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Originally Posted by heramato
(Post 17926568)
A business class ticket from South America to europe: 184,000 miles! :eek:
No, one-way MCO-MAD would be 24k miles and $460 cash/miles, or 48k miles and $920 round-trip. The total for lets say the one-way would be $461.86 with taxes. How is this much different than BMI? |
Originally Posted by gkbiiii
(Post 17926912)
No, one-way MCO-MAD would be 24k miles and $460 cash/miles, or 48k miles and $920 round-trip.
The total for lets say the one-way would be $461.86 with taxes. How is this much different than BMI? Anyway, am I missing something about redemption ammounts? Check here a LH flight in business class: 184.000 miles https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/use/par/parairluf.aspx Also Iberia: https://www.lifemiles.com/esp/use/par/parairibe.aspx |
Originally Posted by netd
(Post 17924975)
Yep, now looking back at UA again!
How useful do you find the SWUs? Flying UA would probably take me to Europe via the US so these would be handy but how useful are they in reality? Compared to say DC eGUVs? Worse, worser or worserest :D? I don't expect to always succeed in using them on my desired flights, though careful research as to which days/flights have most availability improves chances :). Note one can't book into the very cheapest booking classes though, so if you are constrained to always doing this then it's less useful, but there is still a reasonable range. There are of course also many more possible flights to use them on. You also get CR1s (even as Platinum with a qualification of 75k miles) which can be used within region 1 (North America). They also have unlimited domestic upgrades, but these are relatively scarcer and depend a lot of status, fare class etc, but again I've had reasonably good op-ups on these. CO also has time of purchase auto-upgrades from M fares which I've used at least once. |
Originally Posted by Leedsflyer
(Post 17927529)
Infinitely more useful...
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Originally Posted by heramato
(Post 17927041)
Well.... many things. The price of the miles, the absense of Family membership and so on...
Anyway, am I missing something about redemption ammounts? Check here a LH flight in business class: 184.000 miles https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/use/par/parairluf.aspx Also Iberia: https://www.lifemiles.com/esp/use/par/parairibe.aspx |
I re-qualified BD*G for the period Jan 2012 - Jan 2013. I have a flight coming up that will push me over 38,000 miles, thus re-qualifying me for Jan 2013 - Jan 2014.
What is the chance if Diamond Club converts to BA or LH, that my status on those programs will be (1) carried over and (2) valid to Jan 2014? |
Originally Posted by sniles
(Post 17942991)
I re-qualified BD*G for the period Jan 2012 - Jan 2013. I have a flight coming up that will push me over 38,000 miles, thus re-qualifying me for Jan 2013 - Jan 2014.
What is the chance if Diamond Club converts to BA or LH, that my status on those programs will be (1) carried over and (2) valid to Jan 2014? |
Originally Posted by treadsoftly
(Post 17947556)
I'm in the same position. Have enough status in the bank to requalify as Gold until July 2013 now. Am hoping for a status match recognising this, hopefully with LH.
As for the LH status match, it sounds unlikely based on post 414 on pg 28 over here. Finally, one question I've not seen asked/answered (and it may be a really dumb one) -- when will we lose our *A privileges? As soon as the sale goes through? So, presumably, by 31 March? I'm not much of an airline historian -- how quickly does the "divorce process" proceed? Thanks! Mike |
Sorry about that!
Originally Posted by CDG 1K
(Post 17765134)
I am Star Gold with three carriers (BD, LH, lifetime UA) and OW Emerald with two (CX, MA) so I think I can add my opinion here in terms of comparing the two alliances.
