shawbridge

I fly AA and BA a fair bit and became PLT for Life on AA and then realized there was no higher level available for life so started accumulating on BA. I made Gold for Life in somewhere between 10 and 15 years. This is useful in that I can always got to an AA or BA lounge as long as I am flying OneWorld. Plus, I've found that some other OneWorld airlines, particularly Cathay, note one's Emerald Status and come back to find me when I am flying business or Premium Economy to make sure I have what I need (coffee, champagne, etc.) I see GGL for Life at 100K tier points, but that seems relatively unattainable.

Where should I now be accumulating miles or points? Should I start using getting miles on AA to become Executive Platinum? (For some reason that was harder than getting Gold on BA).

ChampagneSocialist

Do you primarily want status or do you primarily want the miles? If the latter, Alaska is actually not a bad choice for UK based folk.

JClasstraveller

shawbridge

I'm based in the US. Mostly BOS but spent some winters outside of San Francisco. I'm more focused on status as I have more than enough miles (1.4 MM Avios plus lots of Amex Rewards points as well).

Regarding Star or Skyteam, I like the day flights from BOS-LHR, which has kept me with OW. When I flew from San Francisco, I took United to Sao Paulo. I accumulated miles on Turkish and am Star Gold, I think. I don't love United or Lufthansa but like Singapore. I don't really fly Delta much but could look at Skyteam. Do Star and Skyteam have "High Status for Life" programs?

Gig103

What I don't understand is - if you start on a new program, aside from the lounge (showing a membership card for BAEC) how do you reap the benefits of what's already earned?

shawbridge

Gig103, I hadn't really thought about Star or Skyteam until JClassTraveller's post.

When I switched from using AAdvantage to Avios/Tier Points, I still used my miles. I wonder if there is an additional OW program that would provide some benefit. Then I could continue to benefit from the Gold for Life by showing my BAEC Gold card. With AA, I would get system-wide upgrades if I were to fly enough to get AA EXP instead of BA Gold. Does another OW program offer something worthwhile?

trueblu

You are earning 5k TPs/year (CCR), so I'm guessing that few flights are in lower cabins that would benefit from SWUs. Crediting to BA also gets you GUF2, which is similar-ish.

You can get lifetime status on UA, but it would take quite a while...it would fit your BSO-SFO travel pattern, but would require an inordinate amount of flights if that is your only route. You do rather rather have "eggs in the OW basket" so diversifying isn't such a bad idea. But if you have a tonne of MR points, you can just redeem those for pointy-end flying in one of the other alliances if OW redemptions are hard to come by.

tb

aceman

Been a few years since I was looking at star alliance, as an ex TG gold, and ex UA gold.

But I believe Asiana is one of the best for easy status (40k miles over 2 years), and you get lifetime with 500k miles.

As above I cant imagine any benefit at all in more one world status.

The only problem with the star alliance status is that with lifetime you're only getting into business class lounges for the most part.

JALlover

I know Asiana does a lifetime program, which you might be interested.
But that would not grant you access to other star partner's first lounge (if they have one)

Qantas also have a life time status offer, but would actually be the same as your AA PLT, as both are Sapphire level in OW.

Gig103

My question still stands even within Oneworld unless I'm missing something. When you switched from AA to BA, weren't you just a bottom of the barrel, no status passenger at first? Didn't you miss your free MCE? I don't doubt that BAEC Gold was worth the effort in the end, but starting with a third, any alliance, I'm not sure I see why.

WorldLux

Credit to the new program, show the AA EXP card to gain lounge access, fast track, priority boarding, etc. ?

---

A third top tier with another oneworld airline seems excessive to be honest. With the exception of potential accumulating miles in a more rewarding programme, you won't get much out of it. Achieving top tier with an airline belonging to a different alliance (provided you fly them enough) will yield more benefits.

Gig103

I thought, excluding the lounge, that the boarding pass had to include your OW status on it for the boarding and the free MCE. Apparently you can also select your MCE seats and then, if you aren't planning to use upgrade certs (lifetime Plat, not EXP) then you could call up and remove your credentials to add the new program.

orbitmic

Flying Blue (Air France-KL) gives you Platinum for life if you have been Platinum for 10 consecutive years. See Flying Blue forum for details. That would make sense if you want to hedge by having a "for life" top tier status on two different alliances (at least it's made sense to me).

ukgooner

Why not just enjoy the status you have earned? Relax that you never have to worry about it any more. I just don't get why anyone would immediately switch to a Star programme in this scenario. And going after status in another OW carrier seems a bit cracked to me.

Dave_C

I've switched to Star Alliance myself and Miles & More. Have to say having a far better experience with LH/LX/OS than with BA. M&M is rubbish, but will be making SEN later this month, which is good enough and provides access to LX F bookings on miles.