Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here
 

Please see post below.....

Need advice on which *A FF scheme to join? - please post here
 

A number of threads have been started with members asking for guidance on which mileage programme they should join. In order to help users I have started this thread to allow people to post their requests for information here and to allow people to offer assistance.

For members asking for information please help people to assist you, can you provide:

(1) What is your home airport? (SFO, LAX, MCO, etc.)
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? (C, F, Y, etc.)
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? (<25K, 25k-50k, >50k)
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? (UA Premier, M&M Senator etc)
(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.)
(6) Which routes do you fly most often (US Domestic, Transpacific etc)
(7) Preferred Airlines
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)


GENERAL INFORMATION:

If you fly less than 50k miles per year: it is almost guaranteed that your choice will be between Aegean Airlines, Turkish Airlines, and Asiana Airlines. Please look up these airlines' frequent flier programs, and make a decision as to which best suits your needs.
Some considerations to take into account:
Airlines tend to treat members of their own frequent flier program better than members of other frequent flier programs. If you fly one of these airlines, it is recommended that you choose that airline.

Some airlines have better earning/redemption charts for your pattern. For example, if you fly on cheap fares on a certain airline often, Turkish might give you miles for it, while Aegean might not. However, Turkish Airlines might charge much more for the redemption that you want to make than Aegean.

Asiana Airlines offers lifetime Star Alliance Gold for 500k miles over life. The other 2 airlines do not offer this benefit.

Asiana Airlines has a credit in the USA and some other countries. If you are interested in credit cards, check to make sure that the program that you join has a credit card in your country.
If you still aren't sure which frequent flyer program is for you after looking these up, feel free to ask on this thread.


Markie - Mod *A

Held for future use.

Best *AA to join?
 

(1) My home airport is LAX
(2) When I travel on business I fly business class and when I travel on holiday I buy econ or prem-econ and try to upgrade with miles to business
(3) I fly 25k-50k per year
(4) I am looking to gain status in *AA so when I fly out of LAX with my family I can check in business class even if we are not flying business. Also for good upgrades options when purchasing cheaper tickets.

(1) SFO
(2) Y (some domestic, some international)
(3) 10-20K
(4) Upgrades to F

(1) What is your home airport?
ZRH

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Y, mostly in S booking class, unfortunately on SQ can't collect miles

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?
Approx 40k per year in S Economy, much more in non-milage classes (thank you SQ)

(4) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Lounge access, upgrades

More information: I'm already FTL with LH and do like it, but with my amount of travel which is unfortunately split in between LH/LX (in S economy) at around 40k/yearly, 25k on EK, and around 100k in non-milage SQ, I would absolutely love to make *G so I could access the *G lounges.

I don't need to requalify on LH for the next 2 years, so I could easily use any program which has a 2-year qualification period.

I looked into TK and Asiana, which seems to have the lowest needed amount of miles, especially Asiana with only 40k during a 2 year period seems extremely low.

I've around 16 European flights (8 R/T on LX, giving me around 1000 miles with exec bonus there each) and a couple of intercontinentals. The intercontinentals will net me the same amount of miles with Asiana (minus the 25% exec bonus) but how about the European ones? With LX/LH, you get a fixed amount of miles (750) no matter how far the distance was for European flights, how would that be with Asiana?

I could hit *G with Asiana over 2 years apparently, when I just drop the intercontinental flights there..

How is the award scheme with Asiana, is it bad? I mean, getting *G seems so easy with them.. there must be something bad about it, no?

Or would any other *airline be better in my case?

Thanks for your help :)

Sorry to disappoint you, but with 10k-20k miles / year you´re unlikely to get any meaningful status, if any at all, with any *A airline. I´d probably join UA MP and hope for the occasional upgrade as a 3P/2P member (afaik 3P status can only be gifted to you by another status member), but as you´re flying out of SFO, your chances of a comp. upgrade (unlimited domestic upgrades on UA/CO) are quite slim.

Please check the stickies in the United MP forum for exact info, but afaik as a 3P/2P member you get *A Silver status incl. business class check-in with UA and 2nd bag free.

Also UA´s mileage requirement for upgrades aren´t too unreasonable.

If I understand you correctly, you are always booked into deep discount economy fare buckets which don´t earn any miles or 50% miles. Personally I would stick with M&M as their mileage redemption chart is reasonable (but not great), you get *S privileges at your home airport and you likely earn quite a few award miles through your CC etc.

