Significant changes in 2021 for Status (re-)qualification criteria
Nov 5, 2019, 2:46 pm
#151
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: LH SEN, FB Plat., HH D.
Posts: 5,050
Very likely you are right but with the current earning situation, unless you or your company are ready to pay a fortune for tickets, which is not my case, to collect enough miles for F awards can take veeeeery long.
Nov 5, 2019, 2:50 pm
#152
Suspended
Join Date: Jul 2001
Location: Watchlisted by the prejudiced, en route to purgatory
Programs: Just Say No to Fleecing and Blacklisting
Posts: 102,095
Current qualification - 100K status miles. Those can cost you, very much in theory, 10 euros, or 100 thousand euros. not sure what the actual average price ends up. 5k? Seems to low. 10K? 20K?
Full on revenue based - you have to spend 25K. plus taxes. Presumably M&M airlines would enter by direct pull from ticket price, while *A partner tickets would work by some kind of a formula. Maybe 1/4 of current mileage credit.
We could end up with a hybrid system as well.
Full on revenue based - you have to spend 25K. plus taxes. Presumably M&M airlines would enter by direct pull from ticket price, while *A partner tickets would work by some kind of a formula. Maybe 1/4 of current mileage credit.
We could end up with a hybrid system as well.
I am just waiting to see when UA will try to up-fare condition its 4 UA flight requirement for UA elite status qualification/retention.
Nov 5, 2019, 3:21 pm
#153
Original Poster
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 1,481
A SEN needs 273k miles for a F award FRA-SFO-FRA for him/her an +1 (plus taxes). That means spending USD 50k on LH flights. Or you spend USD 3.7k on magazine subscriptions in Germany.
Nov 5, 2019, 4:06 pm
#154
Join Date: Dec 2006
Programs: LH SEN, FB Plat., HH D.
Posts: 5,050
Even if I could, I prefer to spend a little more than USD 3.7k and find, occasionally, companion A fares to travel to SE Asia, our favourite destination. The only drawback is that is never from our home airport but positioning is never a big deal.
Nov 6, 2019, 3:10 am
#155
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: London, Paris
Programs: LH HON, AF Platinum
Posts: 2,001
No real use in fretting about what you will do until you know what the actual changes are. If they are indeed announced on the evening of the 11th it will be very ironic as I will be on an AF F flight to Asia 
Nov 6, 2019, 4:24 am
#156
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Stoke on Trent, UK (MAN ), BUE, BKK, DBV
Programs: LH HON***,UA,BA.EK Gold,AV.
Posts: 11,641
Nov 6, 2019, 4:35 am
#157
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: London, Paris
Programs: LH HON, AF Platinum
Posts: 2,001
Surprisingly yes. I booked the ticket in October, so it was somewhat closed in. But LX/LH were double the price. Since I already made HON, the rest of the year is effectively a dead year, and I've been jonesing to try AF's F on the 77W, it ended up being the perfect storm. Weird how LX/LH incentivized me to go with AF with their loyalty program. I'm not even sacrificing eVouchers as I'll be crossing 700k HON miles by EOY from other travel. Win-win.
Nov 6, 2019, 4:41 am
#158
Join Date: Oct 2019
Programs: Flying Blue, Hilton Honors, Amtrak Guest Rewards
Posts: 2,402
Nov 6, 2019, 7:03 am
#159
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: London, Paris
Programs: LH HON, AF Platinum
Posts: 2,001
Let's just say that I didn't initially plan to fly anything but LH/LX through the end of the year, but I had to alter my plans. Depending on what changes to M&M are forthcoming, LH should pray I don't alter my plans further for 2020 and 2021.
Star Wars reference, sure. And while about 50% of my F fares are "cheap" A fares (and 45% regular F fares), I strongly doubt I am the sort of customer they would like to push away.
Star Wars reference, sure. And while about 50% of my F fares are "cheap" A fares (and 45% regular F fares), I strongly doubt I am the sort of customer they would like to push away.
Nov 6, 2019, 8:04 pm
#160
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Stoke on Trent, UK (MAN ), BUE, BKK, DBV
Programs: LH HON***,UA,BA.EK Gold,AV.
Posts: 11,641
What always annoys me the most is that the rates are all over the place, yet they all connect to the same damn longhaul...
Anyway, let’s see what 11 Nov brings, suffice to say that there is clearly more than one fish in the pond and that loyalty sometimes comes at a serious expense.
Anyway, let’s see what 11 Nov brings, suffice to say that there is clearly more than one fish in the pond and that loyalty sometimes comes at a serious expense.
Nov 7, 2019, 12:17 am
#161
Join Date: Feb 2013
Programs: LH M&M, BA EC, DL SM
Posts: 5,731
Let's just say that I didn't initially plan to fly anything but LH/LX through the end of the year, but I had to alter my plans. Depending on what changes to M&M are forthcoming, LH should pray I don't alter my plans further for 2020 and 2021.
Star Wars reference, sure. And while about 50% of my F fares are "cheap" A fares (and 45% regular F fares), I strongly doubt I am the sort of customer they would like to push away.
Star Wars reference, sure. And while about 50% of my F fares are "cheap" A fares (and 45% regular F fares), I strongly doubt I am the sort of customer they would like to push away.
Nov 7, 2019, 12:35 am
#162
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: London, Paris
Programs: LH HON, AF Platinum
Posts: 2,001
Nov 7, 2019, 5:16 am
#164
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Nov 2006
Location: Stoke on Trent, UK (MAN ), BUE, BKK, DBV
Programs: LH HON***,UA,BA.EK Gold,AV.
Posts: 11,641
Nov 7, 2019, 6:03 am
#165
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 569
But even considering such claims must be somewhat discounted, I'm always a bit irritated when I see such discussions. Another example is a recent thread on the BA forum entitled "GGL or Hon Circle".
I am not flying at HON level myself. But I would assume the vast majority of those who do would choose the airline corresponding to the program which minimizes their time in the air and at the airport.
I do understand there are exceptions. Like when you're a super-frequent flyer based in OTP, you might still go with LH or TK because TAROM doesn't play in the same ballpark and cannot offer the sort of product you need.
But yeah, starting discussions like "I'm switching from HON to XXX" or from "BA GGL -> LH HON" could be attention whoring.