jcmetrokraft

I'm about to move to Paris. I've been a LH SEN for ever, but I guess I'll be using AF now a lot from CDG for long haul. I have a Delta account (with the original card from 1988), so the question is: should I carry on using my SkyMiles account or get a brand new Flying Blue account? Or... Carry on flying LH etc as much as possible?

SEA-Flyer

Where will you be flying to? What class of service do you typically buy?

jcmetrokraft

Long haul mostly business, mostly Asia and US, >100,000 miles a year. Up to now I've been based in Germany so sticking with LH mostly made sense, with the occasional flirt with Emirates and Aeroflot. Now I'm not sure whether to keep trying with *A or defect completely to ST. And if so, do I choose the Americans or the French....?

SEA-Flyer

Sorry - a couple more questions. Do you book your own travel or book it through a corporate travel desk? How much do you value non-stops vs connecting?

AvidFlyer1990

If you want to move to SkyTeam, I would say Flying Blue! Hands Down! They have a fantastic program and it's relatively easy to earn and maintain ST E+ with them. They award full elite/status miles with all/most of the ST partners (unlike DL) and still award RDM's based on the distance flown (elite bonuses on the RDM's). DL awards RDM's based on the ticket price, which, in most cases, will earn far less than FB.

Also, DL's SkyMiles program is essentially going downhill, with all of the 'enhancements'! And if I were in your position, I'd choose FB for SkyTeam and not DL!

Since you're LH SEN, you are atleast flying 100k miles a year, or maybe more. With that much amount of traveling, you can easily achieve FB Platinum (needs only 70k miles every year), the top tier status with FB. If you fly more than the 70k threshold, your status miles above the threshold will roll over, giving you a head-start for the following year's elite status. And if you maintain the Platinum status for 10 straight years (which should be fairly easy given your traveling patterns), it's yours for life! The top tier status!!

Also, FB elites can redeem miles for the coveted AF F (however it's not a very good redemption, or so I have heard...>220k miles for one way US-FRA?).

Nutshell, if you think *A better serves your needs, stick with LH. If you're jumping ship, join FB (and maybe ask for a status match), NOT DL!

MSPeconomist

Is this a permanent move? After the move, would you get to HON if you were to continuing flying LH?

Check whether it's still true that ten (consecutive) years of FB Plat gives you lifetime status. That could be a big consideration, depending on whether you see yourself doing relatively heavy flying from Paris for the next ten years.

As a general rule, it's better to maintain status in the airline you're actually flying versus another alliance partner as carriers tend to give additional perks to their own elites. However, depending on your travel patterns, you could earn more miles in some other FF program. The downside is that most programs provide better availability to their own members and especially their own elites, in addition to giving their own members the option to get much better award inventory on their own flights for more miles.

SEA-Flyer

Well, it depends. jcmetrokraft said that the tickets would be purchased in longhaul business class. Those usually give decent miles on DL provided that they don't show up in Delta's system as Bulk tickets (which is the problem I have). An example for me from last month - CDG to SEA on DL accrued 33k Skymiles because it was classified as a bulk ticket based on how our corporate TA books things. Based on normal rules, it should have accrued about 55k Skymiles. As a Flying Blue member I would have accrued 29k miles.

For redemptions, AF Miles seem to be worth more than DL miles.

Also, AF has the dreaded Mini fares for shorthaul, which are better to fly as a Skymiles member than they are as a Flying Blue member.

jcmetrokraft

To answer the questions so far....
Corporate travel booking.
Permanent move.
Changing company so not 100% sure of their travel policy.
Non-stops not critical. Happy to change once if it makes sense.

LH Sen so 100,000 miles not a problem, been close to HON but never made it. Hmmm thinks... maybe I'll make it now that I always have to connect via FRA or MUC.... But for HON you have to fly with LH - you can't fly with *A partners. I got my 600,000 miles in two years once but flew SAA a few too many times.

xliioper

This is simply not true. The lowest fare classes earn as little as 25% RDM and status qualifying miles in Flying Blue. Here is the earnings chart for DL flights in Flying Blue (AF/KL earnings are similar) --

https://www.flyingblue.com/earn-and-...air-lines.html

For someone like OP who buy business tickets, this won't be an issue. But for someone who purchases cheap coach fares, they should take a long hard look before making the leap (particularly those who are US based). The fact that the fractional percentages apply to both RDM and qualifying miles is particularly painful.

SEA-Flyer

Based on all that, I'd say if you are happy with LH, stick with it. Certainly if you think you can hit HON.

MSPeconomist

Start by reading the new company's travel policy very carefully. Ask how it works in practice with the corporate travel agency.

I'm surprised you didn't do this before accepting the job. I hope you at least discussed how much and where you'll travel and whether it will be business class. Do you know whether you'll have a choice of airline?

michael_v

As far as redemption, AF FB adds fuels surcharges to almost any award. DL does not (with the exception of the Chinese carriers) as long as your trip does not originate in Europe - which is the tool they use to steer people like OP away from DL's program and towards AF FB.

jcmetrokraft

The story so far...

Comfortably renewed LH SEN, too far away from HON to bother trying. Decided to use FB instead of Delta and made Gold, but not quite platinum. No need to worry about re-qualifying for LH in 2017, so wondering if I should focus on achieving platinum with FB, or even try to reach triple gold and include BA into the mix. Lats option would be to balance AF FB with Delta and try to reach/maintain status on both.

Thoughts?

MSPeconomist

BA should have some good "exEU" business class TATL fares from Paris, although they'll probably be totally non refundable and unchangeable. It could work for you.

In FB, is there a big difference between Gold and Plat? Both are SkyTeam ElitePlus, so it shouldn't matter for partner operated flights. Are domestic upgrades when flying DL a concern for you?

pbarnette

I see little to no value to splitting between FB and Delta.

BA...
- On the plus side: Silver is super easy to get if you fly long-haul J - two CDG-LHR-xxx long-haul J trips and you are done. Gold is just over 4 such trips. If you are booking flexible J or even F, the accrual rates are pretty generous. Short-haul awards can be very good value. If you fly to Asia, you could do worse than CX and earning with BA.

- On the downside: the product is slipping (or at least staying static while everyone else improves), the lounges in LHR could use a refresh, and long-haul premium cabin redemptions aren't necessarily great value.