Asiana Club - Considering giving up on AC Elite and shooting for OZ Diamond

I've been an AC Elite (*G) for several years now. I originally signed up for AC because of the low qualification threshold for *G - 35,000 miles in a year. In some years, if I travel a lot for work, I pass that threshold in a couple of months, and in some (most) years I only make around 40,000 miles, mainly of leisure travel in economy.

I've been toying with the idea of switching to OZ, and aiming for Diamond. My main motivation is that I'll be traveling a lot this year, and think I'll make 40,000 easily over the next few months, and could then have the benefit of *G ongoing for, effectively, 20,000 miles/year. I mostly travel in Asia, and between the U.S. and Australia/Asia, so don't actually fly with AC (or OZ) very often. I'm usually on SQ or UA, and mainly want the *G benefits (although I've been surprisingly pleased by my ability to redeem free flights on peak dates thru AC - just lucky, I guess).

So... I'd be grateful for the advice of those who know Asiana Club well. Is this a bad idea? A good idea? Anything I should look out for? Is there some way I can continue to enjoy *G while traveling this year, but post my miles to OZ? And, if I do this, am I right in thinking I should sign up for OZ just before my first departure, because of the rolling qualification period?

Thanks in advance!

Earn and burn ratio is not as good as other airlines. If what you are looking for is the lowest threshold for *G, why don't you sign up with TK? Initial qualification threshold is a bit more than renewal threshold but renewal threshold for TK is 35K for 2 years AFAIK.

Since you have mentioned that you would be travelling a lot this year, I would sign up with BD instead of OZ.

I've been toying with the idea of switching to OZ, and aiming for Diamond. My main motivation is that I'll be traveling a lot this year, and think I'll make 40,000 easily over the next few months, and could then have the benefit of *G ongoing for, effectively, 20,000 miles/year. I mostly travel in Asia, and between the U.S. and Australia/Asia, so don't actually fly with AC (or OZ) very often. I'm usually on SQ or UA, and mainly want the *G benefits (although I've been surprisingly pleased by my ability to redeem free flights on peak dates thru AC - just lucky, I guess).

So... I'd be grateful for the advice of those who know Asiana Club well. Is this a bad idea? A good idea? Anything I should look out for? Is there some way I can continue to enjoy *G while traveling this year, but post my miles to OZ? And, if I do this, am I right in thinking I should sign up for OZ just before my first departure, because of the rolling qualification period?

Thanks in advance!

Asiana's low requalification is definitely one of the main advantages of their program and also the main reason I changed to their program (they also were issuing elite cards without expiry dates but that's another story :D ).

However, as mentioned, please note that the number of miles needed to redeem tickets are not as good as other programs so you need to evaluate what is more important to you.

Also, one thing I have noticed over the years with Asiana, as with most other programs, is that the fare classes that are eligible for mileage accrual has been reduced, especially for the discounted economy. Hence, before changing to Asiana, I'd strongly recommend checking against the fare classes you normally travel on to ensure that you will receive full miles on them.

Finally, even though you are posting your miles to a new program, you can still enter *Gold lounges with your current AC *Gold card and, providing you show your *Gold card, you are also entitled to priority boarding :)

I agree with the two posters above. You mainly join OZ because of lifetime Gold status.
TK is the program for very easy status and you can even buy status miles. OZ is relatively easy to get status but don't expect a good usage of award flights. Also, be aware that you will be dealing with an airlines which might not have a presence at your location so you can't expect much service.

Since you have mentioned that you would be travelling a lot this year, I would sign up with BD instead of OZ.

BD is only really good if you travel in premium cabins. And with BD possibly merging with LH in the near future signing up for BD now might not be a good idea for the OP.

I switched to OZ because I mainly care about lounge access and *G benefits. Redemption is not as important to me, but I do like that you can use miles to upgrade across the *A (albeit on high fare tickets). It sounds like you may be in the same boat, in which case I think OZ is probably a good choice for you, although you probably want to look into TK as well (I eventually went with OZ).

One potentially key point to consider is mileage expiration. If you're talking about only banking about 20K miles per year with a FFP and want to get a rather expensive award, your miles could expire before you ever reach your goal.

I'm pretty much lining up to do the same thing (posted under the Dual Loyalty Programs thread in the *A forum). I will achieve AC Elite for next year, but with the extra miles will be saving for OZ.

Two further points:

A good thing to do if you can afford to mileage-wise (which I am doing) is to keep earning AP miles on as many AC flights as you can, to take advantage of that 50% bonus.

In addition, not mentioned above --and a plus of Asiana-- is that miles (non-EQM) can be pooled among family members. This was a big plus for me since I'm getting married this year and my fiancee does not fly as much as I do but together we can probably get a decent trip further down the road.

I will agree with the posters that burning will be tougher, since I don't expect to go to Korea that often. . . .

Good luck!

I will agree with the posters that burning will be tougher, since I don't expect to go to Korea that often. . . .

Why would you have to go to Korea when burning OZ miles? :confused:

Why would you have to go to Korea when burning OZ miles? :confused:


--I just typed that referring to the benefits of flying OZ metal (bonus EQM, discounted reward flights, upgrading with miles, etc.). We still may ending up burning most of them domestically.

Sorry 'bout the confusion!