Kacee

I just ran a search. $900 is the correct fuel surcharge for a RT LH J award. The $100 or so that UA charges consists of taxes and airport fees which all airlines will charge. So that the total of taxes, fees, and surcharges on an LH J award are actually over $1000.

It's debatable whether LH has a better J product than UA. And with the new Polaris seat coming on line, UA's will be clearly superior (though we're probably not going to see much of that seat on the Europe routes for at least a year).

I'm no UA fanboy, but objectively (and pretty much general consensus) MP is a better program unless you can qualify for SEN/HON.

loveairborne

If you start your trip in europe, the surcharge is different :P, and I qualify for SEN.

LXboy

I was in a similar situation. Flying ex ZRH, mainly long haul business class, usually Z class.

As I am flying C, I dont care about status. I like security fast track and lounge but no need for any luggage allowance and some other perks, although bonus miles would be nice. My focus was simply on how can I accumulate miles faster for a free family trip, and 'how' free that trip would be.

Example: Z class on Swiss, ZRH-JFK (LX), LGA-ORD (UA), ORD-ZRH (LX). Cost for the ticket is about CHF 4500 and the trick is to get it ticketed as 016 United ticket. For united tickets you get 5x the $value as miles, when reaching gold it is 8x the $value. Price is same when ticketed as 724 or 016 ticket.

No Status:
In MM: 1.5x 9100 miles = approx 14'500 miles
in MP: 5x 4'500 CHF = approx 22'500 miles

As Gold:
In MM: 1.5x 9100 miles +.25 Bonus = approx 18'125 miles
in MP: 5x 4'500 CHF + 3x 4500 = approx 36'000 miles

Of course, spending levels are different but as others have mentioned, fees as well. With MP I can for example fly for 30k from ZRH to Moscow and back by paying CHF 60 in Fees. In MM the fees are a couple of hundreds...

Given my flying pattern in Z class, MP was the way to go.

Lack

You can fly on LOT with significantly lower fees, but also significantly smaller network. Better seat and service then LH though.

djohannw

Also for intra-Europe flights in P MP can get better earnings than M&M depending on your MP-status. I frequently do Germany-Zurich that costs around 260€ roundtrip in P and yields 1875 miles in M&M for that, but as a 1K I get 2000 miles counting for status and about 2300 award miles out of the same itinerary - plus when booked on united.com I do not pay any of the fancy fees LX charges on top of the flight price (e.g. OPC).

Greetings - Dirk

cfischer

I disagree. MP is almost always better. Much faster to SAG status and on LX all fares earn. For long-haul C-class you get a lot more miles with the miles per $ multiplier ... recently several of my r/ts earned 75k miles (which is the cap). Also 200% qualifying miles on P-class ... and there are some dirt cheap P-class fares within Europe.
There are probably some specific scenarios where M&M is the better choice, I agree, but for 90% of all pax I'd say MP is better

goliath

M&M would be (1.5+0.25) × 9100 = 15925

not

1.5 × 9100 × 1.25 = 17025

Executive bonus is calculated on the "base" miles.

oliver2002

M&M vs MP is also really dependent on:

- if you want to do the requalification rat race each year or every two years with soft landing
- if you are starting in Europe vs US and fly a lot withing Europe or N. America (no lounge in the US & CA with UA Gold)
- where you reedem to: europe-US is cheaper in surcharges than US-Europe, UA MP has lower rates to India/GCC, etc

MitzEclipse

Useful thread. I am based in ZRH and travel mostly on cheapest Economy tickets (mostly on LX) for personal and 1x year to India for work/business also on LX/LH.
Given my M&M Silver expires next month and redeeming any award tickets is an absolute joke with the taxes involved, I am considering switching to MP.

GIven I have a non-US based address, reading this thread seems like a no-brainer to just go with MP and start my mileage accrual all over again? I'm guessing there aren't any programs to transfer miles from M&M to MP? I'm considering my 2018 mileage strategy to be MP+Chase Sapphire Reserve CC and transfer UR miles to MP to redeem on LX - thoughts on this approach?

greg5

I currently credit all of my *A flights to MP. I don't fly enough *A to get anywhere near any status, with most of my longhauls going on BA starting in DUB, OSL or some other airport, as ZRH is crazy expensive. Anyways, at least with MP my miles don't expire, but I really only stash them there so I have something if I need them in an emergency. BTW, how would you get a Chase Sapphire Reserve with a non-US based address? Or do you still have a mailing address in the US?

MitzEclipse

Yes, I have a US based address. what do you mean with MP your miles don't expire? do you have a MP CC of some sort? I have 74k miles that expired in 2014 and unfortunately doesn't appear I can have them reinstated.

greg5

I do have the MP Explorer card, but MP miles won't expire as long as you collect or use miles at least every 18 months. One of the cheaper ways to do this is to buy a cheap E-Book with Barnes and Noble. With Miles No More, every mile has an expiry date of 36 months after they're earned, unless you have the M&M CC, and make sure to use it monthly.

My LX/*A flights are only shorthaul, so I only get a small amount of miles, but it's still better to collect them than not to. It is disappointing that there are a number of booking classes that credit 0 miles on LX.

Mwenenzi

MP = UA MilagePlus?
Probably means had an eligible activity that kept them alive for another 18 months. Then repeat with the next activity. Not hard to do.
Some ffp's have a fixed hard expiry like LH M&M

Thread on expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.