I am considering joining the Qualiflyer program in connection with the double Starwood points promotion. I would not likely be earning any significant mileage through other means. My goal is coach travel US -> Europe for a family of four. The one aspect of the program that really intrigues me is the 50% off mileage awards for children 11 and under. This seems like it might be a great deal for a family vacation to Europe.

However, I know little or nothing about the Qualiflyer program, and am a bit hesitant to transfer a big block of SPG points. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. For instance, how stable is it? Any experience with securing award tickets on partner airlines (such as AA)? Any experience with transferring from SPG to Qualiflyer? Thanks in advance.

Let me answer to your question on the stability of Qualiflyer: in the long run, I think that Qualiflyer is not a very stable program. Most likely it will sooner or later be significantly modified or even re-launched. In the worst case, it might also disappear if SWISS should fail.

BUT the Swiss have injected enough money in our national airline to keep SWISS flying for at least 3 years. During this time I'd call it fairly safe to transfer points to QG and redeem them.

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airOli, the Swiss Air Line.

Certainly, I agree with airoli that the Qualiflyer program is intimately linked with the survival of Swiss, but I don't think that we will see it going bankrupt again for a few years (too many reputations on the line).

Given what you want to do, here's some pros and cons:

Pros
The awards are very flexible - up to 8 segments, a free stopover, open jaws, no sign of any mileage limitations (not that I've found yet)

The QG group airlines (the ones you can mix on an award ticket) give you a huge range of destinations and stopovers within Europe and much of the Near East. I'd go out on a limb and say far more than any US program. This, of course, also means you get far more seats to go at, as long as you are not fussy about routing.

If you are not going to fly paid QG flights, this may not be an issue, but the mileage accrual is quite good. TCQM membership isn't as good as it once was, but it's very attainable if you are classed as "an outsider".

If Swiss manages to squeeze itself into OneWorld, it'll be a very good way to get status within OneWorld.

Again, not within your spec. but the upgrade awards work well, and aren't too expensive.

You may get targetted for the next 240K promotion, in which case we will all welcome you to Zurich, and Basel, and Zurich, and Basel and....

Cons.
They still have mileage expiry, so once you've transferred your miles to QG, you need to use them within 3 years (ish), or they're gone.

Availability to some popular destinations can be a problem (e.g. Greece, Hawaii etc.), but I've sucessfully got what I wanted by booking ahead and (eek) waitlisting. If you will require feeder flights on AA (due to your home airport) this maybe a problem, as AA availability isn't as good as the group airlines.

I've never been in longhaul Econ. on any of the QG airlines, but I've read many negative comments on the board. I think the general view is that the food is better than you'd get on a US airline, but the seating may not be quite as good. In First, they're quite good, though http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Overall
Like all risks it needs to be managed. If you think the redemption levels are better than you'd get elsewhere, then it's probably worth a chance, and the current 20K=50K exchange rate does seem to be the best deal for miles I've seen!

Put it this way, I'm transferring about 10K more Starpoints than I've actually got (courtesy of those nice people at InsideFlyer http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Ken.
"Nuclear war would really set back cable." - Ted Turner

Hello,

You really think there will be another one? Do they pop up regularly?

Jeremiah

I'll go back and check their website again. But I swear I saw a "no open jaw/stopover" rule. Their 1st/biz awards are near the other carriers IF you get the 2-1 by June 15. If you don't, they are way overpriced.

40k for F on USair domestic US sounds about right to me. At 2-1, it's quite a bargain.

[This message has been edited by dhacker (edited 05-14-2002).]

The only no open jaw/stopover rule I saw only applies to awards booked online - not all tickets.

Well, we did a flight to Tokyo a few months back that had both, stopover in Europe on the way back, and open Jaw at origination (in the UK). I guess the rules could have changed since then....... but I don't think so http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

I agree that for point-point travel, the awards can look expensive, but if you use the flexibility, they can be a real bargain. Also, be aware that the awards table is pretty EU-centric, so if you aren't going to fly from/to the EU, things may start to look expensive.

The basics, for USA-EU travel are:
60K Econ, 100K Biz, 150K 1st.
10K surcharge for Hawaii in Econ, 15K in Biz/First.

Remember that an "EU" award will get you right to the edges of the "continent", e.g. most of the former Soviet Union, Greece, Malta, Morroco, Turkey etc.

But I agree, if all you want to do is fly hub-hub transatlantic, the awards can be a little pricey.

On another note, I don't know if there will be another 240K. We finished ours in December, and my GF immediately got another invite to the one finishing in ?April?, but sadly I didn't, and she isn't that much of a mileage-hound (yet!). I think that Swiss/SNBA etc. know a good promo when they see one, but I wouldn't expect to see it during peak season. Keep watching your inboxes around August time, we can only hope!

Ken.

"Living without hallucinations is like breathing with only one nostril"
[Wisdom from a dying Weisshaupt in CEREBUS]

As a Qualifyer member, if you wanted to book an award on American Airlines, where would you look to find blackout dates for paticular routes. I am interested in their Japan-USA-Canada service.


Dave London,UK

I don't think they have blackout dates as such, just dates with very little availability http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

Sadly, the only safe way is to ring the QG helpdesk, slow, and not always easy (some of them don't know the rules very well), but ultimately authoratative.

I've noticed that availabilty for F awards is generally quite good, except on US domestics (Hawaii is a PIG on AA). On others, YMMV.

If you are TCQM or above, they generally seem quite flexible (holding seats pending other arrangements etc.)

Ken.

"Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time. I think I've forgotten this before." - Steven Wright (The US comedian, not the sad UK DJ)