Turns out that CO will not match a status from a partner airline. Spoke with several people in there, all they would offer me is a challenge program to get a Silver status. a real bummer.
am going to call UA but expect a similar response.
Delta might be the next step.

Having that LH SEN status will give you lounge access throughout the US/UA/CO clubs in the USA. (when you fly Star A in the USA).

I dont think switching to DL will be a good idea for you.

If you think you will live more than a year in the USA, then consider taking the CO/UA challenge.

Which FFP for Y
 

Hello,

I have an M&M and AY Plus account for some years. But now I would like to take it more serious and get somwhere a status.
I think the SA would be better for me then OW, because I live in Switzerland (and most BA fares in Y only give 25% points for AY Plus).

But which is the best FFP to get status in Y. Should I fly keep flying with the LH M&M or change to an other program?

If I get the silver status on LH then it will be for 2 years, right? And to keep the status I have to fly again 35'000 miles in one year or in two years?

Hi all,I currently have a Virgin Atlantic flying club account as my main account and a BMI Diamond club account which I use to collect the miles from my credit card spend,I've just signed up for a Amex gold to start earning membership rewards and decided that now might be the right time to start looking at investing my miles into a better flying program within the Star Alliance.

My reason for this is I take quite a few personal vacation trips (around 6-10 a year) between London and the US & the rest of Europe as well as the occasional trip to asia,I actually have a trip to Shanghai in the planning stages but basically my point is this:

Generally I get around the lack of US destinations served by Virgin Atlantic by booking with US airways and Continental to earn partner points,but more and more of these flights are now showing as being operated by United and Air Canada which obviously will not earn me any flying club miles,basically I want to switch to a Star Alliance airline that has the biggest presence operating out of London Heathrow that would be beneficial in short to medium and also long haul flights that I could also use my Amex membership rewards to boost the account with.

Sorry if that sounds confusing but I tried my best to explain it!

Any help is greatly appreciated!
Thanks


(1) What is your home airport? London Heathrow
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y & Discounted economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 20k-30k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Only have Virgin Atlantic basic red and BMI Diamond club standard
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Upgrade possibilities or redemption/award flights/companion flights etc
(6) Which routes do you fly most often UK-US transatlantic,US domestic,UK & European & to Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines US airways/Continental
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Totally personal pleasure travel and I generally travel out of the holiday/peak season

I am a leisure traveler. I have family living in Buenos Aires Argentina and I want a plan that I can travel on to other areas that will allow me to use those points and get a companion upgrade when I travel to Buenos Aires. I do fly often while in South America and would appreciate any advice on FF options that would maximize the miles on this flight.

(1) What is your home airport? JFK, EWR, LGA (NYC area)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y and Discounted Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 20k-40k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None. I just enrolled in AAdvantage.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, easy to travel with partner airlines
(6) Which routes do you fly most often US:JFK-MIA, JFK-DCA. International: JFK-EZE, EZE-GRU.
(7) Preferred Airlines: Airline that would provide the best route to EZE.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure.

Hi there, I'm completely new to the FFP world and despite research, am still somewhat lost. I'm thinking an airline within the *A would be best due to the number of airlines within the alliance, but can't make sense of which would be best for me and would really appreciate any help you can give!

My other question I have is that I will be travelling with my partner most of the time: what would be the best way to maximise any FFP benefits given this scenario? Should we both join separately, or is there a way of combining our miles?

(1) What is your home airport? LHR (for preference)

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k ish I think. Maybe 3/4 returns within Europe and the 2 longer flights per year minimum.

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None. I've not been in an FFP before.

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Upgrades, miles accumulation and lounge privileges

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? European mostly, but at least one transatlantic return and one to Asia/Pacific a year

(7) Preferred Airlines: No real preference.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure.

Many thanks for any help or suggestions!

Looking for input on which *A scheme to join
 

My first FT post so hope am putting it in the right spot.

(1) What is your home airport? NYC - any
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Business for > 5 hrs
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k
(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? Fast Track security, Lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often NYC <> London, some Asia
(7) Preferred Airlines: SQ, VS, BA
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure: 80% work.

