Originally Posted by
stargold
1. I'd rather have less miles that I can use more easily on flights I actually want to redeem on, rather than sitting on a huge mountain of miles that I can only spend on UA because they block so many Star flights.
It's all down to personal choice of course, but I'd much rather fly OZ, suffer less in a less hideous environment, and get less bonus miles that I can spend more easily on some decent rewards like OZ/NH/SQ in F/J.
I think one is not easy to use OZ miles either.
1. OZ has known quite a lot blackout dates throughout the year.
2. For OZ Diamond (*G), Gold (*S), Silver (general) members, there is additional 50% of miles will be redemmed during peak season, however, this rule doesn't affect Diamond Plus and Platinum members.
3. Unused miles cannot be carried over which means miles will expire.
4. Miles use to redemm awards are much higher than other competitors, such as ORD-HKG, 170,000 in F for low season only. Starnet blocking for UA mainly affect NH, SQ is block for everyone no matter what on 380, 345, and 77W, everytime I call UA always have OZ available. I had so far used my UA miles for 2 ORD-HKG F award on OZ. If I am using OZ miles, I wouldn't be able to redemm even for 1 F award ! (240K for 2 vs 255K for 1 in high season)
All in all, I think the OZ program is good to gain status like what
A_Lee decribed in the previous post, as you have two years to get your status, but it is bad to save your miles and use it with.