Moving to Asia
 

I will be moving to Asia (Far East) for a couple of years soon. I am KLM Platinum Elite, and expect to travel 3 or 4 times per year business class KLM between Far East city and Amsterdam. Furthermore, I will travel quite a bit in Asia on whatever airline is best for my work schedule. Would be a mixture of Star Alliance, One World and SkyTeam airlines.

Questions:
1. Under the current rules when I tell KLM that I move to the Far East, I will be automatically transfered to NW program. Correct?
2. I don't expect to travel on NW at all. Does KL treat NW elites worse than KL elites on Asian routes? There must be many more NW elites based in Asia who primarily fly KL to Europe?
3. I will keep an address in the Netherlands. Any disadvantages to having FD membership in the Netherlands, and living in Asia?
4. Should I wait for news about the new AF/KL program, because I expect that this new program would be available world-wide?

Re.
 

Membership to KL FD can be maintained when no mail address in Far East is used. Remember transferring between KL-NW is allowed only once. After transfer to NW, transfer back to KL is not allowed (double checked with KL AMS and NW TYO & US).
Award tickets will normally be send to your mail address (security), although my last booking of a award ticket mentioned specifically a TYO address it ended up in NL. However solved perfectly using local KL office (special arrangement).

I think local awards always will exist (to differentiate the individual FF programs).

Good luck with new posting.

That makes no sense whatsoever! Are you saying that if Sjoerd moves back to Europe in a few years time, he will have to remain a member of WP Asia?

johan

He won't have to remain a member but they will not transfer status and miles back.

That still doesn't make any sense. It is not as if you have a choice which program to join. Having decided to base membership on your country of residence, KL/NW should allow full tranfers each and every time you move.

Anyhow, with the new FD/F+ program coming up, I guess this is a moot point.

johan

My BIG question is; what will happen to F+ members in Asia?

Currently we are WP Asia members and given that FD is much better then WP, we are not too happy.
Knowing the french a little, I doubt they will force their compatriots overseas to join an american :eek: FFP. The dutch do anything to save a buck OTOH.

My advice to Sjoerd would be; Stay in FD until the merger, then see what happens.

You could open a WP account to take advantage of some of the promotions (credit card, etc.) only availble to NW Asia members. You can merge the two accounts at a later date. If your travel is intra-asia and asia-europe only - I would not switch my account to WP at this time.

Hi Erik,

Please share with us which credit card we can apply for here. I think you will be disappointed. AFAIK there is only one in Japan. People who do not live there will have a hard time getting their hands on such a card.

Skyteam serves Asia very badly. Only KE, but these guys are on the fringes of the Asia Pacific rim.

ST really needs to look into serving their customers here better. MH should be confirmed soon as a partner and maybe KA????

BTW:
NW recently sent me an email bragging about excellent NW partner possibillities from HKG. It went something like this;

NW to TYO
KE to SEL
5J to MNL (no EQM) :mad:
KQ to BKK (no EQM) :mad:
MH to KUL (No EQM) :mad:
GA to SIN (no EQM) :mad:
GA to JKT (no EQM) :mad:
CO to GUM (no EQM) :mad:

I mean, come on guys, get real!

Like here.......?
http://www.nwa.com/asia/en/freqfly/earn/credi.html

WHAT is so much better with FD?
The helpdesk? :D

Deriously since the upgrades on all fares are going to die and just the thougt of miles due to expire after 36 month make me want to switch NOW. Also the horible attitude of FD allone is a reason to switch

Currently (not in future) FD is much more generous then WP. Do i really need to spell them all out? Please let me know. FD is more generous on about all counts!

The CC conversion is terrible, HKD 13 spend gives 1 WP mile? You have got to be kidding! I get 1 (much more valuable) MPC mile for HKD 5!

WP Gold is ST elite, FD gold is ST E+!

On WP you can only upgrade for B fares :mad: , so check if you can afford this before you switch, because these are expensive!