IAN-UK

I wondered how many of the forum contributors maintain status with other alliances?

I know some prefer to pursue extreme status and benefits with BA, but for me two or more alliances give much greater flexibility than being hamstrung by a single carrier, particularly one which seems intent on testing passengers' forbearance.

My "natural" travel allows me to keep gold in both OW and *A. I've moved around a bit, and now in Yorkshire I much prefer using Qatar and *A carriers from Manchester than putting up with Heathrow transfers. OK, Frankfurt's not much better, but it is better: Zurich is a joy, its new E lounges are something special.

Austrian and Vienna offer another possibility, but Turkish has become my new flame: 3 flights a day to Istanbul in 2x2 dedicated J cabins, and top notch catering in both classes. Istanbul can be a bit of a zoo, but TK status sorts out a lot of that (and look, I didn't even mention the lounge ).

Pricewise, it's rare that travel from, or via, Heathrow offers any incentive. Dublin, of course, is another question...

Clearly, for those within Heathrow's catchment, BA becomes the most convenient carrier. So perhaps we unfaithful ones are the ones outside London, and including those who once hubbed through London from other sides of the world.

theultimateflyer

Thanks to status matching I currently hold status across the 3 alliances through March 2017.

However when that ends, I expect that my BAEC Silver status will be the only one that is renewed (in fact it has been renew already). My travel patterns in the future look like they will allow me to barely make Silver, so going for status across multiple alliances would not make sense nor be feasible.

Jonobigblind

I currently hold status with BA and Emirates (Gold and Silver respectively). I find the Emirates hard product superior plus the car service in J is both a time saver and lets me take advantage of the drinks in the lounge and the flight without counting units and worrying about driving when home.

I've used BA on a DXB flight but only as I was able to get F on the return for less than J.

Happy to fly BA going west and local but Emirates win the eastern routes when they need to be taken.

FWIW the silver on Emirates conveys me no benefits at all as all my flying on them is in J. Additional miles may come in handy if I ever feel like redeeming them I guess but no plans as yet.

corporate-wage-slave

I'm at the Emerald stage with the other 2 main alliances Skyteam and Star Alliance, mainly thanks to weak spots in BA+IB's East Europe network, and some part of the Americas too.

For some reason, I just find them much more clinical than BAEC. I can't quite put my finger on it, the Star one (via Lufthansa) is the nearest to BAEC, but I still can't get terribly worked up by either of them. They are both fairly transactional, I suppose, they deliver on their respective promises, but I guess there's less mothering of their top tiers generally.

CoweyB

Like Ian-UK I have recently discovered Turkish in the past year and they are getting my forthcoming trips in J to ATH, IST, KPB and Cyprus over BA for four reasons: they usually offer better seats in business when flying in Europe, there is fantastic and plentiful catering, you get individual IFE, and their loyalty scheme awards lounge status for two years once achieved.

So I am making the efforts to maintain my *A Gold over my BAEC Silver. I will have done enough to get Silver for next year at the end of which I will be retiring so I am content to drop to bronze after that. I'll still fly BA but being BAEC Silver is pretty worthless when flying out of LCY my local airport - there's no lounge and no preboarding for silvers. The only benefit is using the CE check-in desk but I try to avoid putting luggage in the hold if I can.

HIDDY

I have status with a couple of S American airlines courtesy of certain credit cards...does that count?

Quarky Quark

Yes but what about Kemal Kebabs. Are you still a prized customer? 😄

absoluy

A slight variation... I have OWE status with both BA and AA.

BA Gold gives good lounge access when flying domestically in the US, AA Executive Platinum gives (very regular) complimentary upgrades on domestic US.

If AA hadn't made some fairly significant (negative) changes to their programme over the course of the past year then I would look to renew both... But now I'm thinking I'll stick just with BA.

dylanks

I received status matches with TK (*G) and AZ (ST), though this is mostly to credit shorthaul flights where OW is not an option. I'll likely end up retaining *G staus via a normal amount of flying, but SkyTeam status seems less likely. I've not yet flown on either carrier.

Swanhunter

I've held Gold on Star for a good 12+ years (through SQ, LH, BD and now A3), VS Gold for 2 separate periods of time and even separate OW status too. OW Emerald has some extra perks - CX and JL F lounge access especially - but otherwise the differences in treatment are not radical.

Now I have LTG it's refreshing to really be able to experience different airlines and realise just how deeply mediocre BA has become - others have upped their game while BA have dropped theirs.

orbitmic

I am still top tier in all three alliances although I keep thinking I'll drop to *A silver which might end up happening at some point (but there is always the odd flight when I need them).

dnajockey

Silver on BA is the sweet spot for me, being mostly sh in a et and long haul in wt+. Mrsdnajockey is also silver with ba and gold on AF (sky team) which we use as our secondary programme - relatives in th south of France and working in Paris mean AF is the obvious second choice for us.

corporate-wage-slave

Presumably so, and since the card has no expiry date I think I can add that to my lifetime baubles. On the other hand Kemal Kebabs, strategically placed outside my LSE hall of residence, is no more, and is now (somewhat inevitably) a hipster café, so I guess it's like the BMI lifetime cards.

headingwest

I've got status with the 3 main alliances due to matches from BA Gold to Avianca and Alitalia, although I won't be renewing Gold membership with BAEC - for me it's just not worth it. I'll just wait until after my Silver soft landing has expired and then renew Silver status for another 2 years. I'm trying my best to get every last drop from them, like they do with their customers.

I'm not much impressed with BA at the moment so I'm currently shifting most of my flying over to Star Alliance to get my *A Gold status renewed with Aegean. If they don't change their FFP, I'll renew with them every year. It's been great to have the Avianca status match as I'm using all the benefits while building up my A3 status. Should I feel guilty about that!?

fransknorge

I noticed that a couple of people saying they have top status in all three alliances have FB Lifetime Plat, so that is one top tier that does not need any work to be maintained. Although it could very well be that they continue flying SkyTeam enough to actually earn it.

Organically, in addition to OWS with BA, I maintain *A Silver with SK. If I started to do TP Run or Mileage Runs I could either have OWE or *A Gold and OWS. I am currently in a transition phase when I will shift my *A flights to another FFP than SK (except for a certain amount of Lufthansa flights - due to their very stringent earning rates) to go for *A Gold and retreat to BA Bronze.