Hello everybody!

I am sure this kind of question has been asked before but would like some advise on my specific case.

I have recently moved to Vietnam and will be travelling with Star Alliance members quite frequently for at least the next three years. The travelling will include 2-3 return flights to Europe and several international and domestic flights, mainly in South East Asia.

Until now, I have been a member of OW but now it becomes obvious that I should join a SA Frequent flyer programme. My only doubt is on which FF company programme I should enrol as I know they are all slightly different.

I don�t consider getting a Singapore Airlines FFcard as it doesn�t seem very generous at all, nor any of the American companies as I won-t be flying with them, at least not in the short/medium term.

Thai and China Airways, apart from Singapore, are maybe the ones I will be using more frequently for the Asia-Europe flights and within South - East Asia, but being from the Northwest of Spain it might be better, for the long term, to join Spanair or Tap Portugal, two companies I know that sooner or later I will use in the long term, and also during my stays in Europe. Or maybe Lufthansa, which seems to have a quite a lot of non-airline partners.

I have recently made two Asia-Europe flights (one with Air China on the 30th August, and one with Singapore Airlines on 19th October) so I would really appreciate if you could tell me if there is any program that would allow me to earn miles on those flights (I know most of them only consider miles travelled after joining the program). That will be a very important factor to take my decision as well as the period of validity of earned miles.


Thanks a lot in advance for all your help!

what is more important to you - status or redeeming miles? and which class do you usually fly?

Hi Galega, the secret is, on your return trips to Europe can you afford Business? If not , you will be buying Y and upgrading to C, then you want an airline that will fly direct or close to it, Out of the SIN/BKK hubs, I would choose TG/sq. I take TGbecause it's 2years, the BKK hub which I use has the best lounge and they give a yearly upgrade FOC. Also I can buy some very reasonable priced fares in your part of the world. I usually pay 2K less on TG, multipy that out over a year, TG saves me money which I can use elsewhere, regards bkkrop

Hi there!

I usually do Economy class and will be more interested in redeeming miles than in status.

Thanks a lot for your help,

If you mainly fly Economy and you are interested in cheap awards, then I would join UA. A good earn/burn ration plus lower taxes.

I have to disagree on UA MP.
With *net blocking, there are other programs that offer better award opportunities.
I'd join BD game while it lasts.