LH does not give status matches, TK does but I don't think they'll match OWS to *G. You can apply for it (details in the TK forum), but expect a rejection.

Currently TK matches to *G with a 4 month challenge where you have to have one international flight with them, and further 15k miles within 12 months.

Thanks for the answer!
Other than TK and LH, would it make sense to sign up with another program?

For status, the usual suspect would be OZ, but you'll have to select booking classes very carefully every time you fly.

Which FF to join?
 

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)?
upgrades, priority services, baggage allowance, good award redemption rates, better award access, lounge access, etc.
>>> Reply: good award redemption rates

2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
less than 25000 miles, 50000+ miles and 20-25 flights, etc.
>>> Reply: 90000+ miles and 20-25 flights.

3. What fare class do you usually buy?
first, business, premium economy, economy
>>> Reply: business

4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure?
>>> Reply: Work, able to choose my airline

5. Which routes do you fly most often?
transatlantic, domestic USA, intra-Asia, etc.
>>> Reply: transatlantic: Israel <-> US (business class) but also Israel<-> Europe (economy class)

6. What is your home airport?
>>> Reply: Tel Aviv, Israel

7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any?
>>> Reply: MillagePlus 1K (180,000 miles), AAdvantage (50,000 miles)

8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?
>>> Reply: any Airline with flat bad in transatlantic flights

Also appreciate any advice re hotel rewards programs / cashbacks / credit cards and any other hidden gems you guys can share :)

thank you!

Hi,

I've started flying more regularly since last year, but have not until now seriously looked into mileage programs - therefore I hope for your advice:

(1) What is your home airport?
FRA
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Usually economy (Y,K,W), business when travelling for work (1-2 trips a year)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
25K-35K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
No status
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
First of all, starting to collect miles in ANY program ;)
Star Alliance Gold Status for lounge access would be great.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often
Mostly within Germany/Europe, maybe 2-3 trips to US/Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines
None
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure?
Both, while I personally travel in economy class, flights that are paid by the company are in business class.

So far, I've tried wheretocredit.com on my upcoming trips in the next months:
FRA-ORD-FRA (C)
FRA-TXL-FRA (K)
FRA-FCO-ICN-NRT-ICN-FRA (W)

While A3 will credit me more miles than OZ, the latter only needs 40,000 Miles in 2 years for *A Gold, while A3 (if I understand correctly) wants overall 36,000 Miles + 6 Flights with A3 in 1 year...

What would you suggest?

Thanks for you help!

re-posting:
appreciate the help :)

1. What is most important to you in a frequent flyer program (FFP)? good award redemption rates
2. How many miles do you usually fly each year? How many flights/sectors?
90000+ miles and 20-25 flights.
3. What fare class do you usually buy? First/business
4. Are you able to choose your airlines and/or class of service? Do you travel for work and/or pleasure? Work, able to choose my airline
5. Which routes do you fly most often? Israel <-> US (business class), Israel<-> Europe (economy class)
6. What is your home airport? Tel Aviv, Israel
7. Do you have status in any FFP? What is it? How miles do you have banked in each FFP, if any? MillagePlus 1K (180,000 miles), AAdvantage (50,000 miles)
8. What are your preferred airlines, if any?any Airline with flat bad in transatlantic flights

Also appreciate any advice re hotel rewards programs / cashbacks / credit cards and any other hidden gems you guys can share

thank you!

What is wrong with UA & AA? :confused:
The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. If you buy business/first ffp's have less meaning

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit cards/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s)

With the majority of ffp's benefits are reducing and ff mile costs are going up. Upgrades are now harder to get.

Look here
- AwardAce: Compare Award Redemptions Across Airlines In Seconds -->http://www.awardace.com/
- Economical Excursionist's Tools to compare Frequent Flyer Mile Redemptions --> http://www.flyermiler.com/

The grass in not always greener on the other side

Which Star Alliance program for a newbie living in AMS?
 

Hi everyone, I am new here and a TOTAL newbie in the world of frequent flyer programs. I am super excited because I recently got a new job, in Amsterdam, which will allow me to visit clients all other the world (from Chile to the Philipines), but I have no idea how to get a maximum out of any frequent flyer program.

Tomorrow I'll be flying to my first client in Norway with SAS and I am wondering which frequent flyer program from Star Alliance should I join?

PS: I am already a Flying Blue member for my KLM flights.

(1) AMS
(2) mostly Y
(3) Around 25-30K
(4) nope
(5) free lounge access, easy parking
(6) mix
(7) KLM, Brussels Airlines, SAS, Lufthansa
(8) I'll gather most of my points for work, and I don't have the choice of Airlines

Please help me :( *sad face*

Hi all, pretty new to the whole flying thing as well. I live and work in New Zealand and the way it looks is that my job will take me all over the world a lot in the future, mainly to Europe but also to Asia and the US occasionally.

For my first two business trips I signed up for Air New Zealand Airpoints because that's kind of the normal thing to do at the company, but now that I've done some more consideration I'd like to use Singapore Airlines more for international trips, because they're the only airline that flies directly from Christchurch to Asia without having to go through Auckland. Air NZ would still be the better option for flights going to the US (via AKL).

