Questions and Answers

I will soon be relocating to the Middle East (not the Gulf) from the US (IAH). It looks like my future employer will be flying me business class on Qatar. I fly mostly Star Alliance, and I neither have status nor any miles in any OneWorld carrier. In fact at the moment, I only have an Avios account.

My initial thoughts are to credit to either AA or JAL. It appears that I would earn 125% on both airlines = ~11K miles. I have ~95K Starwood points (Platinum for the first time) and plan to stay at a Starwood property while looking for a place in my new city. I would probably transfer SPG points for a future redemption, likely in a premium class.

I thought of JAL as I can redeem on Emirates for rates that seem to be less than other partner rates, and it provides another ME carrier option. On the other hand, AA partners with Etihad. While I wouldn’t necessarily be redeeming to go back to IAH, I will visit at least once a year, and Etihad doesn’t fly there. As another piece of information, I have a couple hundred thousand UR points, so I should be able to transfer to Avios for shorter flights within the region.

Should I credit to AA, JAL, or a different program? Thanks! I guess I should also consider whether I should buy any SPG points this time around.

I will soon be relocating to the Middle East (not the Gulf) from the US (IAH). It looks like my future employer will be flying me business class on Qatar. I fly mostly Star Alliance, and I neither have status nor any miles in any OneWorld carrier. In fact at the moment, I only have an Avios account.

My initial thoughts are to credit to either AA or JAL. It appears that I would earn 125% on both airlines = ~11K miles. I have ~95K Starwood points (Platinum for the first time) and plan to stay at a Starwood property while looking for a place in my new city. I would probably transfer SPG points for a future redemption, likely in a premium class.

I thought of JAL as I can redeem on Emirates for rates that seem to be less than other partner rates, and it provides another ME carrier option. On the other hand, AA partners with Etihad. While I wouldn’t necessarily be redeeming to go back to IAH, I will visit at least once a year, and Etihad doesn’t fly there. As another piece of information, I have a couple hundred thousand UR points, so I should be able to transfer to Avios for shorter flights within the region.

Should I credit to AA, JAL, or a different program? Thanks! I guess I should also consider whether I should buy any SPG points this time around.

I will soon be relocating to the Middle East (not the Gulf) from the US (IAH). It looks like my future employer will be flying me business class on Qatar. I flew mostly Star Alliance in the past, and I have neither status nor miles in any OneWorld carrier. In fact at the moment, I only have an Avios account.

My initial thoughts are to credit to either AA or JAL. It appears that I would earn 125% in both programs = ~11K miles. I have ~95K Starwood points (Platinum for the first time) and plan to stay at a Starwood property while looking for a place in my new city. I would probably transfer SPG points for a future redemption in a premium cabin. I should also consider whether to buy SPG points this time around.

I thought of JAL as I can redeem on Emirates for rates that seem to be less than other partner rates, and it provides another ME carrier option. On the other hand, AA partners with Etihad. While I wouldn’t necessarily be redeeming to go back to IAH, I will visit at least once a year, and Etihad doesn’t fly there. As another piece of information, I have a couple hundred thousand UR points, so I could transfer to Avios for shorter flights within the region.

Should I credit to AA, JAL, or a different program? Thanks!

hi txtp, have you had a chance to read: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/08/06/credit-airline-miles/?[/URL] I’d recommend it as a starting point. Unfortunately there are no perfect answers. You’ll have to choose which type of award to shoot for and start banking miles/points towards that objective. Couple of things to keep in mind: Even though EY doesn’t fly directly to IAH, you can add AA connections to get to your final destination. Also if you are going to have an extended stay at SPG, make sure they don’t have a max stay cap to earn SPG points.

[QUOTE=”Gaurav, post: 23858, member: 79″]hi txtp, have you had a chance to read: [URL]http://onemileatatime.boardingarea.com/2016/08/06/credit-airline-miles/?[/URL] I’d recommend it as a starting point. Unfortunately there are no perfect answers. You’ll have to choose which type of award to shoot for and start banking miles/points towards that objective. Couple of things to keep in mind: Even though EY doesn’t fly directly to IAH, you can add AA connections to get to your final destination. Also if you are going to have an extended stay at SPG, make sure they don’t have a max stay cap to earn SPG points.[/QUOTE]
Thanks Gaurav. I didn’t even realize that there is a cap for SPG. I looked it up on Flyertalk, and it is 90 days. I get a per diem for 30 days. The nightly rate per the website is ~60% of my per diem, and there is apparently special rates for my organization if I book with the hotel. Hopefully, it won’t take me 90 days to find a more permanent place.

I still have a little bit of time to decide on which program to credit the flights to.

It’s not that big a deal as long as you can plan for it. You’d just have to check out for a a night at 89 days and then check back in to start the clock on a new stay :).

After looking into this topic more, I’m going to open an American account and credit there. The Middle East to at least Europe, Asia, and South Asia charts seem to be more advantageous on American than the JAL distance based charts. I did a Master’s in Paris and haven’t been back in over 2 years, so it is time for a visit. For those trips, I would probably try to book EY since QR markets the regional leg Js as “F”, but I guess on the upside I would get F (if offered) on the longer leg as well.