Originally Posted by
Schultzois
(2) My main aim is to be/keep Star Gold with at least ONE Star Alliance program (but flying most all of them), and earn redeemable miles I can use for travel on pretty much any Star partner. I buy mostly Business and First fares, which from my reading suggests M&M or DC are probably the two to go with (they give the 100% and 200% bonuses to paid J and F travel). Are there other *A FQTV programs I should look at?
I'm now based in South America (*A is weak down here with the loss of RG, but hey, what can I do?) and I fly regularly to US and Europe. Plans also forming for South Africa and Asia, with a RTW not out of the question. I used to be UA MP and went back and forth between silver and gold but won't even consider them any more as they treat even their F pax like Y pax if you don't have Gold, but they don't give you Gold any easier as an F traveller (on partner flights) than as a Y traveller.
Although DC is probably a better program than M&M for paid premium travel (in terms of redemption opportunities), if you travel LH often (or more often than bmi), being a "native" elite is always convenient. Also, you need to qualify for SEN only once every two years. Of course, the amount of miles to get SEN is more than double what is needed for bmi gold, but given your travel pattern it shouldn't be a problem.