nixande

tl;dr: if you get a non LH Star Alliance Gold, how easy / realistic is it to use that until the LH flight and then switch it out for collecting the miles on M&M?

While I love reading the forums and imagine myself travelling all over the planet, sadly I am one of those "less often" traveller and thus have to weigh my options more carefully.
For 2018 I am 'missing' 18K miles for FTL. This would get me two years and then require requalification. Instead I could spend that money on getting one of the easier *Gold (Agean, Turkish, Asiana - depends) with up to 4 years of Gold. This would get me the biz checkin, lounges and higher upgrade priority.

However being in Germany, it would make much more sense for me to collect M&M miles and redeem them and this got me thinking:
Can you remove the FF attached to a ticket at the gate for just the next flight or will you run into all kinds of problems?

These other things are easy:
- Lounge Access: it should be enough to show the Gold card
- biz checkin: same
- extra luggage: same

Once you are on board and keep the stubs etc, it should be easy afterwards to reclaim the miles for the flight
But especially if you have a connecting flight, it seems a nuisance at best to time it when to remove the FF to not loose out on upgrades on that fligtht?

Thoughts? Experiences? What am I missing?

SPlDER

All these programs offer very low earning ratio on LH flights, so getting *G is not so easy as it looks like. If you have earned a 18k miles last year on M&M it is very unlikely that you will be able to obtain *G.
On LH flights on cheapest economy booking class (L,K) or even on cheapest business class (P) you will not get any single mile on TK/OZ/A3.
IMHO the easiest *G is UA - requires more miles, but the earning ratio is much better.

Fabo.sk

Put M&M in reservation.

Wave *G card when needing a perk. It will work, unless you're going for one of the "systemic" ones, like seat selection.

I don't think keeping FF number out of the booking is a good idea. You might often find that someone took to adding your gold card in.

Carpacchio

oliver2002

The FFP number in the PNR beats everything. Switching around may work most of the times... but for mileage credit you need to make sure the right FFP number is recorded in the PNR.

fassy

If you do not have any FFP number in the reservation and enter the lounge waving the Gold card the chance that the lounge agent will add that said gold card FFP No to the reservation is 95% to 99,9%. Even if you have FFP No1 added to the reservation but use FFP No2 Gold card to enter the lounge a lot of lounge agents will change the FFP. You might argue with them and in some cases it works, in other (as reported by Carpacchio) it doesn't.

What works pretty well is to enter the lounge and then change the FFP in the online check-in via mobile app or website. Make sure to get a new boarding pass (for the Android/iPhone Wallet) or as PDF! That way, works pretty reliable. Just some FFPs have a nasty habit of being stuck to the reservation if added at some time and even if switched out somehow survive and get credited the miles. M&M is one of the worst, UA's FFP to some extend as well.

Nick Art

I can confirm that. We had a m&m reward ticket with an SAS *G, so we went to the first class check-in in MUC waiving the gold card. The Agent tried to add the card to the booking (so the boarding pass would show *G) but since it was a m&m ticket from the non rev bucket that was not possible (also the original m&m number that the booking was made with was stuck there already). So he ended up writing SEN on the boarding pass with a pencil.

What I would do is add your m&m number to the original booking and then go to check-in waiving your gold card, get lounge access that way and then before boarding starts go to the boarding desk and have your m&m card readded (or try to do it through the online app while in the lounge).

PS: Imo I'd fully commit to another reward program. I'm currently with SAS Eurobonus instead of M&M and there I'm going for Lifetime Gold (10 year consecutive gold status required). Afterwards I'll most probably switch back to M&M.

fassy

True, if you do not fly so much that maintaining Gold status in two or more programs can be done without a blink of an eye, e.g. regular J flights across the pond or far east it is tedious and error prone. Often enough ends with more headache than worth it.

Well, that is quite optimistic! I have a hard time even seeing EuroBonus and SAS operational in 10 years fro now Probably happy member of the LH Group and the Miles and More Circus by then.

oliver2002

More like some ScandiWings, not LH Premium...

fassy

Unfortunately, I think you are right. Perhaps retain the long haul from CPH, ARN and OSL as SAS (probably reducing to 2 hubs, axing OSL) but integrate all intra-Nordic and European flights into a Wings concept.... getting sick just thinking about that....

nixande

Thanks everybody esp. about the note about agents adding the number, I had not thought about it.
All answers convinced me that I need to go rather for a "full in"programm.

True, but the minimum I would fly is Premium Economy, maybe even do biz class flights if the price is right though most likely PE. And of course even with the simpler *gold programms, one has to earn them first and requalify, so that already is a lot of flying around. Additionally I do get quite motion sick, so simple MR inside of Europe on segments or so is not great either.

If I would do that, I would count on something like UAs min 500 miles per segmetn rather than booking classes.
And reading more about the Senator requalification: it lasts for 2 years, but you have to do the 100K in one year.

So instead of spending ~1.5K€ at the end of the year for 18K for a not so useful FTL, I am going to spend that next year and make it part of my UA goal for gold without all the hassle of switching FF# in and out.

Nick Art

Well I surely do not hope for that! I'm pretty confident they'll last another ten years. Afterwards LH can take them over and hopefully respect my Lifetime *G which would then turn into a Lifetime Sen (wishful thinking XD)

Fabo.sk

I'd done two trips (so far) using my TK *G for lounge access in ZRH, VIE, WAW and a bunch of contract lounges. If agents looked funny at the LH FFN on the BP (happened maybe 3/10?), I'd just tell them I want to credit to M&M. No further questions. Priority boarding was even easier, no checks at all. Priority security in all of Poland fine as well (used Privium at AMS. No priority security at KSC and didn't do security at LX/OS/LH hubs)
I didn't get to try this in MUC though owing to delays on Sunday.

cas_de

Just keep in mind that you have to fly 4 segments annualy on UA metal in order to qualify for any status level on UA. This particular restriction keeps me from putting miles into my UA account these days.

fassy

Another thing to consider is: If you split between programs and do not earn tons of miles for international business travel, you might have a hard time accumulating enough miles in one account to spend it on something meaningful, like that J or F award flight, as the miles in most programs expire at some point.