Originally Posted by
quarryking
(1) What is your home airport? MAA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy for the most part, Biz class sometimes
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 40K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Jet Airways Jet Privilege Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? MAA-SIN, MAA - CMB
(7) Preferred Airlines? no preference
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both
Air India is slated to join Star Alliance, but not too kicked with their service out in Economy.
HI
Quarryking! Long time! We still have to do the Mini-DO at MAA.
Will keep you posted,
In your case with Star Alliance, it is best of course, if AI joins.
However, that has not happened yet.
For MAA-SIN, it is easiest to fly SQ for Star miles. Cheapest SQ economy fares do not earn miles on any airline including SQ. So, be watchful of what fare class you are buying.
If you can route MAA-SIN and then SIN-CMB for work, then you can fly SQ all the way. (instead of doing MAA-SIN-MAA and MAA-CMB-MAA).
The MAA-CMB-MAA sector is a problem one with respect to Star alliance. But, its a short flight anyway...so you could continue on 9W for that one.
In terms of collecting miles, it seems that your goal is award tickets.
Some reports in this thread say Aegean (A3) does have good redemption rates.
Another program to consider collecting miles would be TK (Turkish). You need 35K miles (I believe...dont remember just now) for Star Gold. That will give you lounge access throughout your travel.
One more option to consider is TG. Actually, if you can fly MAA-BKK-SIN/CMB, you can collect way more miles quickly!! (but it will add some hours to travel) And TG seems to be a good program to collect miles in......50K for Star Gold. They give you upgrade vouchers after you reach Star Gold.
I actually liked the TG MAA-BKK-MAA flights. Nice service. Decent timing (arrival / departure).