Originally Posted by
PVDtoDEL
I'd suggest Asiana - they have a low lifetime star alliance gold threshold (relative, 500k miles is still a lot), and you can fly them TYO-US... You always get better treatment if you have *G with the airline you are flying on compared to another airline, which is why I suggest flying with the airline that you have your FFP with as often as possible.
The problem would be I hardly ride Asiana...I ride it sometimes when I visit Seoul but that is not as often as Lufthansa for Europe and United/Continental/ANA/AC to USA.
So all in all I would not benefit that much from the Asiana status but only the *Gold. That was why I considered BMI (since it seems they are getting folded into Lufthansa) or United or Aeroplan or ANA...however as everyone knows ANA gives bad miles to Discount tickets. United is ok and not my airline of choice with its terrible service...BMI does have low threshold for *Gold status...Aeroplan has the requirement to ride Air Canada flights...plus Asiana I hear has terrible redemption. Correct me if I am wrong.
I don't think Asiana is the way to go. In that case I can also argue I might as well go with Krisflyer since I can at least gain some status with them if not up to Gold since I ride their airline more often then Asiana.
P.S. Asiana does not offer flights from Tokyo to US. At least I can't buy tickets through to US with Asiana websites unless I go to a travel agent and at that point it costs way more than United/Continental/ANA/Singapore/AC which is why I never bothered with Asiana except to fly to Seoul