Originally Posted by
Xiaotung
Given that they previously stated that they will keep the Asiana brand for 2 years, the question is if OZ will be stay in *A for another 2 years, exit and remain independent for 2 years, or join SkyTeam as KE's affiliate. I don't think OZ would apply for a seperate SkyTeam membership during the 2 year transition period but I can certainly see OZ in SkyTeam the same way FM is in SkyTeam as MU's affiliate. SkyTeam is a very loose organisation.
That's good to know, I hadn't heard this 2 year thing. So, if the merger just got completed in Dec 2024, presumably they'd keep the brand until Dec 2026. I can't imagine they fold in Asiana to skyteam only to have them cut it in 20 months, so hopefully they just stick with Star that whole time and maybe other carriers start cutting OZ earning rates or something, knowing they're on the outs.
Originally Posted by
pdxerinsaarland
Similar situation, I have a *A PE itinerary coming up that would re-qualify me for 2 years with OZ for my July 2025-2027 period. My plan is to stick to it and use the next two years to either 1) status match to TK from my BAEC Gold and get *Gold there that way or 2) fly 4 Aegean flights and credit a RT in J to get *A before 2027 under the fewer mileage threshold. Since I do redeem FB for flights from time to time and live near CDG, AMS, I’m hoping that Diamond would land as Skyteam Elite Plus when they fully go with KE, but I’m not counting on it.
You might want to redeem your 85k miles, the fees are not that high and for that amount, you can do NAm-Eu in business for example for 200-ish USD. I redeemed SFO-MEX-IST-FRA for less than 70k to empty my account a few years back.
In some cases the fees aren't bad, but I routinely see like $300CAD+ fees and I also don't have any real NEED to fly now, other than to re-qualify, so the miles aren't super relevant to me at the moment. I might look at using them towards the back end of this year.
As far as your flying goes, I believe the mileage requirement is 36,000 with A3 for that first qualification plus 6 A3 segments, as you have to complete both the silver and gold requirements. I know the 6 A3 segments would knock the miles down, but what kind of RT J are you talking about that would earn say, 25,000+ miles? I probably wouldn't be able to afford it either way, but even just getting my 25,000 miles I need for OZ has proven to be not as easy as I'd hoped. Even my J flight from IAD-GRU and back is only getting me like 12,500 in J. There's a lot of fare classes, at least I thought so when I looked, between OZ/A3/TK that don't earn much. I love CM because even their basic economy gets me 70% to OZ, so like LAX-PTY-GRU (as punishing as that might be in economy) nets like 4,300 each way. But the lowest business class fare only goes up to 100%, so not that much more. I'm HOPING my UA P maps to a better class on CM, at 100% I'm good, but hopefully it's 125%. Point being, like a nice UA P fare probably isn't getting it done, as even SFO-SYD RTN in P would only get like 15,000.