Better Star Alliance mileage program?
 

Hey all, long time reader, novice poster.


Firstly I would like to thank you for your time in reading this post.


I'll get straight down to business.


I signed up for UA Mileage Plus earlier this year. I did it because I booked a flight from ORD - NRT for 350 on their site.


Found out at the airport that the flight was a codeshare with ANA, and it was an ANA flight. Was looking forward to thousands of miles, but they just gave me 1750 each way.


Apparently, they adopted new rules before the flight.


Long story short, I've flown 22k+ miles this year, and UA acknowledges this, but my balance is 6K in miles. for an AC flight, they gave me 25%. a Swiss flight, same. and now I just flew ORD to IST on Turkish, and they say the flight is ineligible for miles cause the class code was 'U', which was worth 100% base miles in June of this year.
I flew AMS back to ORD on United, and it was awful. old plane, mean flight crew, BYO device, but nowhere to charge it (and the wifi was down)


Can anyone please help me with some info on a mileage program that doesn't play these games? I'd love to sign up for miles with star alliance directly and earn gold status on base miles alone, but there is no such program. The best I can find in a cursory search was Air Canada, but I am not yet a member and am not aware of their programs pitfalls.


HELP!


and thank you :)

I just took a look at aeroplan, and Turkish U Class is considered business class, and I get a bonus on miles...

Better Star Alliance miles programs?
 

Hey all, long time reader, novice poster.


Firstly I would like to thank you for your time in reading this post.


I'll get straight down to business.


I signed up for UA Mileage Plus earlier this year. I did it because I booked a flight from ORD - NRT for 350 on their site.


Found out at the airport that the flight was a codeshare with ANA, and it was an ANA flight. Was looking forward to thousands of miles, but they just gave me 1750 each way.


Apparently, they adopted new rules before the flight.


Long story short, I've flown 22k+ miles this year, and UA acknowledges this, but my balance is 6K in miles. for an AC flight, they gave me 25%. a Swiss flight, same. and now I just flew ORD to IST on Turkish, and they say the flight is ineligible for miles cause the class code was 'U', which was worth 100% base miles in June of this year.
I flew AMS back to ORD on United, and it was awful. old plane, mean flight crew, BYO device, but nowhere to charge it (and the wifi was down)


Can anyone please help me with some info on a mileage program that doesn't play these games? I'd love to sign up for miles with star alliance directly and earn gold status on base miles alone, but there is no such program. The best I can find in a cursory search was Air Canada, but I am not yet a member and am not aware of their programs pitfalls.


HELP!


and thank you http://cdn.flyertalk.com/forum/images/smilies/smile.gif

Each program has its own pitfalls. There's no free lunch with FF programs, it just depends on which carriers, which fares, and which routes you fly. If you're always looking to fly on the cheapest UA fare, and cover lots of long routes, then SQ's KrisFlyer is worth a look. But you can expect to find Catch-22s in every program.

I am not a Star Alliance flyer, but I think you missed a footnote on the Aeroplan page:

https://www3.aeroplan.com/earn_miles...urkishAirlines

Nothing new, any recent changes have been for the positive as ANA/NH has become a Joint Venture partner.

In Star Alliance, you earn based on the flight operator -- codeshares make no difference. In Star Alliance, you earn the best flying your program's flights and earn less when flying a partner -- especially on discounted flights.


All the *A programs do this to some degree and UA is among the best. There is no prefect program (SQ does well for UA operated flights). So it will depend on the mixture of carriers to optimize this. Again UA is better than most.

So who do you fly the most?

You need to watch out of award flight fees, so called fuel or international surcharges. That can be quite nasty on some programs.

As this is a general *A query, will move this to the *A Forum where is this a regular question.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

thanks Mia, you're absolutely correct. maybe AP isn't a good choice in that case

WineCountry, Thank you for the response! my problem is, I'm the guy who flies with just about everyone. This year star alliance cornered the market. Last year, in was OneWorld. I search for flights out of ORD and basically book insane deals. I didn't really have an aptitude to fly to Tokyo, but 350 r/t nonstop is just too good to pass up. with OneWorld, I just put in my AA number, and I earned the base miles on my AA account, regardless of the carrier.


