I'd certainly be interested in hearing opinions from the more well-traveled hombres. MY experience has been with China Airlines, and IMO they really don't offer much. While they 'gave' me 40K extra miles this past fall to compensate a little, after flying 4 paid RT's to Asia, I still barely qualify for a non-blacked out RT trip to Asia (max $900 vale), or 3 1/2 trans-pacific 1-way upgrades. OR, I could use the miles on Delta, which seems like a complete exercise in futility, as their award travel is so limited unless you want to use double miles to guarantee your award.

Which do Y'ALL swear by? Which offer most consisted free upgrades, bonus miles, ease of booking free travel, most free extensive free travel destinations, etc. I've heard Don Marco plug United's deal, and it sounds pretty good to me. But what are other's experiences?

Porker, there is some useful info on some Frequent Flyer chats out there with people crazier than me regarding FF programs Flyertalk.com. Used to be active on them in the past, but got into too many flame wars with know-it-all-grannys that have too much free time on their hands.

I'll tell you what works for me and why, others will have different ideas. I'm a member of 4 different programs but my primary ones are United (Star Alliance) and Continental (SkyTeam). I pretty much have most of the airlines I fly locked up for earning miles as I am obsessed with it.

UNITED

In terms of Upgrades (paid economy + miles) to Asia, I found United to be better than average. In fact, I never had problems, the trick is to know that United flys alot out of SFO, and if you fly to places like Seoul from SFO it's always available (then take Asiana to Clarke). Plus, if you are an elite (25K or more) they have a section of the plane called Economy Plus which has about 3-4 inches of more legroom and the middle seat is often empty (only elites can be in this section). United is fairly generous with mileage bonuses given, but not as generous as Continental. The best thing about United is you get elite miles for flying Star Alliance partners (Thai, All Nippon, Asiana, Singapore, etc). Sign up for their VISa and get 15K miles and also sign up for IDINE (restaurants and hotels) which racks up the points. Lots of shopping partners as well.

Continental (CO) is relatively stingy for free tx and to upgrade to Business First, as for the latter, they charge you $200-$300 each way. They can get you seats, when available, on NWA to Phils and BKK so its not that bad. But I stick with CO b/c they are the best at free upgrades for elites on their domestic and South American routes via COPA (always got them). They also partner with COPA (Central and South America) which recognizes CO members and treats them with upgrades as well. CO also has a good route to Manila, via Honolulu-Guam which I've gotten upgrades on a couple of times on fairly short notice. Plus, you get EVA miles credited to your elite qualifacations, but only up to Taipei. Continental is easiest to accumulate miles on (more partners and shopping stuff) and they are very generous with bonus miles when you reach silver (50%), gold (100%) or platinum (150%). Plus, if you're really desperate, CO has an EASY PASS program where for double the miles, you are virtually guaranteed a free ticket to hard to get places like Hawaii. Sign up for their Chase Mastercard and shop with their partners to rack up points.

MEXICANA: is now aligned with AMERICAN airlines. The funny thing is that when I have enough miles on Mexicana, they have always been able to get me a seat to ASIA (Singapore Airlines or Thai--when the were partnered with them in the past).

BTW: if you are an elite on China Air, try to contact United or whomever and asked to be "status matched" when enrolling in the new program. You simply present your elite status docs and printout of flights you've taken and they will give you a comparable elite status on the program you are enrolling in. Most American airlines will do this for you, unless China air is their partner (i.e. Delta).

Merlin, this is EXACTLY the feedback I was looking for. Thanks for your posting your experience. Much better than flyer talk, which seems to be a pissing contest that can never be won.

Interesting re: status match on United. I have heard about status matches before, but figured that they wouldn't really consider purely Asian airlines for such things. I'll check on that next time I'm thinking of flying.

Philippine Airlines has been the best for me because you dont need many miles to get free flights and once you become Premier Elite, you get your miles at 175% and get free business class upgrades. The only drawback is that PI Airlines VIP lounges are not up to par with the other places. Best thing to do is to keep flying round trip with free business upgrades and use the miles for bouncing around Asia. Now if Air Asia and Jetstar starts flying to Manila, then I will be using them much differently.

Oh yeah, and the problem with the Filipinos and their damn Balikbayan boxes are detoured because you get priority luggage and no wait in any of the lines at checkin. Not to mention that the flight to the PI is direct with only a possible stop in Hawaii for gas on the way to PI. Half of my flights had flights that were not full and we bypassed the gas stop. The other great thing is that your flights leave out of the PI late at night which makes your night before much easier.

