Hi,

I am currently silver with BMI, but am fed up with their system not working, and therefore me not automatically receiving mileage into my account- I keep having to retro claim.

Also, with the demise of their transatlanctic routes, I rarely use them now.

I am based in the UK, and fly one a year to Asia, twice to the USA, and a handful of european flights. The long legs are normally business class.

I was considering M&M, but everyone tells me this is not a good idea.

Any suggestions?

Lots of threads on this, most of which boil down to what do you want to achieve? Upgrades, Earning, Burning, Status...

If you really want to leave BMI, then have a look at UA - you should be able to hit 1P status (*A Gold).

21H21J
(A fellow Derbyshirer)

Stick with BMI.

They're better than LH is, for now. For one thing, you'd only need 38K for *G whereas you need 100K for M&M. Earning is about same, ie 2x for business etc.

You don't need to fly BD to remain on their FFP, and BD has one of the best redemption programmes.

I suppose for me I like to burn the miles for reward flights for me and my partner more than anything else.

I have received a Premier Executive status match with United (albeit 90 days with a challenge), as well as a Gold Elite status match from Continental (good through Feb 2011). I am based 6 months out of the year in the Ohio triangle: DAY, CMH, CVG and six months at SVQ.

My travel patterns are 2 USA-EU flights, 1 US/EU-Central Asia, 1 USA-Central/South America, 1 USA/EU-Asia, and between 1-3 short hauls a year.

Most of the time my wife and 2 year old daughter travel with me, so comfortable coach with AVOD on those long hauls would be a requirement; I use the majority of my miles to cover my solo flight upgrades and the accompanying award seats for my family. The rest I give to family and friends.

So who shall it be? United or Continental? Or a *A member I haven't considered?

Thanks for your time.

It doesn't sound like you generate that many RDM miles to be burning them so much.

How many BIS miles do you earn in a year? Do you fly Business or Coach when you fly?

I'm not familiar with Spain and Portugal flights but my first look is telling me it is a PITA to fly star alliance from SVQ with connections in Lisbon or Barcelona a must.

I earn just around 40k in the air, with flight bonuses I pick up another 10K or so. With my job I am currently limited to coach, but it can be upgradeable, and my company occasionally would let me purchase a reduced price biz ticket USA-EU for less than $1400, if available. I am a disciple of Gary, so I have earned around 200K each year for the past five years with his advice outside of flying.

I prefer to take the high-speed train to Madrid and fly out of MAD.