After 10+years at BA gold or silver I'm fed up with BA after two lacklustre Biz class trips JFK<>LHR and the strikes. Am putting together a 6 week RTW tour in business, starting next week, going to Asia among other places.

I want to do that in SQ and VS based on what I've heard about then, and therefore want to switch to *A.

Am based in New York, am British, and being a US-based silver card holder has meant i get fast track and lounge access on AA economy, which seems hard to do for even my high mileage domestic *A friends. That's a nice perk but more important is to earn miles when travelling as much as possible with SQ and VS. Ideally it will also get me lounge access for when am travelling economy domestically, but am also a new Amex platinum member so maybe that'll help with lounge issue.

Thanks

Advice on which to join
 

Hi Flyer Talk folks,
I've just bought a round the world fare on Star alliance but am unsure which partner to join.
This trip starts in SYD goes to Bangkok on Thai, Swiss to Nice via Zurich
Swiss Paris to New York
United LAX - Syd
I've been all QF until now but the fare difference has made me join the Alliance, but through which airline - as you can see from the above most of the journey is Swiss, but I start Thai and finish United - I travel between Sydney and LA once or twice a year, and Sydney Europe 1 a year.
Any advice welcome

I assume that will all be in Y? If so, you probably will not make SEN with your yearly flights but only FTL (*S) on M&M.

What is most important to you? If lounge access (*G) maybe Aegean is worth a check. Otherwise, probably AC (Air Canada) might be an idea if you can manage 50k per year. Enjoy your trips

Just wondering, which airline has better rewards overall, Lufthansa or Air NZ?

Need Advice on Best *A FFP for Me
 

Hello all. My first post.

My wife and I have decided to change from EK Skywards to a *A FFP because of anticipated travel patterns over the next few years. We are Skywards silver but EK seems to be getting fewer and fewer partners and we don't want to have to fly through DXB all the time to get anywhere. The only partners they seem to have which we could utilise out of Oz are JAL and Korean, but we don't particularly like their business class product. We feel that a *A FFP would be more useful and beneficial for us due to its larger variety of routes and partners. We usually take one big trip o/s each year, normally in F or BC, with maybe a little domestic.

We have booked a SYD-LHR return in F on TG in August and am planning to do a BKK-YVR return via either HKG or ICN in mixed First and Business next year, using our EK miles to get to and from BKK. Also we intend to do a RTW in 2013 in business so we can incorporate some touring through the US, and hopefully do a few more o/s trips after that, including through Asia, the Pacific and probably back to Europe. We do not travel Econ except domestically and do not want to book economy tickets in the hope that we may get an upgrade at the last moment.

Status attainment is not of great importance with respect to lounge access as we generally get it anyway on the tickets we normally purchase, but would be useful if it can get us mileage accrual bonuses. We would be more interested in a FFP which we can use to accumulate miles for international flight awards and/or upgrades and which preferably have reasonably long mileage expiry dates. A FFP to which I can convert my SPG points if needed would be useful. Our travel is purely for pleasure since our retirement

My home airport is either SYD or MEL. I've flown TG, EK, CO (many years ago), NH, JAL, SAA, KLM in the past, so I don't really have a preferred airline, although I don't really want QF.

I have looked at quite a few FFP's but the more I look the more I find it harder to make a decision. I would much appreciate any thoughts or opinions from more experienced frequent travellers on what would be considered the most suitable *A FFP's for us given our anticipated travelling patterns.

Many thanks in anticipation.

Is there any handy list of which airlines don't reset your miles/points when you go up a level? BD for example does reset. The reason is that Mrs. stifle may have the opportunity to go from zero to *G this year and would like to get it earlier rather than later :) She is leery about A3 as she has tried to credit a few flights to them but they've failed, and now her account is locked out.

You should stick with AA.

Dont know the exact answer. But LH M&M does have special availability for certain SQ flights. This is one good thing about LH.

Seconded.