Not sure if this or the LH board is best -feel free to move it mods......

OK, so my girlfriend is travelling a lot between LON and germany/austria (MUC, INN, FRA-SZG are her primarly routes, though the odd foray to switzerland is planned) She's flying LH/OS for these routes.

I've been moaning at her to actually claim the FF miles for a while now, but here's the deal.

I've looked at the two schems (div miles and miles and more) and it seems she will be a lot better off joining dividend miles (despite never having set foot on a US plane in her life) for the following reasons.

1) She only flies short hops -guaranteed 500 miles with US, possibly only 125 per flight with LH/OS.

2) 25 segments/25k miles on US = silver. 35,000 miles rqd on LH (no segment based status?)

Far as i can tell she's better off joining US and probably getting silver in '06- possible gold in '07 on segments.

Any problems with this plan?

Secondly, could she get a challange/comped to silver/gold on US and only fly on LH/OS to make the grade. Do challanges etc have to be done on US flights?

Thanks for your thoughts.

Not sure if this or the LH board is best -feel free to move it mods......

OK, so my girlfriend is travelling a lot between LON and germany/austria (MUC, INN, FRA-SZG are her primarly routes, though the odd foray to switzerland is planned) She's flying LH/OS for these routes.

I've been moaning at her to actually claim the FF miles for a while now, but here's the deal.

I've looked at the two schems (div miles and miles and more) and it seems she will be a lot better off joining dividend miles (despite never having set foot on a US plane in her life) for the following reasons.

1) She only flies short hops -guaranteed 500 miles with US, possibly only 125 per flight with LH/OS.

2) 25 segments/25k miles on US = silver. 35,000 miles rqd on LH (no segment based status?)

Far as i can tell she's better off joining US and probably getting silver in '06- possible gold in '07 on segments.

Any problems with this plan?

Secondly, could she get a challange/comped to silver/gold on US and only fly on LH/OS to make the grade. Do challanges etc have to be done on US flights?

Thanks for your thoughts.


I guess I'm not sure what the benefit of joining DM is if she's only flying in Europe?

For challenges - they have to be flown on US metal. For comping, if she doesn't already have status, she )probably) won't get it. Since she is flying mainly in Europe, I'm not sure why US would comp her.

You might also look at Air Canada. You can get gold status for only 35,000 miles (I'm assuming they have segments too - I don't know for sure). With AC, she would have access to US domestic lounges (something she wouldn't have with US DM). *G also provides for more benefits on partner carriers than does *S. And of course bmi is right over there too - they apparently have some great award redemption and bonus miles policies (see the MDT-STX threads for details).

In any event, it sounds like most of the LH folks are only happy if they've hit the senator? plateau - the regular members don't seem all that excited about the program. Disclaimer: This is only what I've read - I have no direct experience one way or the other.

Good luck with whatever you decide - at least she's flying to some beautiful places!

Sean

"I guess I'm not sure what the benefit of joining DM is if she's only flying in Europe?
"

The benefit is more miles per flight, and status based on segments. The aim is to hit Gold on any *A scheme for lounge access and the like.

M'n'M doesn't seem that worthwhile until you hit the very top, you're quite right.

bmi's scheme is similar in some respects to miles and more, in that the cheapest tickets count less.

Air canada is something I hadn't even thought about - will look into it for her.

"I guess I'm not sure what the benefit of joining DM is if she's only flying in Europe?
"

The benefit is more miles per flight, and status based on segments. The aim is to hit Gold on any *A scheme for lounge access and the like.

M'n'M doesn't seem that worthwhile until you hit the very top, you're quite right.

bmi's scheme is similar in some respects to miles and more, in that the cheapest tickets count less.

Air canada is something I hadn't even thought about - will look into it for her.


Sorry, I just meant - most of us fly US for the free upgrades to F, and for those that hit 100k miles, for the T/A upgrade certs. Since she won't be flying US metal (and hence not getting free F ups) and won't fly enough miles or segs for the free T/A certs, I wasn't sure why she would pick US. If it's just so she has status, fine, but I guess I'm not sure what the point of having status is when it doesn't really get you anything - at least I'm not sure what benefit she would derive (other than the aforementioned extra baggage/priority boarding/priority waitlisting/club admittance).

