Dear all,

please consider this situation:
Lufthansa SEN or HON member, based in Germany.
Now flying SQ on a regular basis, all the time FRA-SIN or FRA-NYC in first or business class (about 6-8 returns per year), i.e. total spend of 50k EUR / 75k SGD, +/- 15k SGD, as long as LH does not fly F on this route.

Option 1: Collect all miles to LH program Miles and More. Status miles are not needed, as status is easily achieved anyway. Therefore, the only gain would be award miles.
Option 2: Collect to Krisflyer for SQ flights; easily achieve PPS, maybe even PPS Solitaire.

What option should one go for? What is the value being PPS or Solitaire being based in Germany and only flying premium cabin?

Any insight, personal view etc. would be most appreciated!

Thank you!

It really gets down to what award miles you want to accumulate, as you not need to credit your miles to KrisFlyer to accrue PPS status,

IIRC if you want to accrue miles to Miles and More, when checking in a ask to put the LH number into the FQTV field and the KrisFlyer number into the FQTS field (assuming that hasn�t changed from 6 or 7 years ago). This way you get miles with LH program and accrue PPS credit.

I'd second that. You can credit miles to LH M&M and still have SQ via KF account track your qualification towards QPP/ TPP.

Of course, a major factor will be where you want to redeem to as well. If you got plans to redeem flights to SIN or via SIN like to other parts of Asia or OZ / NZ it could make sense to actually credit miles to SQ Kris Flyer as as PPS or Solitaire you'll have better access to SQ redemptions.

Earnings wise (award miles) it'll depend on the fare class you get booked into if you'll earn more in M&M or KF. For Biz, D earns more in KF, C, Z, D more in M&M and U I don't recall right now, could be better in M&M as well. YMMV.

Thank you, this is already very valuable information for me.

It means that I would earn PPS7Solitaire anyway, even if I would collect award miles to Miles and More. That is very interesting to me, as the question on "what status to go for" does actually not need to be answered. Great!
So now the only applicable question would be on where the award miles would be more valuable. I think I will just give it a try and collect 100k or 200k miles to SQ, and afterwards check about redemption.

Is availability better for PPS compared to regular KF members?

Anecdotally, yes, so it would make sense to park your miles with KF if you intend to redeem your miles on SQ flights, especially during busier periods when you may need to waitlist.

As for the benefits of Solitaire, they�re not earth shattering, but can be helpful when things go wrong or you need some flexibility.

Sadly you�ll still be shipped off to the SEN lounge in FRA like everyone else, but you�ll be able to use the new F lounge in Singapore when it eventually opens.

I would argue that status has regularly no benefits for anyone flying First Class. Some benefits kick in when you fly in Business Class or - god forbid - whY class (e.g. separate check-in for First Class Terminal as HON Circle, or First Class Reception with separate drive-way in T3 for PPS Solitaire).

During my time in Singapore I was both a HON Circle with LH and I am now a Solitaire with SQ. The airport where you live and where you depart from the most often should drive where you earn status: HON Circle is useless out of SIN and Solitaire is useless out of FRA.

Given that you live in FRA and you might fly LH/LX/OS out of Frankfurt for reasons other than your quoted business trips, every time you depart FRA in Eco or Biz, you will love your HON card.

Holding a Solitaire Card makes redemptions easier on SQ (and First Class and Business Class redemptions on SQ are mostly exclusive to Krisflyer members) but then again that is only helpful when you redeem most flights on SQ (which you would usually do living in SIN and not in FRA).

I subscribe to this approach too.

But it's not either/or approach. If choosing to fly SQ in premium cabins, the accrual of PPS status can happen regardless of which other programs you are pursuing. Heck, at the extremes provided you can also find your way onto 12 AS flights, you can simultaneously pursue OneWorld Emerald and Star Alliance Gold status flying SQ J or F.

SQ allows double dipping while LH doesn't.

But I stand corrected: SebFra cannot become LH HON by flying SQ. While he can become a SEN, only miles earned on LH Group qualify for HON. So he could become Solitaire for fun but I still fail to see much value for SebFra in doing so.

But if they are flying SQ anyway, no harm. If choosing to fly SQ just to become Solitaire then that's a different equation.

If you have a choice of flying LH or SQ in Business, I think it's quite clear you go for SQ. No harm in getting Solitaire but the original question was to compare the value of HON vs Solitaire.

I gather there is a trick to this. It's my understanding that if you book the LH/LX codeshare on SQ metal you can qualify for both. I've never tried this myself as I'm not based in Germany and have no use for LH status, but it could be something worth looking into.

Thanks for your great input! Indeed, my original question was a little different, this was due to the reason that I did not know about collecting award miles to MM and collecting PPS value at the same time would even be possible.

And indeed, I knew that I may not qualify for HON by flying SQ.

However, I easily qualify for HON even without going to SIN on LH. Therefore, as I mostly fly F to SIN (and there is no F on LH), and SQ C product is much better, I use SQ all the time since Singapore opened up and LH does neither provide any frequency nor an F product on this route.

Now it seems I just need to decide on where to credit award miles to, as I will qualify for PPS even when crediting to MM. This is really great news.

It is great to see that such a valuable input is available from all of you! Thanks a lot! I would never have had even the idea to credit to both programs.

This actually noes not work; I had this case several times, and no HON miles are credited of flight is op by SQ (at least 2 years ago).

As I mentioned, do a comparison of the Business fares you usually book / buy. Anything that is "promotional" like SQ D or U, I think (need to validate via SQ & LH calculators) earns more or similar in SQ KF. Once you buy C, Z, J fares on SQ, I think more award miles can be earned in LH M&M under the current scheme.

Of course, it depends whether you care to optimize the award mileage earnings or not. Once you hit KF Elite (even Silver) and then onwards, you'll earn mileage bonus in KF as well so it may balance out going for SQ KF all out and not even crediting anything to LH M&M. YMMV.

Also at least from Winter 2022/23 schedule onwards (end Oct 2022), LH has loaded F fares again for LH778/779 so at that stage, not sure you'll switch back to LH F from SQ C.