Flying Lawyer

I could not agree more and if DC would not be (have been) more than a suitable alternative I would not be *G via DC and very much enjoy the perks it offers. However, DC aimed and still aims on beating BAEC in its domestic market and could certainly not work as a stand alone business unit.

I simply do not like the kind of mud fighting exegarating the disadvantages of M&M and glorifying the advantages of DC. Making the best out of two worlds has been my mantra for quite a while now and this worked pretty well. I am glad it continues to work that way.

NickB

Most sensible indeed.

Flying Lawyer

Obviously a very bad choice to argue your case (and even a not so good case for DC). I have no experience with KF but can read the website. A One-way First Saver Award Ticket is 82500 according to the website. A LH Round-trip First Standard Award Ticket with KF is 330000 according to the website compared to 180.000 with M&M. The same LH roundtrip for all three programs:

180 for return flight in F between SIN and LHR using M&M
330 for return flight in F between SIN and LHR using KF
220 for return flight in F between SIN and LHR using DC

It gets even worth if you consider the earning ratio without any bonus (all according to the websites):

LHR - FRA - SIN F/C Earning in KF: 509 Miles plus 9581 Miles = 10.090
LHR - FRA - SIN F/C Earning in MM: 2000 Miles plus 19161 Miles = 21.161
LHR - FRA - SIN F/C Earning in DC: 1200 Miles plus 19161 Miles = 20.361

One could believe your posts are sponsored by SQ. So you stick to KF, I stick DC and M&M and we are both happy. As said earlier, each of these programms has its pros and cons and in an comparism between DC (before the enhancements last April) and M&M were clearly in favour of DC. Today? The differences are no longer that big. However, I simply do not like the kind of mud fighting exegarating the disadvantages of one program anbd and glorifying the other. Making the best out of two worlds has been my mantra for quite a while now and this worked pretty well.

Raffles

But you forget the tweaks of DC, which really means:

200 for return flight in F between SIN and LHR using DC (if you don't take Lufthansa)

100 for return flight in F between SIN and LHR using DC (if you do 'cash and miles', cash bit being only £675, and avoid LH)

and, not forgetting:

81 for return flight in F between SIN and LHR using DC (if you do 'cash and miles', cash bit being only £549, if you book the return ticket to The Maldives and jump off in SIN ...., and avoid LH)

You can therefore get 4 DC tickets for the price of 1 KF ticket (albeit you've got to pay the 'cash and miles' cash element) .....

RAPC

Which of course will potentially lead to DC chasing you for the additional miles as they monitor these routes pretty closely.

aster

I'd save the "obviously" for later...

One way saver award in F via KF is 70k (82,500 - 15% online booking discount). Good luck getting that sort of deal on the same route (FRA-SIN) on M&M, where you'd pay a whopping 135k for the same thing.

Unfortunately there is no truth in your comparison. Please check your data before posting as this can be misleading. A LH round trip ticket with KF is also 180.000 miles. Check the 'Star Alliance Round-Trip Reward Chart' on the KF site.

Better yet, even though both M&M and KF would charge 180k for a return flight on LH in F, a 1-way here would cost you 135k with M&M and just 90k with KF. And we're talking about redeeming on LH here.

Do you represent Lufthansa here? Not that this would have anything to do with the funny numbers posted...

I've been saying this all along that the program has its pros and cons until you came along and attacked a comment I made about a move to M&M not being good if you don't pay for C. You countered by listing how you can earn miles in... C. Which was not the issue at all...

To summarise, the way I see it...

