Easiest program for *G
 

I need to change my affiliation from Aeroplan in order to retain *G as I cannot guarantee that I will fly five segments on them per year per their rule change of last year. I live in Europe and normally accumulate somewhere between 35-50K status miles per year, economy, mainly on LH, TK, TP, LX, and SN Intra-Europe, and UA TATL. Any recommendations? Not worried about redeeming miles as much as the perks of *G.

A3 is the answer to your question.

Close behind are TK and OZ.

Am I reading it right, 20,000 miles to *G? If so I would wonder when the ax is going to fall, ala a swift Aeroplan-style kick in the butt

19k actually. They give 1k miles free :)

With the 3 year validity period, I don't think the axe falling would be that big of a deal - you've got yourself covered for 3 years anyway. That said, the requirement that you credit miles to A3 when using A3*G benifits is kinda annoying, even if it makes logical sense.

Watch out for <100% EQM when flying discounted Y fares and crediting to A3. I thought about switching to A3 recently, but decided not to because some discounted Y fares only earn 50% EQM.

LAX

OZ is 40,000 miles within two years and you get *G for the balance of the qualification period plus an additional two years. Plus no "minimum segments on home airline" rule.

On the downside, they also have more restricted earnings tables (many fares do not qualify for miles at all or earn reduced miles) than AC/UA/CO. And using miles is a problem (high taxes/fees and everything is mileage based, so it often costs a boatload of miles for a short trip). Still, lounge access is a definite plus, even on purely domestic US itineraries and so is pre-boarding, since that is no longer a right/privilege afforded to silvers on most airlines.

On the other hand, even *G is worth less than it used to be (many airlines have changed the additional luggage allowance to one extra bag or 20 extra kilos instead of three bags regardless). Only you can say if it's really worth it to you to get status on an airline you rarely fly. I did and I'm enjoying some perks but have not yet decided whether or not I will re-qualify. The "cost" was/is the difference between first and biz on a transatlantic or transpacific reward with LH.

I think you are right about this. My problem is that my employer forces me to fly UA TATL, and A3 has one of the only programs that seems to give 50% for discounted Y fares on UA. Those trips are usually my big earners. I tallied all of my segments for the year with respect to various programs and it looks like BMI might be the optimal program for me with respect to getting *G. Only non-earners for me are K fares on LH and L fares on SN.

Other option is to take an expensive MR on AC to get my five segments.

As for the value of *G, it certainly helped in the past with baggage allowances, particularly when taking the entire family. Lounge access is nice also.

No no no!

Whatever you do DO NOT use BD.

They are about to leave *A within the next 6 months, and status/miles with them would be utterly useless.

If you can get the 20k miles even after the 50% penalty, A3 is without a doubt the better option.

Well, I definitely did not know that. It's amazing what you get from FT!

When you leave AP make sure you don't fly AC anymore! They retaliate by not fully crediting the miles flown. When you apply for missing miles AC insists they're right even when they're not. In such a situation there's no remedy: you're S.O.L.

Huh?

I did have more than a few times when my AC flights didn't credit properly, but I have to say I found their customer service staff were very, very nice on the times that I called and I eventually got credit for all segments. On the whole I was very happy with their program and even AC's inflight service. I just couldn't meet the new requirements.

As a footnote, when I tried to add A3 to my corporate profile I found that they seemingly have every program in the world, from Aces to Zip Air and everything in between, but no A3. Their only advice - add it in as a comment.

As long as I have been collecting on AP I also didn't have any problems with missing miles. Since my switch all miles from airlines other than AC have been credited and NONE of the five AC flight segments I've flown have been credited correctly.

This is the last response I got from AC Customer Relations on this matter:

Coincidence? What are the chances?