Asiana Club - Why should I go with ASIANA CLUB?

The Agent who i booked my flight from created the Asiana Club account for me. I didn't care about the frequent flyer program untill then.

And I realized WOW, I missed a lot of miles as I have flown 3 times around the world and many other short flies.
So I got my first 15k miles as I got the discounted ticket (70% of actual miles).

What's next? I don't know what to do with Asiana club. Other Airlines like UA or NW gives you bonus miles for applying for credit cards, filling surveys, making purchases on their website etc... and some ppl I know have got more than 30k miles from those methods.
WHAT ABOUT ASIANA?

I'm stuck with school most of the time, only travel in summer, so should I create another account with UA and another with NW to start earning miles?
Can I combine the mileage in OZ account and UA account to redeem all at once?

Thanks for reading
Please let me know :rolleyes:

I think starting out as a newbie to the frequent flyer world there's a lot you can learn and goes way beyond the scope of this forum to try to tell you what you need to know in a single post. To steer you in the right direction though, Asiana is a member of Star Alliance as is United. Northwest is not. You can choose to join just one Frequent Flyer Program in the Star Alliance and anytime you fly any Star Alliance carrier you can have your miles credited to that one account (with a few exceptions where certain heavily discounted tickets don't qualify for miles in some or all programs). I suggest you check out the Star Alliance forum here on Flyer Talk and read up on various subject there to get a better idea of what the alliance is all about. And review some threads in this forum to find out some of the specifics about Asiana Club. After you've done some research then ask some specific questions if you can't find the answers.

Regarding your question about combining accounts, no you cannot do that. So it's better if you just concentrate on one account (within the Star Alliance), and put all your miles into that account so you can earn enough miles for an award more quickly.

As to earning miles with credit cards or other methods, Asiana Club does have partners. Where are you located though? It varies depending on which country you're in.

Oh, and welcome to FlyerTalk.

I think I welcomed you at some other post, already. correct? Anyway, welcome to the OZ forum!

Here are reasons why you would want to join Asiana:

- Star Alliance Gold Status is very important to you
- lifetime status is important
- You like award redemptions with many stopovers.

This is why you don't want to join OZ:

- cheap award flights are what you looking for. OZ charges more miles and more Dollar in taxes and fees for a flight than UA is doing.
- You need a good English speaking call centre

Your profile doesn't say where you are based. If you are in Korea or the US then OZ has a good credit card which earns miles.

The other thing to consider is which booking classes you will fly in the future. Every program gives you different amount of miles depending what class you fly so you need to make some assumptions to find the program right for you.

Thank you guys, just updated my profile.
I'm in Orlando, FL for school. I usually visit my relatives in San Jose, LA, New York, and go back to Vietnam every summer to see my family.

I know that NW is not a member of star alliance, but should i really stick with one alliance?
I'm still a student, so the most important thing I look for is cheap price. So I normally go with the cheapest ticket available. UA often wins it in domestic flights.

I want to register for another ff programm in skyteam alliance since Vietnam Airline is gonna join them next year, and I fly with Vietnam Airline a lot. So just trying to figure out which airline program should I register for right now...

Stick to UA or possibly Aeronplan then.

Although, if you already have 15K in the Asiana plan, you're only 5K away from being Star Alliance Silver (*S you'll often see here and *G for Star Alliance Gold). This would get you free checked bags on United.

At 40K miles, you would get *G status or two years, which would also get you Red Carpet Club access for free, even when flying inside the U.S.

Although, if you already have 15K in the Asiana plan, you're only 5K away from being Star Alliance Silver (*S you'll often see here and *G for Star Alliance Gold). This would get you free checked bags on United.

At 40K miles, you would get *G status or two years, which would also get you Red Carpet Club access for free, even when flying inside the U.S.

I think OP is more interested to get redeemable miles rather than status, as OP already stated he would only travel in summer during the summer break as he is still in school, he also mentioned about doesn't really care what alliance as long as the ticket is the cheapest.

First of all, THANK YOU for all your helps :D it feels like home to me being on this forum

When flying, I look for:
1: cheap price
2: FA's attitude, new air craft with more leg rooms, AVOID, food, airport services
(I love KoreanAir and Asiana's services and Cathay Pacific's food/drink option. You may think they are not that important, but I spend a total of 6 + 13 + 6 = 25 hours continuously on the plane to get to Vietnam)
3: check bags. the more the better. I paid $400 for 2 extra check bags last time with Asiana


I'll go back to VN this December and I guess I'll go with Asiana/StarAlliance partners again to obtain Gold status (StarAlliance Silver).
Then how long does it take to update my status?
It's gonna be a 2 stops trip so does it give me Gold status right away, in the middle of the trip as soon as I reach 20k miles? Or maybe soon enough for the return flight in 3 weeks?

What's the deal with United extra check bags? I don't see it mentioned anywhere on Asiana/United/StarAlliance website. It's only for StarAlliance Gold which is Asiana Diamon and up.
I flew with United to Vietnam once, they sucked, but it turned out to be a good thing because half of the plane was empty and I was able to use Economic Plus cabin and "lied flat" on 3 normal seats :D

Those are all of my questions at the moment. I will definitely do some more research next week.
Oh and I only fly economics. Don't know about the future tho...
Thanks again and looking forward to hearing from you kind and wise gentlemen (:

I'll go back to VN this December and I guess I'll go with Asiana/StarAlliance partners again to obtain Gold status (StarAlliance Silver).
Then how long does it take to update my status?
It's gonna be a 2 stops trip so does it give me Gold status right away, in the middle of the trip as soon as I reach 20k miles? Or maybe soon enough for the return flight in 3 weeks?



If you fly UA, it will take up to 10 days for the miles to post and for your status to convert to Gold (*S)

As for the bags on UA, you can see all the info here:

http://www.united.com/page/article/0,6867,52482,00.html

You only get two for free as *S (compared with one now for a general member) but if you hit *G you get three for free.

3: check bags. the more the better. I paid $400 for 2 extra check bags last time with Asiana

OZ charges $110$-$130 per extra bag one way. http://chkin.flyasiana.com/English/Fly2007/Contents/info/before/baggage/intl_excess_baggage_charg.jsp

Note that United would charge you almost doubled that amount (total $800). So maybe with this in mind getting some form of status is not a bad idea. And if status is important, then OZ is good. You will pay VERY high taxes on award flights however which UA would not charge.

You will pay VERY high taxes on award flights however which UA would not charge.

I assume you're referring to flights ex-USA? I have no experience there as all my flights I've booked with OZ have been ex-Korea and currently the taxes are very low. I assume award tickets incur the same tax. Taxes seem to be very dependent on the originating point and sometimes the connecting point(s).

I assume you're referring to flights ex-USA? I have no experience there as all my flights I've booked with OZ have been ex-Korea and currently the taxes are very low. I assume award tickets incur the same tax. Taxes seem to be very dependent on the originating point and sometimes the connecting point(s).

Not really, it is depending on the airline rather than originating point. Same flight ex USA, NH, SQ can charge substiantially higher, whereas even on a F award for partners carriers but using UA miles, it oftens only need to pay less than $100 in tax. My OZ F award early in the year only cost me $80, that is only because I overnight in NRT, if not, it would only be around $40.

I assume you're referring to flights ex-USA? I have no experience there as all my flights I've booked with OZ have been ex-Korea and currently the taxes are very low. I assume award tickets incur the same tax. Taxes seem to be very dependent on the originating point and sometimes the connecting point(s).

I was referring to something like this:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-alliance/997973-computation-taxes-free-ticket-mileage-between-asiana-ua.html