Originally Posted by
petergrubercom
(1) Home airport? VIE/MXP
(2) Fares? Y discount
(3) Distance miles: 30.000, but many short hops in Europe
(4) I am a M&M Frequent Traveler
(5) Important: Star Alliance Gold perks (priority service, lounge access). I also like to get good deals on awards
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: intra-Europe plus 1-2 times per yr TATL
(7) none especially, but most of my routes are served by LX,OS,LH
(8) I travel on my own budget, i.e. could buy higher fares if there is some value in it.
So far, I came up with the following:
(a) go for Aegan, because they offer 500 miles for every segment on LX, even in E
(b) qualify for gold via segments at United or US Air (I do more than 60 segments). Question: do I get credit for segments, which yield zero miles (like the OS fares in O, and T)?
Welcome to Flyertalk!
and ^ for doing some research!
I used to be in a similar situation like you were (mainly doing intra-European flights on LH in discounted Y, a few long-haul flights to North America in Y)
Regarding qualifying on segments: Booking classes which donīt earn any miles also donīt count for status. Most discounted booking classes on intra-European flights on LH (E, L, T) and OS only earn 125 miles with M&M and zero miles with most other FFPs. (so option b is likely not feasible)
When I did about 30k miles/year I switched all my flights to Air Canada in order to achieve Elite status (= Star Alliance Gold, equivalent to LH M&M Sen status) and maximize the benefits associated with E status.
AC Elite status requires 35k status miles (= 3 TATL flights), provides all benefits associated with *G status, plus upgrade certs for flights operated by AC, all intīl flights operated by AC/UA/CO earn 100% miles with AP and you can also choose to earn a 50% miles bonus (while many booking classes on LH/LX/OS operated flights only earn 50% miles with M&M and the miles bonus is 25%)
US has one of the worst status programs IMO (no lounge access in the US, no upgrades, no mileage bonus, overall a crappy airline, redemption rates are good which is why everyone is buying US miles like mad, but redemption rates will inevitably inflate soon)
Aegean is a good option if you canīt make status with any other airline, but otherwise Iīd avoid it. Also note that many booking classes earn fewer miles with Aegean than with M&M, AP etc., so be very careful when booking a flight.
Hope this helps!