Hello folks - I have a serious dilemma and would appreciate some serious input.

It is time to re-evaluate my M&M membership and plan travel strategies for the next few years. I have been a SEN with LH since 1999. 13 years. With the latest re-qualification to 02/15, I will have been a SEN for 16 years in 2/15.

Over the last several years, LH has systematically devalued the M&M program to the point where I am wondering if there is any point in continuing after my membership expires in 02/2015. Some of the changes are understandable, most are downright, for the lack of a better term, disgusting.

I travel 3-4 times per year, from the US to Europe/India (mostly to India). 95% of the time in Z class - being a small business owner, I cannot (and DO NOT) want to pay for the higher D or C or J class tickets and what made M&M attractive was the ability to qualify for SEN (*G) status in 3 R/T Z class flights from the US to India/Asia.

The reduction of accrual of miles in Z class from 200% to 150% is the biggest downer - - essentially this means that it will be impossible to qualify for SEN in 3 R/Ts, rather, it will take 4 R/Ts and that my friends is the petty game that LH is playing...to force us to pay a lot more money to retain existing benefits. I can only surmise that they don't care for people like me who have been loyal customers for as long as I have been...as it is...

The second slap in the face is that Z class can no longer upgrade to F as of 9/1/12...just because I am not a big corporate and cannot afford C,D,J fares does not mean that I should be barred from upgrading to F - after all, a R/T ticket US-India is around $5K in Z Class, and touches $8K in the next bucket - if LH expects me to cough up an additional $9K each year (for 3 trips) to quality for SEN, they are sorely mistaken. I can understand, to some extent, that LH is trying to make F very exclusive; but how lets be realistic - what is the actual percentage of revenue paying pax in F as compared to upgrades?

Other notable changes - upgrade from Z went from 20K miles in early 2000s to 30K miles to 50K miles and now to 65K miles - it takes 2 R/Ts in Business class to get ONE upgrade to F and they also want to do away with that!

Then, there was a time when LH gave you 2 eVs each time you reached 100K miles - now its only when your status renews every 2 years...regardless of how many miles you accrue.

Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut, Cut - I don't see any IMPROVEMENTS, only CUTS!

LH has one of the more mediocre Business Classes in the air and to be frank, even the highly touted new business class that debuts on the 747-8 does not look that attractive especially at the prospect of "almost" playing footsies with the person next to you. More so when compared to airlines such as Qatar, Ethiaad, LX and even BA!

Because of the 65K miles needed to upgrade from Z to F in LH, I stopped flying LH late last year and switched to Qatar (I was happily upgrading even at 50K miles). So far, I have flown US-India on Qatar 3 times in the last 7 months and the experience has been STELLAR. QR's Business class is so much more superior to LH, the comparison is not even worth it - and will reamin MUCH BETTER even when compared to LH's new business class that is coming up on the 747-8. In fact, And QR's Z class fares are more competitive as compared to LH and they don't slap their most customers in the face the way LH has, time and time and time again. And, oh, they DO NOT charge 240 euros (almost $400) for date changes in Z, rather they charge $80! I have already qualified for QR's Silver status and will make it to Gold in the next R/T.

The only negative with QR is that they are not part of any of the global alliances so that makes them unattractive from that perspective. I am considering switching to UA (shudder, shudder) Mileage Plus program so I can accrue *G status for *A flights and also accrue miles for all my QR flights. I like the *A more than SkyTeam or OneWorld so would like to stick with *A rather than give it up.

I am sure I am not the only one who is ready to abandon M&M and switch my allegiance to an airline that values my loyalty of almost 15 years!

I fly quite a bit within the US, to Canada, to Hawaii, to Europe, India and sometimes, Asia. No AUZ/NZ or South America or Africa.

So, my question is, what is a better program to switch to? UA? US? Jet Airways? Virgin? Any others?

I would really appreciate input from members on FT that are far more experienced and savvy when it comes to all of this - I am just a simple small business owner who wants to get the biggest bank for my buck.

Thanks in Advance!

Raj