Hi,

I am moving to Austin, Texas from United Kingdom, doing a status challenge with Delta. (moving from BA Gold)
I intend for Delta to be my primary airline for domestic flights and majority of travel to Latin America (where they fly).

I do intend to travel globally from time to time too for business (Europe, Africa, ME, Asia), as well as pleasure, visiting family in both UK and Hong Kong. I would rather avoid the remainder of Skyteam (not a fan).
Instead of sticking with Oneworld (BA), which hasn't really provided me any significant perks aside from lounge access and decent in-europe mile redemption, I was hoping to try something different - a Star Alliance member.

Now, I will struggle hitting any significant status with any of the *A airlines if I only do a few long haul trips in economy(pleasure), premium/business(work), but as I understand Asiana might be the best choice here for anything worthwhile?
Or would you recommend another airline that we would typically fly on to Hong Kong (most likely Singapore/ANA or EVA), either via Houston or SFO.

The aim is to collect miles on these occasional trips, enough to then benefit from redemption within Asia for holiday while in Hong Kong (or upgrades for trips to HK if that's feasible). If I do manage to collect enough to hit some sort of status too, that would be a bonus (I understand Asiana might be best for this, but is it worthwhile if I won't normally fly it?)

(1) What is your home airport? Austin, but can fly from nearby airport: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y, occasional Premium Eco, rarely business for long haul
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25-40k on *A
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? BA Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good award redemption rates on various carriers, mostly for short haul redemptions within Asia.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often ? For *A, it will mostly be Trans Pacific, Trans Atlantic and occasional Latin America
(7) Preferred Airlines. One of the Asian Ones, but open minded here.
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? For pleasure - Economy/Premium if theres a good deal. For business, economy/premium/business depending on distance - I can choose my own carrier.

Best option for crediting upcoming MAN-PVG rtn in F
 

(1) What is your home airport? London/MAN
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? discount economy in Europe several times a year. 1 long haul discount business class a year
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 15K
4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? None
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Given my flying patterns, probably redeeming rewards flights.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: none (apart from LON-TLS)
(7) Preferred Airlines: none
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure

I've got an upcoming MAN-PVG rtn via FRA with LH in F for my wife and me. Its ticketed by Lufthansa so will only seem to earn a relatively small amount of miles based on £, compared to crediting to other FFPs. Most of our miles accrual is via credit card spend (350K miles with BA, 100k between us with Virgin, 50k with Etihad which expire at the end of this year!). I dont fly enough to get status, so my plan is to generally accrue enough to redeem for a pair of long haul flights in business or above (or upgrade to that) at some point in the future. Long expiry and decent redemption rates seem to be the key - who should I go with? Planning a long haul holiday each year from now on to various destinations, so I am likely to be able to add to them later. Thanks

With so few short cheap flights a year, other than the LH PVG flight, you will not earn much with any ffp. The LH flight will earn, but you will need more for a good/long haul business award.

Some ffp's earn on distance/class and others based on cost (less real taxes) But many combinations. Some ffp's are going to dynamic awards (high ff miles cost) and no published award chart.

A guide to earning--->https://www.wheretocredit.com/lufthansa/f

Expiry can be a problem. Some ffp's have a hard expiry and others expiry after a time period if no eligible activity. 18 months is common. 3 years with BA.

UA is a LH ff partner and now has no expiry, but is partly revenue based (so good & bad). With a LH issued ticket UA ffp may be distance based (200%). Needs research.

There are other Eu based Star Alliance ffp's that may be OK. Others will (hopefully) reply.

