taxi_driver

Hello!

Dear FTers I need your advice: from April I will work in sales and will travel for work to the following regions/countries (I will visit all of them in 2015):

South Africa-Israel-Hong Kong-Singapore-Australia-New Zealand-Scandinavia-Benelux-Central/Southeastern Europe

I will travel Y most of the times, sometimes Y+, but anyway always fully flexible fares that give 100% of miles flown.

I am based in FLR and will likely always depart from here. FLR is a SA powerhouse, here's the list of daily connections to major hubs:

SN 1x (BRU)
LH 6x (FRA)
LH 4/5x (MUC)
LX 3x (ZRH)

AF/KLM:

KL 2x (AMS)
AF 5x (CDG)
AZ 3x (FCO)

OW is present with very few flights to LCY and LGW operated by both BA and VY AND HG 2x (VIE)

I have around 60k miles sitting on my M&M account (no status) and around 25k on an inactive Skymiles account (but I will sign up for FlyingBlue of course).

What I really care about is getting a status pretty fast to get priority and lounge access then miles for upgrades and family travel.

What would you suggest me to do? Stick to LH & partners? Sign up for FlyingBlue? Switch to a different SA partner?

Thank you for any suggestion!

taxi_driver

TPJ

Note that FLR-MUC are operated by EN (not LH wetlease), so you cannot earn miles with non-M&M programs as EN is a non-*A carrier. On EN flights you will not get lounge access with non-M&M FF status card, see: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/lufth...ge-access.html

Unless you have flexibility of being always able to choose connecting points other than MUC, I guess M&M is your best choice.

I have limited knowledge about ST, but for sure they do not allow for lounge access on domestic itineraries - this is something that keeps me out of this alliance.

Lack

Count up your miles and see if you can reach SEN. If not, then it doesn't even make sense to credit to M&M and you should evaluate other options.

UltraRant

You can always consider flying from PSA to MUC with LH Cityline if you need to fly via MUC.

Otherwise I think you're right: FLR is a *A powerhouse with loads of *A connections. In addition, it doesn't make sense to me to fly all the way to AMS first if you need to go south anyway: MUC or ZRH saves lots of flying time. You can also consider another *A program. Especially TK and OZ seem to be popular these days. I bet you will get quite some mileage there as you're not planning on booking cheap tickets. Just keep the comment about flights by AirDolomiti in mind.

SkyTeam is not necessarily a bad choice and with FlyingBlue you can get status much easier than with M&M (as also number of legs count: 30 for gold), so what I'd consider is making a travel plan and see how many legs and which distances you are planning to fly in a calendar year. I personally think their biggest disadvantage is the enormous amount of miles needed for award travel.

AZ is good to try once, but I'd avoid it if I can: it seems quite unstable.

taxi_driver

Thank you all!

Thank you UltraRant for this suggestion. TK could be an option: is it possible to book award flights on LH/LX metal (starting from cities where TK is not present, such as FLR) using Miles & Smiles? Or purchase upgrades on LH/LX metal using TK miles?

Tyrolean

Be aware: You get LH*S (FTL) with 30 segments on LH integrated airlines. The status is valid for 2 years and gives you lounge access on LH/LX/SN lounges (so when connecting in MUC, FRA, ZRH or BRU).

After reaching FTL you could re-evaluate your FFP-Strategy. Even if you won't manage to get LH*G, M&M could be your dump for all booking classes that do not earn miles in any other program or EN flights. Your miles are valid, when you have a status or the credit card (and

If you fly fully flexible fares M&M is still quite generous.

It really depends on the booking classes. M&M did dramatically cut their milage earnings, so you may end on 125 Miles per Segment or 25% classes - even in not so cheap tickets. Those classes do earn no miles in any other program.

TK and LH do not have the best relation: So TK flights only get 25% of status miles when credited to LH.

taxi_driver

Thank you Tyrolean, it makes a lot of sense. I actually have the M&M credit card, so it would make even more sense to stick to LH.

At first I was tempted to "switch" to AF/KL but I never transited through CDG and I don't really know what to expect also in terms of service (in Y) on AF, while I know LH and its hubs. Plus if I'll do a decent amount of flights to South East Asia and on to Australia/New Zealand there are plenty of airlines to choose from, like TG, SQ and NZ.

awestphal

Not having the best relations is quite a euphemism . TK it should be because of their low *G threshold. But I don't think Turkish flies to FLR, do they? I'd go with SK. G and E booking classes on LH get you 150% of actual miles traveled (nice). To get to *G, it's only 45.000 miles p.a., so you should definitely make that. Silver a mere 20.000 miles.


Just noticed that MUC FLR is EN. Had not noticed that one. That eliminated SK from contention unless you want to exclude MUC from your list of connecting airports.

None of MEA carriers have hit FLR either, right? As soon as one of them does, with your frequency of travel and full fare Y's, I'd jump into their boat.

Lack

Keep in mind, FTL gives up zip on those airlines, so unless you reach SEN then it doesn't make much sense to credit to M&M.

UltraRant

Unfortunately, SK has just done a huge cutting in their own program (Franz would have been proud): earnings have gone down with on average over 50%. As a result, some partner airlines are now more attractive to fly than SK itself on certain routes. This is a bit of an awkward situation. If you look at the EuroBogus forum, you'll see that most people actually expect cuts in partner airline changes soon as well to 'readjust' this awkwardness.

The main advantage of OZ is that you actually get 50% or 100% on most revenue booking classes with most *A partners. Plus that you have 2 years to accumulate just 40.000 miles to stay Diamond ( = *G) for 2 years. And if you accumulate 1.000.000 miles, you get a lifetime *G card...

Forrest Bump

No, runway's too short. PSA has better capacity.
OP flying in full flex Y makes him SEN in decent short time, and *A opens up several options to SE Asia/Australia.
Plus LH relations outside TK/A3 are not that bad (yet).

awestphal

...the way things go, I guess we will soon be back to the mid-1990, when frequent flyer programs were stand-alone programs without partner airlines.

I spent a lot of time on the late afternoon departure STR/TXL/HAM-CPH-EWR & used to be EBG for ages - must have been around 2000. Then, BA introduced lie flat and I haven't look since (except the occasional intraeuropean S/H flight). And CPH-EWR is longer double-daily, is it?

UltraRant

Not with SK, then it's just one daily. Might be that UA is also having a flight to CPH from EWR.

The good news is that SK is now refurbishing its long haul fleet to finally enter the new millennium. New seats in C are looking good.

awestphal

Yeah. I noticed. Won't help OP ex FLR, though.

LH M&M, then.

taxi_driver

Thank you all for your replies, I will stick to M&M then