I'm a member of five.

UAL- SA, AA- OneWorld, Continental, Delta, NW

For moi, UAL and AA are by far and away the leaders, both offering numerous ways to acrue miles. I've been an elite member of all programs for the last 7 years, but AA has been the best as far as free upgrades. UAL/SA is the best for ease of booking award tickets and for customer service. IMHO if your interested in flying to SEA, no one even comes close. AA is great for other locales (e.g. DR, SA, Europe, etc).

If I was going to focus all my efforts on one program it would be on a Star Alliance carrier. I hesitate to specifically name UAL due to it's financial woes, which equates to FFM risk.

Merl-- forget te 15k card, get the 20k card. I rack up 40k miles a year with cycling 2 cards/year. Idine is awesome if you eat out a lot and/or have an expense account.

DM reminds me, although I'm not a member of AA, I've heard good things about the program, especially for Europe, and the Americas.

NWA is also a program to check out as they are part of the SKYTEAM (Korean Air, CO, etc) and they have good routes to BKK and Manila. It is also easy to rack up miles as they have all sorts of promotions, it also has no serious financial problems. But I still prefer CO within the SKYteam alliance, despite it's flaws, because I rack up miles flying on EVA (which is a CO partner only) and I can transfer my AMEX membership points to CO. NWA is not strong in Central and South America also.

Also agree with DM that the downer for UAL is that they have been in financial troubles and bankruptcy for some time now. But so was CO a few years back and it's in good condition now. I'm hopeful that the private sector and the government will not let the 2nd largest U.S. carrier go belly up for political and economic reasons. Most companies that file Chap 11 (restructuring) reorganize after a few years and eventually get out of bankruptcy. I'm still betting (with my UAL miles) that UAL will still be around.

Also, I mentioned this before, but if you use your Amex Membership rewards, you can choose to transfer these points into a variety of different airlines such as CO, Delta, Southwest, etc.

As for the status match, you have to be persistent and I did have success matching my Mexicana status with NWA status. I also showed NWA my boarding passes for a bunch of other airlines (domestic and international) to demonstrate that I'll be a good customer. In other words, I had to demonstrate to them that I already flew the routes that NWA flew and would continue to fly them. This should work for UAL as well. It's a purely discretionary thing, but it's good to market yourself.



(Message edited by merlin on January 15, 2005)

Here are a couple of things I have culled from my experience.

1) I was an 50K status on AA for a couple of years. One world was real good for SA and Europe. Also, what I liked is that you could upgrade most discounted fares to business class. That is a great feature. Also, AA will let you make a free stop over one an awrd ticket which you can finesse into a two location free ticket. However, I think One World is crap for SEA. AA only gets you to Narita, and the One World Asia airlines are Cathay Pacific and JAL. Crap service and flight services.

2) Definitely do the status match. However, make sure you request a status match before you enroll in the program and take flights. I screwed this up as when I moved to Asia and I couldn't get status match on United from my AA status.

3) Now I am UAL FF whore. The big perk here is that you can use flights on other Star Alliance to gather elite qualifying miles on United. That is sweet for me as fly SIA and Thai alot. You also get ANA and Asiana in Asia as well (which gets you directly to Clark!) However, once you hit Elite status you only get mileage bonuses on United flights. However, united is pretty stingy on upgrades in that often you can't upgrade dicount economy tickets. But I have had pretty good luck on gettiing operational upgrades to business on two transpacific legs this past year. That is Sweet! Also, if you are like me and you buy all your tickets in economy class, then economy plus is a huge benifit, those couple of extra inches of pitch and often empty middle seat are huge value on long haul flights.

1) I am a member of Mabuhauy miles but if I use them two or three times a year to go SIN-Manila the most I will get is a free intra asia ticket every now and then. But boy they sure look generous if you use them as a long haul carrier. Elite comes quick, bonus great, and upgrades easy. If you are a dedicated PI guy it is worth considering. However, they partner with no one! Also there is so little competition and such high fees-taxes flying into Manila that it makes a bad choice to use Manila as a travel hub and PAL as your carrier to get to other Asian destinations.

Emirates recently put in a big order for a new fleet (Airbus, I think). Looks like they have some big plans. Already in my asking around for cheap tix from LOS to US the name is coming up. They are part of Skyteam, so their miles can be used on CO. Other airlines that also can be cheap at times and are Skyteam are NWA, KAL, and Eva.

Excellent feedback from all.

Merl-- I'm betting the same with UAL and still pound the miles. However, I have a nervous eye on their stock which keeps plummetting to new lows. Let's keep our fingers crossed.


