It would be super if you could earn bonus miles with other carriers also than US Airways, US Airways Express carriers, US Airways Shuttle and United, Continental Airlines and Lufthansa.

Not that great if you are outside US and can't use the credit cards etc to stack up your miles.

Thank you northernstar84 for an excellent advice... US Airways doesn't look bad...

Europe-Australia in C costs 120.000 miles - less than on A3 (150.000), OZ (180.000), TK (150.000), M&M (185.000)

Once CP, I will get 250% miles on LH/UA/US in C... (still less than 425% on BD once 55K threshold was reached - but still more than on M&M - 225%)

BA used to be quite good (100% bonus for Silvers from late 2010 plus Silvers already have lounges access), but they are about to start 'enhancing' the program, so I will stick to *A for now.

Have you looked at the changes? The enhancements - with the exception on Euro thresholds and some elements of the partner award chart - are pretty positive. How many programmes recently have reduced the miles needed for key destinations e.g. NYC?

What is a shame is that hardly any star programmes seem to allow conversion of Amex Membership Rewards points into miles. Only Singapore and Scandinavian, as far as I can see. Continental used to be there, but the United merger has seen to that.

I'm increasingly thinking I'll go Aegean just for status on Star, and start shifting operations to BA.

no

You get a discount on paid access though

Thank you for the heads up... I will have to check the BA forum again

?

100% ticket x 2 C class = 200%
x 2 after 55K= 400%
+ 25% Gold Bonus= 425% total

Yes, Thanks! I glanced over the FAQ explanation also. Great program and very sad it will be demolished! Hopefully they don't shut it down too early and my brother could credit his february flights to the program and redeem cash+miles award.

BAEC is now an excellent programme for anyone UK-based or flying a lot on BA. But with BA likely to swallow up BD, this will leave those of us wanting decent 2nd alliance programme without a single good alternative. And the danger then is that without competition BA may enhance away EC benefits.

It think it has been good for both BAEC and DC that the two FFPs have been such strong competitors, and I am concerned that without effective UK competition BA may have less incentive to keep the EC up to scratch.

And I fear I may be dragged back to the arms of BA. It appears that MegaCorps position on them has softened and they're now back as a preferred carrier.

Now T5 seems to be running again, it could be a viable alternative to FRA or AMS for me.

Not for me it isn't

When the rumours started about BMI being up for sale I looked at a lot of the other FFPs to see what options there are - as BA is points based on some function of distance and fare, it really doesn't suit my travel pattern of transcontinental in cheap Y (damned works travel policy). With BMI (or most star FFPs) for a trip to Japan or the USA I'd net about 10K miles, so in 4-5 trips I'd have my *G status for another year, and with my 8-9 trips per year I'd clear *G comfortably..

On BA, I worked out that you'd get 60 points round trip to the US or Japan, and a 600 point threshold for BA silver - so I'd be looking at in excess of 10 trips to requalify which I probably wouldn't manage

I'm currently doing a status match to UA Premier Exec (*G) which will give me status with them for the next year - although the rates aren't as good as BMI, it'll get me free economy plus seating which is a nice perk

I consider BA still to be an ok-ish program post changes, nothing great. The threshold for getting Gold has become very high for Europe- I will reach close to HON if I pool that travel on LH family. Also BAEC has poor redemption partners- only CX and BA are worth spending miles on. I have never seen a premium seat on JL (or NH for that matter) when I wanted it, IB is in the same league as TK or worse, I would rate LX F way above BA F, forget SQ F or OZ F....

BA still scores on cheap(ish) upgrades to C from WT+ and 10K miles plus cash redemptions in Europe- still, nothing compared to the 3K miles plus cash redemption DC gives LHR-MOW one way.