Be mindful of expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

Please check Turkisk Or Aegean milage program as these are one of the best for redemption and also for status in Star alliance
LH will credit to them too

Hone airport is LGW/LHR

frequency varies but just looking to build Miles/points at my own pace

(1) What is your home airport? BHX, LON
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Business
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? <25K. Usually one long haul per year and one or two short haul.
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? FlyingBlue Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? good award redemption rates; intend to earn and burn
(6) Which routes do you fly most often ? Annually from UK to South-East Asia on business, which has been on KLM/AF in recent years. UK to Europe for pleasure.
(7) Preferred Airlines. Not worried
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Both, as above

I have a collection of Avios and Flying Blue miles. However, have just booked (unusually), CDG-ZUR-HKG-AKL, ticleted by Swiss, all in P class. Wife and Mother-in-law also in tow. None of us have any *A status or points. Future earning may be sporadic; hard to tell. Sat on 50,000 Amex point, and wife approaching similar.
All advice gratefully received.

(1) What is your home airport? NYC (ALL)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)

W (premum economy), sometimes business

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)

>50K, probably 75K or so

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc).

Gold w. Delta

(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.)

- Frequent upgrades

(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)

New York - Stockholm
New York - Toronto
New York - Montreal

(7) Preferred Airlines
SAS

I love Delta but because there are no good direct Sky Team flights between NY and Stockholm so I need to switch to a FF program that let's me benefit from flying SAS a lot. However SAS doesn't have a US credit card, and I want to benefit from my spending too.

To Canada within Star Alliance I would use United or Air Canada

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
For work but I can choose.

Stick with TG Gold or Switch?
 

HI FT,

I'm TG *G and requalification is in April, and due to an aberration in my travel pattern this year it doesn't look like I'm going to make it (need 39,664 and have existing reservations on *A set to fly only ~27,000 by then). That, combined with the recent changes to TG ROP, and the airline's financial situation have me considering switching to another *A carrier and trying to establish myself as *G there. I mostly need that status to compliment my DL Plat as I need the additional free baggage allowances fairly often. My answers to the questions are mostly based on my objective of reaching or keeping *G in some form.

I currently have 3 one-way itineraries between US west coast and BKK before my *G ends in April. It's not too late for me to credit those to another *A member, but I need advice right away as one of those is departing tomorrow. My main dilemma is, stick with TG and try to requalify by April (would have to add a couple long haul flights in there before April) or join another *A member right now and start accruing toward Gold. I do have a bit of free time so could possibly come up with some trips to match my agenda.

Thanks for any advice.

(1) What is your home airport? BKK
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Premium Economy (EVA fare class P)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 30-60K on *A
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Thai Gold, Delta Plat
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Free baggage allowance, seat assignment, lounge access, priority boarding
(6) Which routes do you fly most often Transpac US West Coast to BKK, Thailand Domestic, Southeast Asia short haul.
(7) Preferred Airlines EVA (transpacific), Thai (domestic), Delta (US domestic)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? mostly pleasure, choose based on price first and schedule second. Typically fly discounted Premium Economy transpacific, but could fly Business somewhere if it got me to tier qualification in this requalification crunch.

TIA FT Gurus and Gurettes!

Okay, no one's answered yet and today's the day I had to decide by, so after sleeping on it I've decided to bite the bullet and switch to OZ, get the card, etc etc. It's best for the long term, I just wish I'd started earlier toward that lifetime *G.

So my question remaining is how to handle the transition. Do I book flights using my TG *G, and go all the way through check-in at the airport to get my extra baggage allowance, better seat, etc. and then ask the gate agent to swap FF numbers for OZ for accrual? I'm sure there's a logical way to approach it, please let me know if I'm missing something about how to do it for the next several months here, until I reach OZ Diamond aka *G.

Thanks All.

Yes. And ask for a new boarding pass with the new ffn. But at times the change in ffp/ffn may not stick and/or print on the boarding pass and/or push back from the agent. Some ffp's do not like people cherry picking benefits and changing ffn. Keep the physical boarding pass/screen shots/what ever to show the new ffn.

Good luck with the new ffp

Most carriers would deny making the move of switching *A FFP due to cross-benefiting. You can technically change the FFP number on some airlines at the gate or after you have entered the lounge via an airport agent or the mobile app; however, on some airlines, you may risk not receiving miles on both Thai and Asiana or the gate agent may reject switching the FFP numbers as you have benefited from the advantages of the Thai *G.