If I were you I´d probably become a member of the Maple Leaf Club Worldwide which gives you access to all *A business class lounges and contracted lounges where there´s no *A business class lounge. Alternatively I´d check out Priority Club, although their lounges aren´t as good as most *A lounges.

Regarding upgrades, you´re unfortunately out of luck. Discounted economy fares on SQ/LH/LX are not upgradable, you´d have to spend about twice the amount of money for your tix in order to be eligible for an upgrade (which again would be pretty expensive).

Another option to check out is AC Aeroplan. You need 35k status miles per year in order to earn Elite status (=*G status). Long-haul discounted Y on LH/LX earns 50%, all long-haul flights on UA/CO/US/AC earn 100% miles (in case you´re willing to add one TATL roundtrip to NA per year for leisure) Redemption rates are excellent, but their program obviously is much more beneficial (upgrades on AC operated flights) if you actually fly to NA on a regular basis.

Thanks for your advise. Actually LX S booking class isn't deep discounted but gives 100% on M&M, and Asiana as well. It also gives 750 miles on European flights no matter the distance (deep discounted Eco only gives 125 miles)

I would have 1x North America return, 1x South America return and probably 2x far/middle east return on them per year. Around 20-25k miles (without exec) I think.. so I would make *G on Asiana after 2 years?

The Maple Leaf sounds nice too, but is probably a bit too much for me as I only having approx 15 airport visits where I don't get lounge access a year (those on SQ, and those few with LX where they don't have lounges for *S like GRU, PVG.. at Montreal for example, FTL gets you into the AirCanada lounge when flying LX already, plus any European places I can enter their lounges)

But probably you're right, it's not worth so split up programs just to make *G..

If you fly 35k miles on LX in booking class S (1 TATL trip, 1x Middle East, 1x Asia and 1x South America) I would definitely go with AC/AP as S earns 100% miles and you´d get *G status. Overall I´d say AC is superior to OZ Mileage Club. If your travel plans are uncertain, I´d go with OZ as LX S class also earns 100% miles.

You´re right, if you only don´t get lounge access on 15 flights/year, the MLL Club membership isn´t worth ir.

16K will give you *G in A3

Which Star Alliance Program to join?
 

My apologies if this has been covered before.... I have just recently taken a job in Doha, Qatar and I am a Delta Silver Medallion. Looking at the flight schedules, Star Alliance is the best for me to fly back to my new home in Phoenix, AZ. My question is, do I join Qatar Airways program or do I join US Airways or United/Continental for my Frequent Flier miles to accrue status?

I'm not that familiar with Star Alliance as I grew up in the Dakotas where Northwest/Delta was about all we had, so any help is greatly appreciated. I try to avoid ORD at nearly any cost, but I don't mind making a connection at IAD.

Thanks for your help in advance!

20k, actually - 16k on top of the 4k needed for *S. :D

Downside is, you frequently only get 50-70% mileage on booking classes that earn 100% on most other FFPs. :td:

Need to switch FF program
 

(1) What is your home airport? PEK (Beijing, China)
(2) Do you currently have any status? CA Platinum. It is about as useless as not having one.
(3) What types of fares do you usually buy ? regular to full fare economy
(4) Which airlines/routes do you usually fly? 30-40 PEK-PVG, and 3-4 PEK-LAX and 1-2 PEK-Intl for vacation.
(5) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 70-100k
(6) Do you mainly fly for work or for leisure? / Do you have any flexibility in choosing the airline/fare bucket etc.? Mostly for family reasons, 1-2 China-US for work on regular to full fare economy
(7) What is most important to you in a FFP? upgrades on int´l travel and easy award redemption

Because I now live and work in China, I am somewhat bound by the airlines I can fly with, but I have had enough with the crappy service CA provides and looking to make a change. Thanks for your help.

