Bit of an unusual request.

One of our family members is flying a multi-stop biz-class trip form the US, to Africa, with a stop in Europe on the way back. The flights are a mix of Untied P and Lufthansa Z.

These are likely to be the only Star Alliance flights she takes this year, as her typical flight patterns are better served by OW and Skyteam.

WhereToCredit says her itinerary would earn the following miles:

• Air China (CA, CCD, CNM, ZH)
  • 53,489 miles
• TAP Portugal (TP)
  • 43,912 miles
• Ethiopian Airlines (ET)
  • 42,803 miles
• Avianca (AV)
  • 37,702 miles
• Air Canada (AC)
  • 37,354 miles
• Miles & More (4U, DE, EN, EW, JP, LG, LH, LO, LX, OS, OU, SN)
  • 37,144 miles
• Aegean Airlines (A3)
  • 34,774 miles
• SAS Scandinavian Airlines (SK)
  • 34,524 miles
• Air Malta (KM)
  • 34,297 miles
• COPA Airlines (CM)
  • 33,413 miles
• Air India (AI)
  • 33,413 miles
• EgyptAir (MS)
  • 33,413 miles
• Turkish Airlines (TK)
  • 32,042 miles
• EVA Airways (BR)
  • 31,908 miles
• Asiana (OZ)
  • 29,636 miles
• United
  • 25,721

My specific questions are:

• I don't believe any of these would be enough to score her Star Alliance Gold status with any program, correct? Or is there a path here that I'm missing?
• Given that, is there any airline on that list that might give her a better value for redeeming the miles she earns on this flight? My inclination is to credit her flights to Air Canada, since I've seen some good value redemptions on there recently from North America to Europe. The other thought I had was Miles & More, since they tend to be stingy with partner awards, but more generous with their (hard to earn without flying) M&M miles. But I'm definitely a full-on Star Alliance newbie.

The questionnaire:

(1) What is your home airport? GEG
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Typically Y, Occasionally Business (usually Z or P)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) mid range? 25-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) AS MVP
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Award Travel, Lounge
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) US Domestic, with ~1X US -> EU trip per year on average.
(7) Preferred Airlines No Star Alliance Preference
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service? Pleasure / yes

[MENTION=257436]atourgates[/MENTION] Air China PhoenixMiles Gold (=Star Alliance Gold) requires 80,000km (= around 50,000 miles) in 12 months. It seems that your family member would attain Star Alliance Gold. His/her Gold membership would last 24 months.

Edit: I think you should double check the calculation made by WhereToCredit. Although it says '53,489 miles' for Air China, you should double check if it is km or miles.

As a previous OW loyalist which I decided to ditch them as BA does no longer serve either of my main airports (BKK and HEL) I'm having trouble deciding on a program. I have *G from OZ from a couple of LH/LX F round trips I made in 2008 but as OZ is bound to merge with KE I assume that's out of the question. I currently have 18 *A flights booked (below) and I have been scratching my head where to credit everything.

I was pretty much already settled with SQ as it's close to my home base which is BKK but they just devalued their miles by 10% which made me rethink. Also maintaining the status with them seems to be one of the trickiest out there. I can't do LH group as I usually tend to buy very low J fares so rev based programs make very little sense. I have played around wheretocredit for a while (results also below) but would be very thankful for any insights more experienced *A fliers might have on a program to choose. Thank you!

(1) What is your home airport? BKK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? C
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? >50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? *G OZ, OWE
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? 1. Status validity (alliance wide lounge access, priority security etc.), 2. J/F redemptions
(6) Which routes do you fly most often I'm all over the place but probably most often Asia-Europe
(7) Preferred Airlines No preference on *A but I go out of my way to avoid long haul TG and mainland Chinese carriers
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? All travel paid from own pocket

Currently booked on *A (route, airline, booking class):
BKK-SIN; SQ D
SIN-FRA; SQ D
ARN-ZRH; LX Z
ZRH-SIN; LX Z
SIN-BKK; SQ U
CDG-FRA; LH P
FRA-AUS; LH P
AUS-IAH; UA P
IAH-AKL; NZ J
AKL-NRT; NZ J
NRT-ZRH; LX P
ZRH-CDG; LX P
DPS-SIN; SQ D
SIN-ZRH; LX P
ZRH-JFK; LX P
JFK-MUC; LH P
MUC-SIN; SQ D
SIN-DPS; SQ D

Where to credit accurals:
SQ TOTAL: 77223
TG TOTAL: 70656
OZ TOTAL: 59741 (Credit LH P elsewhere)
SK TOTAL: 83961

EDIT: Looks like I would earn close to 68k miles on TK so just 12k shy from Elite+ and as TK validity seems to be 2 years and it serves both BKK and HEL it seems like the way to go.

Just be aware that TK has both notoriously bad IT and notoriously bad customer support.

Alternatively, SK offers good earnings across lower fare classes in premium cabins for LH Group, and has Lifetime Gold after 10 consecutive years as Gold (with the asterisk that the airline's lifetime is likely to be shorter than yours).

IT can’t be much worse than with BA :)

Yes, SK would earn more miles but it does not serve BKK and generally their presence in Asia is very limited. TK serves both BKK and HEL, has 2 year status validity and offers upgrade vouchers to their top tiers while SK offers status gifting which I do not require as I travel with my wife so we both have the same statuses.

