interested in F flights from Europe to Asia or Australia.
I also have some Amex Membership reward Points that I could transfer to this new program.
What would be the best program, if you are looking for First Class Awards (2 per flight) and don’t want to book at short notice?

Best regards
Henmar

Picking the program to use for redemptions and availability of F seats are two different things. The program you’re using to redeem cant control availability of F seats – that’s all at the discretion of the operating carrier.

In terms of [I]redeeming[/I] miles, I’d say the AAdvantage program still has its merits. Paid business class fares on LAN or CX credited to AAdvantage will earn 125% at the current rates. However, I’d wait to find out how earning on partners work first before crediting though.

AS is also a decent place to credit LAN and CX flights, both earning 125% for paid business class. However, most redemptions must begin or end in the US. You [I]can [/I]redeem Europe to Asia, but youre limited only to CX. Europe to Australia will require 2 awards, Europe to Asia and Asia to Australia, and only on CX.

Where are you based and what other airlines do you fly?

Hi,

thanks for the fast reply! I’m based in Germany and mostly fly AB , rarely LH (1 Business flight to the US coming up this summer with LH).

Forgot to add the booking class in my first post, it’s I for CX and Z for LA, so I should get 125% on all other OW airlines?

Best regards
Henning

Generally it is 125% but always check to make sure. AA’s earning rates are found here: [URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/miles/partner-airlines.jsp[/URL]

[USER=1996]@henmar[/USER] — Welcome! You can also check wheretocredit.com to give you an idea as to what programs credit at what rates. I’ve found it to be pretty accurate.

hi DCBanker, I’d suggest he look at wheretocredit.com to see what he will earn for his booking class and milez.biz to calculate the cost of awards he is interested in. Hopefully this will help him figure out a good solution.

Thanks for the tips, they are really helpful! If I try to get award seats for CX F or QR F, are there differences in available award space when redeeming points from AA or redeeming points from BA, CX etc..? Or are there always the same number of seats available?
And are there differences in extra costs (taxes, fuel surcharges) between the different programs, which I also have to take in account besides the number of miles?

If saver seats are available, they are generally available to all partners. It wouldn’t matter which program you book with in terms of getting a seat.

However, number of miles/points needed to book the seat as well as fees is different across programs.

AAdvantage’s chart is zone based, generally does not allow transit via a third region, and does not allow stopovers of more than 24 hours internationally or 4 hours domestically. AAdvantage does not pass along fuel surcharges unless it’s BA or IB.

BA’s chart is distance based and passes along fuel surcharges I believe. There arent any routing restrictions since you’re paying for each segment.

Hi,

I normally fly Star Alliance and am based out of Singapore, but I came across some attractive OneWorld business class fares and wanted to know the best overall program to:
a) earn status quickly
b) use miles for redeeming award flights

Thanks

[USER=1997]@Nalin[/USER], there are some good suggestions on the posts upstream in this thread.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 17771, member: 79″]hi DCBanker, I’d suggest he look at wheretocredit.com to see what he will earn for his booking class and milez.biz to calculate the cost of awards he is interested in. Hopefully this will help him figure out a good solution.[/QUOTE]
Hi Gaurav, thanks a lot. Very useful sites, these two. Fantastic.
In the case of my friend flying exclusively business tickets with MH, it is about a wash between AA, MH and CX programs for accrual, but for redemption CX seems better for award to Europe (HKT LHR is 120K vs 150K for AA and 135K/142K for MH) and also get elite status faster (12 months instead of calendar year) when starting in mid year. However, I am not totally clear about Marco Polo, which costs $100 to join (is it only for status and lounges and do you not get status also with CX Asiamiles?) nor if the taxes and fees are the same. Is Marco Polo worth, when you fly mostly MH business?

[USER=2007]@DCBanker[/USER], I’m not super familiar with the CX programs (being US based) but hopefully this will help: [URL]http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/cathay-pacific-marco-polo-club/1516988-pre-15-april-2016-asia-miles-marco-polo-club-membership-earn-burn-faqs.html[/URL]