Originally Posted by
MMMUUU888
Hi everyone,
First post as I am only recently getting into this game, following some long-haul business class flights.
(1) What is your home airport? ZRH
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Generally economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Miles & More Frequent Traveller (*A Silver)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Making short-haul intra-European travel more comfortable (priority, lounge etc) along with the occassional J class award upgrade
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: Leisure: Short haul European economy (monthly), 2-3 intercontinental economy-premium economy. Corporate: Occasional trip around Europe + intercontinental
(7) Preferred Airlines: LX because of location; SQ for flight comfort.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mix; pleasure predominantly though.
For this calendar year, I have accumulated 21k status as MM already, but I am thinking about changing, given the exorbitant requirements for Senator (compared to other *A gold FFP). I have an upcoming SQ flight SYD-ZRH in J, whch will yield another 20k. In addition to this, I will have around 5-10k by June 1st. Following June 1st, my schedule is unclear, so cannot say how much I will accumulate (work-related travel could either be a few international J class or nothing). Furthermore, being Swiss-based, I earn award miles through the MM credit cards.
Hence, my question would be whether to "stick it out" with MM, given the situation outlined above, or if I should be looking at the "usual suspects" like Aegan or Turkish?
Thanks for any input - much appreciated!
Similar situation as you albeit from other part of world. I'm Canadian, so the loyalty program for me would be AC's Aeroplan. However, I find that AC is very stingy with how it hands out the elite qualifying miles, particularly for deep discount tickets. For that reason, I credit my flights to
United's MilagePlus program. They seem to offer 100% elite milage accrual on most of the airlines I fly (including the LH Group of airlines). *Gold with them only requires hitting 50,000 miles per year and flying 4 times on United operated flights. There is no revenue requirement (yet) for non-US residents like myself (who now resides in the UK). That being said, I still earn Aeroplan Miles which I credit to my Aeroplan account with the various credit cards and local offers available to me. When it comes time to book travel, I'll often look at which program offers the best benefits for the travel at hand. I've used Aeroplan to book United award tickets, then update the frequent flyer info on the award ticket so I got all my Gold benefits (i.e. Extra leg room seating, bag allowance, lounge access, complimentary upgrades, etc.). United also has a program that offers lifetime status after you fly 1,000,000 miles with them. United also has peculiarities that may work in your favour. For instance, UA and NH *Gold members get access to LH lounges even when flying on the cheapest EuroWings ticket. This is a benefit I don't believe even LH elites get access to.
Another program to consider is
Asiana's Milage Club. With their program, it's possible to earn up to 4 years of elite status by accruing 50,000 miles as their qualifying period lasts 2 years (instead of 1) and once you hit Gold status automatically gets extended by a further 2 years. Another big benefit of their program is you can earn lifetime Gold with them after flying just 500,000 miles across any of the *A partners, not just Asiana. Accruals aren't as generous as UA but then again, once you get status you're set!
Aegean is of course another possibility particularly with their lower requalification requirement. My only concern there is the requirement that you have to fly so many Aegean segments to re-qualify, which may or may not work out for you. In addition, they've been forced to make many adjustments to their program over the past couple of years, most notably because they were too generous in the past with their program (IIRC they once were handing out lifetime *Gold like candy).
Can't comment much on Turkish as I haven't researched them thoroughly but would recommend you keep United and Asiana in mind.
Safe Travels,
James