JKG

Hi everyone, i'm about to do a trip from ATH to SFO and back and wanted your input in order to make this as beneficial as possible.

I mostly fly small, intra-european flights (4-8 per year) so i've already hit the requirements for flight with Aegean.
I'm currently M&B Blue (9k miles). Thats mostly because i was putting all my miles in M&M before I found out that i would never hit G there.

I'd appreciate your input in the following:
1. Would there be any reason to put this miles against my M&M account and not M&B? (i see this as a great chance to get an easy silver and close to G in Aegean as its abt 13.5K miles).
2. I want to take this oppty to fly on an A380 (even in coach). Is there a way to find flights operated by specific aircrafts? I went through my options in Kayak and all i could find is an AirFrance from CDG but since its not Star Alliance its not an option. Next best thing is LH with a B747-4 which is also cool (never flown in one) but its not even a B747-8...
3. I wouldn't consider this a mileage run trip but i wouldn't mind making "adjustments" to get more miles, provided the price doesn't go way up.
4. FWIW, i'm flying out Feb27th +-1 and getting back on Aug23 +-1.

Any comments, welcome ;->

CesarFrancq

You should probably use a different search engine, such as swoodoo.com, where you find all details. Lufthansa operates an A380 on certain days from Frankfurt, so if you choose wisely, you can fly there and back on A380. Just make sure that the booking classes you select get you 100% mileage accrual (class G or higher, not that cheap sadly).

Knobbgb

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I'm answering because I was looking at something similar recently - ATH-SEA with Star Alliance and trying to get on an A380 and/or 748

Unfortunately I decided that those two goals would be pretty difficult to satisfy at the same time. As CesarFrancq says, LH are particularly mean with their mileage to M&B members. Most of the cheapest flights you'll find won't earn any miles at all. The best routing if you want miles is probably going to be SAS. They give 100% mileage on all their flights and they connect via CPH and ARN to points in the US (with onward connections on United if they don't go directly to SFO - I don't remember). Also, their SASPlus class (only really economy plus on long haul - not full business) is reasonably priced and gives double miles.

Generally speaking, other routings you'll find across the pond (with *A) will be United or Air Canada. From what I saw, you'll be unlikely to get more than 50% of distance flown with either. Then again - both fly 787s on some flights which might also be on your "wish list" of aircraft.

Also, be careful of codeshares - many of the UA and AC flights will actually be on LH metal and may earn nothing. (Sorry, I don't mean to teach you to suck eggs but it's unclear what your experience level is).

You might try looking for flights to LAX - I think LH fly their 748 there - or they used to at least. You might find a routing with the domestic connection to SFO included or, if not, it's quite cheap to book that separately. You should really find a better booking engine that allowes you to build itineraries flight by flight and be prepared to spend a long time playing around.

Just remember to check the M&B earning table very carefully, twice, before booking anything.

JKG

Thank you both for your responses.

@CesarFrancq: Actually swoodoo is owned by Kayak so both bring the same results (and have the same filter functionality).
I've checked the tables and I'm trying not to book a class that wont give me any miles, so even 50% would do. (classes V, W, S, Q). No €€ for higher.

@Knobbgb: What did you end up with?
Havent checked SAS will give it a try, but i'm reluctant in taking any flight that has an extra leg within US. Last time i did that (few years ago) i had to get my bags, go through immigration and re-checkin, as it was the point of entry within US.
So although i dont have issue with 2+ stops, i'm trying to have only one leg with US and straight to SFO.
Another good option seems to be Turkish as they operate SFO->IST and do offer 70% miles on certain classes. Only issue there is that i must go through LAX on the way there.

