Hi guys!

I'm going around in circles trying to find a suitable *A FFP. Let me lay down the facts for you.....

GOAL:
To make *Gold as quickly and easily as possible.

SITUATION:
Based in Austria. Use SZG and MUC, and sometimes LON.

Flights already booked for 2010:
SFO-MUC LH C (March)
MUC-BCN-MUC LH C
MUC-SIN LH C
SIN-SYD SQ C

With the latter three flights being taken towards the end of the year.

I will be in SFO between 1-9 March and would like to embark on a MR to earn points/status, which means flying UA or US.

I will also be back in the US in the middle of the year = MR's!

POINTS TO CONSIDER:
Due to where I am based, M&M is the first to come to mind, however I need 100,000 points to get to LH SEN.

I see that I only need around 56k with BMI to achieve Gold status. A good option considering the LH flights and possible UA MR's?

I'm looking for a FFP with good J&F award flights/redemptions ex MUC/SZG/LON.

Sooooo....all these points considered, what is the best program for me? :-)

Thanks a million (miles) for your help!!!

QFBoy

While you can use the miles you accumulate for upgrades and award tickets on any *A carrier, there are other perks of status that you get only on the airline where you have your FFP membership, such as upgrade priority and treatment during IRROPs. Therefore, I would lean toward the program of the airline you will fly the most, or with the airline you will fly most often internationally. In your case, that looks to be LH or UA. It is true that LH has a high requirement for gold, but your gold status with them is good for two years. Plus, once you hit silver with LH, you earn 25% bonus equity miles so next year you only need 80,000 miles for gold. With UA, you only need 50,000 miles for gold, but the real benefits kick in at 1K, which requires 100,000 miles.

So if you don't think you can make 100,000 miles, I would suggest UA's program; otherwise, I'd go with LH's.

Upgrades on A* flights using miles is only available on some airlines. Also, in most cases, in order to upgrade using miles on another A* airline is only possible on full-fare economy tickets.

http://www.staralliance.com/en/benef...pgrade-awards/

That being said, I agree with RoaminRoman. My recommendation too would be go with the airline that you will will fly the most and hence would like to get the most perks on.

I wouldn't recommend UA unless you are based in the USA. UA blocks many awards on other star carriers meaning it may be difficult to redeem on flights if you are based outside of the US.

bmi Diamond club currently has some of the best earning and burning rates and they give a 25% bonus on all flights once you hit Silver, whilst LH only award the bonus on certain airlines. Furthermore once you've hit 55k status miles, any status miles above this are converted to destination miles.

So for a typical C class flight that earns 2x miles, you would earn 4x miles + 0.25x bonus! Take a look at the bmi forum for more info.

UA gives ug's to 1k's worth about $3k per year.

Why not alter programs? LH is great for earning on paid business or first and amazing if flying in C within Europe. 100k at 225% is not too different to some programs of 50k miles at 125% especially when counting the 2500 miles for a 300 mile flight within Europe.

If you make SEN thats great and gives some nice benefits (including waitlisting awards). In the year where you don't have to qualify you can credit to another program like OZ which has a really crap earn/burn ratio but gives you super easy *G status for up to 2-4 years. So if you then don't reach 100k miles on LH you still have your *G courtesy of OZ.

How about AC Aeroplan? Star Gold for 35k and from what I know the reward levels are not that bad (and taxes/fees are lower).