It completely depends on the airline you're flying and the airport agent.

Hi all. I'm a soon to be United refugee. I have another year left of 1K status, but will definitely not requalify under the new rules. However, I have 480 plus points to burn through in the next year so I'll need to spend a decent amount of time on UA metal.

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) YYC
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Usually Y, but will pay more for an upgradable fare class
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) 100,000 to 170,000 physical miles
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) UA 1K
(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.) Upgrades and a useful points currency. I'm willing to add connections and be flexible to secure upgrades.
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc) For work, I fly maybe 20,000 miles per year between YYC and TUL, DEN and IAH for around US$3,000 of spend (schedule usually means this is on UA metal). Personally I do two trips home YYC-SYD per year (AC/UA are the logical choices for routing and price, but I am open to other options via Asia or North America). I also do 3-4 long haul trips per year to anywhere in the world. Previously these were for mileage running purposes so I was UA loyal on these flights, but now it could be anywhere with any airline.
(7) Preferred Airlines To date it has been UA, but it seems they don't want me anymore
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) Answered above

I'm trying to decide between several options:

1. Stay with UA and see where I land
I will probably spend enough next year to get to UA gold. But gold is a big downgrade from where I'm at now

2. Defect to AC
I would certainly fly enough miles to reach E75 on AC. I could also spend C$9,000, but it would be a stretch to do this on AC ticket stock next year. Since I need to burn through all the plus points next year, I can't direct that spend towards AC tickets. Are there any loopholes for earning AQD on UA tickets?

3. Asiana
I would fly enough miles to get to Diamond within a few months, and then I could effectively be a star alliance free agent after that. I could also purchase an economy plus subscription from UA for 2021 after I lose my status with them

4. Free agency / split status / something else?
Open to suggestions

Getting upgrades (free or miles & cash) is a tough ask on an airline that is not the airline of your ffp.
Star Alliance does have a cross airline upgrade system, but has onerous t&c's

• UA https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...-carriers.html
• AC https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/air-...an-points.html

UA refugee thread https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unit...ou-switch.html

Would another alliance offer better, in part or all of your travels?
The grass in not always greener on the other side

If you're flying more than 100000 miles per year, start collecting miles at Asiana unless you really prioritize free domestic upgrades. But be aware that some fare classes would earn %50 or %75 on United rather than the current fixed %100 rate for MileagePlus. Also when collecting miles at OZ be aware that paid Business/First would usually give %125 rather than %200.

Air Canada would also be a good choice but the spending limit is too high.

By the way, when using your 480 Plus Points UA won't let you credit your miles elsewhere, and most *A airlines won't let you cross-benefiting ( using benefits of 2 or more FFP at the same time ). Also if you decide to take options 2 or 3, do not log in to your United account and do not enter your MP number when booking/viewing/checking-in for UA tickets both via the website and app, otherwise the miles would credit to UA MP rather than the FFP number you entered.

Well, I was able to switch my FFN at the gate. The agent didn't give any hassle but did warn me that it was possible that TG would revoke the miles I'd already earned on the outbound portion which was flown a couple months prior. I just checked today and the miles did indeed credit to OZ. Checked TG website and those miles she warned me about are still there (will check again later as I don't know how long it would take for them to claw them back).

So my next question is, which Asiana credit card should I apply for?

