I see a majority of disadvantages for us (the well informed ff) if they harmonize/equalize more and more.

as it stands now, we can decide, switch, arbitrate, make gift awards to others.

Harmonizing the programs, I am afraid, would probably on many issues just mean, equalizing the programs on the lowest levels.

Egoistically, I profit from the differences of LH's miles&more and UA's Mileage Plus.

I use LH's ff-program when flying any StarAlliance-carrier on paid business (I never pay first) profiting from the 100% class-bonus (LH counts this as status, UA not), when flying TG in eco (LH 'pays' 100%, UA 50%), when flying LH in eco on nontransatlantic routes (LH 'pays' 100%, UA 50%) , when flying short UA Shuttles (LH 'pays' 500 minimum which count also for status, UA only effectif miles), and when flying first on UA N-America-2-class (LH'pays' 200% counting as status too, UA just 50% and not as status). Or for upgrades on transatlantic flights from business to first I use UA miles (20'0000 selected fares, LH 25'000 all fares), but for flights from Asia to Europe I use LH-miles (30'000 all fares, UA 35'000 selected fares).

I use UA ff-program when flying paid eco (but always upgraded to business) in N-America (and try to always reach 10'000 base miles per quarter on UA to get the quarterly one-way-confirmable upgrades for inner-US-flights).

And to top it: sometimes I can achieve extraordinary bonus promotions with both programs with the same rtw-ticket, at the same time (example: in 97 both programs ran the StarAlliance fly all get 100'000 bonus miles at the same time and with 1 paid eco, but upgrading all long-haul-segments with the StarAlliance-upgrade-vouchers valid for the same period, rtw-ticket, flying two segments with each StarAlliance-partner 'paid' me 200'000 bonus miles, worth more than the overall ticket-costs).

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 09-19-1999).]