Help: Which OneWorld airline to credit miles to?

[PlatinumGuy]

I have 3 ppl flying RT TLV-JFK on Iberia. Two have the same last name. This will be their only flights. Which Airline should I credit their miles to?
I thought LAN for the cheaper short haul awards, but they only give 30% on Economy.
I know AA allows OW's which leaves me only to get about 1000 mile sin to each acct.
Do any of the partners have family accounts? What else should I take into consideration?
TIA

[daganster]

I think that you could pool the miles BA.

[PlatinumGuy]

I think that you could pool the miles BA.

Thanks. All 3 or only the brothers?

[daganster]

Thanks. All 3 or only the brothers?

I'm pretty sure that you could pool anyone to the same account (plenty of people have siblings with different last names).

[Cbs]

i need some help figuring out this whole miles situation. i dont fly a lot for starters (not enough to accumulate awards yet). originally (before i started with DDF) i always opened an account on every airline i flew and i put the miles for that airline there. so i now have a few thousand scattered in diff accounts. = worthless.

im trying to rebuild now into one account in each alliance. but i dont know how it works exactly because i was told one thing and now i found out otherwise and now im all mixed up.
so if someone can link me or explain me a little basics here that would be appreciated.

example route: if im planning a trip to thailand and ill be flying Cathay Pacific, where should i put the miles into - between BA and AA? and how many miles less will i get for moving it to a diff airline? and then when i accumulate enough miles i can book on any one of those airlines in that alliance?
i dont fly BA really and AA i dont either but theres more of a chance ill use AA in future flights. the only thing BA can help me with is Avios points which i see can also get me AA flights for very cheap. - so what is the best way to do it?

thanx

[aussiebochur]

Where to start...

All airlines in an alliance allow earning and redeeming on all other airlines.
The only catch is that they don't all offer the same amounts when earning and don't all charge the same when redeeming.
If you don't fly much (~25k/year) then you don't really have to credit them to the airline you mostly fly but rather to the airline that will give you the most miles for the flights and the best redemption options.

So firstly, you want to make sure that the airline you pick to credit to earns 100% miles flown for whatever airline you fly.
This is where it gets subjective.
If you are looking for aspirational award (e.g. First class to Asia/Europe) then you would be best off going with American (in the One World alliance example) which have pretty good rates on longhaul premium cabin awards and don't charge fuel surcharges (except BA redemptions)
However, if you want to use your miles for CLE-LGA it would make sense to credit to BA which have an awesome short haul redemption option and no fuel surcharges on the domestic AA flights.

There are other considerations if you have certain airline cc's which you earn miles with amd which add other perks (elite status, bonus mileage, companion tickets etc.)

Not sure If its explained well, so any questions just ask.

[Cbs]

Where to start...

All airlines in an alliance allow earning and redeeming on all other airlines.
The only catch is that they don't all offer the same amounts when earning and don't all charge the same when redeeming.
If you don't fly much (~25k/year) then you don't really have to credit them to the airline you mostly fly but rather to the airline that will give you the most miles for the flights and the best redemption options.

So firstly, you want to make sure that the airline you pick to credit to earns 100% miles flown for whatever airline you fly.
This is where it gets subjective.
If you are looking for aspirational award (e.g. First class to Asia/Europe) then you would be best off going with American (in the One World alliance example) which have pretty good rates on longhaul premium cabin awards and don't charge fuel surcharges (except BA redemptions)
However, if you want to use your miles for CLE-LGA it would make sense to credit to BA which have an awesome short haul redemption option and no fuel surcharges on the domestic AA flights.

There are other considerations if you have certain airline cc's which you earn miles with amd which add other perks (elite status, bonus mileage, companion tickets etc.)

Not sure If its explained well, so any questions just ask.

that sums it up pretty well, thank you . and ill ask now.
so ur saying i should decide what i perfer better, whether BA avios for short haul or AA for first class etc..?
and how do i find out how much mileage i get for a certain trip, and also how do i know if the airline i want to put it in gives 100% ? (like from Cathay to BA or AA)?

[aussiebochur]

Correct.
If you're only flying 20k a year it would make sense to credit to BA so at least you get a couple free trips a year. Crediting your flights to AA may take 5 years to get the award you're looking for.

Then you can use CC earnings for longer awards.

Each airline generally has on their website each partner and what the earning rates are for each class.
here is the one for AA.
Click on the airline and you will see the rates.
And BA can be found   here

Its generally the discounted economy which earn lower or no credit.
So when booking a ticket look at the fare class and see what it earns.
Earning miles when flying CX is a perfect example. Only H class and higher will earn miles on AA. Whereas BA will only give 25% on fares up to H. Most cheap tickets won't book into that class.

[Cbs]

Correct.
If you're only flying 20k a year it would make sense to credit to BA so at least you get a couple free trips a year. Crediting your flights to AA may take 5 years to get the award you're looking for.

Then you can use CC earnings for longer awards.

Each airline generally has on their website each partner and what the earning rates are for each class.
here is the one for AA.
Click on the airline and you will see the rates.

