There's also a great opportunity for an airline to tip the scales in its favour by offering more than everyone else does for Hilton group stays.

It wouldn't even have to be as generous a deal as DC offers, just better than the 500 points per stay you can earn with BA, LH, AA etc.

Thanks Danny and Flash - sorry so much to read.

Can I see a sticky brewing for the main types of DC member and the best replacement for them.

For example frequent long haul flyer - status important go with x
Low mileage high credit card go with y.

I'm still in the grief stage!

It hurts, it really does. I'm relatively new to this whole thing too, wish i'd got on it when YQs were low, i mean it's super good now. Must have been amazing back in the day.

Edit: I'm also very sad we're going to lose our little group. It's a lovely little back water of flyertalk. If you've ever tried to post in the other airlines (especially the US ones) and got lost in the white noise and shear activity, then you'll know what i mean.

I SO agree with you. There seems to be more aggressiveness on several of the forums that seem to be more US-oriented. Here we seem to be civilised, quite creative, clubby but not stuffy. Hope lots of us land on A3 or TK -where I think I'll land.

Agreed. I've only been with DC for 3 years, but have found this group far more sociable than somem others.

Back on topic - I've been putting all of my miles into M&M since the start of the year, but I've just found out that they have reduced Z class earning to 100% (was 200%). I'm seriously considering going back to Flying Blue.

Does anyone know any other FF program that allows half miles half cash redemption please? Much appreciated! Thanks.

Ditto, goodbye staralliance, hello Oneworld! AAAAAAh ;-)

Absolutely, this is one of the reasons why AA is so much better a program..

A sweeping statement. It depends on several factors. As always, YMMV.No, you can get hit with AA's YQ surcharge on award tickets. Try booking AA awards ex-UK at aa.com.

Once again, you made a sweeping statement which is not applicable to all. As always, YMMV.

sorry to ask again... but does anyone know any other FF program that allows half cash half miles redemption please? this is the most important, if not the ONLY reason we stuck to DC for the last few years and we have taken huge advantage of the scheme as we are a couple always traveling together.

We are making the hard decision to move our effort to a different program (heart broken), and most of the airlines have much higher redemption chart, and without the C+M option, it's even more unaffordable... We are also limited to number of airlines we can choose from because we earn lots of miles through AMEX MR points, this means we were basically limited to Virgin, SAS or Singapore (if we want to stick to *A). Virgin is currently winning I have to say becuase it's easier to book a reward flight with them and their airline partners include US Airways (which we love), and ANA, which gives us the flexibility but centralize the control of all of our miles... could use another person's opinion though. what do you guys think?

BA does cash + miles, but the cash part is outrageous.

Thanks! That's a shame. I can't stand BA. Rude FAs, and crap service and attitude. Strikes alone is enough to put me off ever flying with them again. :(

What should I do?

My new membership year 2012 - 2013 with Star Gold Bmi starts this week.

Big trip to China coming up which will get me 12K round trip.

Should I still credit to Bmi or starting working on in A3 Gold?

I only use my Star Gold card for lounge access in the USA and of course extra baggage allowane.

I'll miss bmi terribly :(

The first part of your question is easy enough: there's no point in crediting the flights to Diamond Club as far as gaining/keeping status is concerned. You've already done all you can to get status going forward from (i) BA and (ii) anyone who's prepared to match your BD status in a couple of weeks' time.

So I'd say it's time to start crediting elsewhere -- and if you've decided that A3 is the best fit for you then get cracking.

Prehaps foolishly, but with the potential of a match to BA Silver from BMI Gold, I've booked some long haul flights with BA in the next weeks as I think I'll give BA a go for a while. Given the 20th Apr date, I realise that I probably won't have BA status, but was wondering should I open a BA account to credit these miles or wait and retrospectively claim them ?

Understand that it's a guessing game - but no harm in asking for opinions