Asiana Airlines Visa Signature
30,000 Bonus Miles after $3,000 spend
10,000 Bonus Miles Certificate awarded annually*
$100 credit toward Asiana flights per year (I don't expect to make use of this often)
2 Asiana Airline lounge invitations (do I have to be flying OZ to use them?)
Mileage earning:
3 Miles on Asiana Airlines purchases (probably won't get to use much)
2 Miles on gas and at grocery stores
1 Mile on all other purchases
$99 Annual Fee

Asiana Visa Business Card
10,000 Bonus Asiana Club Miles after first purchase (seems like this just happens once, versus every year on the Signature)
$100 credit toward Asiana flights x2 per year
Mileage earning:
2 miles for every $1 spent on Asiana Airlines ticket purchases (don't expect to make use of this often)
1 mile for every $1 spent on all other purchases.
$80 Annual Fee

To me it seems the Visa Signature personal card is much better if my primary goal is to earn and maintain *G status for travel on other SA airlines. Does "10,000 Bonus Miles Certificate awarded annually" mean that the threshold for reaching and maintaining Diamond tier on OZ is reduced by 10,000 (or even 20,000 since it's 2 year intervals and I would get the certificate annually)? If so that would be fantastic, meaning it will only take 30,000 miles flown on SA to earn Diamond and 20,000 (or even just 10,000 if consecutive bonus certificates apply?!) every two years. This would be well worth the $99 AF even if I'm unable to make use of the offsetting annual credit toward OZ flights.

Am I dreaming that it's this friendly of a FF program? Someone pinch me if I am.

Questions better to be asked in the OZ Asiana forum
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/asiana-asiana-club-614/

Need Advice!
 

(1) What is your home airport? - BOM
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? International C / Domestic C/Y (Depends on who's paying)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 100,000+ physical miles
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA 1K & AI Maharaja) - Once I complete 1K, I credit to AI since its my home airport airline and all my domestic flying.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Good Redemption rates & low taxes so I can take the family on trips with me
(6) Which routes do you fly most often India - Europe (Mostly LH/LX)
(7) Preferred Airlines - LH/LX/UA/AI
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Mostly for Work. Always International C out of India. Stayed away from Miles&More because of crazy high taxes.

More Info:
I think I might be able to maintain 1K on United even with the new requirements since LH/LX/AI spend will now count, but not sure how much I will get out of it yet till I start seeing the numbers. Also with dynamic pricing coming, little worried about redemptions, so I want to look at alternatives if I can get more value.

Would love input and insights!

A fairly specific question
i am eyeing off some TG F/J flights cos 747. I can’t credit those flights to any of my usual (specifically QF/VA). I have no plans for any further star alliance travel although I suppose changes in life happen. Is there any *A program that would allow me to collect the points and then donate them to charity?

https://www.wheretocredit.com/thai-airways/j
Not what you asked, but UA ff miles now do not expire

UA ff miles to charity https://donate.mileageplus.com/
Would expect to be others

Expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.

Edit
Another TG https://www.thaiairways.com/en_CA/ne.../Siriraj.page?
But ended 31 Jul 2018

FFP's can have non alliance partners

Miles & More vs MileagePlus and others
 

(1) What is your home airport? IAD / BWI
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? M&M Silver
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, good award redemption, priority services
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? US-Europe (2-3x/year); US-Asia (1-2x year); some travel to South America and Africa
(7) Preferred Airlines: Swiss, Lufthansa
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?) Travel for work; can choose airline but not class of service

I am new to FF schemes - previously, flew several different alliances, but primarily *Alliance. Formerly based in Europe, currently out of the US. This year, started banking miles with Lufthansa Miles&More and just hit 35k miles/Frequent Traveller status (* Alliance Silver) within last six months of travel. I'll be traveling roundtrip JFK-NRT in December, and that's it for this calendar year.
Once I got Silver, I started investigating and it seemed like MileagePlus would be a better option to qualify for * Alliance Gold, but with the changes announced this week - would MileagePlus, Aegean, Turkish or Asiana be the better option?

I did a bit more reading and looks like I can transfer KrisFlyer points into velocity?

Yes. At a ratio of 1.55 to 1. Was a better transfer ratio (1.35) some time ago.
Some VA ffp folk transfer to SQ Krisflyer for more award options

why not?

you log onto your 480-Plus-Points UA account and use those points to upgrade someone else (yourown ticket accrualing to another FF) ?

