Questions and Answers

Hello,

I am from Hong Kong and now live in Amsterdam, I travel 5-6 times each year between Europe and Asia and also once a year to the United States (mostly in business class), I also fly a lot on intra-Europe and intra-Asia short haul flights. I tend to only fly on OneWorld member airlines, since I’m from Hong Kong (so I fly a lot on Cathay Pacific, my parents are both Marco Polo Club diamond members) and OneWorld member airlines always have the cheapest fare on business class out of Europe. I am now members of CX Marco Polo, QR Privilege Club and Finnair Plus (and many more, with other alliances) , I joined all these FF program before I enter this mileage and point obsession so I regret it so much! My mileages and points are so separated into different accounts and I am now only Silver member with QR, but if I were to keep all my OW flights mileage in one account, I could have been a gold member (OW Sapphire) already.

So my question here is,
Which OneWorld frequent flyer’s program is the best when it comes to the overall benefits, earning and redeeming miles? Given that I mainly fly in between Europe and Asia, so I guess AA or LATAM really shouldn’t be the first priority. Thanks!

,Justin

Welcome [USER=1447]@Justin[/USER]

Well the easiest way to get Oneworld Emerald on is probably BA.

This article cover almost every thing you want to know about BA Executive Club.
[URL]http://www.loungebuddy.com/british-airways-executive-club-the-ultimate-guide/[/URL]

But as you can see it has it’s downsides;

Since each segment is in practice a separate award when it comes to cost of Avios it can add up fast if you don’t live in a Oneworld hub or is flying to one.

BA charges high fees for long haul award redemption’s, which can make an award very expensive.

You need to fly 4 segments on BA each year, but EU short haul is OK.

There are however some upside as well;
Avios are very good for short haul awards

Avios can be good value for upgrades on BA
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/09/20/upgrade-british-airways-avios/[/URL]

As I said to begin with, top status on Oneworld is easy to get on BA, you need 1500 Tier points.

In J you earned 40 Tier points for flight up to 2K miles, 140 Tier points for over 2K miles and 160 Tier points for over 6K miles. This mean that say FRA-DOH-HKG R/T would earn 560 Tier points, add 4 BA economy segments in Europe and you would be OW Sapphire.

Here is a very useful site for finding out how many Tier Points and Avios you will earn on Oneworld carriers.
[URL]http://www.owenrudge.net/utils/bacalc/[/URL]

AA is for the moment the best for earning and redeeming miles, problem is that are going to be a devaluation of the program in March and for their own flights they are going revenue based earning in the second half of the year.
[URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2015/11/17/2016-aadvantage-program-details/[/URL]

Another problem is that AA has not given a clear answer to what earning rates are going to be on other Oneworld carriers
From AA website:
Earning award miles for travel on most flights marketed by partner airlines will be based on a percentage of the flight distance and the fare class purchased. Exact calculations will be available in the future.
[URL]https://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/programDetails/AAdvantage2016.jsp[/URL]

AA has the same requirement as BA, 4 segments flown on their flights. Which might be a bit hard if you don’t visit the US.

[USER=268]@No Name[/USER] OMG you’re amazing! Thank you so much! The links are very helpful.

[USER=268]@No Name[/USER] I just recently joined and found&read this post. Great insights and I did take a look at the BA FF program from the link you’ve provided.

I do have one question, do I need to fly on BA flights in order to maintain or qualify for the FF program? Since I live in Indonesia and there’s no BA operated flights here (as far as I know) but for my flights to HKG I do take it on OW airlines, CX.

I’m just really fed up with Marco Polo Club and more fed up after reading your post. Their Club Points system is so ridiculous, I get 25 Club Points on Business (I Class) for flight sector SUB-HKG with over 2K miles in Asia Miles. Whereas when I fly on CX from SIN-BKK with 1/2 the price, time and miles, I also get 25 Club Points. I’ve lodged 2 complaints regarding this matter and have yet to hear back from them.

If only I found this post earlier last year, and without flying on BA flights at all does not disqualifies me, I would’ve been a BAEC Gold and OW Emerald by my next trip which is in March 2017. I flew 8x SUB-HKG, 2x HKG-HGH, 2x HKG-PVG and 2x SIN-BKK all on CX Business (I Class) from Aug’16 to Jan’17

Now I’m really considering the BAEC FF as one of my alternative. The other alternative is to resurrect my KF membership and make my route a little bit more expensive and time consuming (SUB-SIN-HKG).

[URL]https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/tiers-and-benefits/about-tier-points[/URL]

It says you need to fly BA at least 4 times in addition to getting 1500 Tier points to qualify for gold. However it does also say that codeshared BA flights are also valid, meaning you should be able to book BA flights operated by CX/MH to qualify.

However – have you thought about redemptions? BA’s award chart is great for short haul flights but long haul flights can get very pricey, made worse by their fuel surcharges. The good thing is that award travel originating in HK drastically lowers the fuel surcharges on awards.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 26693, member: 29″][URL]https://www.britishairways.com/en-us/executive-club/tiers-and-benefits/about-tier-points[/URL]

It says you need to fly BA at least 4 times in addition to getting 1500 Tier points to qualify for gold. However it does also say that codeshared BA flights are also valid, meaning you should be able to book BA flights operated by CX/MH to qualify.

However – have you thought about redemptions? BA’s award chart is great for short haul flights but long haul flights can get very pricey, made worse by their fuel surcharges. The good thing is that award travel originating in HK drastically lowers the fuel surcharges on awards.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for the insight [USER=29]@David W[/USER]

I wasn’t sure about the fact that I need to fly BA and/or codeshared BA flights operated by CX/MH at least 4 times. Does this mean I need to purchase the ticket from BA website instead of CX/MH?

Redemptions will definitely be the most downside to my case, haven’t given it much thought as I’ve been p!$$3d at Marco Polo Club ever since they changed the way FF gain tier. On top of that you’re not allowed to move more than 1 tier within your anniversary join date. I mean that’s such a bs for me. In 2014 I was a blue KF member, but due to a lot of traveling in that year, although mostly in economy class with few in business, but with a couple of mid-haul and long-haul, I moved from blue to silver in 7 months and silver to gold in 2 months afterwards.

From all the FF membership that I have, I think that the one from KF is the most reasonable in terms of tier achievements and redemption.

I will have to think deep into this redemption point cost from BAEC, maybe you can recommend me another OW membership ^_^

Cheers!