The airline you fly and the airline ffp you credit flights to does not need to be the same. That is what alliances are about.
But generally better to be a ffp member of the airline you fly most and/or an airline of where live, due to ease of earning non flying ff miles/points.

Any thoughts on the best *A airline to collect points casually on:

• I'm based out of London so BA/OW is typically my first choice of posting points to. Given I can hit Gold relatively early in a year (July/August-ish for Jan reset), it gives me flexibility to try and earn some status on another alliance for personal travel.
• Work travel is in business, but my aim is to get points/status for personal travel which is normally in economy
• The London to DAS region is my most common route for business, predominately on Swiss/Lufthansa, and once I'm done hitting BA status or if flight times force me to, I'll usually prefer Swiss
• Goal is to find a programme that might give me a shot a meaningful status for personal travel when I do it in economy and/or build up some points balance for *A awards
• Once I've hit gold, the option is to try and hit the extra gold tiers which are unlikely, as I'd probably end up around 2000-2500 TP or build up on *A which seems a bit more achievable

(1) What is your home airport? LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) C for business, Y-discounted for personal
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) Maybe a dozen short haul business, plus 2-3 mid/long haul business per year (~6-7hrs)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) BA Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Non-expiring points, lounge/benefits for personal Y travel
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) On *A - London to DAS on Lufthansa Group flights (Swiss, LH, etc.)
(7) Preferred Airlines Swiss
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service? Both

I'm based in London so escaping the OneWorld orbit is tough, but I travel to SFO and ZRH for work a lot so I'm going to try :-) I've got two C/D/P LHR-SFO trips with UA in the next few months worth a total of 12,700 PQP and 64,000 MileagePlus miles — enough to get UA Platinum under current reduced rules — but is there a better program I could use for those flights? The only times I fly UA are to SFO in business class for work, flying mainly Swiss or BA within Europe the rest of the time, so the miles I accrue with UA MileagePlus are not very useful.

Clearly it's a lot harder to get *A status with Swiss than with United though, my current booked flights don't get anywhere close to Senator (about 38,000 vs the 100,000 needed). Any others to consider? Thank you!

(1) What is your home airport? LON (LHR, LCY, LGW)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Business C, D, P, or Z for work. Economy for personal (K, V, L, etc.)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) 25k-50k — 4-6 long haul legs per year, ~20-30 short haul legs
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) BA Silver. I had UA Gold pre-pandemic
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge benefits for personal travel; redeeming miles without paying exorbitant fees
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) LON-SFO 2-3 times a year, LON-ZRH 4-6 times per year, plus other travel within Europe
(7) Preferred Airlines UA but usually only for LHR-SFO. Swiss otherwise (and, unfortunately, BA)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service? Both; yes

Advice on *A
 

Hello, I am flying Turkish Airlines in J from FCO to DXB (and back on to LHR on OW). I have an account with Lufthansa but have never gotten anywhere (opened when I arrived as a backpacker and was always cheap Y fares); however, I am now traveling more for work (in J) and wondering which scheme might make sense to maximize usability of points and potentially status (currently Gold on BA and usually travel OW). Qs answered below.

1) What is your home airport? LHR or LGW
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Leisure - Y or Y+; Work - J or Y for shorthaul/Europe
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) 25k+ but usually OW or LCC
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) BA Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Frequent upgrades on travel, priority services when flying the airline, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, etc.) Award redemption; lounge access in Y; upgrades (in that order for *A)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often LHR-DXB and LHR-PHL and LHR-SYD (usually Y+ or J on sky team)

In short, consider crediting to Aegean or SAS.

Aegean has a low qualification threshold, but low fare classes in both Economy and Business (such as P) often credit 0 miles, so it's not good if you're looking to pool all your miles in a single FFP.

SAS will give you 100% miles even for P, but the annual threshold for Gold requalification is 45k miles; that said, it should be doable with your travel patterns, especially if you manage to get at least one long-haul trip booked into C or D (200% miles). SAS Gold will also give you lounge access domestically in the US if you ever happen to fly economy. The downside is that the airline has been going through a rough patch for a while now and could face bankruptcy in the mid-to-long term, so there is a degree of risk. Award fees can also be high depending on the carrier.

Of course, you can also just stay with UA if you don't care about lounge access in the US and you only go there for work. They also have very low fees for award travel and their online award availability is among the best in *A.

if LHR-SFO is sufficiently expensive then UA is a great place to credit ... could easily get you 1K and thus 'upgrade certificates' (now called Plus Points). No YQ nonsense when redeeming UA miles either and some sweet spots like LHR/LCY-ZRH/BRU/GVA/STR/FRA/HAM non-stop is a 6k miles o/w redemption in Y.

Hi guys, i am about to restart travelling a lot After a few years stop. Appreciate your help on this decision about FF.
(1) What is your home airport? BLQ (Italy) or Milano (MXP,LIN)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Business C,D,K,Z,J for work.
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) +50k — 10/12 long haul legs per year (italy-indonesia)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) Nothing
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Award flights
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) BLQ-BPN or BPN-BLQ 10/12 times a year (flights with Singapore Airlines or Turkish Airlines), plus personal trips ti Europe/USA 1-2 per year
(7) Preferred airlines NO preferences
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you choose your airlines, class of service? Mainly work, i can choose airlines

I would recommend TK , as least worst option between SQ and TK . From what i heard SQ used to be good but there were many devaluations during the last few years so its not as interesting as it used to be

I think as well Is the best option but I was wondering if worth to credit on LH or others