Originally Posted by
Tharan
Thank you for your reply.
I did take a look at the websites but that didn't really say that much to me.
There's loads of booking classes, from Asiana that is Y, B, M, H, E, Q, K, S. What does the letters mean? What booking class am I booking if I for example go to
www.flysas.com and simply book the cheapest I find for my dates on the main menu?
Here's what I would do in your place:
- Always check the FFP of the airline you most frequently travel with, i.e. SAS . Now, here the membership levels are quite high, but you might also get to Silver with 20 segments in a year, which might be feasible for you if you travel once a month to Sweden and also take an intercontinental flight now and then. With Eurobonus, you will probably have the best redemption possibilities on SAS for the eventual award tickets that you will be able to book from your miles.
- Aegean's program is usually considered to be the best for reaching Star Alliance Gold Status quickly (20,000 miles). However, it seems to me that you are not earning any miles with the lowest (cheapest) fares on SAS (e.g. G K L O T U W).
- Turkish's program is also quite good for reaching Star Allliance Gold (40,000 miles spread over 2 years). You obviously need some more time to do it, but cheaper fare buckets in SAS also earn miles: 300 in general. That's 66 round trips in 2 years, which looks like quite a challenge to me.
- Asiana has only one benefit over Turkish and Aegean if you don't fly them: if you make 400,000 miles altogether, you will get lifetime Gold status. Bad award redemption rates, I would not recommend for you.
Some closing notes and conclusion:
- With the travel pattern that you mention, it will all depend on the booking class. Check your latest ticket (not boarding pass!) for that. It will certainly not be the same next time, but it might help you.
- If you think you can make Gold with Turkish, choose them. With the cheapest tickets, you will not. So if this is the case, go for SAS Eurobonus and target Silver, as SAS will value you more then a Turkish Silver.
- I'm not exactly familiar with EB, but the general rule is that it doesn't really mean too much to be Silver with a Star Alliance operator other than the one you are using. Gold is a completely different thing. If you can make Gold anywhere, go for it without hesitating.