Heads up for a US airways 100% buy miles bonus.

Anyone know, Is the *A award chart one-way or return?? :confused:

It's only 100% with the points.com bonus as well though isn't it?

One way will cost the same as a return.

Rather confused and rambling
 

I have been sitting on this post for a while as I have many ideas going through my head on what to replace DC with and I have come to no conclusion. Perhaps some of you have some comments, I apologise this is in no logical order and for potentially leaving out some important points or having a flawed understanding of the other FFPs.

DC was great, weighing up all the +/- I really have become to appreciate what an amazing FFP it was.

I was happy to credit everything to it, I actually flew BD as well so I could benefit from the many promos, I managed to use most of my GUV's and on mid-hauls too, only 3 wasted over the years.

1k points per night at Hilton, max 3k. Flying Blue offers me 500 per stay and so does M&M, that seems terrible in comparison. It wasn’t a pain to change hotels every 3 days, but I’d have to change hotels every day to get only 50% of what DC offered.

Family account, not offered with FB or LH, only BA.

25% bonus on all *A partners and 35% on LH and BD. M&M offers 25% only on LH group flights and UA/US.

I am slightly appealed to go for FB Platinum and I would be in my very early 30s when I achieved it and I don’t plan to stop flying then. But I have learned to be careful about lifetime programmes given the financial circumstances of the airline. Indeed I would have been lifetime BD*G in a few years too. With FB I will qualify on segments only, as the majority of my flying is intra-EU and given the low miles award I will have accumulated very few miles for all the flying I will have done, plus the miles are useless, even YQ is calculated per segment which penalises us connecting folks. So FB Plat would be a status programme and maybe enough miles to go the US in a few years.

I would be quite happy to have no SEN at all and stick solely with DC. The only negative is to not be able to assign a seat in advance and choose an exit row, this is a small benefit and 100k for two years with very little promos and a measly 500 miles per HHonors stay is rubbish.

Am I missing something in the value of DC miles? The M&M Amex gives a terrible 1500 miles signup whereas DC is offering 20k that would get me a return to ATH in C or a one way to the US with C+M. I don’t understand why anyone bothers with M&M because the miles are worth so much less. I have had no problems using my DC miles too and then there was miles plus cash, which is great value. There is the 50% for partner redemptions but the miles needed for these redemptions seem very high.

Living outside DE and NL means I cannot take advantage of the many miles promos from newspapers or the credit card offering from FB. Now I am fully aware that BA is the home market and BAEC may be the natural progression. Having looked at it, it’s certainly appealing on the Zone 1-3 offers but beyond that it does show its limitations in its route network which is quite small and the availability of seats doesn’t seem as good plus the miles needed is relatively high.

£10k on a credit card does seem like a lot just to get one companion voucher, not forgetting the £150 fee.

Plus I did fly BD for a reason and Star Alliance is a good network to be apart of given there are no limitations for us non-US based members with regards to lounge access a la SkyTeam on domestic flights. SA tends to have better lounges and a better on-board product compared to ST. I can’t ignore that OW has significantly expanded its network with S7 and AB joining.

Weighing up for an example A3’s M&B it doesn’t sound too bad but it is no place to credit miles as the burn rates aren’t particularly good and there is no bonus miles but it would offer everything SEN status does except seat pre-assignment in economy on European flights and exit rows as well as preferred seats on intercontinental. *G can get the quiet zone on European flights plus the seat block works on LH/SN/OS. I noticed with LX’s K class A3 gives 500 miles vs M&M’s terrible 125. In this case, 4 times as many miles and 5 times as less to qualify for *G. That seems like a no brainer but what about the miles I want to collect to burn on flights.

So, what are the options for me? Do I get a BA credit card and put miles there? Start forgetting the local businesses and spend more at Tesco? Take out the M&M card? Build up status with A3 and then use that for FQTS and credit to another programme, for example US? What about the Hilton miles?

It’s clear that DC was a one for all to me, it did everything and I was happy with it. Now it’s going to get more complicated as I will need to split my mileage and miles earning habits. I always felt like being part of DC was the savvy option. a great little airline with a great FFP. M&M was for the captive German market with its Denglisch name and wasn’t particularly good nor particularly bad and those who flew BA well…

I think it would be really good for those in the know to provide a specific rundown on the other programmes out there and give me some solid advice!