I signed up for MP for the same purpose. I can't really say that I picked UA for more UA flights, I've only flown UA one time from AMS to ORD (ord to ams r/t w/ Swiss) and it was awful. I would rather not fly them again if I don't have to.


Then again, this year I flew ANA, Swiss, AC, UA, and Turkish. ANA 5x base fare, AC 25% base miles, Swiss varied, and UA the base miles. UA gave me nothing for my Turkish U Class flight. before June 1st 2016, Aeroplan considered that business class.


I guess I'm just frustrated

Sublimeload Welcome to FT

The grass in not always greener on the other side
As the post above many ecomony fares do not earn100% on any airline ffp. This is the way it is.
What to you is "better"? What are you objectives from a ffp?

USA based airline ffp's tend to be more generous (status benefits/earn/burn/upgrades/award cost/award cash surcharges/expiry/affiliated credit card ff mile earning/promotions) compared to non USA based airline ffp’s (even after the recently announced changes to some USA ffp’s). But if you are not flying the airline of your ffp the useful benefits are somewhat limited.

But with the change of most USA based ffp's to revenue based for flights on own airline, flying the airline with best fares and best schedule that matches your requirements now has merit. And then treating any ff miles as a bonus, which may or may not, be able to be used.

Earning miles from non flying activities is easier with an airline of your home country.

Frequent flyer miles are not equal to earn or burn between ffp’s. 10,000 frequent flyer miles in 1 ffp may get you a longer award flight than 15,000 frequent flyer miles in another ffp. Each airline ffp has different rules for using (burning) those miles/points for awards and different copay/surcharge $$ fees. There are award cash surcharges with some ffp’s/routes/airlines. With awards taxes are the same for all airlines for the same route and class. Award surcharge can/are different.



Some threads in this topic:-
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...help-here.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/star-...post-here.html

Mwenenzi, Thank you for the reply. I completely understand what you are staying 100%. I guess for me it is just frustrating to have flown multiple OneWorld airlines in the past, and gotten full base miles on my AA account.


but per your quote, that's what troubles me. I compared similar flights on UA and AC, and I saw that the average cost of intl award travel was much higher on UA as compared to AC. Of course, I do not know what the surcharges are going to be on either ffp, as I have not earned an award yet on either AL.


I don't have an award credit card, as I don't want to pay $95/yr.


I'm just a backpacker who finds the cheapest flight to a far-away place, and only brings a carry on. and in being cheap, I would like to earn base miles for my flights, and I get frustrated when my Turkish flight to BCN (27,524 base miles) is ineligible. to me, that's a free domestic flight

I assume you aren't aware to the changes AA made earlier this year. You earn miles in the same model that United does now, so your flight to Tokyo will only net you roughly the same amount because it is now determined by how much you paid instead of how far you fly.

When I think about it, I guess I would like to have an account in each of the respective alliances in order to accrue ffm. AA earned my respect by allowing me to earn 100% base miles on all flights booked on their partners. I gave my award to my mother so she could come visit.


And when I really think about it, I would like to earn priority/premier status on an alliance. I think that's whats bothering me. I'm not loyal to any one AL, but would like recognition in that I flew enough base miles this year, so far, to earn star alliance gold (50k)

Babypuwet, you would be correct. SA cornered the market this year, and as such I have only flown SA member airlines.


Would it then at this time be advantageous to start a miles and smiles account to collect on my Turkish miles (since it seems most if not all partners deem that booking class ineligible)?

Not all Oneworld airline fares earn 100%.
Cathay www.wheretocredit.com/cx
Qantas www.wheretocredit.com/qf
BA www.wheretocredit.com/ba

Sorry to sound like a novice but OMG THAT'S A SITE??? THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SHARING THAT!!! you seriously just made my day :D