Skyteam: which program to enroll ?
 

Dear all,

I just relocated to Vietnam and since I did all travel so far mainly with Star Alliance, I need to decide urgently which program suits me best within Skyteam.

Will fly regularly domestic within Vietnam (1-3 returns per month in Eco), as well as some regional trips per year within South East Asia (in Eco). In addition approx. 2-4 returns to Central Europe (Germany, etc., in both Eco/Biz).

Which program do you suggest to enroll ?

Most important for me is extra luggage allowance and possibility to reserve good eco seats with bigger legroom (exit); lounge access is of course nice to have.

Was thinking for either AF/KL or VN, but didn't engage in too much so far.
Is there currently any program offering status match to *G or *S ?

Thank you very much for your help and ideas.

I know nothing about VN's program, but since you'll be doing a lot of flying with them, they're a good one to look at. AF/KL can be hard to qualify with based on miles, unless you're flying in high fare buckets. However, if you know your flying pattern, you might see what would work for you in terms of segment-based qualification. Also check out DL's earning table for VN (and any other airlines you'll be flying regularly). For a lot of partners, they tend to be pretty generous, and now GM is ST E+ so you'll have lounge access, etc. at 50K MQM.

Delta may match your *G to Gold Medallian (ST E+) - http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/delta...ve-thread.html - that would give you lounge access as well as the extra baggage allowance (http://www.skyteam.com/en/About-us/P...Elite-Members/). I don't know what VN allows in terms of exit rows for ST Elites.

Your flying patterns should mean you fly enough in a year for the 50,000 miles to maintain GM with Delta, as long as your economy fares aren't in the non-earning fare buckets - http://skymilesoffers.delta.com/airline_partners.php#VN

You could also consider Flying Blue, because:

- you will fly over 30 segments, which gets you Gold level. That includes lounge access.
- luggage allowances are alliance-wide, so it doesn't matter which one you choose for that.
- AF/KL have fairly good award availability. Granted, you get only 25% miles on cheap fares, but once collected you will be able to use them fairly easy.

I don't know about VN's program. One disadvantage with FB is that lounge access is not offered for domestic flights. Perhaps this is different with VN..

Hi everyone,

I take the opportunity for some advice on Skyteam more accurate FFP for me.

Location: SIN

For 2012, what's scheduled:
2 long haul to europe in business, either AF or KLM
2 long haul to europe in eco
1 trip to ICN in biz
Few eco trip (bali, vietnam, etc...)

What would be the best FFP: delta SM or Flying blue?

Thanks...

What are you aiming for out of your FFP? Free flights? Lounge access? Upgrade possibilities? Lifetime status? Which is more important might help guide the decision.

Lounge access and upgrades, definitly... thks ;)

I reckon what will make major difference for you is the booking classes you will fly in Business and Economy on your flights to Europe. Based on this, AF/KL or DL will be better. (I tend to think though that AF/KL is better for you if you are after upgrades because status with them will give you higher availability of upgrades seats. You will fly to Europe on AF/KL after all.)
The booking classes are relevant for two reasons:
- you might earn more miles with Skymiles or Flying Blue
- for having a guaranteed upgrade on AF or KL (and not a day-of-departure placeupgrade on KL), you need higher booking classes. You might not be willing to pay the amount of money to get into a higher booking class, which might reduce your interest in upgrades in general.

I had a quick look at how many miles you might earn with your trips. Depending on your booking classes, you could well become a Platinum member with Flying Blue or Skymiles, so lounge access should not be a problem (as Gold membership would be sufficient for both programs).
Another aspect: for how long do you think will your travel pattern remain like this? If 10 years is realistic, this would be a pro for FB, because you could become Platinum for life then.

Another thing that came to my mind: with DL you're basically restricted to upgrades with KL (and not AF). So this wiuld be a plus for Flying Blue.
But in general, you should learn a bit about upgrades first, you might be disappointed otherwise.

Generally the airline which you fly with the most will give priority during upgrades to its own FFP members first, so if you are going to fly AF/KL most of the time it makes more sense to go with the Flying Blue program. else if you are just planning to look for lounge access as an important factor DL Skymiles should be good plus with them your miles won't expire.

Also if you fly domestically in the US you get complimentary upgrades.

But if you're European and fly a lot too there then status on Flying Blue may get you closer to upgrades on FB carriers than other ST status.

I'm a regular Star/Oneworld flyer (BA Gold/BD Gold), however in about a month I'm going to Korea and have two internal flights (for two of us) with Korean Air, where there wasn't an alternative. Both are in C/Business (from BUS-CJU, CJU-GMP).

Is there any programme that I should post these miles to, bearing in mind that I'm unlikely to post any other Skyteam miles for a very long time as I tend to go out of my way to avoid them.

Ideally I'd try to move the miles into one of my hotel programmes (Hilton, Marriott, SPG), and as a backup put them into a Skyteam programme without miles expiry or where I could do something useful with them.

Any suggestions?

(Based in the UK if that matters)

The thing about your flights is that they are so short they won't give you many points in whatever program you use... however:

- crediting to DL means your miles don't expire
- if you already have accounts with Korean's non-ST partners (Alaska Airlines, Emirates, Hawaiian) you could credit them there
- if you credit to Hawaiian, you can convert to HH http://www.insideflyer.com/tools/mil...rter/index.php