What is HON worth to you?
 

I am currently about 100K HON miles short from making HON this year and with 2 1/2 months to go I will most likely end up being 40K-70K short by the end of this year. Now I am debating with myself, whether it would be worth planning a couple of HON runs in order to qualify? As of next year I will be on a leave of absence for about 18 months, so HON won’t be as interesting for the weekly European flights anymore, but I would still enjoy using the FCT on my private trips.

In order to come to the conclusion whether investing in HON is worth it I have put together a list of benefits (not including such things as booking guarantees, etc, because I will be quite flexible when it comes to travel and most likely will not use flexible Y or C tickets):

- Access to the FCT and FCLs without F ticket :D
- 6 eVouchers for qualifying (do HONs still receive 2 eVouchers for their birthdays?)
- Award availability as long as seats are available in Y and C ^
- Pickup from apron positions in FRA and MUC (if it works) and special treatment at some outstations

Anything really major I have missed? What would you do in my situation? In other words, how much would you invest to get from SEN to HON or to stay HON?

Open for your suggestions and advice.

For me HON is worth it nearly every day:
- booking guarantee in Y, D and C
- award guarantee in I
- lounge access
- two add. e-voucher as a bithday gift
- partner becomes SEN
.....
But it's just worth it when really flying a lot.
Salve Luigi

Depending on the volume of your mileage account it might also be worthwhile to go for the additional miles needed for HON as HON enables you to use those miles most efficiently. Also HON seems to be the best hedge against any further "enhancements" which might be already in the LH pipeline. I would definately do it if i were short of 40k-70k.

Those 40k miles could easily be earned with Croatia Airlines MRs for less than 1000€ (AFAIK ~190€ for 8000/10000 miles).

Any reference to these? That would be even good enough for SENdom.

While this might be an option my question would be, what the value is for that. If the OP doesn't fly for 18 month, aside a few private trips, what is the benefit? OP said to be flexible with the private trips, so the I & X booking guarantee may not count. SEN companion award is the same, as for HON. Booking guarantee is of no value, since only on expensive fares. The main difference is 8 eVouchers (6+2+2 as HON versus 2 as SEN), which can only be used on paid tickets, not on awards. Well and FCT/FCL, of course.

It finally depends a bit on the expected private travel. If this is still at least one trip every other month the benefit of FCT/FCL may count. If private travel means one or two rt a year the paid VIP service might be cheaper, than the HON Runs.

I really appreciate the HON services, but I'm flying enough for it and never had to think, whether I need to fly extra to get it. Without frequent travels I really don't see a value to be a HON.

I'm in a similar situation; I'm 8k miles short of FTL, but I'm in no position financially to do an FTL run... :(

Check the fares for domestic travel within Croatia. 4 segment return trip (7500 miles with exec bonus) used to be less then 200 Euro.

How about some PVD-PHX runs on UA/US? Don't know if the offers are still there, but it used to be around 150$ for about 5-6k miles rt (even with same day return).

Euro 10,000.

is it a joke or a real opinion? I think if I had 10.000 Euro and could make HON for it, there might be circumstances in which it might make sense (taken the evouchers etc into consideration)

If the OP won't be travelling for the next 18 months intensively, then it is not really worth the extra effort IMHO.

Hello

Book a business saver from SWISS (for example FRA-BCN) for 310€, gives 8000 miles R/T for blue card. Might be even cheaper from HAM. For sure there might be even cheaper options.

Cheers
aquaguy

I have every year the same question. I am short to HON about 100k miles. But is it really worth to fly the end of the year every weekend to get the HON status ? For me - no !!

I am treated better than every HON at SZG and I am happy with my gold card and all the benefits. I am not willing to spend a lot of money for the black card.

says who!? :confused:

time to rethink your theory! :p

oh and :rolleyes:

Do you get preferential seating at the lounge at SZG ? :D