DC
- pros: great redemption value, good for crediting both C/F and Y miles, 25% bonus for flying any *A carrier, superb mileage accrual once you cross the 55k threshold, family membership, low Silver and Gold thresholds
- cons: call centre, site issues

M&M
- pros: once qualified for *G - status lasts for remainder of year+two more years+Jan &Feb, 25% bonus for flying certain *A carriers counts for status miles, companion award at 50% mileage discount for those with *G status, good for crediting both C/F but Y is difficult to attain status
- cons: very hard to get *G for the Y traveler, miles earned count according to calendar year, average redemption value unless companion award is used

KF (for those interested)
- pros: great redemption value for saver awards on aircraft other than the A380/77W, average status thresholds though flying in C/F does not make reaching status much easier, good for crediting C/F (only SQ) and Y
- cons: lower class bonuses for flying in C/F, saver awards not available on 77W and A380, 744 likely to be replaced in future and no info on what will happen with saver awards on the new aircraft

GoldCircle

Ok, bump.

I'm bumping this thread to attract all the current DC v. M&M discussion that people want.

And a whole bunch of posts on this subject have been moved from another thread to here.


Enjoy.

bmi goldenboy

Impossible not to ^

Handbags....sorry FFP Gold cards at dawn

Chuckles aside..

This could become an incredibly useful thread to people like me who get easily confused about the suitability of another programme.

Also, this must absolutely be the right time for DC to introduce a reward to ensure 55+k's do not stray to other FFP's as they've already reached the renewal threshold. I'm already posting some flights to BAEC to build a miles bank and try a TATL redemption with them before deciding if I should jump to OW.

sofasurfer

Indeed ^

Might as well share the current thinking at my end, as it might be useful for some (and I'd be happy to hear any comments/suggestions!)

Mrs Sofasurfer and I (and, indeed, Little Miss Sofasurfer) earn our BIS miles in Y (say, a TATL and 2-3 internal Canada/US trips a year), and have loved both the one-way bookings at 50% and cash & miles facets of DC redemptions.

The Mrs may well get to *G before her year-end at the end of summer (and is up for some MRs to do so - I feel proud ) but her next decent work trip (China) will be about 14 months after that, so maintaining silver is the best we can hope for. I might be able to retain *S, but in north America the waived baggage fees means there's some tangible value we can enjoy.

Little Miss Sofasurfer is already with M&M/Jetfriends - IIRC, miles don't even start to expire until she's 18, so her miles were crediting there before family membership meant we could do something other than add to her *A "miles trust fund" But for those with small people doing real *A flying, I think this seems to be a good bet.

For *A, I can't see a better option for us than AC Aeroplan - easiest to earn miles in addition to regular *A flights, burn rates dont seem too bad and we still have the same options that we already consider with the help of the ANA tool

Obviously we can't status match to AC, but it looks like we could get lounge access via Amex or other "bought" options (that could offer other things we'd value - already starting the research... the expat US$ amex sounds attractive for us, and may be interesting for others on here that may have similar concerns achieving/retaining status once things eventually change).

Can anyone suggest any particularly good OW status match for *S/*G? Current thinking is to credit non-*A miles to AS (to maximize earn/burn potential - and they have a credit card in Canada, I believe) but it would be nice to have at least a year of status perks if we can snag it

Firewind

I would add - though I've been told that it's trivial or a canard by those in the Mother Country - I believe that the British t&f seriously dull the value of a dc award, as compared to t&f paid flying a carrier that uses any other hub. Can't say which side of the argument is parochial -- that by those who live in Britain and only worry about the relative value of flying bmi vs. BA, or the one by us outside who only worry about exhorbitant t&f for flying through LHR or MAN.

aster

The major drawback to M&M (apart from discrimination, like family membership only being offered to Middle Eastern residents) is the redemption value. IMO it's quite poor compared to BD or KF.

Nothing beats BD's miles&cash option and the few routing gems (like flying Europe-Japan). On top of that KF saver awards seem to be as good as M&M's redemption value for companion awards, though only for SQ and the SpaceBed/SkySuite.

I wish LH would open up its family membership to the general public instead of discriminating against most of it's users by offering it just to Arabic nations: http://www.lufthansa.com/online/port...d=1905951&l=en