It's too risky as if you log in to your booking when your MileagePlus account is open ( logged in ), during booking the flight, viewing it via manage my booking, or checking-in on a web browser or the app; the system would auto-assign the MileagePlus number to the traveler matching the name of the traveler.

If you want to use them and credit miles to another FFP, you need to be super-cautious when using the UA website.

Hi all..
1) What is your home airport? Currently LON but moving to ORD in a few months but will live in AUS or SFO
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? whatever i can get my hands on. But 80% is in J
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? usually 30-70k but will not be able to travel for 1 year due to visa restrictions when i move over
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? BA GOLD. DL platinum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? mileage earnings and benefits with airlines
(6) Which routes do you fly most often Currently mainly TATL but always worldwide
(7) Preferred Airlines Oneworld
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure

Although i use oneworld mainly i feel coming over to the US will change my flying habits, i have a flight with UA in P in the next few weeks and as its a hub in ORD looking at UA for FF purposes as will be in ORD for 6 months. Any insights welcome. I should also mention i have done UAstatus match a few years ago but didnt use it as OW came up with a matching fare.. so statusmatch with UA is out.

TIA
:)

Bolding the sentence that I am replying to: I have done this countless times - buying discounted economy tickets and doing an airport upgrade to business on AI, and never have I been credited the status miles / award miles for business and always for the class that I had originally purchased. I am very surprised that you were credited for the upgraded class - I guess they fixed a loophole.

Thanks - went for Aegean as the redemptions seem good value, esp in Asia.

(1) What is your home airport? IAD
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy? Y for domestic, J and F for international (all leisure, I usually just buy whenever there's a good deal)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25k-50k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? AS MVP Gold, AA Platinum
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Priority services, free lounge access, good award redemption availability and rates
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? International
(7) Preferred Airlines Oneworld
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Pleasure

Hello. I'm looking to join *A program which will have easiest qualification criteria. My main program is OW, but would like to attain a status with *A program for when I do travel with them. TIA!

Relocating to Auckland
 

Hi all. Thanks for your advice on moving to a new alliance.

(1) What is your home airport? (AKL)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (Some business, some premium economy)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (65/70k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (Delta SkyMiles Gold)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? (Priority services when flying the airline, free lounge access, friendly toward kids, etc.)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (Domestic New Zealand, Transpacific)
(7) Preferred Airlines (Air New Zealand)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Both, and can choose airlines)


Am currently based in Amsterdam and fly around 70k miles a year on KLM and Delta. Relocating to Auckland in January. Will be flying business class roundtrip to Europe once a year alone, twice a year to the east coast of the US in premium economy with wife and toddler, three times monthly in economy between Auckland and Wellington on ANZ for work. Have already booked the three of us on individual business class tickets AMS>SIN>AKL on Singapore Air.

Relocating to Auckland
 

How long will you be living in NZ? A few months/years or for ever? This will be important

Compared to other ffp's, including the downgrading of USA ffp's, you will find the Air NZ ffp is poor and bad for earn to burn.
Some low cost Air NZ fares can earn nothing to ffp's other than Air NZ Airpoints. UA ffp may be a small limited exception.

And there are limited Skyteam airlines with international flights to/from NZ.
Maintaining DL (Skyteam) status will be a challenge. But the DL ff miles do not expire, unlike many other ffp's
Any ff miles with other ffp's?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auckland_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_Airport
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wellin...tional_Airport

You will get lounge access by class of service(business), mid/top level status or paid Koru lounge/club membership (if flying AirNZ).
Does/can your employer pay for Air NZ Koru club membership?
All domestic flights in NZ are economy. Business class is not offered by any airline.
For your ~45 minute commuter runs AK WLG you have the option of NZ or JQ. JQ has limited service and credits ff points(miles) but no SC's to the QF ffp. In AU JQ flights without a bundle, earn nothing, but in NZ all JQ flights earn a few QF points.