Yeah, AC seems to be getting good reviews. I was going to look into BMI, but it's looking like I'll hit CP w/ US and then book a few DL flights to have a backup carrier - DL has some great business fares now!

Good luck!

Sean

Oh, one final note - LH treats UA MP members better than US DM members - since UA/US/LH are all part of *A, you might look at UA too. There have been plenty of threads over in the UA forums of members getting op-uped on LH flights and of getting priority access to things. If she is going to fly LH predominately, a UA FF membership might be the best option.

The benefit of joining US Airways DM is huge! She'd be able to earn/redeem miles on LH, OS and many other European carriers. And then redeem 20,000 miles for a free flight within Europe. The benefits are obvious!

The benefit of joining US Airways DM is huge! She'd be able to earn/redeem miles on LH, OS and many other European carriers. And then redeem 20,000 miles for a free flight within Europe. The benefits are obvious!

Not disagreeing with you (I certainly appreciate the benefits), but let's say she flies the 25 segs for silver. 25 segs at 500 miles per seg is 12,500 miles. She can't get a free r/t with that.

At 40 segs, she could get a free intra-europe r/t, but she'd have to fly 120 segs to cross the pond for free, and that would be in coach. Of course, at 120 segs, she'd be CP and get a free T/A upgrade... ;)

I just don't see the benefit as applied to her (and the OPs) specific situation. I think UA would be the best option for them, with the possible exception of AC (if segments required for gold were fewer than 50).

Anyway, like I said, I really appreciate the benefits of US DM, and I appreciate US employees taking the time to answer questions and post on boards like this! I only hope I can get a hold of an enthusiastic person like yourself the next time I call intl res instead of the people I have gotten in the past... :D

Regards,

Sean

Not disagreeing with you (I certainly appreciate the benefits), but let's say she flies the 25 segs for silver. 25 segs at 500 miles per seg is 12,500 miles. She can't get a free r/t with that.

At 40 segs, she could get a free intra-europe r/t, but she'd have to fly 120 segs to cross the pond for free, and that would be in coach. Of course, at 120 segs, she'd be CP and get a free T/A upgrade... ;)

I just don't see the benefit as applied to her (and the OPs) specific situation. I think UA would be the best option for them, with the possible exception of AC (if segments required for gold were fewer than 50).

Anyway, like I said, I really appreciate the benefits of US DM, and I appreciate US employees taking the time to answer questions and post on boards like this! I only hope I can get a hold of an enthusiastic person like yourself the next time I call intl res instead of the people I have gotten in the past... :D

Regards,

Sean

BUT, if it's LON-FRA-SZG (a common route) that's 4 segs and 2000 miles a round trip....... compared with possibly just 500 from LH (on a v. cheap ticket) 7 r/ts is silver, 13 hits gold. Plus there's hotel and car hire miles to add in to the equation when it comes to bagging free flights.

On quick flights (<2 hours) I would take guaranteed lounge access as *G over the possibilty of an upgrade on a short flight. Especially given the amount of time one needs to check in before flights these days, and all the associated screening stuff (esp ex LHR)

And if we do fly to the US *G will give us us a good shot at economy plus on united - which is better than a kick between the legs!

It seems then that for someone flying UK - short haul W europe the best FF programme is any of the N American based programmes.

Which one (UA/US/AC) is kind of a moot point, but i'm still leaning towards US, just because that's what I'm in.......

Beware certain LH fare classes are excluded from collecting any miles in the US program!
So if LH only gives 125 miles chances are in the US program you will get 0 miles and 0 segments. Check on their website for the excluded classes! For example the cheap domestic german fares are normally excluded!

Beware certain LH fare classes are excluded from collecting any miles in the US program!
So if LH only gives 125 miles chances are in the US program you will get 0 miles and 0 segments. Check on their website for the excluded classes! For example the cheap domestic german fares are normally excluded!

eurousair is spot on. ELTU fares where one would earn 125 miles on MM do not earn any miles on DM. One would earn 100% of flown miles on UA MP (except LT fares) so it's either MM or MP for the op.