That´s not an easy one. ;)

I think there are two issues that pretty much contradict each other:

1. CA is the only remaining *A carrier to fly PEK-PVG non-stop. Both Shanghai Airlines and China Eastern Airlines fly this route, but both are supposed to join SkyTeam, so you may be able to get a status match to SkyTeam. (Unfortunately I don´t know enough about SkyTeam to give any helpful advice)

2. Regarding int´l upgrades to North America I think UA and AC are your best bets, but it will very much depend on the exact amount of miles you fly each year:

UA 1k status requires 100k miles each year, you get 6SWUs which you can use to upgrade Y -> C on PEK-SFO-LAX (I assume that´s the route you usually take?).
PEK-SFO-LAX is 13k+ miles x 4 = 52k miles
2 trips for leisure (where?) = 20k-30k miles
So 1k status isn´t impossible, but you´d likely have to modify your flying pattern / do a MR while in the US / hope for a DEQM promo etc.

Especially if you buy the more expensive economy fares, I´d also recommend checking out AC (PEK-YVR-LAX). Elite status (= *G) only requires 35k miles/year and you can upgrade from Y -> C at time of booking using upgrade vouchers, if there is availabiliry and you have bought a B/Y fare (lower fares can only be upgraded a few days before the flight)

I´d probably go for AC due to lounge access in the US, better redepmtion rates, lower threshold for *G status (35k vs. 100k), but you´ll have to make the decision.

Thanks Jasper2009 for your help. PEK-PVG is 1300 miles roundtrip each time, and next year I will go that route every week or just about. I have little choice on that route but everything combined I should be able to reach 100k if I put all miles to one *A program. Would you still recommend AC over UA?

If you will fly 100k miles (all in booking classes that earn 100%) the choice actually is UA 1K or AC SE status.

I´d personally go for AC, but I´m sure some FTers will disagree with me.

UA 1K:
pro: 6SWUs which can be used on most fares / upgrades confirmed at time of booking if there´s availability, upgrading using miles (sometimes with a hefty co-pay), unlimited domestic upgrades, 100% mileage bonus
contra: fuel surcharges on redemptions, redemption rates are ok, but not fantastic, starnet-blocking, no lounge access in NA

AC SE:
pro: lounge access in NA, (nearly unlimited) confirmed int´l upgrades if you fly int´l and book the more expensive B/Y fares, excellent redemption rates, no fuel surcharges on *A partners, 100% mileage bonus
contra: upgrade system not great if you buy cheap economy fares (upgrades can´t be confirmed at time of booking), no upgrades using miles

If you don´t mind spending some extra $$ on B/Y fares and fly via YVR, I´d definitely go with AC. Their C class product is much superior to UA´s old 777 which is often used on the PEK-SFO route. I´d also say that UA´s new C (which is much better than the old C) is inferior to AC C, but not everyone would agree with me on this one.

If you tend to buy cheaper economy fares, I´d probably go with UA due to better upgrade chances.

Thanks Jasper2009 for the detailed response. These are very good insights. Seem like with SWU UA may be the more reliable upgrade choice for me.

(1) What is your home airport?
SFO-SJC / MAA

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ?
Y - or other Economy Fares

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year?

30-40 K Miles ( US-India / within US) Primarilly in Asian Carriers (Cathy / EK)

(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it?
No. However have around 50K RDM with United MP- Accural from Airline partners
Also 20K in 9W (Jet Airways in India) - Keeping for few short domestic award flights)


(5) What is most important to you in a FFP?
Priority Services (Check in / Stand by) and Free Lounge Access and Possible Upgrade (TransPacific with Miles)

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

(7) Preferred Airlines
Nothing in specific - but likes United in US.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? (Can you chooose your airlines, class of service?)
primarily Pleasure - Yes, Can Choose Airlines

(9) What is the most important aspect of a scheme for you?
Upgrades / Lounge Access

Looking for advice on service as well as status match opps. Don't have much to compare with, fly almost always with EK currently, but also use BA, CX occasionally

Thanks in advance,
FF

(1) VIE
(2) economy and economy+
(3) 50k - 100k
(4) nothing on staralliance (skyteam elite+)
(5) upgrades if possible and +1 guest to lounge
(6) Europe
(7) Austrian
(8) both work and pleasure in economy and economy+

what I'm looking for is gold status in star alliance, and I'm not sure I can qualify for 100k miles to be senator in miles and more, since they are not counting segments at all and I still need to fly a bit with skyteam to retrain gold status for 2012

Stupid question, but is it right that if I try to put my miles into an AC account then I won't have access to the C lounge (in ZRH) when flying LX in Y, is that correct? :( (Till I've *G on them, I mean)

Have you considered BD Diamond club? I know that there is potential for it being absorbed to MM, but in mean time, fairly easy to get status and from my experience, redemptions have been fairly easy and attractive from a mileage cost basis. If you can get *G in Diamond club, MM will bring you over as senator and keep it for 2 years (this is what LH has done in the past when acquiring other FF programs)

You should still be able to enter the C lounge in ZRH when flying LX as a FTL. It doesn´t matter what airline´s FFP you credit the flight to.

