BB, I also had 100% luck on upgrades when AC was selling the certificates for points. One of the reasons I switched to CP was the way AC handled dropping that, they just stopped one day and six weeks later the statement came that they had abandoned it. Luckily I read about it in Douglas McArthur's column in the Globe and got one last set. Which I probably won't use now (my Ottawa-based friends in Long Beach will probably make good use of them, but of course come February I'll offer them here!).

What really upset me was that they could have solved the problem, while also getting points off their books, but doubling or tripling the price of the certificates. They were 28000pt/8 (2 to upgrade Elite YOW-LAX, and only 1 to upgrade SE YOW-LAX!). That's $105 worth of points for an at-time-of-booking upgrade for SE! No wonder they were popular. But I still got 100% with my 72hour advance.

On another subject mentioned, my guess is that next year SE will have 96 hours to book in advance. I understand that last year was 72/48h (for SE/E) and they went to anytime/72h. Meanwhile CP is 100h/72h, which makes more sense from a business POV (although I'd prefer AC's if I were SE).

andrew

Dorian and Jet,

Do not see how the elite levels can be matched up when we have very different airlines servicing very different routes in terms of geography and scale.

Take for instance in NZ, the longest domestic flight you can take is around 800km! (AKL/ZQN - not exactly a regular route). Therefore for elites of NZ's program to make say 100k miles to be equivalent with UA or other top elite levels would entail either an insane amount of domestic travel or alot of overseas travel (luckily NZ is miles from anywhere ). Also you need to look at country factors in NZ flying often for business and regular short visits overseas (to Australia for instance) as still considered unusual compared with perceptions elsewhere (may be a "south island thing").

Other factor is to take into account cost of tickets and how that effects flying patterns. NZ is one of the most expensive per mile country I have seen. Makes Australia look cheap.

What the airlines have done is factor in a % of their pax that they want at each elite level and taylored their system to that. So that there are essentially the same % of elite pax, and of course there are going to be "hordes" of UA elites because they have a massive program. As long as each keeps to its percentages in line then it is relatively "fair". Also it is not like silvers get a huge amount of benefits in reality (no lounge access, no "priority baggage", etc etc).

I am sure that these factors also affect what occurs overseas and why there are differences between programmes.

Mark

Koru Flyer, yes of course you have a valid point. The alliance privileges, however, matter only when you are travelling on a carrier other than your "base." So while I don't think Thai should be required to change their own 15,000 mile level in their program, an argument could be made for *Silver to be granted only at 25,000.

But I realize the game is stacked in UA and LH's favor most of the time because of the relative "ease of financial burden" to make 1K or Senator compared with 100K miles on TG or NZ. Remember, though, that miles on all carriers count as status miles. This helps to even the field a bit.

On a side note, I think it's a crock that I earn only 50% of LH miles in coach... but that's a whole other thread.

The comparison continues (air and qualifying miles only, not hotels, cars, credit cards)(to end of Sept)

AC (as SuperElite)
Total miles including bonuses: 213,334
(some of these will contribute to an additional fall promo bonus of 10K miles based on segments that I will not receive until November)
Total status miles: 72,317

LH (as Senator)
Total miles including bonuses 104,359*
Total status miles: 67,359

UA (as 1K)
-- see final post for corrections

*If I was Senator I might have flown a LH plane across the Atlantic 4 times for this extra 10000 air (but not status) miles. This may have only been applicable to flights departing/arriving in US so I may not have taken advantage of it but I have given LH the benefit of the doubt on this one. This number also includes 7K and 20K bonuses for reaching 35K and 20K for requalifying as Senator.

The AC fall promo bonus will continue to add more value.

[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 03-25-2001).]

did you include the trshhold-bonus you receive with LH (as a non-german-resident: 7'000 miles when passing 35'000 status-miles, and another 20'000 miles when becoming Senator with 100'000 miles?). Plus LH did credit this summer till now (I have no idea how long this lasts) 2'500 transatlantic-bonus per segment in eco/business, 5'000 in first.

And probably you didn't include that, until now, LH did 1 out of 4 segments give me wrong credits (the upgraded class instead of the paid class ...)

Numbers above now also reflect Rudi's bonuses.

Do you get the 7000 (10000 in Germany) for reaching 35K qualifying miles every year or just when you qualify/requalify for FF?

With the two year Senator qualifying rule, I am not sure that would count in the first year after qualifying for Senator?

If it does, I will change the Senator part of my chart to also add the 7K and 10K miles.

