I have been assigned to a new project in Kazakhstan (Atyrau to be precise) and it's quite possible I will be going back and forth from London for a while. I've started to look at the best routings to get there (there are not many) and I'm currently looking at Air Astana flights via Astana. I guess I can bank these to Lufthansa Miles & More, but will these flights help me achieve status miles as well?

I hear very good things about the Air Astana product, but much less about how to play loyalty with them.

Any suggestions would be welcome!