Back up FFP
 

Hello All,

I'm 10 tier points shy of renewing my gold status (which I have to do by August) and I am wondering whether I should book non BA/oneworld flights to start building up a back up FFP. My travel patterns are predominately trans-atlantic, business and first, as well as Europe in business. I'm based in London. Do you think I should bother, if so, Miles and More given my spent?

Thank you for your advice!!

I know...I'm suffering from 'the grass is greener on the other side syndrom...' plus I am courious about other products...

If you're not making BA Gold, the same flying pattern may well not get you the LH SEN, so do your homework very carefully about whether you will indeed qualify.

Then, of course, thoroughly compare the benefits of the programme, quality of lounges (e.g. space, food & beverages), earn/burn ratio etc.

No, the grass is NOT greener, on average, IMO.

One thing you could look at is to have a second FFP in another alliance anyway, without chasing status.

Signed: LH SEN, SQ PPS, A3 Gold*, QF LTG & last but not least, BA GGL/CCR/LTG, giving me a fair few opportunities to compare and contrast between programmes

*In case you're wondering about the point of having status in 3 Star Alliance programmes, simple answers are:
LH SEN: Access to certain F redemption not available through non-M&M
SQ PPS: x2 baggage allowance (Star Gold only gives 1 bag or 20 kg extra)
A3: Benefits /earning on OA which is NOT a Star member

If you fly a reasonable amount of Lufthansa (or whatever) and/or it's a valid alternative for some of your travel then yes it makes sense to have one account in each of the main 3 alliances. Lufthansa isn't the easiest one to get status, so if (e.g.) TK is more useful given your travel pattern you should look at that - but I'd see it more as getting some frequent flyer points/miles to do things when BAEC can't help. I am sceptical of the value of maintaining multiple frequent flyer schemes within the same alliance since that is the way to having small buckets of expiring points all over the place.

If you're going to chase *A status just beware that many LH shorthaul C fares earn nothing with either A3 or TK programmes. Given that LH is the major *A carrier in Europe that can be a catch and M&M is now revenue based too. If you are going to use LH then look at SK Eurobonus which still earns well on all but the cheapest fares.

Personally, I think the benefits of status are marginal when you can travel in a premium cabin (with the BA exception of being able to preselect seats for free). I'd book on schedule & price. If the Virgin product works for you, their earn rates in upper class can be quite favourable (400% of miles flown plus status bonus for flexible tickets).

I don't have a backup FFP in the sense that you're talking about, but I have a 'bail out' FFP researched in case adverse changes happen to BAEC. I'll probably jump to Flying Blue.

I agree with your general assessment. In my case I have built up a substantial stash (ton) of AA miles. AA miles are an incredibly useful alternative to Avios and I've not forgone a single tier point in the process.

Many schemes work on a calendar year so why not a back up indeed, but as others say, I certainly wouldn't pick that within OW. Look at whether ST or *A is good for you and if you want status or useable miles. If *A, TK, A3 and SK all have advantages. If ST, AF-KL is probably your best bet for status and AZ for miles.

Now they have a status challenge more than a status match (See relevant thread in TK forum); a bit more complicated but always better than starting from scratch. And renewing at 25K/year or 37.5K/2 years is not that difficult, comparing to other FFPs.

Thank you all for your advice, much appreciated. Being LON based it is a no brainer to maintain Gold Status on BA, so I will make sure I will always maintain that. Unfortunately (or fortunately) I don't fly enough to achieve GGL, but I can still continue to chip away on lifetime gold and collect avios. For the other flights, I'll be a free agent and select them on schedule and price.

AZ have had massive devaluations lately. They might have been good for mileage at some point, but definitely not now. Not that flying blue is that much better in this respect tbh.