Any other suggestions (even for a better booking engine as you mention) would be welcome.

potjernik

I was M&M member for a long time, was SEN for for a while, it made sense as the M&M allowed getting SEN status quicker than residents of Germany. I however gave up, as I found that Gold M&B is more beneficial to me than Silver M&M. With Gold M&B I even received complementary upgrades on flights like YYZ to MUC on AC.

nk15

Is that true? I highly doubt it...My impression is that airlines don't even give complimentary transatlantic upgrades to their own elites, let alone elites of other airlines in the same alliance. You may have received the generally rare "operational upgrade" (op-up; i.e., economy was overbooked/full and they had to upgrade someone, and you happened to be high on the list as *A Gold).

CesarFrancq

I agree that this was most likely an operational upgrade - I had two of those on SWISS last year, because of my *G status. Avianca does give upgrades on availability, and not only to their own elite: I got one by asking nicely when boarding my flight SCL-BOG (a five hour flight on A330).

Knobbgb

I usually use airtickets.com - it's not the most sophisticated website but it seems very reliable and the customer services are very good. I usually am booking simple trips within Europe.

Using your dates I found the following

Friday 27th Feb.
A3 ATH 08:25 FRA 10:25, A321, S class 100% miles
LH FRA 13:25 YYZ 16:15, B744, S class 50% miles
AC YYZ 18:20 SFO 21:15, A320, S class 50% miles

Sunday 23rd Aug
AC SFO 22:20 YYZ 06:18, A321, T class 50% miles
AC YYZ 16:40 ATH 09:20, B767, T class 50% miles

Euro 929. Total of 7900 miles approx.

The quite close out date makes it expensive - you can go on March 2nd for about 200 Euro less. Just make sure that the direct YYZ-ATH isn't with Rouge - there are no miles in T class for Rouge transatlantic flights.

You'd have to do SAS if you wanted more miles and take the US 'stopover'.

I'll PM you if I'm bored later and find anything else - this probably isn't very interesting to most people.

JKG

Thank you for your responses and special thanks to Knobbgb for taking the time to even suggest an itinerary!
I have been playing around with some options and looks like i'm going to go via FRA on S/V classes to at least get 50% of the miles and fly on both 744/380.

I agree that there's no point in spamming everyone so lets take this offline.

VJPug

I was traveling from LIM>MIA last Sept and Avianca not only upgraded me, but also my parents from Econ to Business ^ I was only one with *S in the group. That being said, there were still 4 empty seats in Business during the flight.

nk15

It seems that Avianca does some old school nice treatment there to *A elites, I wonder if they are the only airline doing it, and even if Avianca does it regularly, or rarely...

This topics seems interesting, I am starting a thread in the information desk forum...

HiroshimaFlyer

I have a 50% record of *G M&B upgrades on Air China :-)

2/4 flights total. One on the plane, one at the gate.

I am led to believe that this is a common(ish) occurrence. I'll be booking Air China again :-)

JKG

Just wanted to update everyone on this, i ended up with the following itinerary which will allow me to fly both a 747 (albeit the 400 not the 800) AND a 380 on the way back ;->

Despite searching on multiple platforms, i got this option via Lufthansa's site so memo to self here, to check in all locations ;->

Miles-wise i settled for 50% for the transatlantic legs (the 100% fare classes were too expensive). The intra europe ones are at 100% as its operated by A3 and a fix 500 on the way back.

Feb27th:
LH5915: ATH->FRA (S) - 100% (A3)
LH9052: FRA->SFO (S) - 50% (UA) - 744

Aug27:
LH455: SFO -> FRA (V) - 50% - A380
LH1282: FRA -> ATH (V) - 500

I'm currently at 11.4k so the above will easy put me in silver ;->

Thanks everyone for their input and especially to Knobbgb for their suggestions and help.
I plan to be doing some mileage runs while in the US to help me towards *G so see you in the relevant subforum ;->

JKG

hughw

I find the following three search engines the most useful. IN all three cases, the actual ticket purchase must be with a travel agent or through an airline site...But with the relevant routing and fare codes that can easily be done:
ITA Matrix Search http://matrix.itasoftware.com (go to time bars for the easiest way to put a trip together)
Hipmunk https://www.hipmunk.com
Google Flights https://www.google.com/flights/