The LH group are notorious for not really upholding the 'spirit' of the alliance, especially for the lower fares. I now don't even bother to look at them unless I really want to fly LX into LCY. They don't give a checked bag on the cheapest fares either and I read something about them trying to deny lounge access to pax on other carriers' cheapest fares, although I've never had problems.

Now SAS is gone, there are pretty slim pickings for points-earning fares in Europe. I was pleasantly surprised when I recently booked a super-cheap LOT flight and found I'd get 25% when I expected nothing. LHR-WAW-ATH will actually earn me MORE than the cheapest P-bucket direct flight with A3 and was a LOT cheaper (see what I did there?).

I'm so lucky to live in Greece (for many reasons) and be able to fly almost exclusively A3, although the horribly uncomfortable neos are slowly pushing me away...