TomPete

Mwenenzi, thank you for your reply!

Sorry, I meant surcharges, not taxes.

Generally, how do they compare to Avianca (heard they have the best miles per benefit ratio?) or Asiana (10 year expiry??).

The thing is, I fly a different one almost every time...

geminidreams

Based in Asia I used Miles and Smiles simply to achieve status. When booking I was generally pretty careful about the fare class as often $20 - $100 would mean the difference between no points through to full credit and mostly my fares were paid by company. However if you can get credit card spend adding to miles that may influence the program. I preferred to direct credit card spend to a hotel program.

If based in Hong Kong Asiana may be a good option and dare I say it Air China which if travelling within Asia may be an airline that you will travel on a lot if you want to stick with Star Alliance.

nomad1974

Hi all, I was wondering if you could help me with my dilemma. In short: I found myself back in a job where I travel regularly enough to easily earn and maintain A3*G. I have begun wondering whether I should credit any miles beyond that to another FFP.

Specifically I am wondering whether I should start building up towards Lifetime Star Gold. So, my real questions are:

1) Which airlines actually offer Lifetime Star Gold? (I can look up the requirements and limitations myself, grateful if you could point me in the right direction).
2) Is it worth starting from scratch to accumulate on such a programme (beyond my A3*G qualification requirements)? or
3) Should I just keep crediting to A3 (to build RDM) or to another Star porgramme where I already have a stash of miles? (approx. 150k each on A3,UA and approx. 300k on LH)

My answers to the "guiding" questions:
(1) What is your home airport? LCA, for now.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? various Economy fares
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 35-65k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? A3 Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Priority services, lounge access, good redemptions (incl. no high/excessive surcharges)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? A3/LH/OS/SN/LO, currently mostly within Europe.
(7) Preferred Airlines: any Star Alliance is OK
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? both, currently mostly for work.
(9) Can you chooose your airlines? Yes (work travel is all Economy)

Grateful for any help!

malmostoso

As a published benefit, I think only OZ does this. LH has a "SEN for life" program but it's not very well documented (there is a thread here on FT). If you can maintain A3 you could easily maintain OZ, but of course the gamble is that the OZ's program won't change over the next ~10 years.

I would maintain A3 as *G and stash the rest in a program where you can redeem the miles with minimal surcharges (i.e. UA or AC).

Also if I were you I'd start planning to get rid of those 300k on LH, since they don't last forever and it might take a while to spend all maximizing their volume (i.e. in premium cabins).

nomad1974

I forgot about the LH Lifetime but maybe my brain just deleted it for irrelevance: isn't it something like you have to be over 65y.o. and have been SEN for the past 10 consecutive years or something?

You are right of course about the bet. 10 years seems to be a long time in FFPs.

Thanks for the advice!

winebug

Not sure this would be the right place to ask ...

Are there any simple, straight, status matches within Star Alliance at this time?

There used to be TK, but now they do a challenge.
There used to be Amigo Brazil, but they don't send the card until you credit 5 flights.
There used to be Copa, many reports of needing to first fly with them/credit a flight with them before they would consider a match.

Is there any *A airline doing simple status matches from other alliances?

Adam Gawlowski

(1) What is your home airport? SFO
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? J,W, Rarely Y
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? typically 25k-50k/>50k, However I can use a credit card's partnership to increase my miles)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Czech Airlines basic, but I am moving to star alliance.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge Access, Good award Redemption Rates and availability, Good Business/First Class, Cabin Upgrades (Optional, but preferred)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Transatlantic, US Domestic, However, sometimes also Transpacific, but mostly Transatlantic
(7) Preferred Airlines? Swiss, Lufthansa, (American) United
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Mostly Pleasure (Business for Long-Haul Flights >5h) (Premium Economy for Medium-Haul 2-5h) (Economy for short-haul/domestic <2h)
Rarely Work (Business for most flights, Paid by Company if needed). I can choose my airlines.

chopra123

Hi. I'm new to Star Alliance, but not new to SQ. I'm based in Singapore.
I realised it doesnt reward to remain faithful (to SQ) after googling Krisflyer vs Mileage Plus.

I have one question here.
- I have some Krisflyer miles. Can I sign up under United Airline Mileage Plus, and used those Krisflyer miles?

Thanks.


My answers to the "guiding" questions:
(1) What is your home airport? Singapore.
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Redemption of Economy class miles
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50-70k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Krisflyer Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Cost; No high/excessive surcharge.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Singapore-Hong Kong. Planning to do a Singapore-Europe or Singapore-New York soon as I have around 200k miles to clear by 2017.
(7) Preferred Airlines: any Star Alliance is OK
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? both.
(9) Can you chooose your airlines? Yes (work travel is all Economy)

Mwenenzi

Note sure what your question means.
You cannot move/transfer ff miles from one ffp(SQ) to another(UA)
You can sign up for UA and earn miles on SQ and other star alliance airline flights, if an eligible fare booking class.
At some you will need to use the SQ miles before they expire. They have a 3 year hard expiry (slight extension possible) Can be used for an award on a UA flight, if an award is available. http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...nt-expire.html

lowjhg

Ok, I'm currently at the crossroads and deciding whether i should go for and retain VA gold, or restart the hunt for a *G card having being recently downgraded from the lofty heights of A3*G.

