Which ff programme to switch to
 

Given the possible change from DC to Aveos in the future, I just wondered which Frequent Flyer programme Flyertalkers think would be best to join if you're from the UK and if like me, you actually never really fly bmi too much, but benefit from their *A partnerships and good redemption charts (also loving miles+cash).

My usual redemption is to head to Asia to see family on C in TG/TK - which generally is only 120k miles return or 60k + cash.

I have already requalified for next year Sept and I'm thinking that instead of collecting miles on DC, I may start up with a new FF programme and put all my remaining miles there. I'm not a big fan of BA and as I fly on business on el-cheapo W, Q and J fares, moving up the tiers on BA is a bit of an arduous task.

It would be great to link in a credit card programme too - I noted both Lufthansa and Swiss have UK based MBNA Amex programmes, but the collection (2 for £1) is nothing like bmi plus (4 for £1).

So, what's the next best programme, fellow collectors?

Please use 'Search this Forum'

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/bmi-d...ce-dc-you.html

I have addresses in both the UK and the Netherlands. I wonder if I tried to change my diamond club address from London to Amsterdam, it would automatically convert to a M&M account?

Or was the forced migration just a one-off?

It absolutely will not be converted.

+1 RTM
 

+1

FWIW, I managed to match across to LH SEN so will probably push all my *A miles across to there.

Having said the above, I have been eyeing both the UA and US FF programmes as possible alternatives, but I have a sneaking suspicion that as soon as AA manages to reorganise itself as it emerges from bankruptcy, US will almost certainly seek to take over AA which would probably lead to US's exit from *A. I cannot see US staying in *A too long, especially as it has elected not to include itself in the TATL *A ATI love-in which at least technically even our beloved BD is part of.

I am actually very tempted to also just shift as much of my overall business across to OW, especially if BA give us BD'ers a status match, although I do like playing mix and match. The fact is that I already have OW Emerald with QF, but that party will come to an end this year when I very shortly complete my goal of achieving Lifetime QF Gold / OW Sapphire.

The BA programme largely fits my needs although my employers recent policy change shifting us all down to Y could be an issue. Depending on what happens I might also look at AA. With an increasing amount of TATL flights and possible domestic US flying, emerald status is nicer to have over *G especially when things go wrong - there are less people at the higher tier to compete with which is a huge bonus OW has against both ST and *A.

Anyone looked at Ethiopian :D :p

I am actually half serious, BD has been a great earner for SQ long haul C (SIN-US) (@1.5xmiles which is rare, plus 0.25 status bonus, most star carriers have only 1.25xmiles) and Ethiopian offers 2xmiles for C with reasonable award redemptions for my needs (in fact for the routes I earn and routes I redeem on it has second best earn/burn ratio behind - of course - BD). But it feels like a tremendous leap of faith to go down this path.

For the record I'll probably be off to the BAEC as most of my flying is domestic and I'll have to keep that up, even if it means going on BA.

We were discussing about the ET's award chart and ambiguity it has. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/other...-partners.html

is there anywhere a ( updated ) chart on FT, where earning tables and burning tables are compared whith each other ?

Do you mean just within each programme?

Cross programme flying on carrier A to credit to carrier B in all the different classes would be a lot of information :eek:.

No I mean a overlook between all earningtables ( with abnormalitys ).
and a overlook between all spending tables.

for exc. BD earning 300% for F classes and 200 % for C classes
abnormal -- SQ only 200 and 150 %
abnormal ++ over +55k double destination miles.

best cash and miles specialy for Europe to Z10 which can in some cases be routed through Z7 without uppricing.

would be nice if such a chart would be existing to compare for each ones flying pattern, because not any program is the best in anything.
Someone who flys mostly economy not cares so much about which progr. gives the highest earnings in F/C and someone who nostly fly F/C not cares about the progr. which gives 0 miles in disc. economy.

