Hi,

I need a little help with some ideas for the following trips. As I reached partner gold and lifetime gold with QF but do not rollover again until August 31st, I thought I might try to build status with *A instead.

I have three trips pre September and fly J or F depending on price. Due to this site I have being using AONE4's.

The trips are:

March MEL-SNG-HKG-MEL
May MEL-FCO-IST-BCN-LHR-MEL
June MEL-DFW-BOS-NYC-MEL
+ four MEL-AKL-MEL

Is there a *A product I should be using? The basic aim is to use these trips to get top tier on *A. BTW I am a member of Miles&More and Krisflyer but would be open to join anything with good earn/burn rates.

Thanks in advance for your help!

JWAK

Welcome to Flyertalk!

Based on your schedule I guess it will be difficult to stick to one airline, therefore I would use whatever *A airline is the cheapest / most convenient:
You will likely end up with a mix of NZ, SQ, TG, UA, LH and possibly CO, US, JK.

With regards to achieving status I�d recommend either LH or BMI:
- LH Sen status requires 100k status miles, your status will be good until Feb. 2013
- BMI requires 55k status miles to qualify and 38k status miles per year to requalify
Both options are feasable with your travel schedule, if you fly this much on a regular basis I�d go for BMI, otherwise LH may be a better option (status for nearly 3 years vs. 1 year)

With regards to earning/burning miles I�d again recommend either LH or BMI, please read my answer to a similar question:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...use-miles.html

Although F on QF (or BA ) can be a delight, the progressive removal of F cabins might make DONEx tickets more cost effective (and use points to upgrade).

I am in a similar position (life QF Gold) and also running UA 1P (*G) as I prefer the UA 744 Biz seat to the QF 744 Biz seat trans Pacific (but QF cabin service is better). I have been considering whether UA or LH is the better program:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...n-stay-ua.html

The jury is still out, but LH is looking attractive ????

If you travel a lot with C/F fares LH should be your choice!
You will get Silver after 35k Miles. This gives you 25% on all LH-Group and American carriers (LH/LX/UA/...). These are EQM!

You get 200% miles in C and 300% in F, so it is easy to accumulate a significant number of miles!

If you get 100k Miles in 2010 you will be Gold till Feb 2013. (and then silver till Feb 2015!)
Your keep your miles as long as you have a status (or a credit card in some countries). When you lose your status, you have 3 years to regain it or burn the miles (so your miles are safe till Feb 2018, if you make gold in 2010).

BMI gives you the status for only one year, but it may match your QF-Status.

If you are after a lifetime status, you may look at Asiana.

BMI now requires travel on BMI metal for a status match (not for retention, just matching in the first place).