Michlb
Jun 29, 12, 12:09 pm
Been flying the SFO-FRA/MUC route for 20 years, most of the time as Senator, but the inflexibility of the M&M program is getting on my nerves. The question is: Time to dump LH and M&M or not? Is United really better, as some of my friends suggest?
Recently, I was again amazed how inflexible and the Miles&More program is. If you are LH Gold, it gets better - at least you are able to get priority for buying milleage tickets. But when I held a paid ticket to Germany, and hoped my wife could use her (soon expiring) miles, I was disappointed. While I would have had no problem getting a milleage ticket for myself on the same day using MY miles, she couldn't, because HER miles weren't LH Gold miles, even though I was flying with her. That's just stupid.
You also can't transfer miles in the family.
Alas, I thought let's dump LH and go to United. They at least give you 6 systemwide upgrade vouchers per year when you reach 1K (LH gives you one int'l upgrade every 2 years). However, upon talking with another 1K, he told me that it's useless: They have you pay higher class fare tickets in order to upgrade, have you pay a $400 handling fee, and even then don't give you a guarantee for the upgrade. True or false?
The only advantage of United is frequent domestic upgrades (but I fly mostly int'l) and a possible lifelong 1K after having flown a million miles (neat, but after 20 years of flying LH that's a bit too late for me). It really feels like all frequent traveller programs suck.
Recently, I was again amazed how inflexible and the Miles&More program is. If you are LH Gold, it gets better - at least you are able to get priority for buying milleage tickets. But when I held a paid ticket to Germany, and hoped my wife could use her (soon expiring) miles, I was disappointed. While I would have had no problem getting a milleage ticket for myself on the same day using MY miles, she couldn't, because HER miles weren't LH Gold miles, even though I was flying with her. That's just stupid.
You also can't transfer miles in the family.
Alas, I thought let's dump LH and go to United. They at least give you 6 systemwide upgrade vouchers per year when you reach 1K (LH gives you one int'l upgrade every 2 years). However, upon talking with another 1K, he told me that it's useless: They have you pay higher class fare tickets in order to upgrade, have you pay a $400 handling fee, and even then don't give you a guarantee for the upgrade. True or false?
The only advantage of United is frequent domestic upgrades (but I fly mostly int'l) and a possible lifelong 1K after having flown a million miles (neat, but after 20 years of flying LH that's a bit too late for me). It really feels like all frequent traveller programs suck.