I'm really new to this and I'm still trying to get my feet wet. A little background info, I'm Singaporean and the family is back in Singapore but I currently go to school in NY. I go back about once a year and I usually fly SQ. I have a krisflyer silver elite account and just recently signed up for the UA mileage plus account. I like travelling but suffer from budget constrains.
Question 1: Should I put my miles on my UA account or the SQ acount? And why?
Question 2: Will krisflyer automatically update the miles I have flown on UA into my krisflyer account if I put my UA mileage plus number when I book the flight?
Question 3: Will these miles be counted as elite miles?
Question 4: Can I just fly any Star Alliance airline and have them automatically show up in both my SQ and UA accounts? (Also, will these count as elite miles?)
Guy Betsy
Aug 3, 12, 9:09 pm
I'm really new to this and I'm still trying to get my feet wet. A little background info, I'm Singaporean and the family is back in Singapore but I currently go to school in NY. I go back about once a year and I usually fly SQ. I have a krisflyer silver elite account and just recently signed up for the UA mileage plus account. I like travelling but suffer from budget constrains.
Welcome to FlyerTalk and the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer forum !!
Question 1: Should I put my miles on my UA account or the SQ acount? And why?
If you travel infrequently, then I would bank in with UA cos with Krisflyer, your miles will expire after about 4 years. With UA, your miles do not expire as long as you have some sort of activity on them - whether by flying, eating, renting car, staying hotel, buying stuff online, etc.
Question 2: Will krisflyer automatically update the miles I have flown on UA into my krisflyer account if I put my UA mileage plus number when I book the flight?
No. If you put Krisflyer on any Star Alliance flights (including UA flights), your miles will go to Krisflyer. If you put UA mileage plus number , then it will go to your UA account. That's how it works.
Question 3: Will these miles be counted as elite miles?
Yes. All Star Alliance qualifying mileage earning flights will count towards elite status.
Question 4: Can I just fly any Star Alliance airline and have them automatically show up in both my SQ and UA accounts? (Also, will these count as elite miles?)
See Q3's answer. You must check with each airlines' Q&A to see which airline will credit what to each programme.
When redeeming awards, UA's programme is better as they do not charge the massive fuel surcharges that Krisflyer does which can amount to over a few hundred dollars.
If you are already Krisflyer Silver Elite, then you may want to stay on with SQ and get the Gold level card .. and then start putting your miles with Mileage Plus. The advantage of having a KF Gold Elite card is accessing the lounges when flying within the USA/Canada.
I know its a little hard to understand all this.. but with a Star Alliance Gold card on any airline except the US ones, eg United and US Airways, you can access the lounges within US/Canada/Caribbean. But with a Star Alliance Gold status card on UA or US Airways, you cannot access their own lounges only in US/Canada/Caribbean unless you buy a Club membership. Some strange US by-law.
So once you have earned KF Gold, cash in all your miles with KF before they expire and then start accumulating with UA Mileage Plus.
Examples of how you can earn miles on Mileage Plus is here : http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/earn/default.aspx
If you look at Krisflyer, you can see that its more limited...if you're in the USA.
http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/ppsclub-krisflyer/earn-nonairpartners/morepartners-intro/
There are ways in which you can get a United Mileage Plus Premium card before even flying - its called "Status Match" or "Status challenge". For example, with your (soon) Krisflyer Gold card, you may ask to match to a competiting alliance say on Oneworld or SkyTeam.. then with those elite cards you ask to status match back to United ... its all in FlyerTalk.. and it can be very addictive. And it might take you a couple of years to catch up on all the talk here..
So for now, just aim in getting Star Gold first.
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Actually do you think you might be flying anywhere , anytime soon? Then you might be able to do a United challenge and fast track you to their Silver or Gold level.
MSPeconomist
Aug 3, 12, 11:08 pm
Welcome to FlyerTalk and the Singapore Airlines Krisflyer forum !!
If you travel infrequently, then I would bank in with UA cos with Krisflyer, your miles will expire after about 4 years. With UA, your miles do not expire as long as you have some sort of activity on them - whether by flying, eating, renting car, staying hotel, buying stuff online, etc.
No. If you put Krisflyer on any Star Alliance flights (including UA flights), your miles will go to Krisflyer. If you put UA mileage plus number , then it will go to your UA account. That's how it works.
Yes. All Star Alliance qualifying mileage earning flights will count towards elite status.
