Thanks for all the answers... good to know. I wouldn't say I am likely to fly LH any more than any of the others - well, except for the fact that I guess they're the only European *A carrier flying down here (Buenos Aires) right now, so maybe I would, but not so much more as to make a difference.

On the other hand, I don't expect I'd be on a BMI flight very often... is that any problem for retaining status? I know in oneWorld you have to fly your program's metal at least 4 segments in a year, and I think that goes for all of the ow carriers. BA enforces it rigorously, but AA doesn't really enforce it at all. Is there anything like this in *A/bmi?