Originally Posted by Michael Tantini
I bought in these days my first ticket with KLM. As I am not yet a member of SkyTeam I am thinking about switching from *Gold to SkyTeam. I am currently Swiss Gold and therefore I will be *Gold from April 1st. Since I do not want to fly LH, SkyTeam might be my answer to the Swiss deal.
Which Sky program shall I chose? I need basically very cheap European awards, possibly with free routing and stopover.
The miles from bought tickets shall be credited to a reasonable minimum (e.g. 1'000 for each segment)...
Well, FB has reasonable award rates (20/25k for Europe) and decent availability (if you are Elite), but to get the level miles is a pain, because the cheap fares only give 25% :-( . If you fly a lot on expensive tickets, it might be a good option (or tickets coded on DL, AZ, CO, they all give full miles). AZ probably has the best miles/flight, 1.2k minimum (FB is 750) for international flights (but AZ is almost bankrupt). Free routing on award flights is possible, but you have to go through customer support and stopovers are only possible for intercontinental flights (this is for FB). Some people recommend OK. It is hard, all airlines are cutting back nowadays on benefits; FB at least gives you 100% Plat bonus (70+k miles/year) and lounge access from 40+k miles, plus free upgrades on domestic NW flights.