Originally Posted by
gruimed
My question is about frequent flyer programs, not airlines.
I currently have Platinum status with UA, will probably be Gold next year. I am considering to switch to Lufthansa, mainly because I fly more with them than with UA and I hope I will get upgrades at least from time to time. Other than that I am happy with UA and have no problem maintaining at least Gold status with them, but since I live in Israel and most of my travel is to Europe or Far East (China/Korea/Japan) and typically only once a year to US, I cannot enjoy benefits such as free upgrades and I believe award tickets cost me more, since I usually get award tickets from Lufthansa using my UA miles.
Bottom line, my question is - is it worth for me to move to Lufthansa?
If so, another question would be how to do this, as they don't offer intra-alliance status match problems. I've heard that I can book my tickets using UA frequent flyer number (to get lounge access), but then change it to Lufthansa at the gate. Would this work?
1) What is your home airport? TLV.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Usually economy or discount economy.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50K-70K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? UA Platinum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, upgrades, miles redemption (in that order)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Israel-Europe (mostly), Israel-China/Korea/Japan and usually once a year Israel-US
(7) Preferred Airlines: Lufthansa, United
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mostly work.
The thing about you only fly 50K-70K is a problem, as LH Senator require 100K to qualify, 50K-70K will only get you FTL. LH FTL equal to star silver, which means you will lose all the star gold benefits which include lounge access except LH group's business lounge, you have to get to LH Senator to be star gold. UA gold however is star gold.
Also LH FTL don't get you any upgrade vouchers, you have to be LH Senator to get that.
For award ticket, LH do have fuel surcharge in addition to taxes and fees, for a Y award ticket, it could be as expensive as if you buy a ticket. UA however has none.
Originally Posted by
gruimed
I end up flying with LH a lot anyway, since many of my flights are between Israel and Europe. My question really was, given the above, would it better for me to switch to LH M&M (I guess the answer is yes, as I now realize that airlines do not upgrade Star Alliance gold member, unless they are gold with that airline).
My only remaining question is, is LH (both as carrier and as frequent flyer program) better then any of Sky Team airlines (KLM, AirFrance, Alitalia)?
No alliance allow that ! Not even with the highest status of each alliances like Skyteam elite plus or Oneworld Emerald !