Sky team question

[747sp]

Hi All

I have a new job that meens I will fly to Tawain from Sydney one a year. Normally PE. It will normally be on China Airlines. I know Qantas code shares but that is not an option (work policy)
Most of the discretionary travel is on OW airlines as it is my partner's preference so I think I will not get many more points except the flights.
My question is should I join China Airlines program or is better to join another ? Any other advice is appreacated and thank you in advance for your responce

 

[odysseus]

I looked at redemptions on China Airlines and from what I recall they were quite high in our region, compared to others. Of course, if you're regularly flying the airline you may get status benefits that make it worth the trade-off.

In my less frequent travel on CI example, it seemed more worthwhile to credit to Delta or KLM, not that either were great. The greatest benefit of Delta was that points don't expire. You should assess where you would likely gain from redeeming on, and when.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Hi All

I have a new job that meens I will fly to Tawain from Sydney one a year. Normally PE. It will normally be on China Airlines. I know Qantas code shares but that is not an option (work policy)
Most of the discretionary travel is on OW airlines as it is my partner's preference so I think I will not get many more points except the flights.
My question is should I join China Airlines program or is better to join another ? Any other advice is appreacated and thank you in advance for your responce

You might need to check on this but perhaps China Eastern? A friend recently redeemed a one way business class Paris-Shanghai and it was 58,000 miles. which seems reasonable. I think they partner with Qantas and Cathay Pacific too (but that's the part that might need checking to see the extent of miles earning/burning and any elite benefits you might get when flying Qantas)

 

[NZflygirl]

I've been looking at Skyteam as well.

China Airlines have decent upgrades from AKL-BNE maybe 7k or 8k from Y to PE and PE to J but those fares are so cheap you could probably just buy them. Otherwise redemption did look a bit pricey but I haven't really gone through how many miles are earned.

Flying blue seems to have better accrual rates for the airlines I looked at but the main catch is unless you have their credit card you can only keep your miles active by FLYING every 24mo. (Was 20 but increased recently from what I read). Locally this means flying China Airlines, Air Calin or Garuda, Vietnam airlines etc. If you can see yourself flying these airlines in an airfare that will accrue miles then that's fine I'd credit to Flying blue.

Otherwise the attraction of delta is the miles don't really expire. Redemption wise though they have a calculator but apparently the chart was pulled back in 2015? and they are using dynamic pricing awards? Or basically they seem to change so people are confused about what an award between A and B actually costs.

I don't know anything about taxes for redemption with the 2 airlines which may change your mind but I'm personally leaning towards Flying Blue as we seem to land on them about once every 2 yrs and I'm happy to use China Airlines or possibly Garuda short haul. Beats my current plan of letting them go altogether! I won't be achieving status so am focussing on miles expiry, accrual and redemption. I think I'm going flying blue.