You only need to show your FTL card and boarding pass to the lounge agent and shouldn´t have any trouble. Same is true for priority check-in, priority boarding and priority security (if applicable, not sure about the details at ZRH). The only difference will be that your status won´t be on the flight manifest, but as the op-up chances as a FTL are pretty much non-existent, I wouldn´t care about that too much.

Thanks a lot :)

With that question answered, I'm going for AC *G next year then :)

Not as shinny as SEN-hood I guess, but should do it for lounge access worldwide :D

I beg your pardon! If you want the AC Elite card, you should be a little more appreciative. :p ;)

I´d say AC E status is more valuable than LH SEN status depending on your flying pattern (upgrades on AC, they even have flat beds on all aircrafts :p)

(1) What is your home airport? YVR
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y or discounted rates
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 25~30K
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? CO Gold, KE Morning Calm
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, maybe upgrade?
(6) Which routes do you fly most often : YVR-ICN
(7) Preferred Airlines : SQ, KE, OZ
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? pleasure

I am trying to decide between CO and AC..
I received CO Gold status via SM this year(from KE), and now I don't know if I should collect the mileage with CO.. the 100% bonus sounds pretty nice, in addition I just found out that the 100% bonus also applies to the AC flights..

Next year I'll have two trips to ICN, which are around 10k+ each, so with the 100% bonus it'll add up to 40k+.. which will make it so easy to maintain my gold status with CO.

Many people say that AC has one of the best FFP around, but I don't see why.. is it about the redemption rate? or low qualifying mile? (35k I believe?)

I admit that it is so much easier to collect miles on AC from using Canadian CCs, but those miles don't qualify for the status, right?

(1) What is your home airport? BWI
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Y and C
(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? USAir Silver (nearly to gold)
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Frequent upgrades on travel and priority services when flying the airline
(6) Which routes do you fly most often? US Domestic
(7) Preferred Airlines? Anything with most routes from BWI
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? Work and pleasure. I am aloowed to select my airlines

Aegan, United or US Air?
 

(1) Home airport? VIE/MXP
(2) Fares? Y discount
(3) Distance miles: 30.000, but many short hops in Europe
(4) I am a M&M Frequent Traveler
(5) Important: Star Alliance Gold perks (priority service, lounge access). I also like to get good deals on awards
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: intra-Europe plus 1-2 times per yr TATL
(7) none especially, but most of my routes are served by LX,OS,LH
(8) I travel on my own budget, i.e. could buy higher fares if there is some value in it.

So far, I came up with the following:
(a) go for Aegan, because they offer 500 miles for every segment on LX, even in E
(b) qualify for gold via segments at United or US Air (I do more than 60 segments). Question: do I get credit for segments, which yield zero miles (like the OS fares in O, and T)?

Which *A FF program (based out of SIN)
 

I've been regularly reading flyertalk for about 5 years now with an occasional post... A friend recently asked me this question and I've been pondering it for a while.. this friend is moving to Singapore (from USA), and is currently is DL Gold (no status with anyone else), and a handful of miles with AA.

Her work will involve travel mostly within Asia, however there will be about 1-2 trips a year to the US (starting with the first trip in early Jan to BOS on UA from SIN in J).

Does it make more sense to sign up for UA MP or SingaporeAirline KrisFlyer (or Lufthansa or ANA?) My gut says MP but i'd like to hear your suggestions...

My logic is as follows. I figure there's very little use of miles for personal travel within asia because its so cheap to travel within asia AND the taxes on award tickets just don't make it worth it... so its probably best to use miles mainly for long haul redemptions and/or upgrades. And for that, US based ff programs just tend to be easier to deal with in terms of redemptions, and they also allow you to do "more" w/ your miles (upgrades from low coach fares, etc)... but i'd love to hear thoughts on this.. what would you do if you were moving to singapore and were starting from scratch?

