Greetings & Salutations

[Syd Icarus]

G'Day everyone,

I'm an experienced reader of the ff forums forums, but a first time poster and new official member. I am asking for your comments and advice on what best frequent flyer program for me could be.

Background information to help in your analysis and replies:
A new business graduate working an entry-level business position.
I would probably do an International holiday once a year to a new location as I love traveling and have recently stumbled upon this goldmine of travel knowledge.

The locations that I plan to visit for holiday include Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada, China, Japan, Sth Korea (mostly in Asia as I live in Sydney, Australia).
Airport of departure: Sydney.


What I am trying to benefit from a frequent flyer program:
At my current stage in life of limited leisure travel is to reach gold status of star alliance and/or one world member carrier, with the main aim of access to member's lounges as at this current stage am only able to afford to fly economy seats.

I have done some flying and traveling in my time... and have flown different airlines such as Singapore Air (current favourite), Qantas and some American airlines.
I prefer not to fly our nation's carrier Qantas if I can help it. (Hope haven't offended anyone at this forum)

I prefer to fly Virgin Blue over Tiger or Jetstar (2nd preference) domestically.

My other aim for joining in this travel community is to continually grow my knowledge and experiment with frequent flyer programs to find what best suits me and my situation.

I have heard through different forums about the Greek airline Aegean and their Miles & Bonus program that has quick access to Gold Status with limited travel.
I thought that this might suit my current situation. Of course the other perks of status such as upgrades would be great also.

So my question from my speel is... Which frequent flyer program would you recommend for my current situation with the program where the status lasts for reasonable period of time and is not too difficult to maintain.

I had a look at the different lounge access requirements at the below link/url:

staralliance.com/en/ benefits/lounges/lounge-finder/

And many of the star alliance gold cards do not gain access to lounges at many countries flying on an economy ticket. But with an Aegean Miles & Bonus Gold card, it gains access to most if not all lounges accessible to Business Class flyers.


A plug for a blogger that I have read many trip reports of member PitBrian did some cool bookings:
"The points guy"

This is the kind of knowledge that I am trying to learn & please recommend websites/forums or other mediums such as flyertalk that I can utilise to soak-up ff travel knowledge.

Sorry for the long-winded introduction. I am trying to provide an overview of what I am trying to achieve.

From personal research, it appears that status on Singapore airlines is hard to achieve and maintain. I have heard chatter about bmi & asiana programs are also reasonably attainable for someone in a similar situation to myself.

In regards to oneworld; American Airlines was recommended for their points validity and ease of member status??

Cheers guys and I hope to hear from you soon.

Syd Icarus

 

[harvyk]

Welcome to AFF...

I think the best idea is to work out what airline you are going to want to fly the most (you did mention SQ) and then join that program (or a program which will be very complementary).

The other thing is you need to make sure what ever loyalty program you chose, it will fit in with your travel plans, not the other way around.

It may seem great to join "outer mongolian airlines" FF program, but if you never travel on them you may become unstuck when they decide your not actually a FF with them, and thus delete all your points. (Many airlines have a minimum number of qualifying segments which you must fly with that airline)

The other thing to consider, how much dom travel do you expect to do vs international travel. If you are going to do a considerable amount of dom travel and only one or two international trips a year, then your only real choice would be OW (which does mean QF \ JQ for dom) if you want status with an alliance. If you will be doing majority of international travel, it does open up more *A and ST options.

 

[JetLagged]

Hey iκαρος, welcome to AFF!

Let me be the first to get in - with all of that flying you are planning on - don't get too close to the sun - or use better quality wax!

 

[Syd Icarus]

Welcome to AFF...

I think the best idea is to work out what airline you are going to want to fly the most (you did mention SQ) and then join that program (or a program which will be very complementary).

I do enjoy flying Singapore airlines but do not believe that I will fly enough to gain status level with this airline. Their points also do not last long, so I've heard.

It may seem great to join "outer mongolian airlines" FF program, but if you never travel on them you may become unstuck when they decide your not actually a FF with them, and thus delete all your points. (Many airlines have a minimum number of qualifying segments which you must fly with that airline)

As Aegean Miles & Bonus requires 16,000 points to qualify for Aegean airlines Gold status...
Can someone please put this into perspective for me... to help understand how much traveling (economy class) I will be looking at?

Is this a number of Economy Y, B, M, or H fares?
Number of return tickets to Singapore?, Thailand?

Do the discount G, K, L, N, O, Q, S, T, U, V, W, X fares not accrue many points??

How many flights or percentage of the 16,000 points would need to be with, say Aegean if I joined their program?

Is it overall better that I purchase a more expensive ticket when going on holidays, hopefully eventuating with a higher amount of points?

Syd iκαρος

 

[PineappleSkip]

Hey iκαρος, welcome to AFF!

Let me be the first to get in - with all of that flying you are planning on - don't get too close to the sun - or use better quality wax!

And be careful to avoid Air Daedalus. I thought Icarus came unstuck because he was flying with his father!! cheers skip