See Q3's answer. You must check with each airlines' Q&A to see which airline will credit what to each programme.
When redeeming awards, UA's programme is better as they do not charge the massive fuel surcharges that Krisflyer does which can amount to over a few hundred dollars.
If you are already Krisflyer Silver Elite, then you may want to stay on with SQ and get the Gold level card .. and then start putting your miles with Mileage Plus. The advantage of having a KF Gold Elite card is accessing the lounges when flying within the USA/Canada.
I know its a little hard to understand all this.. but with a Star Alliance Gold card on any airline except the US ones, eg United and US Airways, you can access the lounges within US/Canada/Caribbean. But with a Star Alliance Gold status card on UA or US Airways, you cannot access their own lounges only in US/Canada/Caribbean unless you buy a Club membership. Some strange US by-law.
So once you have earned KF Gold, cash in all your miles with KF before they expire and then start accumulating with UA Mileage Plus.
Examples of how you can earn miles on Mileage Plus is here : http://www.united.com/web/en-US/content/mileageplus/earn/default.aspx
If you look at Krisflyer, you can see that its more limited...if you're in the USA.
http://www.singaporeair.com/en_UK/ppsclub-krisflyer/earn-nonairpartners/morepartners-intro/
There are ways in which you can get a United Mileage Plus Premium card before even flying - its called "Status Match" or "Status challenge". For example, with your (soon) Krisflyer Gold card, you may ask to match to a competiting alliance say on Oneworld or SkyTeam.. then with those elite cards you ask to status match back to United ... its all in FlyerTalk.. and it can be very addictive. And it might take you a couple of years to catch up on all the talk here..
So for now, just aim in getting Star Gold first.
========
Actually do you think you might be flying anywhere , anytime soon? Then you might be able to do a United challenge and fast track you to their Silver or Gold level.
*A *Gold, even on UA or US, allows you to access all *A lounges, including those in the USA, when flying on a *A international itinerary. The disadvantage relative to a "foreign" *Gold card, such as SQ, is that you cannot use USA (UA and US) lounges when flying on a domestic *A itinerary. If the OP is only flying between school in the USA and Singapore, this doesn't matter, but if the OP starts to explore the USA, it could make a difference to have that overseas *Gold card (says someone with *Gold from Aegean). However, there are other ways to get lounge access, such as Priority Pass and (possibly not relevant for a student) certain credit cards, as well as purchasing day passes, which can make sense for infrequent flights with long layovers or waiting times.
privateuly
Aug 4, 12, 9:28 am
I have a related question which I haven't gotten a definitive answer to. I fly mostly on SQ and am currently a KrisFlyer Gold (and will be for another year). However, I have decided that it's better to put my mileage in UA MileagePlus. I don't have any status with MP. Without having to go through a status challenge with United, will SQ give me the Gold priviledges on account of my KF Gold status even as I put the miles on MP? I suppose I will need to show my KF Gold card. Would that work? The two priviledges I would want are the extra luggage and lounge access. Thanks.
To OP's question about which is better between KF and MP: it depends on what route you want to redeem for. Google for redemption charts for SQ and for UA. If the point requirements are about the same for a given route, choose MP as it has very small fuel surcharge. For example, to get RT Economy class Sin-NY you would need about 60-70k on either program. However KF will charge about 5-600 dollars in surcharges, while MP charges less than $50. On the other hand, redemption for Sin to Europe/Aust/N Asia costs less points on KF than on MP (though the surcharges are still higher).
The other consideration is if you only want to redeem on SQ then go with KF. While the two airlines are technically members of Star Alliance, it can be quite hard to redeem for SQ flights from MP.
ladidums
Aug 4, 12, 10:25 am
I'm already getting addicted!
The main thing I like about lounges is the free internet! Everything else isn't important to me.
The main thing I'm trying to get out of this is cheaper or free flights. I'm not a huge luxury traveller and I'm perfectly comfortable on cattle class.
In terms of getting *A gold, should I just go with Asiana airlines instead? Their lifetime gold of 500 000 miles on any *A airlines seems very do-able and I don't need to worry about renewing and maintaining my *A gold status.
I'm currently, silver elite on KF but it's expiring in july 2013 and I don't think I will fly enough this year to qualify even for that.
Right now, I've got only a domestic flight to LA coming up late august and my trip back home end of dec. But I've already bought the tickets for both these trips.