Originally Posted by
cposso1022
I'm going to be flying MIA to ZRH once a month. I'm UAL 1K already but I refuse to connect to EWR and hope I get upgraded. Instead I'd like to just join Miles and More, if it makes sense to do so. I can't seem to upgrade anything on UA MileagePlus for Swiss, so this is why I'm considering moving over to M&M. Any advice?
You've made it not clear if you're flying C or Y, hoping for upgrades into C or F.
If you fly (at least booking class D) Business class, M&M might make sense. LX is still doing upgrades (if overbooked) based on status, and upgrading with miles/evouchers is possible relatively easy once you get to be SEN (which would be fast in such case)
However, if you fly Y, don't go to M&M. Especially if your bookings won't be in super expensive Y/B, you won't get much miles (25% in all cheap fares, 50% in mid-range) and therefore take a long time even just to hit FTL (*S) status to get 25% bonus..
MIA-ZRH is a bit below 5k miles. If you fly it RT in the 50% fares, that will give you just below 5k miles. 12 round trips, and you'll be FTL (including the bonus)
Or, if you fly in the cheaper booking classes, you'll be absolutely nothing (Blue Member) - even if you fly monthly between those cities..
So, you can see, if you're a customer spending a lot of money on expensive C class (or F, for that matter), M&M might still be your program.
If you're flying cheaper C, or almost all Y classes, M&M isn't really attractive (anymore) - better off to choose others. And why not fly BA? With your travel pattern, you could make much more Avios, get more frequent upgrades, and most probably hit Silver level (almost as good as SEN) or even Gold (between SEN and HON) even when flying in cheap Economy. Changing in LHR on this route isn't taking up much time, and you get at least the chance to choose WT+ (Y+) instead of flying soon in the 3-4-3 setting that LX will have on their new 777 birds.. (and unless you pay, you might end up in one of the middle seats...)