Questions and Answers

Hi!

In the upcoming months I’ll travel on every single weekend to another city (70%+ of the time to another country) so most of the time I’ll pay for one-way tickets. I was trying to get as much information about the whole frequent flyer “game” as possible so now finally I have an idea about how to accumulate the most miles possible but I’m still curious to your opinion.

I think I’ll stay with SPG all the time because over a 100 nights I’ll qualify for the Ambassador level which earns me 4 Starpoints / USD plus they give 25% transfer bonus if I convert these points to miles with certain airlines. The effective rate is 5 miles / USD then.

My credit card earns me 3 miles / USD on all expenses that I can transfer to the following schemes: Etihad, Delta, British Airways, Qatar Airways, Asia Miles, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Thai Airways. So I’ll get an 8 miles / USD that I spend on hotels (Starpoints + credit card rewards).

Alternatively I can opt for an Emirates rewards card that earns 1.5 Skyward miles / USD plus SPG offer plus one point with Emirates. It’s 6.5 miles / USD total.

The one and only question I have left is which airline should I choose? Since most of my flights will be one-way flights, mostly long-haul flights, I would doubt if I can stick to one airline so I think Emirates is not appropriate but oneworld or star alliance may be.

I don’t know too much about these programs but BA Executive Club seems to be the most straightforward. I can qualify for the Gold Guest List (GGL) level and for the Concorde Room card as well within 6 months since I’ll purchase first class only. Do I have any chance to get a Premier level with BA or any other “secret” level with any airline?

My total monthly spending (business, personal, travel, etc.) will get me 250,000+ miles a month not including the miles I get from the carrier.

So, the question is what would you do with 3+ million miles? Where would you accumulate it? Furthermore I would love to get a really high status with an airline because I’ll spend a lot on tickets. Which airline will treat me the best, which one will give me a really high status with a $20,000+ a month expenditure?

Goodness gracious, that’s a lot of flying/spending. To clarify, is there a particular route you’ll be flying most often? Typically the highest level invite only status offered by airlines is determined largely by how much you fly with them as opposed to their partner airlines, and most airlines don’t have a “truly” global route network.

Thanks for the quick response!
80%+ of the time I’ll be traveling between these places: LHR, DXB, SYD, LAX, JFK, SFO, CDG, PVG, HKG, SIN, BKK, YYZ, FCO, MAD, TXL, AKL, AMS, NAS.

So the question is whether I should stick to BA as many times as possible or I should stick to oneworld and/or star alliance? I could accumulate 50-50% to British Airways and Singapore Airlines since both are supported by my card and by SPG as well. Personally I wouldn’t use the awards at all because I don’t want to lose the status instead I would like to be able to use these miles for my family and relatives so they would have a lots of free flights (only the taxes and airline fees are payable with BA as far as I know).

What would you do in my case?
Previously I’ve been using kayak.com for tickets until I get to know this whole FF thing however I’m still not sure whether it’s worth to pay some premium to travel with a certain airline when it’s cheaper with an other one. My next flight is $5,000 with BA and $3,500 with Turkish according to Kayak. On the other hand it would be a stupidity not to earn the maximum amount of points with this much of spending.

So, Ben I’m listening to your opinion 🙂 Thanks in advance!

ps: I would love to see a youtube channel from you!

Hah, this is an intriguing travel schedule you are. Is this mostly paid business class travel, economy fares, or something else?

Paid first class whenever available. This is why I’ve mentioned the $20k+ monthly flight expense. Btw according to my calculation I could earn at least 8,000 tier points each year with BA. I’m sure you will come up with some really smart solution, I trust you.

With business class international travel, you can rake up the miles really fast ! you can get Elite status in just 4 round trips based on your schedule. try [URL=”http://www.yapta.com”]www.yapta.com[/URL] for flight prices . they are really good and in many cases, beat kayak, hands down.
I personally would stick with one airline and one hotel brand. advantage to that is if you accumulate a certain number of miles and points you get life time status..and then that serves you in the long run. For example if you collect 1 million miles with American = life time Gold, 2 Million = Life time Platinum, 3 Million = Life Time Exec Plat. Same time with SPG , 5 years , 250 nights , life time Gold, 10 years or 500 nights – life time Platinum.

Hah, still intrigued by all of this. Ultimately if you’re already flying first class, I’m not sure I see the benefit of any status with British Airways. You’ll already get Concorde Room access if flying first class. That being said, if they have reasonable fares and work for your travel patterns, then they’re a great option, I think.

Andrew, I don’t see any difference between kayak and yapta since they’re using kayak’s search engine. American Airline is not for me since I don’t live in the States because of tax reasons.