Getting to USA, Virgin Australia VA is a DL (non alliance) ff partner. So you could fly AKL-SYD(VA) and then SYD-LAX(DL)

SQ is also a VA partner (and 20% part owner). With SQ & VA ff miles can be moved from 1 ffp to the other ffp, albeit at a poor 1:1.55 rate. (Was 1:1.35)

Thanks for the detailed response, Mwenenzi We'll be in Auckland for a few years at least.

I've done a bit of research and was going to go United until the recent updates to their tier qualifications. Looked into ANZ and agree that their program is generally pretty poor. I've since gotten a little more creative and am considering KrisFlyer and Aegean. As I'll be buying a seat for my toddler, I like Aegean's pooling. And our long-haul flights as a family would also qualify my wife for at least silver.

In NZ many people get extra NZ airpoints from credit card spend (as is now the with many frequent flyer(spender) programs)

VA (SQ partner) also has family pooling.

Aegean status has an own airline flight requirement OR collect double the tier miles
https://en.aegeanair.com/milesandbon...rogram/silver/
Just need to crunch the numbers.

Be mindful of expiry Miles/Points that Do and Don't Expire. Click to open the wiki.
Same ffp's have a hard expiry. including SQ Krisflyer

Where to credit SQ flights?
 

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.) LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.) Generally Y, sometimes J
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k) Less than 25k most years
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Silver, M&M Senator etc) BA Silver
(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.)
Priority services like seat selection and lounge access
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
Intra Europe, mostly to scandinavia with the odd long haul trip
(7) Preferred Airlines
Any
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
Leisure traveller

Morning,
We travel to Australia every 18 months or so, and like to try and rack up points / status if we can. Would normally choose Qatar from Scandinavia where a J return gets us straight to Oneworld Sapphire, but this year prices weren’t great, so we’re doing SQ ARN-CPH(SK operated)-SIN-MEL

Where would we be best off crediting? I have Eurobonus as I got to Scandinavia a reasonable amount, but by my calculations the trip will net 35000 ish basic points so not enough for status in star alliance. Are there any other programs that would serve better? Redemptions are always good but I’m more bothered about lounge etc. Happy to do some mileage runs / qualifying flights in Europe to add it up.

Hi all,

2 adults and 2 kids flying BHX FRA EWR SJU / SJU EWR BRU BHX all in P.

Tickets are all on UA stock, operating carriers are LH LH UA / UA UA SN. None of us has status or miles in any *A programme.

I had considered crediting the miles to EI to get them over to BA (our principal family miles stash) but the kids can’t join that so those potential miles would be wasted. But am I missing something - is there a *A option where kids can earn plus we can pool miles, or a quick route to status? Being a *A noob I’d hate to make a rookie mistake.

Thanks, all...

1) What is your home airport?Manchester/LHR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Mixture of economy short haul and business long haul (always booked withinfew days of travel)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 60k/yr with A*
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Aegean Gold
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, Lifetime status, seat selection, ease of award booking
(6) Which routes do you fly most often. No specific routes-ad-hoc worldwide (I fly a lot to U.S but I like to credit to BA/AA so Not transatlantic)
(7) Preferred Airlines No real preference Turkish, Singapore, Air canada
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work-I can choose class within budget restraints which usually means short haul economy and long haul (5hrs+) business.

I am thinking of switching from Aegean (wierdly in 3 yrs I have flown with almost every other A* airline but Aegean and I have never booked any reward flights using A* miles), the main reason is I will not be travelling fotr work forever and the idea of lifetime gold with Asiana really appeals, I just don't know anything about how good Asiana is and I am conscious they could pull the lifetime status target at any time.

If I start crediting to Asiana and start at the lowest tier will I still be able to get lounge access as I have Gold status with Aegean or would I have to credit to Aegean to receive the perks?

Thanks.

