Advice please - Which *A Frequent Flyer Program for the Parentals?

[TraceyK90]

Looking at joining the parentals in laws up to a *A FF program.

What do you think is the best option for this type of travel?

They would do 1-2 overseas trips per year on a Star Alliance to Canada, USA, UK, Singapore and Hong Kong over the next 5 years. Travel would be in Y or premium if a good deal came along.

Dp any allow points pooling for family members or transfers are a low cost?

Thanks and Happy Travels
TB

 

[Moopere]

I'm in a somewhat similar situation ... not much planned *A travel, maybe 2 flights per year which might dwindle to almost nothing once MH finally joins OW (sheesh, come on ... we're all waiting!!!).

Am seriously looking at Aegean (A3). 20K miles per year will get you *A Gold and whilst FF miles are sector based, not miles based, the burn rate doesn't look too awful (depending on where you want to go). Note that its extremely unlikely I will ever fly on Aegean metal .. I'm looking for easy *A Gold so that my Y flights with TG or SQ allow me lounge access.

Note however that A3 doesn't appear to allow family or any other type of miles transfer.

If I were to do a lot more *A travel I'd probably more seriously look at Krisflyer or Royal Orchid Plus or maybe even Mileage Plus

 

[Flashback]

A3 is good for status, US Airways is good for earning/burning. It depends on what you want to get out of the program.

 

[TraceyK90]

Earning/Burning, they wont fly enough to get status.

 

[Moopere]

Earning/Burning, they wont fly enough to get status.

Are you sure? This is why I suggested A3. 20K miles from Australia to almost anywhere ... certainly europe or the USA/Canada is likely to be fairly easy. Will make the Y journeys that little bit easier.

As for earn/burn with only 1-2 trips a year (like me with *A) its likely you'll only accrue a fairly small pile of points in whichever program you choose. Of course, if you intend to gain points from elsewhere to help with the travels (credit card for example) then KrisFlyer is probably going to serve you best if based in Australia. Other options exist of course, but gaining miles from CC is a bit limited here.... Amex however might present some interesting possibilities for SQ or TG or NZ ... all *A carriers.

 

[Fantic125]

Asiana Airlines FF program is another one worth looking at. You have two years to attain (and 2 years to retain) status so if you fly less frequently you still have the opportunity to attain *A Silver or *A Gold.

20,000 miles to attain *A Silver, 40,000 to attain *A Gold.

Miles don't expire for 7 or 10 years depending on status, and you can do family transfers.

Earn/burn isn't too bad either.

 

[TraceyK90]

Thanks everyone. We are going with asian a for the following reasons, 7 year expiry, 2 years to earn status and family transfers!

 

[Isochronous]

Thanks everyone. We are going with asian a for the following reasons, 7 year expiry, 2 years to earn status and family transfers!

Good luck to them Tracey!

 

[Simo]

Happy travels look forward to some TR's

 

[TraceyK90]

Actually I ended up changing and going with air Canada, due to an offer and we can use the points to pay for some of their accom, meets their needs, not sure I would do the same thing. I would rather collect the points for future travel but they all say it's their last big trip????

Simo, we are already over here, I can put together a couple of trs, would have to put up with some photography from a five year old!