I am a United 1K - * alliance gold and I'm expecting to move to Finland (Jyvasklya/Helsinki) in August. I expect to fly much less in Finland, probably not enough to attain even basic status, so in order to extend elite benefits as long as possible I would ask for a status match throughout 2007. I will have a lot of UA miles (* alliance).

I will fly mainly inside Europe, with occasional flights to South America (may be once a year) and possibly the US.

The alternatives seem to be:

* Finnair. Natural choice since it's Finland's national carrier. Elite program doesn't seem to enticing, but it's part of one world.
* SAS. Also a natural choice since it's the only regional * alliance airline and has a comprehensive network. I don't know much about their FF program.
* Stay in United. Redemption rates are lower, and I may be able to keep accumulating miles through promos (credit cards, etc)... on the other hand since I probably won't set foot on a UA plane again, I'm not sure this makes any sense.
* Just give up on FF programs, burn all of my miles and then just go with the cheapest option each time.

Any advice on these or any other options will be greatly appreciated. TIA .

A *A partner seems the logical choice, especially if you want to keep creditting to you UA MP account. I would expect, though not 100% sure, SK might comp you elite status. I'd venture there are far more *A partner options to S. America also than the other alternatives you've outlined and keeping things within the alliance might have more beneficial effects than dividing your earning or switching to OW altogether.

Hopefully you aren't contemplating giving up FT. Good luck with the change of venue.

Welcome to Finland. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions about living and working in Finland. You might want to take a look at this board too, that is if you�re not Finnish and already know most about the country. http://www.finlandforum.org/bb/

As to your FF program. If you manage to keep status in UA, you�ll have access to SAS�s lounge in HEL when flying any *A. Quite a nice lounge. The other lounge is operated by Finnair and there�s not a generic lounge � la Diners Club in HEL. No other airport in Finland has lounges as far as I know.

Connections with *A (LH and SAS&KF)are quite good from HEL to all of Europe. Even excellent with direct and daily flights to FRA, MUC, HAM, TXL, VIE and all Scandinavian capitals. From those you can easily change into the other destinations.

Finnair has the most direct flights, but is focused on Europe and Asia. Only flights to North America go to JFK. Within OW the obvious choice to America is with BA to LHR. So, if asking for a OW status match ask them, rather than Finnair. If travelling on own dime to see Europe, Finnair has great promotional fares on direct flights, but these fares are not giving you many miles. Well, no airline gives you many miles for cheap booking-classes in Europe.

If someone else is paying expensive tickets, you get miles on all airlines. The airlines over here are not as generous when comes to mileage earning. There are rarely any promos for credit cards and double miles or anything.

You could post on the SAS forum to ask more specifics about the airline. They are usually the best alternative to Finnair if looking for cheap prices and fast connections as PCH and ARN are both very well working airports.

Thanks for the replies. I will very likely have 1P (* gold) status in United through February 2008, so it looks like the best choice is to fly * alliance and keep crediting to United. After that I could ask for a match and have status in SK through 2008, which would be enough since I'll be in Finland for 2 years (doing a postdoc).

As for which fares I'll fly... I'm afraid it'll be mostly discount economy, both on my own dime and paid for (conferences and such). But I don't have any details yet.

This game doesn't seem to be as much fun in Europe as it is in the US, but don't worry, I'm not giving up on FT .

I don't know about other European countries, but if we speak of continental Europe - no, it isn't. )

I for example stick with BA even though LH (and Star Alliance) would make more sense in Germany, but then again, I am new to the game and will head for Gold in BA first.

At least in the UK you can collect points with BA everywhere. (

If you are only going to be in Finland for two years, and are not going to be traveling much in those two years, it seems to me that you would want to keep accumulating miles in a U.S. based airline. Having 20,000 miles in Finnair when you come back to the U.S. would be of limited value to you.

Since AA does not do status matches, perhaps staying with UA would be best.

Well, if you're going to be flying a lot back to the states, I'd suggest SAS personally. The direct flight into CPH is .. while long, pretty enjoyable. I've found SAS to be far better than other international carriers but that's just me. Only issue is that no double miles for flying them for Gold/1k . But other than that (and a delayed bag once) I've give them a big thumbs up. Also, buy some cold winter gear and maybe a UV lamp and bring back some good chocolates and vodka.