MilesBuzz! - Most Prestigious FF Card/Level

I was wondering which FF card/level would be the most prestigious/hardest to obtain/be? This is just out of plain curiosity.

I was wondering which FF card/level would be the most prestigious/hardest to obtain/be? This is just out of plain curiosity.

I think you have to lump into two categories:

Lifetime levels (Million Miler, etc)

Annual levels (CO*, United GS, etc)

What you probably are looking after are the CO* and United GS-type levels.
CO*'s are pretty impressive to me (they are almost automatically CO Plats).

Delta has an Executive Partner level with VIP handling & lots of irregular operation assistance along with significant upgrade priority.

AA has Concierge Key, probably similar to United's GS.

I believe that CO has a Chairman's card - been discussed occasionally.

In general, the *most* prestigious is probably by definition one that we know nothing about :)

Many airlines give their current/former execs crazy perks like unlimited FC seats for X years after leaving company.

Delta has an invitation-only level called Executive Partner (called EP on FT). There is no published criteria for membership. From browsing the DL forum I understand an invitation is hand delivered but I'm not sure if that's just folklore. With the new Diamond Level with DL I'm not sure if EP will continue but since it is supposedly based on revenue and not miles flown I suspect it will stay and will continue to be a secretive club.

AA has Concierge Key, probably similar to United's GS.

Concierge Key is not quite the same as Global Service.

Concierge Key is not quite the same as Global Service.

Which one is better?

QF has Chairman's Lounge. But it seems to be dolled out to every politician in the country - so I'm not sure I'd like to be in that special lounge. I believe that the perks are good - over and above QF's highest level of Platinum.

I think you have to lump into two categories:

Lifetime levels (Million Miler, etc)

Annual levels (CO*, United GS, etc)

What you probably are looking after are the CO* and United GS-type levels.
CO*'s are pretty impressive to me (they are almost automatically CO Plats).

In my opinion one of the hardest to obtain, based on annual levels and not on revenue or "by invitation only" is the Lufthansa HON Circle. You need to accrue 600.000 HON qualifying miles in two years.

Which one is better?

One Mile at at Time (http://boardingarea.com/blogs/onemileatatime/2009/09/15/american-concierge-key-vs-united-global-services/)

Read the post written by luckycoins about Concierge Key vs. Global Service.



Halothane

Wow. This was all very interesting. Thanks for all your input guys :)

BA Premier - not even attainable by flying but controlling ca. £2m p.a. in revenue to BA. Around 1200 members worldwide and membership must be approved by the BOD.

Here in the US there's UA UGS, AA Concierge Key, Delta Executive Partner.. all more interesting than CO *.

I'd say my favorite status is Avis Chairman.

In my opinion one of the hardest to obtain, based on annual levels and not on revenue or "by invitation only" is the Lufthansa HON Circle. You need to accrue 600.000 HON qualifying miles in two years.

This is the one I was going to name. Some of the published benefits are pretty crazy. In Frankfurt, you can check in at the First Class terminal, which is nice and all, but then you proceed outside where a chauffer drives you across in a Mercedes or Porche directly to the aircraft for boarding, which is awesome.

http://www.miles-and-more.com/online/portal/mam/rowr/program/information?nodeid=2547184&l=en&cid=10001

http://www.honcircle.com/tour/index_e.html

I'd say my favorite status is Avis Chairman.
+1

No one has mentioned Costco General Member.

Any card on Virgin Galactic would be the most prestigious.

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7C144 Safari/528.16)

Any card on Virgin Galactic would be the most prestigious.

You are of course correct.

Any card on Virgin Galactic would be the most prestigious.
Is that earned based on segments or miles? :P

Virgin Galactic is probably the only program that offers only round-the-world trips.:D

Virgin Galactic is probably the only program that offers only round-the-world trips.
Maybe in the distant future, but the current spacecraft is sub-orbital - just up and down.

Well, so much for that mileage run idea. Thanks.

I think you have to lump into two categories:

Lifetime levels (Million Miler, etc)

Annual levels (CO*, United GS, etc)

What you probably are looking after are the CO* and United GS-type levels.
CO*'s are pretty impressive to me (they are almost automatically CO Plats).


I don't know what the CO* card is. I have the Presidential Plus card but it doesn't get me any extra miles. Is it something you earn or something you pay for? Thanks..

I don't know what the CO* card is. I have the Presidential Plus card but it doesn't get me any extra miles. Is it something you earn or something you pay for? Thanks..

It is not a card, but a designation that one attains by generating considerable revenue for the airline.

It is not a card, but a designation that one attains by generating considerable revenue for the airline.

As in a corporate travel agent who would significantly affect the CO bottom line by only buying CO tickets for their personnel. Is that what you mean?

As in a corporate travel agent who would significantly affect the CO bottom line by only buying CO tickets for their personnel. Is that what you mean?

Lots of discussions in the CO forum... basically, it's a notation attached to those customers who bring in some defined percentage of revenue over some defined period of time. No card, but does show on the flight manifest.

In my opinion one of the hardest to obtain, based on annual levels and not on revenue or "by invitation only" is the Lufthansa HON Circle. You need to accrue 600.000 HON qualifying miles in two years.

I second that. You could also add SQ Solitaire PPS Club card.

As of by-invitation only for European airlines you have (to name a few) :
- AF/KL : Club 2000 / Skipper
- BA : Premier

The latter being much more exclusive and providing many more benefits than the former. There are 12,000 Club 2000 members for instance... far from the 2000 initial members of the "Club", even if KL Skippers have being integrated since the merger of FFPs

As well as the above, many (most) airlines have unpublished status levels with additional benefits over the highest publicised FF tier.

many (most) airlines have unpublished status levels with additional benefits over the highest publicised FF tier.
Maybe a detail, but aren't most of those granted and administered outside the FF programs, and therefore outside the rules? I know UA's GS is.

I've seen another designation from United on the account status of several well known CEO's - the letters "VIP". I have no idea what that gets them and how it relates to other designations such as GS.

OK, all of the big airlines have basically the same thing: a super-exclusive VIP club with members invited for reasons other than simply EQM.

Of the EQM-based levels only, I think LH HON is probably the best published tier I've ever seen.