Hello all

I am a newbie to the FF world. But after a lot of reading on flyer talk and other sources I have finally narrowed my Star Alliance program down to two. These are Asiana and Turkish. However I cannot select one between these.

I am an Indian in US till the end of the year. After that I'll move back to India so I'll be mainly using AI and 9W for travel.

Expect to travel approximately 25k per year.

Will be travelling economy only.

Most important for me is award travel and upgrades. Status doesn't matter much.

Asiana:

Pros:
1. Two years to qualify for Gold/Silver. If you manage it early then status remains for the next two years plus promotional period.
2. US credit card. Will be in US for the next 3-4 months, might earn a few miles (not much).
3. Miles valid for 7 years.

Cons:
1. Only two partner airlines (Qatar, Etihad).
2. Partner airlines and other miles (credit cards, etc) dont count towards status.
3. Poor crediting on Air India flights.
4. Redemption is expensive.

Turkish:

Pros:
1. Good options for earning miles apart from *A. Good selection of car rentals and partner airlines (Jet Airways being the most important).
2. Redemption is cheap.

Cons:
1. Miles only valid for three years.
2. I have heard booking award travel is so difficult that I must forget it.


I have a US-India RTW coming up in May. After that I'll travel to India in December. Which means I'll have around 25k miles by December. This will be enough for me to get a silver status on either on the programs. I was planning to enroll in 9W's program but they need 30k for silver (or 22.5k in 6 months) so dropped the plan.

I was almost decided on OZ until I realized that redemption for AI is poor. My priority is award travel and if TK's award booking is so difficult then I am thinking about going ahead with OZ.

What are your suggestions?

Thank You!