When you redeam the max award it says miles earning as yes.

Does anyone know if OZ and TK actually make you attend at a ticket office in person to confirm an award booking - or if this condition is a hangover from the days of paper tickets and is not enforced in practice?

Thanks for all the work you put into comparing programmes, wyvern.

Anyone considering Miles & More should bear in mind that some of what you wrote has changed or will be changing on 1 September:

+ one-way awards will be possible on all airline partners;

- "discount" business fares (Z from 1 September as well as -- with immediate effect -- the new P booking class) will earn fewer miles than people have come to expect (Z = 150%, P = 100%) and will not be eligible for upgrade awards;

- earning rates are also being slashed for "discount" business fares within Europe.

M&M was never great for people who only buy economy tickets, but it used to be easy to keep M&M status by taking advantage of summer/winter business fare sales and/or by taking a few cross-border flights within Europe (e.g. 10,000 miles for a LHR-ZRH-FRA return using an LX "Business Saver" fare). That will no longer be the case. The changes kill M&M for me and, I suspect, for many others here.

What's so awful about LH M&M?

Earn/burn rate for business class travelers is not very good as it is now, but it will become poor when Z only earns 150% and P 100%, especially if P is priced as the current Z. In economy, many classes earn fewer miles than other programs would give for them.

100K miles to *A Gold - highest bar in the alliance, when coming from BD which had one of the lowest, at 39K for *A Gold requalification.

http://www.turkishairlines.com/en-IN...rds/index.aspx

-Simple awards for yourself or friend etc. can be done online
-TK upgrade & companion-awards can't be done online
-Star Alliance awards can't be done online
-Star Alliance upgrades can be done online


was told this last year by the resident gurus in the TK forum

Except that elite bonus miles do count for status, so, in reality, you are really talking of 75K miles if flying on M&M airlines or UA, which is not bad on average. Before the latest round of earning devaluation, it was in fact quite reasonable: 3 long-haul Z class to West Coast USA, for instance, would have done it. With earnings in business class at 200% (whereas a lot of *A carriers will only give you 100% for business) + 25% elite bonus, it was OK. With discount business earnings reduced to 150% (Z) or 100% (P), this is more problematic.

Almost -- it's actually 80,000 (which the 25% "executive bonus" then increases to the required 100,000). Remember too that the bonus only applies to the base miles, not to any class of service multiplier. Still, as you say, it was not an unattractive for anyone taking occasional long haul returns in Z.

Sadly, "more problematic" is a major understatement. A return IAH-FRA-LHR in Z used to net me nearly 29,000 miles towards requalification. In the new P booking class it'd be fewer than 15,000. Getting *G for three long haul returns plus a couple of short hops was attractive enough (especially with status granted for two years, making it easy to take a break from earning in order to redeem some miles). Doubling the number of flights needed means that M&M is not a remotely attractive option for the overwhelming majority of readers here.

Duh :o, of course.

Agreed. I have also pretty much written off M&M as a result of this.

That said, to be fair, even with a doubling of flights, *G status for 6 long-haul deep discount business class tickets, while not particularly interesting for quite a few of us including me, is not a ridiculously high level especially, as you say, for 2 years of *G (and 4 years of access to LH lounges given the soft landing to FTL) and compares honourably to many programmes, although obviously not the BDs or A3s of this world which are unusually generous with granting status.

Emailed the EK credentials to SAS on 20th of April, received a confirmation on 23rd, and today received the SK Gold pack in Hong Kong. Pretty decent turnaround time.

Advice on program to move to
 

Hi - I lived in Northern Ireland and have six years *G with bmi. Last year I moved to the East coast of the US but stayed with DC. At the minute I have 670K and DC membership year ends 23rd Feb 2013. In anticipation of not getting a good offer from BA I have credited all flights this year to AA or UA and am nearly at sliver in both. However, I can't decide who to go with, BA/AA fly direct from BOS-LHR and getting on early in the US always helps due to the large carry on bags. UA/US probaby have better internal connections out of BOS.

I have three transtlantics booked at the minute BA WT+ (BOS-AMS) and BA WT (BOS-LHR) and AC Econ (BOS-MAN). Can anyone give me advice on what might be the best move - I'm encouraged to fly national carriers if possible so getting status makes sense. I do like *G and AC do a great job.

Totally confused what to do so I'll appreciate any help -sorry if these questions are repeatitive this is my first post. My wife and daughter are BD*S with about 70K miles each.

Thanks in advance

One thing I would mention about Miles&More is that I have found using their call centres for award and revenue bookings has been much more pleasurable. Generally I've got through to either Germany or South Africa and have found most of the time that things were clear and quick on both sides. With M&M there is also the advantage of the companion award.

Welcome to FT, BOSflies.

I've suggested to the mods that they move your question to the separate thread discussing the best FFPs to replace DC for members in various countries and situations. [Edited to add: now done; thanks mod(s).] I'm sure a few of us will try and offer answers -- especially if you can give us a better idea of how much you typically fly (nearly at Silver with UA and AA gives us some idea, of course, but a fuller version would help).

With your big stash of miles, you'd better get status on BA as you may find it useful to have it (especially if you can retain Gold: possible or not?) when you'll will redeem your points: increased award availability and lounge access on OW flight. As an US-based member, *A status won't give you lounge access unless you're on an international flight. That would tilt my choice toward OW, but only you can assess if the flight network is convenient for the US routes you fly.