I have been approached by both United and BMI to jump ship and be comped onto the Star Alliance programme.

I have had a good look at what I need out of the FD programme and cant imagine the things that mean the most to me staying when they get into bed with AF.

I cannot be alone on this and am already making plans for trips as far ahead as March 2004.

I dont like the way the AF programme seems to have a rule for everything and basically means you spend a lot of time trying to figure out whether you pay through the nose in order to qualify for benefits, where as FD is simple, you fly and you get miles, with bonus depending on your status.

The partner airline3s to me seem to be 2nd division players and although I have used CSA a few times, the rest I would not use.

The Star programme looks like they are going to target people like me who fly a lot and are prudent on what prices are paid on the flight. Although I own my company I always look very hard at the options to keep a cost down on travelling.

Now if I am thinking like this, so must many other customers and I can see KLM/AF locking the stable door after the horse has bolted.

I am waiting for some paperwork to come through on the proposal from Star but I would guess that I will happily jump ship as long as I can earn miles, use these to upgrade on long haul and use the lounges

[This message has been edited by Steve Fenton (edited 10-23-2003).]

Interesting... I'd been considering trying for a bmi comp as my travel plans change to be less AMS-based.

What did they offer you? *G for PE?

Of all the factors that would lead me to jump ship - it is economy class seat pitch on their partners along with destinations.

KLM has an excellent partner list of airlines that go where I go (Malaysian, GlobalPass). I love Malaysian because of their 34" Y class pitch for long haul. KLM always sits me in select economy.

The new Skyteam alliance will give me access to Korean which also has 34" seat pitch.

As far as Know Star Alliance has lousy pitch in the back (SQ) unless you have E+. One Worlds CX is unbearable for me.

I am 6ft 3" . It makes a difference to me. I rarely purchase long haul business Class.

I was looking at using ANA for my trips to Taiwan and for all my european stuff, my partner he fly's on Lufthansa, BMI who never seem to let him down. I use KLM and it always me who has lost luggage, delays or cancellations. HOwever, last big trip no problems. They have offered like for like and I have not had time to study the paperwork as I dont know how many levels they have. I just dont trust AF to give FD a fair deal and I feel its going to be so much harder to earn points and maintan status. I know people at AF and they told me they are like BA and rely on the snob element to keep them going and a lot of the customers that fly with them never even consider the cost of the trip as the company is paying

Are you not jumping the gun a little here?

pmcg

Hi Steve,

Well, I have certainly never heard you this positive about FD:-)
That seems the good news...
The bad news is indeed that I also feel exposed to a portion of very bad FF news coming from Paris.
However, lets all be optimistic; KL changed FD to be more like WP. 1Pass is even better then WP and the Deltamiles are also better then F+, so if it is up to the new Skyteam, then lets hope that the 4 decent carriers win and AF will have to improve F+.

This has really made me realise that FD is good compared to programmes such as the one on offer from AF or BA.

However, I have big concerns over the way AF do business in general.

I have today booked a load more flights with KLM as I made them a promise in March to fly with them f they sorted all the problems I had, and they did, so at the moment I have to keep my word. In fact I have just booked 4 trips and the prices are very very good compared to what I can find on AF. I will fly to China. Venice, Paris and Taiwan all on seperate trips and the cost with KLm was around �950. I would have to re-mortgage my house if ths was with FP and partners.

The deal from UA is to comp the status in return for my business, which seems OK to me as Star Alliance has a good network for my travel needs.

The down side is that I will have to use Teeside airport which is in the middle of nowhere as far as I am concerned.

BMI are offering me a couple of deals, one which is basically for me and the staff, two of which have hit silver with KLM in only 6 months. They are offering to start everyone off at Silver(5 people) and give 10 lounge invitations and then when ceratin thresholds are acheived on revenue (�20k) they will either give cash bonus, free flights and extra lounge invitations (10). Not sure this is what we are looking for as
I simply want to be able to use the lounges and use miles for upgrades on my long hauls over 4 hours duration.

Another downside is Heathrow is the hub, od I can go on the Lufthansa flight that connects through Dusseldorf.

I am currently talking with Lufthansa who seem to offer a really good network for my needs and will let you know how things progress.

It would be very interesting to see any other peoples ideas or views on this matter

I have now had a very long talk with the people at Lufthansa. I am in the process of costing like for like trips and if we see what they are promising it looks like the deal will be that we switch to Star Allaince with Lufthansa cards. This means they wll get the business of me, my mum and dad who are both Gold, my staff who are all just about to move up to Gold level.

The guy I spoke to was really good and understanding what our needs were and explained everything very well.

Just sending him a overview of our travel over the last 12 months and we will see what happens from here.