(1) What is your home airport? OSL

(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? Economy tickets, cheapest possible but still want to earn 100%

(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 30K - 45K

(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Priority services, good award redemption rates, free lounge access, possibility to receive *A gold for lifetime if I travel even more later.

(6) Which routes do you fly most often? European, Transpacific

(7) Preferred Airlines: I have no preferred Airlines.

(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? I can choose my airlines and class of service. I mainly travel for pleasure.

Flying from VIE, I would initially recommend BMI diamond club. Reasonably easy to get to *Gold (16k miles gets you silver, another 38k beyond gets *G) and also has family plan feature to combine miles of up to 8 family members (though family miles dont count to status, they really add up quick for redemption). Lounge access as *G is fairly easy across the *A footprint with *Gold.

Couple of caveats:

A merger of BMI diamond and LH's Miles and More is imminent and most feel it will happen sometime next year. In the past, when Miles and More acquired other FF plans (Swiss/austrian etc), they would grant a 2 year extension of *gold into miles/more senator, but past actions dont guarantee future actions by LH. If you can get gold relatively quickly, then this may be the way to go. Going forward, being based in VIE, Miles and More could be a very practical FF program.

BMI redemptions currently are quite attractive. They offer Miles + Cash redemption to really make redemptions cost and miles effective.

BMI is generous in miles crediting. Business class fares miles usually have a 2x multiplier, and they have minimum miles for any leg (in other words, even though munich to nuremburg is only about 110 mile flight, they credit 300 or 600 miles, depending on class.

I usually fly biz class fares and find their crediting very attractive and thats what lured me to their scheme.

It only took me 2 transatlantic runs this year to gain gold status


Hopefully my lengthy answer helped.

You´re right that miles earned through CCs etc. do not count for status.

Basically there are status miles (which usually can only be generated by flying) and award/redeemable miles. Status miles determine your status and are reset to 0 at the end of each year, award miles can be redeemed for flights etc. When you take a flight you usually earn the same amount of status and award miles. The only exception to this is "Elite bonus miles" which depends on the FFP, e.g. LH M&M status members earn a 25% miles bonus that both counts as status and award miles, while Aeroplan status members earn 25%-100% extra award miles (bonus doesn´t count towards status), CO bonus miles also don´t count as status miles.

Regarding your question: In order to earn any (meaningful) status, you´ll have to choose between KE and Star Alliance carriers. (IMO, SkyTeam is an overall much inferior alliance, so I´d go with *A)

Another problem you have: If you mainly fly discounted or even regular economy fares (vs. full fare economy which is ridiculously expensive), you´ll often earn zero miles when flying SQ or a only 50%-70% with SQ/OZ. If you fly CO/US/AC you´ll earn 100% miles on all int´l flights regardless of booking class.

If I were you, I´d go for AC/Aeroplan:

- Elite (= *A Gold) status only requires 35k status miles
- lounge access included (with CO you can´t use the lounges on domestic/transborder flights in the US)
- excellent redemption rates (do a search for "mini-RTW" in the AC forum), generally more generous stopover / routing rules
- more opportunities to earn award miles living in Canada (CC etc.)
- upgrade credits (they´re currently changing from paper certs to e-upgrades, so the exact details for next year haven´t been released yet), generally you can upgrade 4 days before departure when travelling in discounted economy on int´l routes (if there are seats available) or you can confirm seats at time of booking when you buy more expensive fares (CO/UA only offers SWUs = int´l upgrades to their top tier members). The advantage of CO/UA is that you can also upgrade using miles, which you can´t on AC (at least not at the moment), but I usually don´t consider using miles for upgrades a good investment.

Anyhow, AP is most beneficial if you actually fly AC due to the upgrades (which can only be used on AC operated flights) and the miles bonus (50% for Es on AC/UA/CO operated flights and 25% on some other carriers, but not SQ).

Welcome to Flyertalk! :) and ^ for doing some research!

I used to be in a similar situation like you were (mainly doing intra-European flights on LH in discounted Y, a few long-haul flights to North America in Y)

Regarding qualifying on segments: Booking classes which don´t earn any miles also don´t count for status. Most discounted booking classes on intra-European flights on LH (E, L, T) and OS only earn 125 miles with M&M and zero miles with most other FFPs. (so option b is likely not feasible)

When I did about 30k miles/year I switched all my flights to Air Canada in order to achieve Elite status (= Star Alliance Gold, equivalent to LH M&M Sen status) and maximize the benefits associated with E status.

