Join a FF that I never fly with?
 

Hello all! So I've been weighing my options and it seems Air Asiana has the best offer where I can get star alliance gold with just 40k miles within 24 months.

I have a few concerns, however. I never fly with Air Asiana because East Asia is never in my destinations. I would like to join their FF but let's say I join, will I be able to purchase flights with my accumulated miles? On Air Asiana I cannot even enter my home airport nor many of my destinations (some europe, some middle east). I have experience with Skyteam members where I cannot get the good routes because the system forces me to use their airline instead of their partner (which offers a better, one stop instead of two route).

Also do you pay tax when purchasing flights with miles (some don't)? And is Air Asiana good for collecting miles themselves? I hear United is better but they have high requirements for gold and I really like lounge access and priority boarding.

Thanks for any info!

edit: i double posted without noticing mods approve replies, whoops.

First, just a point of maintenance, it's Asiana Airlines, not Air Asiana. Also known here on FT as OZ, their IATA code.

I believe you're ok with OZ even if you never fly on their airline. Their criteria for Star Gold is pretty good compared to most. One thing to be careful of, and please check before committing to OZ or any other program is minimum segment or mileage requirements to qualify for status. United is 4 segments on their own flights, ANA is 50% of the miles for the status level, many airlines have such a requirement.

As for spending miles, you may have to call in for awards, but any Star Alliance flights are eligible subject to routing rules and *A award availability, etc. I've never used OZs award search so don't know how it is for online awards on partner airlines.

Something else to look at that's more in your region is TK (Turkish). Their qualification and re-qualification is also pretty easy, but redemption is more difficult. If you're ever flying on certain cheap TK fares that's the only place to get mileage credit.

You'll be paying tax on all airlines. Fuel surcharge is a different story. Using either OZ or TK, you'll pay fuel surcharge on most redemptions.

Asiana Airlines... I don't know why I kept saying Air Asiana.

That's a good point. I was considering Aegean and I noticed that you need to fly a minimum amount of two flights with them and 24,000 miles to get gold with star alliance. :eek: that would be amazing if I was based in Greece! But looking at Asiana, I found this Accumulate 40,000 miles by boarding Asiana Airlines or Star Alliance flights, or board 50 Asiana Airlines flights within 24 months from the base date* from http://us.flyasiana.com/C/en/homepag...0&menuType=CMS where Diamond get's you *A gold. So I think it's good to go, I'll call them to recheck though!

As for Turkish, I haven't flown much with them but they seem great and they really practical for me but their miles expire way to quickly to be beneficial for me as I don't travel alot. good consideration though.

Gotchya with the tax, fuel charges, and booking mile flights, Thanks a lot for the info! ^ :)

There is currently no requirement to fly Asiana to attain or maintain elite status on their FFP.

Careful there. You need either 2 flights + 12k miles or 24k miles to reach silver status, and then you need an additional 4 flights + 24k miles or 48k miles to reach gold.

So if you are starting from scratch, you need to collect 6 flights + 42k miles, or 72k miles to reach *G, all this within one year.

When starting from scratch OZ is easier IMHO, while I find TK is easier to maintain with the split requirement over year 1 and year 2 of status.

^

Oh, It's an additional with Aegean, didn't know that. Good thing I'm not even considering them! I see myself going with Aegean but I'd really like TK if their miles didn't expire. I'll think about it!

Thanks both of you

A3 miles do not expire will you have a flight activity once every 3 years ;)

What does the A3 designation mean? From Turkish's website what I understand is that miles expire after three years regardless of activity.

A3 mean Aegean.

Most programs have a hard date on miles expiration. There are only a handful of programs outside of North America who use a rolling expiration date with activity, so you can also expect your OZ miles to expire within 3 years if you don't spend them.

Not so. OZ has fixed expiration date. 10 years for general members, 12 years for elite members.@:-)

http://us.flyasiana.com/C/pdf/Downlo...ACguide_en.pdf

^