(1) What is your home airport? CHC
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy or Discount Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >50k (hard to say exactly at thi stage)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? close to Silver with Air NZ Airpoints
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free lounge access and upgrades
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? NZ to Europe
(7) Preferred Airlines: Singapore Airlines mainly, as well as Lufthansa and Air NZ
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mainly for work. Able to choose my own fares.

I've currently got almost enough Status Points at Air NZ to upgrade to Silver and accumulated around 300 Airpoints.

Would you recommend I stick with Airpoints for flights where Air NZ is the favorable Airline or switch to Singapore Airlines completely? Would it be quicker to get Star Alliance Gold status if I switch to KrisFlyer for my next Europe return trips or if I stick to Airpoints but still fly with Singapore Airlines?

Or should I consider another FFP instead?

Thanks a lot in advance, cheers!

Air NZ ffp is one of the worst out there. Is OK only if you fly Air NZ a lot. Many low cost air NZ fares earn nil or little ff miles/points in other ffp.

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally however you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, better service when disruptions, ability to upgrade flights and possible operation upgrades.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit cards/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the benefits are limited.

The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit those flights to does not need to be the same. Frequent flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn.

If you are flying SQ a lot join the SQ ffp. But if you are close to NZ silver probably worth getting that. Then change.
Earning status on economy fares is hard no matter what airline. Lounge access comes with status or business/first tickets.

UA is going to start AKL LAX fights in July 2016. AA start AKL-LAX flight 23 June 2016.

For upgrades the general rule is you can only upgrade a flight marketed (flight number) and operated (metal) by the airline of your frequent flyer programme (no codeshares) with your airlines upgrade instrument (e.g. SWU, miles) or complementary with status (if applicable) or ff miles/cash co pay. All subject to the t&c's of your FFP and your paid ticket. Low cost tickets are often not eligible for upgrades. Cross airline upgrades are uncommon. If cross airline upgrades are offered they tend to require a very expensive base economy fare.

Thanks for the quick reply and all your help! I think I'll go with that advice and swap to SQ once I've got Silver on NZ.

Not knowing much about how FFPs work I would have thought that even with economy one should be able to earn status rather quickly if flying such long distances all the time. Roughly 35,000 kms per return trip to Europe amounts to quite a bit if there's a handful of trips like that per year.

Thanks for the heads-up about UA and AA opening flights to the US as well. That would actually tie-in nicely with my next trip end of July. UA is part of *A, right?

No. You need to do the calculation. While the distance is long that does not mean status is easy or quickly to get. It depends a lot on your fare booking class.
http://www.wheretocredit.com/singapore-airlines Note this is for redeemable miles credit. Status earning is different and can be a lot more complicated.
With some ffp's say 5 trips at 7000km could earns more (status and/or miles) than 1 trip at 35,000km. Another airline ffp may get you status quicker. But then what real use will that status be?

Look here http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/singa...krisflyer-500/

UA is a member of http://staralliance.com/
AA is a member of https://www.oneworld.com/

Okay, thanks for that. I've had a closer look at the KrisFlyer conditions and benefits now and it doesn't look that great compared to what's on offer with Air NZ Airpoints Gold or Elite, actually. Especially since you can only earn really good status on SQ when flying business class and up to get into their PPS scheme...

This fact combined with the higher pricing of most SQ flights compared to other airlines makes me think that maybe I should stick to Air NZ after all and try and get fares that get me to Gold on their flights sooner.

Any particular reason why Airpoints is considered one of the worst FFP schemes out there?

about to get back on the frequent flyer magic carpet
 

First, I am very grateful to those of you who kindly review new posts in this thread - a public service much appreciated!^^^

For a dozen years I was Swiss-based and flying LH/LX (and other airlines) a lot, so easily maintained Senator (and other gold-levels on other networks). Was out of that for a few years with much less frequent long haul travel, so dropped to Silver in Miles and More. Have now relocated home to the US, and unsure whether to keep in with LH or move over to UA. Need to decide soon, as there is a big Japan trip coming up! If it matters, I already have a UA account post merger (ex Continental which itself was ex Eastern - that's how old I am), but not many miles in it. Several hundred thousand miles in M&M account.

(1) What is your home airport? IAD/DCA/BWI
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? C
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? will be more than 50K a year for sure - think I may already be there but not all Star Alliance
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? M&M Silver, BA Ruby, Air France nothing anymore
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good redemption rates, priority assistance when things go south
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? Tough to say - will be all over, but a lot of transatlantic and also middle east and asia
(7) Preferred Airlines: mostly, I go for the best combo of schedule and price, but would have to say BA, LX, Emirates and Singapore
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) Mostly for work, a lot for pleasure. Can choose airline for business travel up to a point. Class of service for work determined by company policy but generally C (flights over 6 hours). Always travel C with family long haul for pleasure.

Thanks for any thoughts/recommendations.

If back in USA for the long term and flying C in my opinion better to move to the UA ffp. (Others may have a different opinion) With revenue based ffp's paying for premium cabin should get to top status. There is also AA (to replace the BA ruby ffp), which is soon moving to a revenue based ffp.

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the useful benefits are somewhat limited.

The airline you fly most or an airline of the country you live is the best ffp for many people. Generally however you are better earning on your primary airline due to greater recognition, better service when disruptions, ability to upgrade flights and possible operation upgrades.

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html