Concerto

I agree with the rant in post #4 above. I consider myself an experienced enough flyer these to know what I am doing, mostly, and I reckon I am attentive enough to details as I work my way through any given booking process. I was however caught out on two occasions in the last 2 years with non LH group airlines and paid a substantial fee at the airport for checking a bag that I thought was included. Which it usually is when you travel with a "full service carrier". I think the low cost airlines are much more honest in this respect in that you know what you are going to get in the a la carte pricing system for services. I don't like low cost carriers but I have far fewer issues with them than I expect to have.

So much so that I am now looking at Ryanair for my next trip to Lanzarote and find that when I add all the extras together (but not catering) I can get there and back for EUR165. And they will cater their planes properly, unlike that rubbishy non event of an airline called airberlin! What on earth is Etihad doing with an airline like that, which has absolutely no 'product' whatsoever?

Concerning status benefits, I never count on those these days, as the benefits progressively get eroded and enhanced away. As I said elsewhere, the only alliance that is consistent and gives me no problems is the Skyteam Sky Priority concept (Flying Blue Gold and upwards). That's one major reason why I stick with it.