It's not strange. It is one of the worst FFP on earth

I began the transition to UA and have for the past 2 years maintained 1P as most of my flying was TATL on UA. Whats Miles and Smiles like as a *G programme?

At worst I'm hoping to score a UA mileage "challenge" when DC finally leaves *A. This is not a straight up status match and I've already asked them (somewhere back in this thread) but the good folks over at UA told me I'd have to wait until bmi/DC fully leaves *A before they will accept me.

At best they'll sweep up orphaned DC members with some kind of special offer and a straight up match.

UA is far from the best FFP but for me the main attractors right now are:
- non expiry of miles
- one way redemptions (compared to US)
- nice bonuses once you have status with them and fly UA metal (25%,50%,75%,100%)
- 50k for gold is pretty easy to get/maintain for me and I can probably even manage 1k with a bit of effort.
- E+ on UA flights

Bad points are:
- It's UA

Sorry, I couldn't find your post, but when do you think they count DC as leaving: today, or May 31st? I could really use a status match before the end of may (as I've got paid flights to credit somewhere), and was hoping for a UA match, mainly because most of my flying is with them anyway.

It was quite some time ago, end of Jan from memory, and they specifically said when bmi leave *A so I take that as meaning May 31st in light of recent news.

They are also very slow, so make sure you email the status match request in as early as possible, but you need to trade off getting in too early as they only give you 3 months to meet the challenge!

BTW There is no reason you can't open an UA MP account and credit there for now, they'll just use that account when you request the match. Of course miles you've earned already are unlikely to count towards the challenge.

My gold status is going to expire in July - do you think I should work toward requalification? If a status match is going to happen, hopefully it will be before then?

Yes - you can. I did this a few weeks ago b4 reaching US*G level (while crediting flights to my US FF). Just show your BD*G card to the Lounge Rep and they will let you in... No problem at all...

Okidoki, so I sat down with a big fat spreadsheet last night and worked out which *A programme was best for me, assuming that OW cannot fully meet my needs. Yes, I know I'm sad

Whichever way I look at it, A3 is coming out tops right now. Funnily enough, not because of the 20k *G, but because it offers the best combination of earning (200% premium classes incl discount C) and burning (only TK is cheaper for EU-Asia in C class, and it is the same price as TK and UA for EU-Oz/NZ). TK came a close second, and UA was a surprise third. Put it this way, I'd happily be status matched into any of these (HINT!)

So, what's the catch? Would love to hear any recent experiences from other Diamond Club defectees to Aegean. Is anyone concerned about their financial position and/or does anyone think the current generous earn rates will be enhanced in the near future?

Incidentally, to summarise other programmes I looked at, in approximate order of attractiveness:

• TK has excellent burn rates on TK metal, but only 150% credit in C, vs 200% on A3 (albeit UA W scores only 50% on A3)
• UA is more attractive than i remembered, with OK earn (lots of variation - discount C on LX for 175% was a nice little outlier) and good burn rates, but the US lounge access issue negates the additional benefits of US domestic travelling (upgrades, etc)
• SK has good earning (well, maybe - it's totally unclear on the website, and I'm hardly going to, say, spend �2k on an OS business class ticket if earning is, umm, either 100% or 200% - and you seem to get only 100% for SQ/OZ/TK C class), but the burning is awful, and imminent "enhancements" are promised
• The Asian programmes (NH, OZ, SQ and TG) are terrible for earn and burn, which offsets the benefit of easy *G (TG/OZ), DJ/MI recognition (SQ) and earning on QR/EY (NH/OZ)
• AC has rubbish earn rates, and *G will get harder next year
• NZ is clearly optimised for long, long distance travellers, and generally not great for earning
• M&M is getting devalued left, right and centre - esp for earning on discount premium fares. 100k for SEN also not amusing
• JJ and US, I'm assuming will end up in OW sooner or later
• The SA website wasn't working
• By the time I got to ET, I was yawning, but it didn't seem particularly special

Have I missed anything?