Its generally the discounted economy which earn lower or no credit.
So when booking a ticket look at the fare class and see what it earns.
Earning AA miles when flying CX is a perfect example. Only H class and higher will earn miles. Most cheap tickets won't book into that class.

ok i think i get it. so now what makes sense to do according to what your saying is put the miles in BA since i dont fly a lot, and if i want AA than im better off opening a Citi AA card and getting the bonus there and spending on that CC to accumulate.

so now if i were to fly AA then on a discounted fare than i should prob keep it in AA and not move it to BA (if theres an option to)?

i see the charts, so .50 means itll get half the amount of miles? it sounds like from what you said about the "H" case that only that and higher get (which is 1.0) and .50 wont get any? and if u fly first then u get 1.5 which is more than what ud get on that airline itself?

one more Q: where does it say how much mileage u get per trip? not how much percent but if i fly to israel lets say i should get how many thousands regularly?

[aussiebochur]

ok i think i get it. so now what makes sense to do according to what your saying is put the miles in BA since i dont fly a lot, and if i want AA than im better off opening a Citi AA card and getting the bonus there and spending on that CC to accumulate.

so now if i were to fly AA then on a discounted fare than i should prob keep it in AA and not move it to BA (if theres an option to)?

i see the charts, so .50 means itll get half the amount of miles? it sounds like from what you said about the "H" case that only that and higher get (which is 1.0) and .50 wont get any? and if u fly first then u get 1.5 which is more than what ud get on that airline itself?

one more Q: where does it say how much mileage u get per trip? not how much percent but if i fly to israel lets say i should get how many thousands regularly?

Keep in mind on the charts that you're liking for how many redeemable miles you'll get. Not qualifying miles, which only count to status but aren't actually used to redeem.
Generally premium classes will earn bonus miles both on that airline as well as partners.

Great Circle Mapper is what you're looking for.

Type in the airport codes e.g. JFK-TLV and it will tell you the distance.

[Cbs]

Keep in mind on the charts that you're liking for how many redeemable miles you'll get. Not qualifying miles, which only count to status but aren't actually used to redeem.
Generally premium classes will earn bonus miles both on that airline as well as partners.

Great Circle Mapper is what you're looking for.

Type in the airport codes e.g. JFK-TLV and it will tell you the distance.

so to clarify, cuz im not really getting how many miles id end up getting if moved to avios.
if i were to get in one round trip 18,000 miles on Cathay -(flying Cathay that is) and i put it on BA avios, how many points would i get?

and thanx for that website, thats perfect

[Dan]

Depends on the fare class of the Cathay ticket.

[aussiebochur]

Depends on the fare class of the Cathay ticket.

Fare class of ticket booked is the first thing you need to look at.

[Cbs]

Depends on the fare class of the Cathay ticket.

Fare class of ticket booked is the first thing you need to look at.

woops i forgot to add that in my question, it would be class V

[Dan]

CX V class earnings when credited to:

AA: 0%.
BA: 25%.
LAN: 100%

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/travel/airlines/cathayPacific.jsp
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/collect-avios-oneworld/execclub/_gf/en_gb
http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/lanpass/como_acumular/volando/volando_en_ow_asociadas.html

[Cbs]

CX V class earnings when credited to:

AA: 0%.
BA: 25%.
LAN: 100%

http://www.aa.com/i18n/AAdvantage/earnMiles/travel/airlines/cathayPacific.jsp
https://www.britishairways.com/travel/collect-avios-oneworld/execclub/_gf/en_gb
http://www.lan.com/en_us/sitio_personas/lanpass/como_acumular/volando/volando_en_ow_asociadas.html

so are you recommending that i should put it in LAN? since they have the best percentage they give?
and then if i would ever fly BA class H > or AA than i should put in LAN as well since i started accumulating there?
and only when i fly a lower class that gives me 25% on then put it in BA to get Avios?

cuz i see its not worth it to put in avios all 18k cuz ill just get a OW from CLE-LGA!

[Dan]

Assuming your routing on CX is jfk-hkg-bkk-hkg-jfk you would earn 18,242/4=4,560 BA miles or 29,358 LAN kilometers.
BA miles never expire with activity, LAN kms expire after 3 years.
Here is a comparison post of the 2 currencies: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/17453
 

[Cbs]

Assuming your routing on CX is jfk-hkg-bkk-hkg-jfk you would earn 18,242/4=4,560 BA miles or 29,358 LAN kilometers.
BA miles never expire with activity, LAN kms expire after 3 years.
Here is a comparison post of the 2 currencies: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/17453

ok im getting the big picture now. thanx for the help [for now.]

so from reading DD it seems for me it makes more sense to put it in LAN bec even if i dont fly for the 3 years after and accumulate more miles i still have myself enough kilometers to getting a bigger RT then what BA would give me (duh, obviously! )

DD scenario 2.6 (Flights between 933-1,151 miles):
New York-Miami, Cleveland-Miami, Hong Kong-Bangkok
BA: Zone 2, 15,000 miles round-trip. (Approximately 12,000 Starpoints or 15,000 MR/UR points)
LAN: Zone 6, 28,000 kilometers round-trip. (Approximately 11,200 Starpoints)

[aussiebochur]

Another option you could think about is Qantas.

You'll only earn 50% but the miles won't expire with activity, you can pool family members miles together, and the short haul redemption rares are better then LAN.

[Dan]

QF=YQ