Perhaps Egyptair Plus could be interesting. Only *A program with family membership that I know of. Re-qualification should be easy with 30,000 miles in two years (qualification for *G is 60,000 miles). Have no experience myself with the program though...

I'm seriously leaning towards BA. I am doing less flying now than I was, but they suit me as LGW is closest. I also have a carribean holiday planned in J, in November, so again this suits and will give me a chunk of miles. A few flights into AMS and other European destinations also swing it. MFU's look quite nice and all in on a WT+ fare doesn't look that different to miles/cash/tax rewards I have made in DC.

Saying that, I do have reservations after some awful BA flights in the past in Y, but money is a bit better nowadays for personal, that WT+ at least for international flights. Business travel is hit and miss, occasional east coast flights, that it is difficult to justify Business Class for, unless a very good deal, but WT+ is a happy medium.

I've cleared out my DC miles, and only some low earning OZ & LH flights planned for June. Some status transfer to BAEC would be nice, although I do have Cathay Pacific Gold courtesy of the recent AMEX offer.

I'm in bit similar situation.

Main *A FFP - M&M (SEN), secondary - BD DC (Gold at the moment) but since the announcement of the merger I'm just burning there.

I took up in November SK EB as a secondary and so far I'm happy with them. YQ-less redemption is great, intra-Scandinavian flights are cheap (with LH it's just "Europe") and at 45k *G is realtively easy, especially when the elite multipliers kick in.

As I'm SEN till Feb/2015 I might as well pump up my SK poängs. This gives also a nice possibility to maximize earnings between the two programmes, depending on booking class and Elite multiplier. Come LH requalification time, I'll probably drop to Silver with SK in 2014 or 2015.

I'm unlikely to be flying anywhere near as much as I was last year - I only requalified this year (well, for this August, if that will count for anything) thanks to the major status miles bonus last summer. So I'm probably going to go for BAEC - indeed, I just applied for the BA Amex the other day, and am going to start converting my Clubcard points to Avios. I'm unlikely to achieve status with BA unless my work-related flying picks up again, but Avios don't seem to be too bad at least for European redemptions and for MFUs, and they're fairly decent for trips to Brazil in Y (with the exception of the lack of TAM domestic flights, but that may change...), which will keep my Dad happy! Plus, the fact all BA economy fares earn at least 100% mileage is definitely a plus for me.

Since my holidays now involve 3 of us flying places rather than just me, being able to pick up European redemptions for £27 each, instead of perhaps £200 cash each, is certainly nice, even if it's not quite as nice as being able to fly to the likes of New Zealand in C!

Thinking of doing the same. Assuming you are ready to forego the 2 4 1 companion offer, wouldn't it be better just spending on the tesco credit card and then converting all the points to avios?

You get 1 point per £4 with the Tesco card, with 1 point then becoming 2.4 miles. So £4 on the Tesco card gives you 2.4 miles, versus £1 giving 1 mile on the Amex (or 1.5 on the fee-paying card). There's currently a bonus (if you haven't exchanged any points for Avios before, I believe) that'd give you 4 miles per 1 point, therefore giving you 4 miles per £4. But you could spend a million pounds in £3.99 increments on the Tesco card and get no points at all!

I guess the Tesco card is better than nothing if the retailer doesn't accept Amex. Anyway, I'm sure all of this is no doubt written down in the Tesco thread over in the BA forum. :)

BA is my primary programme so nothing will change there.

DC was my secondary programme and useful both for BD sectors and accumulating miles on various random short and mid-haul *Alliance sectors (I worked out I have flown 21 of the 27 members). The BD sectors will fall to BA this year so it is really about

• *Gold status easily for those random trips on SQ, OS, TG et al
• Sensible earning rates on a wide range of carriers
• Relatively reasonably priced awards
• One way awards possible

After some research Aegean is the best fit with an easy – very easy – way toearn * Gold. On the other points it is worse than many other schemes. For sure it is another gravy train which one day will pull into the terminus but for now it represents the best fit for my travel pattern.

I have been thinking about this quite a lot and, like many of you, I am really uncertain what to do in the coming months. But recently I have been thinking of returning to SK actually.

Main reason would be 45k for *Gold (if your address is outside Scandinavia), 1,5x earnings for economy extra on SK-flight (fairly easy to get through Option Town for not so much money and then of course there is also Option Town all the way to C for a little more), and the fact that I still earn miles with my EB Mastercard from time to time (and transfer from Amex). So, for a Swede living in Korea flying quite a few times Europe-Korea, it can make sense. Another benefit is that SK does not charge YQ on their own metal.