MX-- Stop overs and open jaws are allowed in most major programs on international bookings. I nearly always book this way when using FF miles for the business class ticket overseas.

AA changed their upgrade policy this year and now there is a fee to upgrade as well... Still not a terrible deal, but no as good as it was.

We're all in agreement tho-- Star Alliance rocks in SEA!

Does Asiana fly directly into Clark or is it to Manila?

both, but booking a flight into clark isn't all that easy (you need to book directly through asiana and not travelocity, expedia, etc, etc). Also nothing is "direct" with Asiana, unless u live in Korea that is.

Airport code for Clark Field in Angeles City is CRK. Can be searched on Yahoo travel (Asiana's the only airline that will show up on the search), but they don't fly there every day and a random search for every day in March didn't show seat availability. Might need to book through a travel agent. Prices I always see on Asiana's website are outRAGEOUSLY high, but I might be doing something wrong.

I see that it pops up now on travelocity... I stand corrected.

regardless asiana kinda blows tho...

Flew Asiana to Clarke a few times and it was a very, very pleasant experience--brand new A321 planes, hardly any lines at Clarke (coming & going), and just 10-15 minutes to Fields. Plus you get Star Alliance elite miles.

They arrive in phils 11:30 p.m. and leave for Inchon at 1:00 a.m. 3 hour flight.

I found that most of the AC travel agents can get you better deals on ASIANA than the airlines or travel sites. I used one outfit that had pretty good fares last trip....DNC_TRAVEL@YAHOO.COM
Phone : 0453228100

i have used AA for over 8 yrs now..and granted in the past two yrs have not traveled that much..(sailboat in trinidad).anyone wanting info on trinidad i have it!..but i have to disagree with mongerx..cathay i believe is firstclass all the way..anyone spending 28 hrs on an airplane with those beauties and the service they give everyone i thoroughly enjoyed them.. i have used at least twenty mileage tickets through AA..never having any real difficulty..and am using another deal they posted last yr..fly to fla or calif. using either logan or NY twice before the 15th of april and you get a free tick anywhere in the world they fly..so am happy to announce am leaving the 26th of feb for argentina..i aslo find that calling AA is lots better than using there website..i make sure to carry on a conversation with them asking them where they live how great AA is etc..i get way better results treating them nice..i am sure they're worried about there jobs so i am especially grateful to them for helping me..on the rare occassion i get someone short or uninterested in helping me i hand up and try again..never ans i mean never have i gotten two uninterested people in a row..(accept once when the same person picked up now whats the chances of that happening!)..for all you frequent fliers remember when you reach 1million your gold status for life..i'm reaching that within a few yrs..

Cathay is fine except that the econ seats are about 1" narrower than my hips... And I ain't exactly sporting the largest hips in the world...

Actually, the biggest problem with CP is exactly what DM said. The economy seats are way narrow, and my ass is much fatter than DM, also the seat pitch between rows is pretty chintzy.

In flight service is good by western hemisphere standards, and it will look pretty good after connecticng from an AA flight. However, the service really lags compared to the Asian Airline competitors; for example SIA, Thai Air, Malaysia Air.

For the two years I was a dedicated AA/One World and doing a moderate amount of business travel, I agree that the AAdvantage customer service is excellent. Whenever I have called in to them I have gotten excellent and courteous response. AA does have the best SA coversage of any Amercian carrier by far, IMO.

I don't have a lot of experience with FF programs, other than EVA's. But, I am a gold card holder and I really enjoy the following benefits:

Pretty nice lounge, especially in Taipei where I am always appreciative of the good food, beer, wine and wireless Internet before making the connection to BKK.

Gold card reserved seating in the front of the cabin for Evergreen Deluxe Class seats.

Priority standby.

Special telephone # for bookings, other requests.

And, I am using my miles for my first free trip (deluxe class) to Bangkok in March. Woo hoo!!

So far I am pretty damn happy with them.

Rasta

I saved my miles and flew 1st class a while back. Now THAT is PIMP!! Nothing like a free $6k seat, eh?

E

I've got a free first class ticket coming from EVA now. I'll call in the next few days to see what kind of dates I can get. The funny part is ONE first class ticket is ~$6,000 but the 8 trips I took to get it for free only cost me ~$5,500.

