Originally Posted by mitchmu

Hi, and welcome to FT.

In my opinion, Star Gold is the single most valuable thing to have. I have been treated better on *A airlines as a Star Gold than UA has treated me as a 1K.

Please visit the "star alliance" web site. They have a lot of good content that summarizes all the global benefits.

Short answer is, yes, you get a lot of benefits like you described. Just make sure to enter your UA FF number and make sure they recognize you as *G when you book.

My experience has been that many *A airlines stopped recognizing me as *G after CO took over UA and replaced the UA FF numbers with CO FF numbers. I've had a lot of trouble and frustration, on almost every *A flight, since then.

So, make sure you call the *A airline, get that number into the system, and make sure they have seen you as *G.

The benefits are great - the hard part, now, is getting them to recognize that you are *G. You only get the benefits if their computers actually figure out that you are *G. And, always carry your card. You'll need to show it at some in-airport situations overseas.