Best FF for Qatar and Singapore?

[Be18]

Hi

Could someone please tell me which is the best frequent flyer programme to claim points from both Qatar and Singapore airlines? I am flying from Brisbane to Singapore with Singapore Airlines then from Singapore with Qatar and don’t really want to put points in two separate programmes.

I am looking for the best program to earn and redeem (even when flying with another airline). I have looked at United Airlines and US airways, which both seem ok but I’m not sure what they are like for using points to upgrade on other airlines! Does anybody know?

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[serfty]

Welcome to AFF

It seems few here have enough experience with both Qatar and Singapore airlines to anser your query.

How much travelling on them do you do?

 

[Be18]

Thank you for your reply. To be honest it's my first time travelling with QR and it's been a while since i travelled with SQ (previous pointsand my krisflyer account had expiredwhen I checked!). I do at least one trip to Asia and one to UK every year (usually business or mixed class!). I was loyal to Emirates for a long time because they offered great prices and service and remained with them because I got gold status, but they were just too expensive this time. Depending on my QR/SQ experience I may stick with them but would be good to know I could use the points with other airlines too. I also noticed the individual ff programmes weren't great for the airlines I am travelling so thought another airline that I could collect points with and claim on other airlines with would be better (if that makes sense?).

Thank you again.

 

[ric_melb]

Yours is an interesting question. No doubt you have analysed which airline you can earn points for, on both Qatar and Singapore.
In principle not a bad idea to have all points in one program. Maybe United is better than US Airways, only because United fly here.
I must admit that I have no personal experience in this regard, just thinking out loud!
The other thing is you mention points upgrades. I think it's not common to be able to use one airlines points to upgrade on another airline.

 

[serfty]

...
The other thing is you mention points upgrades. I think it's not common to be able to use one airlines points to upgrade on another airline.

This can be done between *A airlines but gernally only from the more expensive economy fares ...

 

[dajop]

If you plan flying within the next month, and using the miles in the next 8 weeks, the BMI program would be OK, with points plus pay options for redemptions. But as BMI is being sold (to BA), unless you are earning and using the miles urgently I would advise against it. Also is this economy or business? In economy, be wary that SQ fares often don't earn any miles, and on Qatar in some programs cheaper fares only earn a percentage of travelled miles.

 

[casanovawa]

Me personally, i have a membership with US Airways and if i was to fly either of those two airlines (or other *A airlines) I would try to get it credited to US Air... The only proviso would be to look at what rate they earn points with US Air, i recently looked at QR and I think most fares on them earns at least 50% of the mileage with some classes earning 100%, didn't look at SQ but would imagine they are similar?

I took out the US Air membership simply because they have frequent 100% bonus mile sales and even though the cost of buying the miles has recently gone up slightly, they still seem like they have a pretty decent burn rate for redeeming for awards especially with minimal taxes and charges due to fuel surcharges not being included... So the ability to buy points with regular 100% bonus offers would make that my program of choice, not that i have studied United's indepth... And the fact that United fly here would hardly tempt me too much, doesn't there 747 service not even have IFE in Y (not sure which type of class you usually travel in)???

Haven't really looked into the situation about using US air Dividend miles to try to upgrade an SQ or QR booking...

So anyway, if you don't know much about the 100% bonus schemes with US Air there is a thread on here that you might want to read, but you may already know about it... Just my 20 cents worth anyway...