I've booked a shedload of travel using Star Alliance but need to know which FF program to sign up for. Choices are Singapore, Air Canada, United or Air New Zealand.

Any help with which gives the best rewards would be great. My only other experience with a FFP is that my OH collects QANTAS miles. I think we have enough to fly from Perth to Bunbury. One way.

I can't speak for the others but we have Aeroplan (Air Canada) and Qantas. The aeroplan was free and so was Qantas. The only trick with Qantas is if you apply within Australia you have to pay $80 for the priveledge, however if you sign up from overseas it's free. So we got our cards mailed to my mother-in-laws address!

Whenever we fly from Canada to Australia part of the trip earns Aeroplan points and the rest earns Qantas points. I now have enough for 2 round trip tickets to New Zealand, but that's after about 4 flights for 4 return to Canada.

They all take time to accumulate points, and if not used I think they can expire. I'd say long term Qantas might be better as you're more likely to fly with them and earn points thereby keeping your account active.

I can't speak for the others though. But I did look into what we could do with our Qantas points if we moved back to Canada and it's possible to use them to fly to anything in One World I think (ie. Toronto to London, etc).
http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...Points/flights

Make sure to get one card per person to get points for all your flights.

Aeroplan has about the lowest requirements out there to get Star Alliance Gold (lounge access etc) so it's probably a good option. Singapore's Krisflyer is getting super stingy, I'd forget it. Not sure about the others but I know a lot of people join Aeroplan for the low gold qualification level.

Qantas is in One World not Star Alliance - so you could use BA, American etc.

Oops! You're right, I wasn't sure if I got that right or not. So I edited my post and added a link to it

Thanks BC. I figured if anyone knew it would be you. Now I'm waiting for ABC to come along with the links to stats.

Problem with Aeroplan is that I really can't remember ever having a good flight with Air Canada. Oh well, if that's the best one then that's the one I'll use. Maybe we can get enough points for internal flights when we're over in Canada. Two 'round the world tickets should give us a few points.

Speaking of Qantas FF.

There is currently an offer on with the Qantas Platinum AMEX card. New customer signing up gets 50,000 points bonus (almost enough for a return flight to Asia).

The card has a hefty annual fee of $450 but does include one free return Qantas domestic flight per year - I believe this includes PER - east coast flights.

So in effect if you keep the card for only a year the benefits (with the bonus) pay for the fee probably a few times over. A good deal I think - sadly I've already got a different QF Amex so not eligible.

I'm sure a lot of people who join Aeroplan for the gold card never fly AC either though - as long as you fly Star Alliance I'm not sure it'll make a difference UNLESS they have a rule that you must fly a certain number of AC sectors in a year?

I may look into that. One interstate trip per year and the fee's paid for. And if I can collect miles as well on everyday purchases then I could potentially take more than one trip per year.

That's enough points for a return from Perth to NZ. We're going in December - 150000 points and about $280 in taxes for 3 returns to NZ. Not bad for just using a credit card that costs me nothing (actually $20 a year now).

Not sure if you saw my other thread on buying US Airways miles but returns from Perth to NZ on AirNZ work out spectacular value using those points. I'm sure I calculated it about $400 return PER to AKL in business class! Availability on that route was good too. The 8 hour flight was treated in the same zone as a domestic flight I think.

Edit: yup just checked - 'south pacific' return in business is 30k miles. The 90k miles you need would cost about US$1200 I think.

Sounds good. We are going at the height of peak season and were lucky to get these seats - even booking so far in advance. Also Air NZ domestic flights worked out dirt cheap too - about AUD40 a sector.

I also got a QFF business class flight (SAA codeshare), Perth-Johannesburg for 72000 points just over a year ago - now that was a great flight. SAA business class rocks.

When I said Platinum...It's actually Ultimate (same thing I guess).

Details here:

http://www.qantas.com.au/fflyer/dyn/...press-ultimate

You sound like the George Clooney character in a movie I saw on the weekend - he's trying to collect 10 million FF miles!

I don't think I'll ever make it...it'll take me about 30 years of surfing from one credit card special offer to another. Unless maybe US Airways do 1000% extra free next.