LC_Brussels

I don't have the biggest experience in loyalty programs but it seems to me that it's pretty easy/cheap to get premium (gold) status in the Panorama Club loyalty program.

http://www.flyuia.com/eng/club/panor...rivileges.html

Thanks to cheap flights and hidden cities you can get 20 segments for 1.000 euro, which gives you access to business lounges etc. Interesting or better options available? What do you guys think?

Romanianflyer

Well yes, UIA flight can be ridiculously cheap and there are great gems out there if you know some tricks. Once got a great open jaw for a little over 100 euro on Europe-Bangkok-Europe. At times such fares still return.

But is the programme worth it? Hard to answer. I would say it perhaps is, if you have to fly UIA economy a lot. Besides lounge access and perhaps other stuff when flying UIA, I dont see any real benefits of being a member of panorama club when flying other airlines. They arent part of any alliance, after all! Gold status would only be of a benefit when flying UIA!

Yes, you can earn miles flying with a select number of partner airlines. But you can also easily credit UIA flights to Flying Blue for example, which makes much more sense if not a regular on UIA.

Anyway to answer the more generic question what is the best for you: that hugely depends on flying patterns. Which airlines you are likely fly most with? To which destinations? Where are you based? How much do you fly on a yearly basis?

LC_Brussels

Well I'm based in Brussels, Belgium and UIA has a direct connection with Kiev again. This in combination with the fact that the Ukrainian valuta is dirt cheap right now opens some opportunities IMO.

It's true that I'm not really interested in their partner airlines. Most of my miles are on my AAdvantage account (OneWorld through AA) and after disappointments with Miles and More I did go to Aegean for my Star Alliance miles.

I've never been a gold member in any loyalty program, so that's why I ask this question here on a board with real frequent flyers. What is premium (gold) status worth for you guys? For my it's even not clear in which business lounges I can enter with a Premium Panorama Club card.

Any tips welcome!

malmostoso

Well you could only enter the business lounge that PS uses at the airport of departure, provided you are flying with them that day. So unless you do BRU-KBP very often, it's pretty much useless.

LC_Brussels

And since BRU will be mostly my place of embarkment only the KBP business lounge is interesting. Somebody has experience with this lounge?

Only the 25% extra miles thanks to premium status will be interesting. Anyway not so interesting indeed, but found ways to get to premium (gold) status for less then 500 euro so I will give this a try.

Romanianflyer

I don't know which lounge in BRU UIA uses, but you can only enter it if you would have gold with UIA and have an outbound flight with them. When flying any other airline, it will be useless. Really, only when actually needing to fly UIA a lot it makes sense.

I would strongly suggest to go for A3 gold or at least silver (considering SN as a big player in the BRU market is Star Alliance too). Even Aegean silver status - unlike most of the other frequent flyer programmes - already will give you great benefits like 2 coupons for a free upgrade to their excellent business class cabin.

Feel free to ask more detailed questions to the friendly folks at the Aegean Miles+Bonus subforum here, if you need to know more aboutvthe programme. (Or at the AA forum if you want to focus on Oneworld as your alliance to get gold with).

LC_Brussels

Thank you very much! I will dig deeper into A3 and AA as you suggested.

Romanianflyer

Although I rarely fly Oneworld except for the odd flight on Qatar Airways, I know that the AA programme is one of top choices for benefits, ease of redeeming miles etc. so not a bad choice.

The great thing about Aegean is that when having reached gold, it's relatively easy to maintain when based in Europe. (Miles requirements are halved when flying 2/4 (silver/gold) sectors a year on A3). Great fun to do as well, given the free upgrade coupons for silver (2) and gold (4) members.

If you have the choice and flexibility which airline to fly, and you aren't a person flying hundreds of thousands of miles a year with a wide array of carriers, I would strongly suggest to focus on reaching status on just one alliance for the time being. Otherwise you might risk not reaching any status in a year at all by splitting your focus and flight allegiance.

Palal

Decent lounge, good showers, ok drink selection, food selection varies by TOD but there's a minimal number of eatable snacks and the president's candy

LC_Brussels

Thanks Palal :-)

Little update: I'm halfway my Premium status and I must say that the people of the loyalty program respond very fast and are very helpful. Website feels a bit soviet but it's more interesting to book through OTA's anyway.

LC_Brussels

Thank you for the great tips Romanianflyer!

Palal

Update on the lounge - power outlets are sparse, but can be found. Food is pretty good - at lunchtime you have soup, a main dish, and a bunch of snacks. Drinks, except water and coke, are not self-serve, but are poured without problems. There is a glassed-off smoking section. Newspapers are a bit lacking. Overall a decent lounge to spend a bit of time in.

LC_Brussels

Anybody experience with redeeming uia airmiles with partner airlines (like KLM etc)? It looks like you can only order round trips (fairly low amount of miles) starting from KBP? So round trips from BRU would not be possible using partner airlines??

fartoomanyusers

Last time I looked their password encryption was non existent - when you asked for a password remind/reset they would email you your password in plain text (so they clearly aren't encrypting it in their database).

Assuming this hasn't changed - best use a password that you don't use for anything else (and you don't mind being stolen).

DNKflyer

My redemption experience with PS was DME-VIE-ZAG-VIE-DNK on OS. So I am sure round trips from BRU will be ok.