BlondeBomber created one of these back in 2008 and updated in 2009 but is now rather out of date.
The information may make a useful starting point should one be prepared to update it.

Thread is naturally over in the StarAlliance forum, found via the sticky:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...nce-links.html

I have given this a lot of thought over the last few months. Thank you to all who have posted their advice here on FT. The most common recurring advice is that what is 'best' depends on your individual circumstances.

So here are my circumstances. I am London-based and a few years ago I was flying a lot - an average of one business class long haul per month. Flights either paid for by me or organisations I was working with / lecturing for. The budget never extended to a direct flight, so it was usually a choice of AF/KL or LH/LX.

A UK *A status match promotion was enough to tempt me away from BA, with whom I had a gold card for about 5 years but never seemed to get the recognition that other gold card members on the same flight seemed to be getting off the cabin crew. Not sure why this was, but I never felt all that welcome. I had always struggled to keep the BA Gold anyway and redemptions seemed tricky to come by, so I gradually used up the miles until I had a few hundred BA miles left.

I was already BD*S when the status match came along and was regularly traveling LHR-BHD, so being matched into BD*G seemed good. Thanks to the 55k double your miles bonus I racked up about 1 million DC miles pretty fast.

My wife's ability to channel almost all of our business expenditure through one of the MBNA Mastercards at 2 DC miles per £1 spent [plus quite a few trips of her own] allowed her to build up a similar stash.

In spite of some very indulgent redemptions, we still have about 1.8 million DC miles, which we are trying to use as fast as possible.

We have also accrued a lot of BA miles via BA-Amex, regular Amex and Tesco Mastercard points. It seemed to make sense to have a decent balance in more than one programme to maximise redemption availability. Fortunately I can pay a lot of my practice expenses by credit card so can earn a lot of miles with money I was having to spend anyway.

So, as someone said on another thread earlier today, no *A FFP will replace DC for me. At least not for now. I am flying a lot less these days, so a period of trying to use up miles on the trips I make rather than needing to use every trip to requalify will actually be quite welcome. I will miss BD*G by a mile this year!

My goal is not to secure lounge access - if I'm flying longhaul it will be in J, shorthaul will be in Y and I can live without it or use Priority Pass. I want to be able to earn miles for redemption tickets.

I am very tempted to channel some Tesco vouchers into Virgin Atlantic miles, to increase the number of airlines we can look at for redemptions and am looking at as many mileage bearing credit cards as I can find.

For me a DC 'exit' into M&M would have been acceptable. Joining to BA is less preferable, but beggars cannot be choosers. It will take us a long time to use up all the Avios it looks like we will be getting, which are not unwelcome, but when added to the lot we already have, will take a while to burn.

When the dust (of burning miles, not to mention merged airlines) has settled I will probably be traveling more and can see how things are. Most probably I will look closely at LH (and TK as we go to Turkey a lot).

It will be nice to try out a few different airlines for a change... as an occasional traveller flying is much more of a novelty than it was a few years back.

Thank you all for your advice and opinions. Like I said above, my decision is based on my own circumstances and what I believe to be best for me, but I hope it might be useful to some one else!

What to do?
 

Currently DC*G for a few years with 80K Status and 100K destination. (After my annual burns used up for this year)

My year start is Mar 1st which is fast approching.

I have 2 TATL's and a couple of hops which will earn me approx 100K with the double 55K+ points to take before my year ends in March.

Heres the issue do I bail out of DC now and start crediting to M+L or keep plowing points into DC hoping for some kind of conversion to M&L.

I have no intention of flying BA as I am Manchester based with most of my fliying with Swiss, LH and US Airways.

I expect to have a similar amount of flying this year so without the Jan and Feb usage will struggle to get HON this year.

Lounge access is important to me and also credit card spend points, so I'm thinking M&L makes most sense.

I am also assuming that when BMI get kicked out of star i'll lose lounge access streight away.

Any suggestions are welcome?