2005 is the year I fly for free. I have the free first class on EVA. I still have an open return to Asia from my last trip. Taking the miles from that on Continental will put me over the top with enough miles for a free trip to Asia on Northwest (cringe) or Korean Air. In a week and a half I fly to Rio De Janeiro on my free voucher I got from the "fly twice to New York fly free" American Airlines promotion I completed last year. And I still have enough American Airlines FF miles for a free trip to Asia as well on Cathay Pacific or any of American's other partners.

heres a heads up..AA is offering the same as last yr..for you east coasters..fly to fla or calif twic e before april 15th and you earn free tick anywhere AA flies..it might be easier then it sounds to any of you traveling to SA.as most stops are in fla..so this does count as one tick..i flew from NY top CR last yr and since the flight was through miami it counted..

Epi,

The closest I ever came to First class happened like this: I was getting settled in my pre-chosen seat in Eva Deluxe class. A stewardess walked up the aisle calling, my last name. I answered, expecting something bad to happen; like them telling me there was some problem with my ticket, etc. (This was from LAX to TPE leg.) She said, "Sir, we've upgraded you to Super Business class, would you please gather your things and come with me?". I said "Sure" and was led up the stairs (for the first time in my life) and put into a wonderfully comfortable seat with real slippers and food served with real plates and silverware. It was awesome. What a great way to start a trip. When I fly on my Deluxe class tickets in March, I'll ask to see if the upgrade is available like I've learned from this board and who knows -- maybe I'll get lucky. After all, I am Gold card holder. But, I'm traveling free so I'm not sure how that will work.

You can ask at the gate if they have seats available and pay for the upgrade on regular tix - not sure about flying on miles. Methinks you're "stuck" in Deluxe.

E

Whenever you're booking a flight, access this site and check out the seats that are available. This is an excellent resource and it will save your ass. Note the bubble text that pops up when you hover over a seat:

http://www.seatguru.com/

I had enuf miles for a free RT for 60k on PAL from LAX to MNL. Or I could take an upgrade for 30k, which I got for free once cuz they were overbooked and I was in the elite Club (due to 2 trips a year). Elite Club earns 125%, need to buy 2 tix a year to get Elite.
But my consolidator said to get a free tix, and PAL operator told me to take a free tix, okay fine. But I was in economy again, and since I didn't buy 2 a year, I was out of the Elite club, couldn't use the lounge, had only 3k now, etc. Well crap, I wish I would have bought a tix and got an upgrade, and more miles at 125%.

It's easy enough to read all the fine print regarding what you get with each program, BUT, the untold thing that I always wonder is: What is the likelihood of getting a ticket WHEN you actually want to go at the lowest mileage exchange rate? Seems like Merlin always has good luck in this regard, no matter what the program, but he's apparently on an airplane on a long-haul flight every other week. What have others' experiences been?

Me, from browsing airline websites on which I have ZERO status, Continental appears to offer waaaay more possibilities than Delta, as far as free travel goes, but it is STILL far less than optimal. Do elite members get better 'mileage'?

While I will freely admit that China Airlines' FF program can't be anywhere NEAR the top of the list, I'd be remiss if I didn't report the benefits I have received from them since I (finally) made gold status last fall (they're very good at not inputting long haul flight info ):

Free operational upgrades from TPE-BKK on my trip at Easter time. Not so lucky on my last trip to the PI, as the plane was much smaller, and 1st class was booked solid with more important fliers (read: Taiwan locals!) than ME.

Lounge access: While LAX lounge is nothing to write home about (well, besides unlimited free BOOZE), the TPE lounge is AWESOME: Computers w/ high speed 'net access, showers, GOOD food, booze, etc.

Priority baggage: Sometimes this works, sometimes it doesn't, as far as being the first bags off the carousel, but you definitely get extra luggage and extra weight allowance. If this is important to you, it's worth the allegiance to any one airline, though I doubt CI is unique in this regard.

Free travel: I wanted to use miles for a free trip back in February, but got completely blacked out via Chinese New Year blackout dates. They also are FUCKING ME by charging 140K for free ticket during 'blackout dates' in the summer and at Xmas time, but I only had to wait on a list for a whopping 3 days before I got confirmed for my ideal itinerary this summer. Good news, I got the dates I wanted (this time...). Bad news: FOR 140K MILES I COULDA GOT A FREE FIRST CLASS TICKET ON ALMOST ANY OTHER AIRLINE!

I am Premier Executive on UAL's FF program. I get double miles now when I fly UAL, which I do quite a bit. I automatically get their Economy Plus seating, PLUS I get an extra 20 kg allowance for baggage, which can help you on those long trips when you start accumulating all sorts of junk.

I still haven't upgraded to Business on a transPacific flight, so I can't report on that - YET.