Hoping for some objective advice from any of you who combine OW and *A memberships. I've just renewed OW Emerald status and have been comped *A Gold.

On the whole, I've had favourable experiences when travelling with any of the OW airlines [a couple of BA issues aside] and find the network of routes really good - particularly when going from Australasia down to South America [which *A only seems to offer if you fly via N America].

So my question: should I plan a *A RTW to retain my Gold status or am I better of continuing to sink the points into my OW membership?

I see that the prices ex-CAI swing in favour of *A but don't know how its F/J product compares to OW equivalents [eg a quick look at Thai's F product on the web and I'm less than convinced].

I know it's a question which would just as well be answered over on the *A board, but as I said earlier, I'd be interested to hear from anyone who uses both alliances.

Thanks, in advance, for any pearls of wisdom.

LH, SQ and AN are excellent in F (though I've chosen to stop flying SQ for safety reasons). LH will be fine in J once they refit the cabin. The other Star airlines are poor for various reasons (BD is excellent long-haul but has few routes). Overall OW is better but there are advantages to Star on some routes (and fares tend to be lower on Star, perhaps for a reason). UA keeps comping me PE though I have taken 1 flight on UA in the past 3 years (and intend to keep it that way, and I don't ask for the comp).

Thanks number 6. Why the SQ safety concerns?

I am *G as a UA1K and AA PLT and have had the same dilemna for years...and still cannot decide. If it wasn't for BA being so restrictive and treating customer with a Continental european address in a discriminating manner, I mean by that that they are even more restricive as far as the type of fare eligible for miles, I might give more business to OW.

Talking about quality of service of the partners: SQ has a fantastic product in all classes of service. LH F-class is very good and as said earlier, the new J-class looks very promissing. AC, SK and BD have very acceptable standarts as well...and TG, despite the quality of the seats and IFE, more than compensates with the level of service provided and the quality of the meals. RG is alright if you fly on their new 777s, not worse than UA anyway. Finally NH is just one of the best airline in the world today and their new F-class and J-class seats are top of the line.

Thanks for the responses. For any existing OW members considering this, a health warning:

Although getting the comp'd status with UA is easy enough, retaining it may prove more of a challenge. Re-qualification for *A Gold is 50K paid miles [ie not including cabin bonuses] per membership year - this can't even be pulled off with a RTW, which puts a 39K miles limit on any single itinerary.

If I'd been able to look at retaining *A Gold with just one RTW, as is possible with QF, this might put things in an entirely different perspective.

On balance, I feel inclined to stick with OW.

Of the *A member airlines only Lufthansa and ANA appear to have a decent F product, compared with BA, CX, LA and QF in OW.

Route coverage between Australasia and Sth America is poor too, requiring a trip via Nth America [makes you appreciate the QF/LA codeshare between SYD-SCL even more for shaving 24 hours off the journey].

IIRC you can earn *G through AC with one RTW

If your travel is in paid F or C you ought to consider Lufthansa's programme. One * RTW in F (or even C if planned properly) every two years is enough to maintain *G.

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The Star Alliance Award Comparison Chart

But I take it LH doesn't comp status??

So what's the *A G renewal threshold for AC? I've looked through the Aeroplan site but can't find this information...