SmilingBoy

The Luftwaffe of which country are you referring to?

Kevincm

FTL = *S VC10 Boy

(well, at least I think thats what the nice friendly site said. I Could be going more odd than normal)

Lets start the hunt for *A programs that welcome cheapskates

and MCS?... I'll get the "Keep BMI my BMI" Banners ready (I'm sure the DL supporters won't notice if we borrow them and paint BMI logos over them...)

SmilingBoy

Yes, but note that FTL is pretty useful when flying M&M airlines - it gives quite a few perks.

SASfan

Which perks? Thanks, I am curious.

Question for the board, somewhat related to this:

Next year my Dad will begin a lot of heavy flying with QR (Qatar Airways), 3x year, in Business Class. After lurking in this forum and with my own research, I was prepared to recommend to him:

- Do a status match from his Delta Platinum Medallion to BD *Gold
- Earn all of his QR flights with the BD Diamond Club program
- 200% mileage in Biz, 300% in First
- Miles + cash awards are the key highlight of the BD program

The only down side I see to flying QR and earning with BD is that he wouldn't earn status miles for flying QR.

Does this merger talk change the approach I should recommend to him? The only other Star Alliance partners I could recommend to him to earn the miles on would be UA and LH - but I want to take advantage of the threshold bonuses BD gives.

Thanks, all. ^

sven60035

Well if you are a Luftwaffe FT and fly on the M&M empire than you get lounge access to either Luftwaffe Business Class Lounges or other partner lounges. Find more here.

You also get increase bag allowance on M&M empire flights and 25% more award and status miles.

So if you fly regulary on M&M empire airlines (Adria Airways, Air Dolomiti, Air One, Austrian Airlines Group, Croatia Airlines, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Lufthansa Private Jet, Lufthansa Regional and SWISS) than FT is not such a bad deal for you as with 35,000 miles earned you get FT with loads of benefits.

FT is a very M&M empire airlines centric program (as it's only star silver) but good for those who fly on them.

knifeandfork

but according to the NY Times, our German friends look to be getting the cheque book out for another venture

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/20.../index.html?hp

Anglo Large Clawed Otter

I started a find a Diamond Club surrogate thread in the MilesBuzz Forum. Any contributions by more *A savvy folks than myself would be appreciated. I just hope the Golden Egg doesn't get turned into an omelette before I have a chance to polish it a few more times

graraps

??
You mean you don't adore Servisair??

Kevincm

In a related (or Unrelated) move, it seems Lufthansa is making more inroads in the USA, with a 19% purchase of JetBlue (B6).

(See the mega UA thread and this on the Newsstand)

Now if they're buying this segment of the company as an investment (as the dollar is low) or if they're in cahoots with UA planning something else is another matter completely.

Seems that Lufthansa are wanting to spread their influence further than these European shores... How these dominoes fall will be interesting...

LonLH

There are restrictions on US airline ownership by foreign airlines (and management of the airline has to be by US nationals)- so I guess it will have to stay as an investment/ behind the scene string pulling by LH if they take a stake in B6.
I don't think UA is in any position to plan anything as they are in financial trouble themselves. they were hoping to be bought/taken over in 2006/07 so that all the top honchos who came in with bankruptcy could make a killing. Now they have missed the bus- only an American airline can buy them and CO was the only serious candidate.

bertheike

well,
bevore BD is bought by BA, and FFP is merged into OW, it better goes to LH.
But may be this means not the end of DC. LH could buy BMI and keep the brand with it's FFP.

James451

It's a nice idea, but it doesn't seem very likely to me. Swiss' FFP got merged soon after LH took over, didn't it? And presumably LH would expect to make significant savings by moving DC into M&M.

surturminn

But most of the AirUK staff came from Servisair in the first place , think you'll find it's more about empowerment and what an airline will allow a handling agent to do without prior reference to that airline, therefore downgrading the customer experience.

theworld

Sorry if this has already been posted, but can't find reference to it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/money/mai...0/cnjet120.xml

browserden

In bmi becomes Indian owned they can outsource their call centre to the UK