Downside is that LH fares are becoming increasingly non-earning (only reason to stick to Miles and More) and that UA/CO often only earns 0,25x meaning I will have to fly AC whenever I travel to the US.

But yes, I will definitely miss DC. I have not seen that many people discuss SK as an option so I am curious what you think?

M&M Status match
 

A very quick question.
Do people think LH will offer a status match to DC gold members to M&M (perhaps offered to BAEC silver after takeover)?

No. See post 414 onwards.

What's a (Scandi) FF to do?
 

Since July I've been flying LHR<->ARN about every 2 weeks, and since I also have a need to visit Dublin now and then, DC has been receiving all the points. Seemed like the best option at the time. Also re-targeted credit card spend from VS card to shiny new BMI card.

I have a bloated VS account with 350K+, but haven't had the chance to use any in the last 3 years.

I have an old "blue" BAEC also, now Avios I guess, but not much in there.

I just hit silver on DC with the assistance of the BMI Amex card. I have a fair few trips planned the coming year, about the same between LHR<->ARN, plus some with LGW<->MLA and some LHR<->BOS. Also Edinburgh is somewhere there.

So wise uncles/aunties - do I freeze DC bookings and target BA now? Or do I continue targetting SAS/BMI etc, and hope that there is some kind of trade-in offered by BAEC/Avios?

Any tips gratefully received!

I was already mostly flying VS and NZ since BMI's transatlantic flights stopped, with internal BD (UK) and UA (US) flights. This won't change, but my points are now all going to UA and VS. A shame to split the load, but I rarely hit Gold status anyway, and Silver doesn't give a lot. Shame about the VS-CO breakup though, as that made my bookings way easier. :/

I am just about to achieve *G for the first (and probably the last!) time with BMI, having been BD*S for most of the past 10 years, and though I took the precautionary step of achieving *G with A3 last year, I am unconvinced by A3's current benefit set, and am still looking for a *A programme to replace DC.

Ruling out programmes with short miles life, ruling out programmes with an own-metal status qualification requirement where I don't fly on the carrier regularly (like AC and US), and prioritising programmes where with lower *G qualification thresholds, this reduces the choice for me down to:

- going with with A3 as my main *A programme and hoping the programme improves - some great benefits, and effectively to maintain A3*G you only have to credit one flight a year under current rules, and as A3*G miles do not expire - but currently no changes/cancellations to award bookings without loss of mileage, poor stopover options and expensive redemptions when connections involved, no RTW fares, and crucially no miles-earning credit card or points transfer option for non-Greek residents;

- start crediting miles to OZ - which has a low *G requalifcation threshold at 40K every two years, and 12 year miles expiry for OZ*G, with points transfer from Amex via Starwood Preferred Gold card at 1:1.25 (including 5K bonus if transferred in blocks of 20K), and is the only programme I can find without an own-metal requirement offering lifetime *G (at 500K) - but does not have a brilliant earning/burning ratio and, does not seem that flexible compared to BMI (they were not interested in a status match to start the process off);

- look at SK - which offers a 45K *G requalification with an address in the UK (and most European countries), 25% bonus earn for SK*G which counts towards requalification (so reducing requirement to 36K miles earned from flying), 5 year miles expiry, miles transfer from Amex membership rewards at 1:1; but offers no lifetime status option (it is a shame SAS do not introduce this - a 10 year *G or 500 mile lifetime threshold would convince me to choose SAS as my main *A programme);

- flying pigs (version 1) - BMI regional to stay in *A and to keep DC going in its current form and with its current benefits;

- flying pigs (version 2) - either or both VA/DJ or VS to join *A and add some of the unique DC benefits to their programmes - the VA programme is really good and suits me (the own metal requirements are not an issue given I fly them regularly anyway) - but they are not members of a worldwide alliance, which limits redemptions and opportunities to use the benefits of status - if they would join *A and offer lifetime status it would be perfect;

- flying pigs (version 3) - the BA/BMI deal to fall through, BMI to find a new owner to give it a long-term future (VS/EY?;)), and BMI to stay in *A with an unchanged DC programme.

For the moment I am going to sit tight to see what happens, and what, if anything is offered in the way of transfer/status match out of DC (and hope that it is something, otherwise all my earned points will be down the drain).

In the meantime I am looking forward to achieving BMI *G at last!

First off, congratulations on reaching gold! Are you sure US Airways has a metal requirement as I don't recall that being an issue for status with them.

That's a good point I had not realised and making them look much more achievable.

SK are currently offering 500 miles sign-up bonus which you might want to avail of just in case you do choose to go with them; nothing lost if you don't.