First of all no program out there will beat DC's earn/burn ratio. The program's generosity with M+C is fantastic as is the OW award for half the miles. And if you make it past the 55k threshold to the point you can earn 6x in F and 4x in business, nothing comes close to DC. So sad to see it go but we all knew it was coming sooner or later- I think most of us assumed it would be merged into M&M so the fact that it will probably merge into BAEC, came as a great surprise to me. One person's ideal program wouldn't necessarily be the best for others depending on the fares paid. I can speak from the perspective of someone paying premium longhaul international fares. If F and C are your principal fare basis, then M&M is the way to go in Star with 3x and 2x miles respectively. If those flights are on a LH family carrier (eg. Swiss) you earn another 25% executive bonus for a maximum of 3.25x which is the same as DC. However the burn rates in M&M are nowhere close to as low as DC, so make sure to try to take advantage of 50% mileage discounts on companion award tickets and 25% discounts on child tickets to compensate. US has a decent Star program because the burn rates are quite low, but then again the earn rates are low too. However, US has buy one get one free mileage sales from time to time which make it ridiculously cheap to pick up 100,000 miles. So if you factor in those sales, the earn rates are pretty low overall. In terms of a comparable program in OW to DC, only Malev would fit the bill since they offer about 3x and 2x for paid travel in F and C respectively. Emerald status (200,000 miles to earn Platinum in Malev's Duna Club) is easily attainable with a few first class long haul tickets and once platinum, you will earn a 25% base mile bonus on all OW flights similar to M&M (except the 25% is only good on LH family flights where as Malev gives the bonus to all OW flights). So a first class CDG-HKG flight nets me 29,500 miles each way. CX is a terrible program in terms of Earn/Burn ratio. Why do I keep it? Because I mostly fly CX throughout the year and having Diamond status with Marco Polo gives me a lot of benefits in terms of excellent CX service on the ground, in the air, guaranteed seats with 24 hr notice on any CX flight and better award redemption availability. They really look after me as a Diamond member but as soon as I reach my Diamond status, all my remaining OW flights get credited to MA since I can mop up 3.25x miles in first, compared to 1.5x miles in first had I credited the flight to CX. So for First and Business travelers, I would rate M&M the best after DC in Star and Malev the best in OW. Second best in Star I would give to US where the earn rate is very good and they don't block star partner flights like UA does. UA's program is ridiculous when it comes to trying to booking premium award space on Star partners, so unless you fly primarily within the United States and you only want to fly UA on your hard earned free tickets, Mileage Plus is probably not for you. I just wanted to apologize for my absolutely TERRIBLE advice for recommending Malev's Duna Club program. I had no idea that they were on the brink of bankruptcy. That being said, I lost 350,000 miles, and combined with my immediate family members, we're all out about 950,000 miles. Unless that is another OW airline picks up that program, which I highly, highly doubt. Sorry for the bad advice regarding that one! CDG 1K |
Originally Posted by CDG 1K
(Post 17956421)
I lost 350,000 miles, and combined with my immediate family members, we're all out about 950,000 miles.
A timely warning to us all not to be excessively squirrel-like (and to be cautious when it comes to FFPs run by airlines we don't know well). |
Originally Posted by IMH
(Post 17960747)
Ouch. :eek: I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that you have our sympathy.
A timely warning to us all not to be excessively squirrel-like (and to be cautious when it comes to FFPs run by airlines we don't know well). |
Originally Posted by netd
(Post 17932019)
Thanks for the run down, nice to see some real world experience with these. Over in the UA forum this sort of info seems to get lost in the noise.
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At the business travel show, representatives from Turkish Airlines and Lufthansa seemed to have little idea about next steps.
The Lufthansa rep was confident that Star Alliance would somehow address the hole that bmi leaves. The Turkish rep said that her manager has been told to use his miles quickly. |
Originally Posted by netd
(Post 17932019)
Thanks for the run down, nice to see some real world experience with these. Over in the UA forum this sort of info seems to get lost in the noise.
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Originally Posted by Singapore_Air
(Post 17975698)
The Lufthansa rep was confident that Star Alliance would somehow address the hole that bmi leaves.
Of course I have a self-motivated reason, namely that I have a number of *A flights booked for March and am still sitting on bmi as my only *A carrier. TIA. |
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