Here are my answers to the questions:

(1) What is your home airport?
50% SIN and 50% HBA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
J most of the time

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
Based on QF year, more than 50k

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
QF Plat, VA Gold & AZ Freccia Alata Plus

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Definitely lounge access and good burn rates. Top tier within a programme is a bonus. Interested in lifetime status but not a major priority now.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often?
Intra-Asia and Asia to Oceania Routes

(7) Preferred Airlines?
Currently QF, but if the *A hunt starts, then it will be 100% SQ for international and 50/50 QF and VA for domestic Australia.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
More pleasure than work for now. CoS selection flexible. Have necessary mileage run blueprints to make it work.

For reference purposes, a standard return base mileage for me is 11234 before any CoS bonus. I normally fly 4-5 of those trips within a calendar year. Im currently not considering SQ for PPS as my spend will not make it possible.

fransknorge

I would be grateful for some advice to rethink my *A FFP strategy.
I am currently EBS (qualifications with segments) and used my Miles for last minute short haul award on SK metal. I use EB more for the miles than for status, although the EBS and *S benefits were useful to me a few times.

I got on EB 10 years ago when I was living in Norway. Moved to ABZ more than a year ago and kept EB as I do regular ABZ-SVG trips. I also use LH quite a bit. My main FFP is with BA (Silver, OWS) and will still probably be for long-haul flights plus flights to the UK.
I will move in a couple of weeks near FRA. I will still fly with SK a bit I guess (for trips to SVG) but I expect that my amount of flights with LH will increase as I shift my SH flying from BA to LH (week-end city breaks, trips to France to visit family, some work trips).

So my question is: should I stop using EB and start putting all my miles in another FFP ? LH M&M seems bad for me based on what I read (high surcharges on SH redemption, low mileage earning for SH cheap bucket fare). A status match to another *A using BA Silver ?
Or do I continue with EB ? The problem is that I qualify with segments and I forecast less SK segments and more LH ones (which do not count towards qualifications).

(1) What is your home airport? It will be FRA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? usually cheap Economy fare for SH, for LH it is a mix of Y, Y+ and J
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? Around 70k, currently 70% of that is on BA/OW.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? EBS, BA Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
- As a main FFP: Priority services, Lounge access, Upgrade using Miles, Good redemption w/o surcharges
- Secondary FFP: Last minute SH redemption
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? SK to Norway, LH within rest of Europe, BA to UK. Also do 3-4 Longhaul trips a year (US, Asia).
(7) Preferred Airlines: any Star Alliance is OK
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? both
(9) Can you chooose your airlines? Yes

Brunod

Hi guys, have been lurking here for a little while and finally decided to ask for advice on a program.

Posted a similar question on information desk but think most of my flights would be on *A, so decided to ask here also.

I will be moving from Brazil to Vienna for the next 3 years, and plan to choose a new frequent flyer program (currently Gold with Brazilian GOL Smiles).

I thought that Austrian Miles & More, with a Diners Club or Austrian Mastercard would be the best option. But browsing the forums, I did not see even once MM been suggested as an good alternative recently for anyone that fly coach.

A good partnership with a credit card is important, as that is the main way that I got miles. I don't know if any program allows to get status this way nowadays, but that would be nice. (P.S.: I don't have any credit score in the US).

I would very much like yiur help to choose a FFP! Here are the points:

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
Probably good award redemption rates and access first and upgrades second

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
Less than 25,000, 12 flights or so.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
Economy

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
Travel for pleasure, almost exclusively, but usually choose the cheapest fare

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
I will be flying to new destination all the time, for leisure, but expect to fly a couple times to GIG in the next 3 years (Rio de Janeiro).

6. What is your home airport?
Vienna International Airport (VIE)

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
Gol Airlines Smiles - Gold status (accumulated some 20,000 flow miles and some 50,000 miles via credit card in the last 12 month); some random flights and miles in TAM Fidelidade.

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
I would be mostly be flying weekends on leisure with my wife, mostly to Europe, with a long vacation or two a year for a longer haul flight (have 30 days every year). Flying mostly economy, a few quick searches in google flights showed that I would probably be mostly flying Austrian.

Thanks for the help!

putinbot

Edit: Deleted, NVM!

RichardAtCT

Hello *A folks.

Normally I am a BA/OneWorld Flyer (as most business travel is to London and BA is the only direct flight from my home (Cape Town) to London.

*But*, because of BAs monopoly on the CPT-LHR route, costs are ridiculous, so I've started looking at alternative flight arrangements. I've found that I can regularly fly business on Emirates for the same (or cheaper!) than Premium Economy on BA.

So, my question: If I am flying regularly on EK from CPT-LON as well as flying regularly domestically in SA, am I better of signing up for the EK FF or SAA? Benefit of crediting my miles to SAA would be local lounge access, what would the benefits of allocating to Emirates directly instead?

For more background, the form questions:
(1) What is your home airport? (Cape Town)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (Premium Economy or Business)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (25k-50k (Earned ±50k avios last year)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (BA Silver)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, free lounge access)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (Cape Town-London and Domestic South Africa)
(7) Preferred Airlines (Emirates)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Both, most mileage is for business. Can chose to fly business if within budget).


Thanks in advance!

R

malmostoso

I think to have lounge access in SA you will need to have status with SA, but will you earn tier miles when flying EK? You need to clarify this point.

The same is valid for the reverse: if you choose EK you will be able to earn skyward miles on SA flights, but will you be able to earn tier miles there?

I am sure that the answer to these questions is already on FT, so you probably need to look a bit in the EK and SA sub-forums.

The main issue I see with crediting with SA is that they recently changes their redeeming tables and award flights are now ridiculously expensive.