Originally Posted by
biffothebear
Hi All,
I have had HON status for some time, and whilst it sounds a little like a spoilt child I am simply tired of Lufthansa and their total lack of loyalty.
I run at around 700k HON miles/2yrs, 90% of them are to/from Asia (via China/Japan). When I do try to burn some reward miles I end up with "tax charges" that involve more cash than buying the same class on other airlines! The benefits get slimmer and slimmer, the FCT is nice but I only "see" it on the outbound. There is no F welcome lounge in FRA/MUC, and the LH partner lounges often leave a lot to be desired.
So what do I do? I'm unwilling to take the hit and drop to base level so would need a match programme, which programme is the "best" one, or should I just take status on as many as possible with a simple focus on ticket price?
I'd love to hear your thoughts!
Depends a bit what angle of the question you are looking at.
Is HON an attractive program? For all intents and purposes, more so than what any other European carrier has to offer. Whether what it offers matters to you is something only you can answer. Personally I appreciate the relatively good IRROPS handling, access to the FCLs/FCT and the easier transfers thanks to that, guaranteed award seats, the shortcuts at security or immigration that exist in some airports, and the interest LX takes. There are some things which I find offensive (no free piece of luggage or seat selection for some fares), and many things I don't care about.
If the question is whether you shouldn't rather fly another airline even if that means losing HON then I and many here agree with you that there are better airlines out there. Certainly not British Airways, but if you can be on one of the new configuration Air France longhauls then that plus the *extremely* improved operations on the ground and all around make them probably the best longhaul product in Europe currently - with a big but, as (too) many of their longhaul planes still have the old config. They also have a decent network to Asia. Other than that, you'd be with the Asian carriers, which I don't know enough about. If for instance you can get an easy way to Oneworld Emerald you could concentrate your flying on Cathay and JAL, they are or at least seem to be very decent.