Changes to miles and even lesser
 

Seems that the Lufty alternative has become singularly less attractive with, inter alia, reduced earnings in discount business, Flying Blue-stylee. See this thread for impending changes to our favourite Germanic FF scheme.

Ouch... With BA improving their scheme this really does bite.

Let's all hope we move across to BA and their FF programme. It's looking more and more attractive. It's also looking more and more like I should just skip *A all together.

NickB, thanks for highlighting this change.
I helps to remove one of the considerations I was making...

Interesting that LH should move in that direction '(enchanced'), just as SK move in the opposite (improved*).

*IMO

Funny you should say that. I was starting to ask myself whether I really need to keep *A G.

Well looking at OW European network it isn't as good as *A and quoting some prices ex-UK to European destinations *A is nearly always cheaper and so is SkyTeam.

BA's prices don't really permit a CDG-LHR-xxx routing to be competitive from the Euro market.

If you are based in London, given London Airways, then not much really applies of what I've said.

Actually, it looks as though UA is having a bit of a meltdown on the other side of the Atlantic http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...le-agents.html at the moment, so perhaps we are better being absorbed into BA...

Equally those of us travelling for business are getting tired of connections. I have had too many lately either missed or almost missed. If my client is paying, I will go direct. If I am paying, I'm open to suggestion, but equally time is less important in that situation.

I have been also going through this post to find a good alternative for DC.
Having been SEN for many years I decided a few years ago to look for an alternative program that did not require to earn 100 K to get *G and with poor redemption rates in C and F. I therefore decided to join TK M&S and quickly got E+ status but I find it very difficult to recommend this program. You only earn a meagre 150 % in C, no credit card earnings and miles only stay valid for 3 years making it difficult to earn enough miles for a family to fly in C with miles. Furthermore if you want to redeem on *A (not TK) you have to go in person to their office while availability from London is very poor. Guaranteed seats are ridiculous expensive (something like 100 K miles for a intra europe flight)
So while TK is good to get *G it is not a good program to earn to spend the miles on flights. Every two years I will credit the 40 K miles to keep my status but anything in addition seems to be a waste.
I then joined DC and as you said DC really combined good earning and redemption so it is sad to see the program go.
Since the start of the year I decided to again start credited M&M but with the new proposed changes it is no longer attractive. Most of my C class travel is in Z so it would be difficult to qualify for SEN which would also mean losing the Companion award... While the biggest draw of M&M being good availability seems to be also gone. From mid dec to mid Jan I cant find a single available seat in C or F on flights to SE Asia or S America.
So I start to believe now Avios might be the best alternative (if we get status match)

As most of us are, I have been suffering with the imminent demise of DC.

I get on average 1 return flight a year from London to Asia in F for the points I collect mainly with my BMI MBNA and also Amex Plat, I love the *A network and find flight awards are so much easier to get that on BA, which I am now starting to use.

So my question is, I am now collecting Avios like a mad man, BA Amex, phone recycling the lot. Looking around it seems I can transfer Avios to SPG on a 1:1 ratio (I already have an SPG account) in turn I can then convert SPG to Thai at 1:1 ratio or many other *A members, therefor turning Avios into *A

Would this work?

I would also then have the opportunity if needs be to top up my miles, I can buy Avios, SPG and Thai miles if required?

How does this sound?

My second question is, DC were awesome at doing part cash part miles on flights, I could get LHR-BKK for 60k miles on J. Do any other *A members offer anything like this?

Thanks all

Are you sure about that?

I have a runny feeling I looked on the SPG site and saw SPG to Avios 1:1, and not the other way around darn!!

Just looked through the BA site, actually can't see any transfer option from Avios.

Oh well :-(

That's not correct. Every year since more than 10 y. now I book 2-4 seats Europe - Thailand on *aliance, out Germany aprox 19-23 DEC return from Thailand aprox 05-08 Jan. ( schoolholiday NRW ) and I never had a problem, but had to book them 340 days in advance, which is not a problem for me. But with BA ( we had been 3y. gold and aprox 1.6 Mio miles in our household acc. ), I was never ever able to redeem 4 seats in C/F to BKK/SIN/ or CPT/JNB over 5 years ! And we had to burn them for "friends" on flights to USA ( was the only choice ), to burn in C/F