Newbie FF tips?

[rtyuiop]

Hi folks,

It looks like my job might be changing to include a fair bit more travel than it does now (probably mostly within APAC). Unfortunately, the company only does economy + lowest available fare travel, so I can't even purposefully do all my flying on QF or something similar.

Anyone got any tips on the best way to handle such a situation? Put points into one *A and one OneWorld program? Try desperately to keep it to one airline? Give up on trying for status and buy a club membership (Priority Pass maybe) to try to improve at least the airport bits of the never-ending Y flights as much as possible?

Cheers,

Danny

 

[moa999]

1.
Get an APEC Card
APEC Business Travel Card Scheme

2.
Always beneficial to try and maximise status but appreciate the issues flying Disc Y on BFOD.
I would pick one airline in each alliance, although need to consider the earning rules on Disc Y flights which can vary considerably. QF is presently more generous than many other of the oneworld progs

3.
Getting work to pay for a PriorityPass in the meantime may be worhwhile

 

[docjames]

It would be worth having two "core" programs - best will usually be *alliance and oneworld. Others will debate the pros and cons of each carrier within them!

As for lounge access, if you're travelling lots, you'll probably make it, but if it's work travel, you'll find you can salary package and/or tax deduct the cost, which again, if you're travelling lots, will be worth it.

 

[coco50]

Priority Pass is OK as a supplement to an airline membership such as Qantas Club. Check the PP website. I got one last year because my declining level in the QF FF scheme meant that I couldn't access OW lounges when I was flying Malev or Iberia. I bought a 10 "free" lounge entry membership for US$249. You can take a guest in for US$27 per visit. It depends where you are flying and what lounges are available with PP. I used PP lounges at Prague, Budapest, Athens, Madrid and Barcelona and none of them were a patch on even Admiral's Club or Red Carpet Club. The Merlina Mercouri Lounge at Athens had two-thirds given over to smoking and one-third for non smoking. The non smoking section was very crowded with hardly anyone in the vast smoking section. Access to PP lounges at SYD is very limited with only Virgin's Lounge in T2 in the PP program

 

[rtyuiop]

Thanks for the thoughts on priority pass and the APEC card! The APEC card sounds like a seriously good idea.

Yeah, I really can't decide what *alliance program would work best for me. I've got some old, insignificant points in both Air NZ and UA, just joined SQ (on a 'why not' basis), and lost a decent number of points with Ansett ... Maybe I should just go for a record number of different memberships with *A and forget the points!