Asiana Club - Rate Asiana Airlines Asiana Club

We are going to review Asiana Airlines Asiana Club in the September issue of InsideFlyer magazine and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of membership in Asiana Airlines Asiana Club and grade the program from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to me at dmankell@insideflyer.com.
Thank you!

We are going to review Asiana Airlines Asiana Club in the September issue of InsideFlyer magazine and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of membership in Fiesta Americana Fiesta Rewards and grade the program from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to me at dmankell@insideflyer.com.
Thank you!


I don't know much about Fiesta Americana Fiesta Rewards but here are my $0.02 in regards to Asiana Club.

Awards, Earn/Burn Ratio

Asiana Club has quite a bad earn/burn ratio. Earning is pretty much in line with most other programs but lacks minimum miles guarantees for many *A carriers. However, you need significantly more miles for awards than with many other programs.
There are blackout dates for awards.


Qualification Requirement

One of the easiest programs to achieves status. You only need to accrue 40,000 status miles in 2 years in order to get *G status.


Lounge Access

*G status (OZ Platinum, Diamond and Diamond+) will give you full lounge access even on US domestic routes.
OZ Diamond+ and OZ Platinum will give you access also to First Class lounges which normal *G passengers can't access when not flying first class.


Status validity

Status is valid between 2-4 years depending on how quickly you qualify.


Partnerships

Outside *A, OZ only has a partnerhsip with Qatar Airways.
There are only limited other partnerships for non airline partners if you live outside Korea.


Other

While the earn/burn ratio for awards is not good, OZ is very strong if you want to build itineraries with lots of stops. JFK-FRA-ZRH-CDG-FRA-JFK for example can easily be done on OZ.
In addition OZ is the only *G program which gives you lifetime *G status based on flights taken on any *A carrier. So you don't need to every fly OZ but still get lifetime status.
There is also a decent US credit card program which earn miles for OZ.
Communication with OZ can be difficult as staff is not always fluent in English. The website doesn't offer much functionality also so you have to call for lots of transactions.
Miles are only valid for 5 or 7 years depending on your status and nothing can stop those miles from expiring.

FC lounge access is only applicable to the ones operated by OZ, right?

LAX

Yes, only Asiana First class lounges, which currently means only ICN. Of course you can use any *G lounge at other airports provided you're flying *A, as per the *A rule for gold card members.

Well, I've been a Asiana Club member for many, many years now. I never had problems with getting miles for all my trips but it seems for the past 2 years that there are all these different fare codes for star alliance members that don't give miles anymore. I took a RT from LAX to ORD to MUC to BCN, taking UA and LH, bought my ticket on Expedia, I got miles for half of the trip, because of the different fare codes. I never had this problem 2 years ago. I just bought my ticket and had no worries about getting miles. Now I have to triple check every little booking code to make sure it quaifies and sometimes, the mileage earning booking code is so much more expensive that it is not worth it.

There are 2 saving graces for Asiana Club, it is the Asiana BofA AMEX, 2 miles per dollar. Even with it's high redemtion rates for Star Alliance awards, it still comes out ahead of other cards. And the fact that you can keep Star Gold of 2 years at a time and can qualify for only 40K. Without these 2 features this program would be craptastic.

Alex

I forgot to add that I hate that they put a 7 year limit on miles with no way of saving them even with continued activity. Also, they got rid of the blackout day waiver for Diamond members, only for Diamond plus and Platinum when the grace period is over.

Hi,
I just got the latest issue of InsideFlyer where it talks about the Asiana Airline credit cards on page 29.

I've had the Asiana Visa for about 4 years and the newer Asiana Amex since about April of last year, 08. As a drawback, it lists for all the cards that there is slow posting of miles that may take 1-2 billing cycles. I just did a quick search of my Asiana account and my miles have been posting like clockwork. My billing cycle closes on the 11th of every month and my miles for that billing cycle post on to my Asiana account by the 19th. This is before my bill is even paid, which is usually due around the 4th of the next month. I searched my account quickly since July, the 1 year search option and I have consistently without missing a single month or date, recieved my miles on the 19th of every month. So I don't know where that rumor came from but it doesn't seem to be true.

Also, the second drawback is the extra miles for grocery stores. If you read the fine print, they say select grocery stores and those stores unfortunately are a select few Korean grocery stores in the major Korean communities around the US. Not a benefit for most but for those that can use it, it is an extra mile that don't need to offer. That would be a total of 3 miles per dollar at those Korean markets. Which I have verified works at the HK market in Los Angeles's Koreatown a couple of months back.

I guess I will let the cat of the bag. The biggest draw of the Asiana Amex is the 2 miles per dollar offer. Does Asiana have high redemption rates? Yes they do, they are very high but with the 2 mile per dollar offer. If you want to spend your way to a trip to say a business class ticket to Europe on a *A carrier. You'd need to spend $52,500 for it, which I believe is the lowest for any biz class ticket for any credit card. A *A ticket in the 10001-15000 mile round trip costs 115,000 miles. The Amex gives you a 10,000 mile certificate bringing the total miles needed to 105,000, divide that by 2 and you get $52, 500 spent on the Amex for a RT biz class tickets.

Now my only hope is that a huge amount of people don't sign up for this card and they decide the card is popular enough and downgrade the card to a normal 1 mile for $1. :p

Alex

Also, the second drawback is the extra miles for grocery stores. If you read the fine print, they say select grocery stores and those stores unfortunately are a select few Korean grocery stores in the major Korean communities around the US. Not a benefit for most but for those that can use it, it is an extra mile that don't need to offer. That would be a total of 3 miles per dollar at those Korean markets. Which I have verified works at the HK market in Los Angeles's Koreatown a couple of months back.

This is funny.


I guess I will let the cat of the bag. The biggest draw of the Asiana Amex is the 2 miles per dollar offer. Does Asiana have high redemption rates? Yes they do, they are very high but with the 2 mile per dollar offer. If you want to spend your way to a trip to say a business class ticket to Europe on a *A carrier. You'd need to spend $52,500 for it, which I believe is the lowest for any biz class ticket for any credit card. A *A ticket in the 10001-15000 mile round trip costs 115,000 miles. The Amex gives you a 10,000 mile certificate bringing the total miles needed to 105,000, divide that by 2 and you get $52, 500 spent on the Amex for a RT biz class tickets.
Now my only hope is that a huge amount of people don't sign up for this card and they decide the card is popular enough and downgrade the card to a normal 1 mile for $1. :p
Alex

How many miles are needed for DME-ORD?

This is funny.



How many miles are needed for DME-ORD?

ORD-FRA-DME return is less than 12k miles distance.