What about Air China http://ffp.airchina.com.cn/en/lcdh/dhgz.jsp (in rates are in km, not miles), although earning in C seem to be 130% - 150% not 200%,
or EqyptAir (I assume the latter is rubbish but haven't actually any knowledge).
(Spending chart seems ok to Asia http://www.egyptairplus.com/MS_Membe...art_01_feb.pdf,
Earning rates seem rubbish though: http://www.egyptairplus.com/MS_Membe...tar_class.html, e.g. SQ W = 75%)

Of course you could also gamble on future members joining such as Avianca.

Great work. Maybe you would be able to attach / link to your spreadsheet, as I am sure many of us have started a document called staralliance.xls but haven't had the strength to go any further.

I like perhaps many was thinking of OZ or A3, for easy status. I had come down in favour of Asiana for fears of A3 doing a Spanair on us.

Anyone know the strength of A3 in mind of the whole Greek thing?

Thanks

Egyptair is a poor man's Turkish - similar earning rates, other than that 75% SQ W (ouch!), but slightly higher redemption rates from Northern Europe

Ahhh, I hadn't twigged that Air China was in kms... And the slowness of the website was putting me off... Back to the drawing board - although, while it is more generous than other Asia-based FFPs, its earn-rates are generally still lower than the Western-based schemes. Cheap redemptions though - including on CX

It's on my PC at home, so I can email it tomorrow if anyone wants... However, it is not at all exhaustive, and probably no use to anyone but me - also, after the first few programmes, you quickly get the idea, and if it was worse than the previous ones, I didn't bother to document

But the general principle is that you only need to check:
1. Where you are mostly likely to earn big (for me, discounted business, plus TG Q, SQ W and UA W - no point checking what you'd earn on short Eurohops)
2. Where you would most like to spend (for me, EU-SE Asia and EU-Oz/NZ, business class)
3. How to get to *G (and e.g. difference between miles and PQM on UA)
4. Non *A partner airlines earning and benefits, in case they sway you

...and that is all you measure the FFP by

I prefer to say that you did a rational analysis of which *A programme best suit your needs. That's how I describe my own work

[/quote]
Whichever way I look at it, A3 is coming out tops right now. Funnily enough, not because of the 20k *G, but because it offers the best combination of earning (200% premium classes incl discount C) and burning (only TK is cheaper for EU-Asia in C class, and it is the same price as TK and UA for EU-Oz/NZ). TK came a close second, and UA was a surprise third. Put it this way, I'd happily be status matched into any of these (HINT!)[/quote]

My guess : you're flying business mostly and couldn't care less about the myriad of Eco fare that concern the fabled part of the plane that's rumored to be behind the curtain?

I'll point you to this thread were the financials of Aegean were discussed. Basically, it's an airline, it's in Greece, but it's not in a bad shape and it's a regional airline from a popular tourist spot. We're used to BMI so we know not to park huge amount of miles in case something happens...

It's my opinion, though, that the current mileage requirements are a legacy of the time when it was an unaligned. Without longhaul earning opportunity, and a grand offering of THREE lounges, they had to be generous for their frequent fliers. It may change in the future (but not to quickly not to infuriate their domestic user base). On the earning/burning front, I guess it's ok : the redemption chart is rather good, but earning are disappointing for many cheaper fares so it won't be attractive to many flyers.

I don't fear an influx of cheap elites abusing the *G status. If they credit to A3, the program will be in the same situation as DC. If they don't, expect the qualification criteria to change. If they become more stringent, it won't change your analysis (as you fly certainly enough to qualify anyway), but if they introduce minimum segment on Aegean, we'll be out of luck.

[/quote]

Incidentally, to summarise other programmes I looked at, in approximate order of attractiveness:
[LIST][*]UA is more attractive than i remembered, with OK earn (lots of variation - discount C on LX for 175% was a nice little outlier) and good burn rates, but the US lounge access issue negates the additional benefits of US domestic travelling (upgrades, etc)[/quote]

Plus, you need to fly 4 segments on UA metal to gain status (I didn't check your location before answering this post : if you're not in the US, it may be difficult).

Am I right in thinking that A3/OZ don't have bonus status miles (the 35% we were used to as BD*G)?

Given that BA have 100% bonus miles for BA Golds, that looks tempting (although won't help us with status).

Er, we've never had bonus status miles either!