AC Elite status requires 35k status miles (= 3 TATL flights), provides all benefits associated with *G status, plus upgrade certs for flights operated by AC, all int´l flights operated by AC/UA/CO earn 100% miles with AP and you can also choose to earn a 50% miles bonus (while many booking classes on LH/LX/OS operated flights only earn 50% miles with M&M and the miles bonus is 25%)

US has one of the worst status programs IMO (no lounge access in the US, no upgrades, no mileage bonus, overall a crappy airline, redemption rates are good which is why everyone is buying US miles like mad, but redemption rates will inevitably inflate soon)

Aegean is a good option if you can´t make status with any other airline, but otherwise I´d avoid it. Also note that many booking classes earn fewer miles with Aegean than with M&M, AP etc., so be very careful when booking a flight.

Hope this helps!

Do you fly close to 100k miles or is it more like 50k miles?
Which destinations do you usually fly to?

Also, what do you mean by "economy+"? E+ on United Airlines or premium economy on (which airline?)?

I´m happy to try to help, but a bit more info would be helpful.

Cheers

May I ask what destinations outside Europe you fly to? (Transpacific = TPAC usually refers to flights between Asia/Australia and North America, I guess you mean flights from Europe to Asia/Pacific?)

With 30k-45k miles / year your best option to earn *G status are:

- Aegean (16k/18k miles)
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- Asiana
- Aeroplan (35k miles)

TK and OZ both require something like 30k miles/year, but you´d have to look up the exact requirements...

Asiana also offers a very interesting lifetime elite status program which counts all *A flights. (UA and AC also offer lifetime status, but only count flights operated on their own metal)

From the info you´ve provided I´d probably go for OZ, but I´d also check out the other options.

Thanks for the advice.

I already have M&B with Aegean but do really consider to use Asiana Club instead. Mostly because of the possibility to reach One Million miles if I travel enough but also because they probably have more campains than Aegean.

I would probably been a member of SAS Eurobonus if my points did not expire in 5 years. It is also a bit harder to reach *Gold.

The best reason to have Eurobonus is the credit card from DinersClub - 15% bonus on everything I shop. I can of course have both - a mix of Asiana and Eurobonus: 15% bonus with the cc on all tickets I buy and the ordinary miles with Asiana. I saw an article about that not too long ago, the marketing executive said it was "OK" to earn bonus miles with their Co-branded cc even with their competitors that are not a part of *A (such as low cost airline Norwegian). :D

Thanks a lot!

I actually never knew that the bonus miles don't count as EQMs.
Now I think I should go with AP.. I think I could earn AP Prestige on year 2012, probably not enough for Elite, when my CO Gold expires.. but no more *G benefits :(
I could try SM to UA from KE, as my KE Morning Calm expires at the end of January 2012.. so there's another year of *G.
By then.. I'll figure something out! :p

*S strategy
 

Hello,

I am *S and flying on following route SLP-TSR aprox. 3 times a year. Sometimes is MEX-TSR.
This year I flew on SLP-IAH-MUC-TSR route more often with Continental...
I am now thinking of flying with Lufthansa on MEX-FRA-MUC-TSR route...

Which would be better for me as a *S with M&M Programm? in terms of upgrades, more privileges? Never hit an upgrade flying with Continental...
only once on Lufthansa on a short intra european route....

Many thanks in advance.

(1) What is your home airport? SYD
(2) What types of fares do you usually buy ? full fare economy
(3) How many miles do you usually fly each year? 40k
(4) Do you have any kind of status at present? What is it? Qantas gold/ OneWorld Sapphire.
(5) What is most important to you in a FFP? Lounge access, expedited check in, extra baggage, upgrades
(6) Which routes do you fly most often: Australia - NZ, internal flights in Australia, Australia - Europe or US.
(7) Preferred Airlines: nothing preferred
(8) Do you travel for work or pleasure? about 50/50 work/leisure.

I'm planning a RTW trip business class where a large number of the flights will be on Lufthansa. I'm looking for a FF scheme that will status match my One World Sapphire and be useful for being at the bottom end of the world.