krish1971

I am a new member and I only joined yesterday and this is my first post. I am a bit puzzled about one issue and I am hoping somebody can shed light on this for me:

I used to be affiliated with One World (American Airlines) and now I am exclusively with Star Alliance (UA Mileage Plus). For me the deal breaker with One World is when I flew Cathay Pacific from the U.S. to SE Asia on a ticket valued at over $2,000 and the ticket wasn't eligible for AA miles! Likewise, I once flew BA from the U.S. to LHR and in those days (2006), BA's trans Atlantic flights were not eligible for miles! In 2010, I flew Lan from Santiago to Easter Island for $1,300 and I only got 25% miles.

With Star Alliance on the other hand regardless of the airline that I fly or the ticket (even deeply discounted tickets), I seem to get 100% miles! For example on that same trip that I referred to above to Chile, I flew Taca from DC to Santiago for $650 and UA gave me 100% miles for that flight! Yet, I have seen some sitess where One World is rated higher than Star!

This makes absolutely no sense to me because One World's partnership arrangements seem rather weak. It seems that you can only accumulate miles on high priced tickets and not on discount tickets. Star on the other hand seems to have excellent partnership arrangements where even discount economy tickets are eligible for 100% miles and in some cases even premier bonuses (such as on Lufthansa and ANA).

Can anyone explain why some people seem to rate One World higher than Star even though their partner relationships are much weaker?

Mwenenzi

Welcome to forum

Not true for all Star Alliance airlines. Air NZ for example.

Most people select airlines based only on price & destination. Many passengers do not have freq flyer numbers. Here on FT some (many?) of us look at the miles earning addtion price & destination. We are 1% ~ 5% who care about miles

JPG3392

UA's rules for accumulating miles on its partners are more complicated than you suggest. Detailed information about flights on each partner airline is available on UA's website.

krish1971

Mwenenzi:

I actually just checked Air NZ and for all categories including discounted tickets for domestic travel within NZ, it showed 100% miles, 100% PQM and 1 PQS.

I guess it is not really an issue for trans Atlantic travel because AA's European partners all seem to now give 100% miles. However, the problem is with trans Pacific travel since for many SE Asian destinations as an AA member you are at the mercy of CX - and they seem to be one of the worst airlines when it comes to awarding miles!

With UA on the other hand, you can either fly UA itself or ANA, TG or SQ - TG and SQ both give 100% miles and ANA also gives elite bonuses!

Maybe I am oversimplifying, but the fact of the matter is that Star Alliance has much stronger partnership arrangements than the other two alliances.

Am I correct about that one?

sprials

No a lot of non-earning fare classes are not listed. (E.g. SQ Q fares are cheapest)

Thunderroad

Welcome to FT!

As with so many aspects of airline, alliance, hotel and other choices, so much hinges on your personal travel patterns and preferences. No doubt Star Alliance has a better network and more airline members. But I mainly fly One World because I like AA much better than UA these days. In addition, as an Executive Platinum (top status) on AA, I get access to great OW first class lounges. Another advantage is that redeeming AA miles for first or business class on Cathay Pacific is usually fairly easy with enough advance planning, which works out great for vacations in Asia.

But again, as we often say here at FT, YMMV - Your Miles (i.e., preferences) May Vary.

intuition

One reason would be access to true first class lounges.


I think you are comparing 2 airline programs and from that drawing conclusions about 2 alliances. It seems a bit odd, as different programs have different ways of working, even inside the alliances. But as you also seems confident that *A has stronger partnership and that is important for your flight-pattern, then you should be happy with your choice. There is no absolute truth out there, use the program that makes you happy.

Long Zhiren

I'm not sure about OW, but AA's elite challenges are certainly nicer than anything I've seen in *A. IMO, those elite challenges backfire. They make it sensible to be *A with an option to easily switch. The reverse switch isn't so easy, especially now with everybody starting to count elite qualifying spends.

Are OW's partner relationships weaker? With new additions of Qatar and Malaysia Airlines, I'd say OW's partner relationships are improving. But the playing field keeps changing. US Airways and TAM are switching to OW.

Is anybody mentioning SkyTeam?

mkilmo

Depending on your exact fare bucket you can get *G after roughly 5-6 RTs. Will give you lounge access, priority boarding, and then start collecting with UA.

sprials

A funny thing is even though *A programs generally are easier to redeem for business and have more flexible routing/stopover rules. I flymainly OW, mostly b/c I can accumulate enough UA points through Chase. That way I have most of my bases covered.

indm3

In Star, you only have two - Silver and Gold. Great to get started. However, if you fly more, OW offers three levels and better service for the highest. My opinion is *A is great to get started but once you attain Gold, it is better to switch to OW.

sharka

Let's not forget that with the merger of US Air and AA, we have yet to see what the final structure will be in terms of earning and redeeming miles or status. Right now its a wait and see. Just hoping the new AA won't go the way of the skypeso like Delta. Given the uncertainty I would go with UA/ StarA. for now--IMO

sbm12

No, it doesn't.

If your fare is one of those listed it will earn at those rates but not all the options are listed on that chart. :-:

kkjay77

You can join Asiamiles/Marco Polo Club to earn miles that doesn't earn miles on AAdvantage.
Also, there are more options to SE Asia other than CX like JL and MH.

Mwenenzi

And krish1971 would seem to be one those people who do not become aware of this until after the flight. Not uncommon for people who do not do enough research or make uniformed assumptions. Posts on FT about this are not uncommon. If the fare bucket is not listed zilch miles /points. [Star Alliance airline Air NZ does not even give points to its own freq flyer's for some low cost flights.]