For a frequent flyer i don't see A3 earn/burn ratio attractive at all. If one is struggling with even reaching *A-Gold status it could be useful.

In my opinion star alliance should not have any member who are offering Gold-membership under 40 000miles or even less. This devaluates the whole program and the services/benefits are getting fewer and fewer. You can witness this by example looking one of the "Red Carpet Club" lounges in US. Sad.

it's not a good example because RCC access is a paid service in the USA and anyway it should be better.

Pros

Elite members get a redeemable earning bonus on some airlines in higher cost ticket buckets (from 2012 this covers almost all ticket buckets on UA/CO). On United redemptions you do have the option of increasing the miles you pay by 100-125% and virtually guaranteeing redemption availability. Elites are exempt from baggage fees. There is a mileage earning credit card (Amex) available to UK members.

Cons

Redeemable mileage earning is lower than BD (typically 150% for business). Only Elite members earn minimum 500 miles per flight. Number of non-earning ticket categories within Europe and within N. America is higher than with BD (although the number of intermediate earning - 25%, 50% - is fewer). Saver redemptions (i.e. normal redemptions with restricted availability) require about 60-70% more miles than BD for business, economy is marginally more (in effect therefore the number of C class segments flown on most airlines other than UA to earn a C-class redemption is roughly double BD). UA*G requires 50k miles (although this is a Con, there isn't really anything better than this except A3 and BD of course). UA*G does not provide lounge access in US unless flying internationally the same day.

I agree with your concern, but I think the statement of 40'000 is overly simplistic. You ignore the earnings portion.
DC is a great program for C and F earnings. And Y with the American partners.
Terrible for an European Y LH/LX flyer.

Here is a practical demonstration of what i mean above:

Take DC vs M&M, 2 respective Silver members are trying to go for Gold.
They fly mostly Intra Europe LX/LH Mid Y fares (V, G, S, Q, T, W).

DC earns 300 per segment. Gold at 38k. 38'000/300= 127 segments needed for Gold
M&M earns (750+188). Gold at 100K. 100'000/938= 107 segments needed for Gold

So a ~3 times higher threshold for gold requires ~20% less segments than the "easy FFP".

GBM

Yes of course is the balance of earning / threshold. What im after is that when there's too many members the benefits are going to go downhill.

Any US Airways Dividend Miles user here? Pros and Cons? Mainly looking for J-redemptions from Europe to rest of the world. No credit card. Only flying in business and not flying with LH metal. Burn-ratio seems quite good..

This is against Terms and Conditions, and a contact of mine at A3 said that if this gets out of hand, they will start deleting accounts which violate this policy.

I think TK would be the best option for me.

However, does TK operate with calendar year OR 12 consecutive months?

Terms and conditions of what? You can use one program for status and another one for mileage accrual. Nothing wrong about it at all.

Personally, I don't care about the status because once UA/CO has tallied the lifetime miles it will make me a lifetime *G.

I have used BD extensively for awards that are not possible using more traditional programs i.e. HAV-YYZ-GRU-JNB-ABJ. Not sure if there is a program that allows the same level of flexibility?

Terms and Conditions of Miles & Bonus.

Since it is against terms and conditions, there clearly IS something wrong about it...

It is the fact that the rules are so quirky that I support an Aegean Airlines forum. For all of you who haven't already (and a big thank you to those who have), please voice your support. The link is in my signature.

12 months, as per the TK website.

On balance TK looks the most likely option for me. I actually fly them sometimes and the blend of earn/burn and status threshold makes Elite look achievable and attractive.

Having just looked at the T&C, could you please draw to my attention where it says that all Star Alliance mileage crediting must be done to Aegean for those holding Aegean Miles & Bonus accounts?

Thank you.

Does anyone know any program's which are good for family accounts?

I've got a number of people flying out from LHR to NYC next year, and want to get the miles. From looking, I think ANA has the beat family account at the moment (in terms of the number of people per family), but I could be wrong??

Cheers

A quick question about TK Miles and Bonus...

To get to gold for the first time, do you need to reach 25,000 status miles first, and then gather another consecutive 40,000 status miles on top of that? A little like Diamond Club's initial 18,000 to silver and then a fresh 38,000 to gold?