(1) What is your home airport?VIE
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy, occasionally discounted premium economy or business (e.g. N fare for prem.eco)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 50k/yr
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? TK M&S Elite (*G), LH M&M Frequent Traveler (*S)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Now that I have lounge access with TK *G, I'm looking for good award redemption rates (and possible free upgrades?)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often. About 2 trips to the US / year (West coast VIE-FRA/MUC-SFO or East coast VIE-IAD), Up to 2 trips to (South)-East Asia, and a few (~5) intra-European trips
(7) Preferred Airlines Being based in VIE, OS and LH are the obvious choices but otherwise any *A carrier that would get me the most miles (UA to the U.S.? Asian carriers to Asia?)
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work. Typically buying "best deal" fares - i.e. lowest, or if premium economy (or rarely business) is available at a great discount

A year ago I was LH M&M Frequent Traveler and since I'm not able to make Senator (100k miles), I was looking for another FFP to get *G for lounge access. I managed that this year - earned 65k miles with TK M&S, giving me *G for 4 years - great!

So now I want to decide where to start crediting my flights in 2020 - with the focus on Award miles, instead of Status miles - most probably either LH M&M (where I'm a Frequent Traveler and have about 17k miles in my account) or UA M+ (where I'm only a member and have almost nothing).

Having done a little bit of research, I know LH has higher surcharges on award flights than UA but I'm still unsure which would make more sense for me between the two. I tried to do some calculations of expected earnings (e.g.in the Miles and More calculator in the app, and through WhereToCredit.com) but it's a bit difficult, especially as Award miles earnings in LH M&M would be revenue based (the fare x 6) vs. booking class & distance for UA M+.

Take my upcoming flight as an example:
VIE-MUC (LH, H class) + MUC-SFO (LH, H class) + SFO-FRA (UA, N class) + FRA-VIE (LH, Y class)

The confusing part for me here is the Premium Economy (N) operated by UA bought on a LH ticket - does this really only earn 25% (status miles) on M&M and 0% (status - and what about award?) on M+?

If that's the case (and my calculations are correct), then for this flight (ticket cost around 1000€):

on LH M&M: 6000 award miles, 12674 status miles (including the 25% FF bonus)
on UA M+: 6085 award miles (according to WhereToCredit), 6085 / 5 = 1217 PQP according to UA's new system from 2020

As I mentioned above, the status miles / PQP are lower priority as I have TK *G and I won't make Senator (but could at least extend my FF status), but I *might* be able to make Premier Gold (if I'm "lucky" to fly enough on the right fares, and make sure to have 4 UA segments) - but I'm not sure if it's worth chasing?

And for the award/redeemable miles - suppose I can earn between 40-65k per year in either program, which one would be better?

Another consideration would be more long term - I guess the new UA M+ rules make attaining status more difficult for me (than it was with the old rules - but Premier Gold is still more attainable than Senator), not sure about the new LH M&M announced for 2021 - perhaps Senator would be more within reach, if I fly more / premium cabins in the future? And while I can switch and credit to various FFPs, I guess sticking with one of them for the long run is preferable - i.e. for example, it's probably better to have 90k miles in one program, rather then 50k and 50k in two, right?

Thanks!!

I can answer this part - yes, you can use your Gold benefits and credit to another FFP. Although sometimes it can be a bit of a hassle - a number of threads on the subject.

Your answer to the OP is partially wrong.

Some airlines won't allow cross-benefiting ( take advantage of the benefits of multiple FFP at the same time ), so it depends on the airline.
Some airlines won't let the OP to the lounge unless he credits his flight to his *G card; some airlines won't care. Same thing for other benefits such as extra baggage allowance, free premium seating, mileage upgrades, etc...

Hey there. I'm also waiting for more experienced forum member's advice on M&M vs M+ (as per my other post in this thread) but I can tell you that if you want to achieve Gold, Turkish is a good way of doing it (not saying the others aren't - you may find this article helpful)