which loyalty program ?

[seb_guard]

Hi traveler experts !

I am french heading to australia with my girlfriend for 3 years on a temporary business visa.
We are flying with quantas QF from london to sydney in eco class.
We have a loyalty program with british airways (executive club) but we do not have a lot of miles on it.
My concern is should I register my miles on a frequent flyer QF card or asia miles or BA ? I am pretty lost with the benefit of all those loyalty...

We may often travel in australia, indonesia, asia.
We also would like to subscribe to a credit card that gives miles on AUD spent, but as we are not australian citizen we can not subscribe to AMEX rewards maximiser or the citibank one. Does someone has a workarround in mind?

thanks you for your travel experience !

-sebastien

 

[serfty]

Firstly seb_guard, Welcome to AFF ...

Secondly, (assuming you have no status) your best programs would probably be AAdvantage, followed by QFF. I would suggest joining both and then you can make your choice.

It is free to Join AA, join QFF using your european address before you come out and you will aviod the AUD87.50 fee. (A joining fee is payable for Oz & NZ residents).

 

[seb_guard]

thanks!

I did not know AAdvantage, thanks for the tip!

-sebastien

 

[simongr]

YOu might also like to thin about your travel around asia and whether Star ALliance might be better. They have better service in asia so you might find yourelf flying on them more. You would lose/waste the QF points though on your journey here/back.

In terms CC - being an australian citizen is not a requirement for Amex - you need to be a permanent resident (and probably have some credit history here). If you are going to be on a temporary resident visa whilst you are here - you mitgh find it hard to get any CC that is any use.

S

 

[blundeni]

As someone who is neither an Ozzie citizen, nor who had any credit record in Oz, I applied for and got the Amex Maximiser credit card after being in the country for only 6 months.

I would have applied earlier, but it took that long to get a job over here