Originally Posted by
NickB
That said, to be fair, even with a doubling of flights, *G status for 6 long-haul deep discount business class tickets, while not particularly interesting for quite a few of us including me, is not a ridiculously high level especially, as you say, for 2 years of *G (and 4 years of access to LH lounges given the soft landing to FTL) and compares honourably to many programmes, although obviously not the BDs or A3s of this world which are unusually generous with granting status.
Status for two years is definitely something interesting that some programmes, like LH's SEN, offer. You can take a "year off" and spend your miles without dropping. I didn't know the 2-year period also applied to FTL, though.
With regard to status, I am not sure it matters that much to people who take 6 long-haul flight a year in business: most of the elite benefits, they get by flying business anyway, and I am not sure that exec who fly 6 TATL in business per year fly a few in Y on top of that. Well, there's an economic crisis, so maybe... And the elite bonus between FTL and SEN is the same, so it doesn't change for them (slightly better lounges, though).
What I feared about the P fare stinginess was confirmed anecdotically to me today. LH is starting a sale ex-France. I selected a few destination and put them in ITA: they're still more expansive than BA's regular fare for this summer. I got 1989 € for bussing from SXB to FRA and flying to YVR, and that's compared to Z fare from LUX (around the same distance as FRA
) on AC or OS through VIE around 300 € more expansive. P fares are promotional, but not groundbreaking deals. Even when comparing to regular Z fare from LH, I feel flying Z would be more interesting for reasonable valuations of M&M miles.