GOOD GOING RUDI! Hope you get a few more unexpected bonuses.

the bonus (ff and Senator) is also for renewing (but that may not be every year - may be it is only for every renewal nad my Senator card is good till march-2002 ...). The official text reads:

The story continues (in my favor--hopefully next year's choice will be as fruitful)

To end of December with tickets booked--I still am waiting to hear about another trip in December that will almost certainly happen)

AC (as SuperElite)
Total miles including bonuses: 307,762
Total status miles: 102,653

LH (as Senator)
Total miles including bonuses 142,865*
Total status miles: 105,865

UA (as 1K)
Total miles including bonuses 65,552
Total status miles: 60,052

*If I was Senator I might have flown a LH plane across the Atlantic 4 times for this extra 10000 air (but not status) miles. This may have only been applicable to flights departing/arriving in US so I may not have taken advantage of it but I have given LH the benefit of the doubt on this one. This number also includes 7K and 20K bonuses for reaching 35K and for requalifying as Senator.

The AC fall promo bonus did add greatly to the value of my air miles.


[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 03-25-2001).]

from a european point of view.

NZ F Fra - Lax - Fra
Base miles: some 12.000

Mileage accrual with LH
34.000 (base + 200% in F) in total for status,too

with UA
12.000 + 6.000 fare bonus = 18.000 (status 12.000)


5 intra german flights in biz (10 segs)

with LH 1.000 min + 1.000 biz bonus = 2.000 per segment
= 20.000 (status miles,too)

with UA 500 min + 125 biz bonus = 625 per seg
= 6.250 (5.000 status)

Total from oct, 9th - nov, 17th

LH 54.000 status, too
UA 24.250 status 17.000

Quite impressing, isn't it ?
LH got me more than double the miles over UA and even more than triple counting for status.

With a RTW (F) in December I'll reach Senator in 3 months (base miles: 28.000 / LH some 90.000 status miles) With UA MP I'd just end half way to 1 K with these trips alltogether (UA 42.000 miles - 28.000 status only). It's even more impressive when comparing the mileage needed for status (150.000 for Senator an M&M to 100.000 for 1 K with MP)




[This message has been edited by bernie (edited 11-18-1999).]

Plus you get access to US domestic Red Carpet Lounges for free!

LH is definitely the way to go if you are paying business and first class fares.

plus free Scandinavian Lounge access, that�s somewhat SK�s first class lounge (SK doesn�t offer first class seats) accessible for LH Senators too (I am actually sitting in SK�s Scandinavian Lounge in CPH - just above their business class lounge) with free Inernet access (as in AC�s Marple Leafe Lounges) - waiting/ralxing before my last after PIP-rtw-segment CPH-ZRH today.

The story ends here (with last recalculations, some of which were slightly out in previous posts)

AC (as SuperElite)
Total miles including bonuses: 321,118
Total status miles: 107,452 (may still try to top up to 110K for those last 2 upgrades)

LH (as Senator)
Total miles including bonuses 141,365*
Total status miles: 104,365

UA (as 1K)
Total miles including bonuses 65,552Total status miles: 60052

*If I was Senator I might have flown a LH plane across the Atlantic 4 times for this extra 10000 air (but not status) miles. This may have only been applicable to flights departing/arriving in US so I may not have taken advantage of it but I have given LH the benefit of the doubt on this one. This number also includes 7K and 20K bonuses for reaching 35K and for requalifying as Senator.

The AC fall promo bonus added greatly to the value of my air miles.

Cost per air mile = 4 cents CAD (2.5 US). Cost per status mile = 11 cents CAD (7 US)

Clearly AC was the winner on air miles. Both AC and LH would get me into the highest tier on those airlines. UA would only get me into their middle tier (PremEx). All would be Star Gold though.


[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 12-09-1999).]

[This message has been edited by BlondeBomber (edited 03-25-2001).]

LH: there is probably NO requalification bonus (those 7'000 for ff, 20'000 for Senator, for non-germany-based members). I have now over 150'000 status miles with LH (100'000 made me Senator) and no requalification bonus for the second time I reached ff (35'000) - or may be that I just didn't receive the requalification bonus as I did this plus-miles in the same 12-months-qualification period.

LH: THE 100'000 miles-limit with LH would have made BlondeBomber Senator till end of february 2002 (TWO!). No mileage struggle would be necessary with the LH program in the whole year 2000 - the Requalification period starts only from march-1-2001 till feb-2002! So, somewhat, the status miles achieved with LH's-ff-program value twice as much as other *Alliance-status miles!

[This message has been edited by Rudi (edited 12-10-1999).]

Other than earning miles, one has to see the benefits of each STAR alliance based membership.

I can say that LH's programme is good only if you want to earn miles (lots of it if travelling in Business or First Class with its x2, x3 point accumulation). LH is good when it comes to guaranteeing last seat availability in economy or business class if you're a Senator. But the programme falls short of offering complimentary upgrades when compared to other STAR programmes like AC or UA. We still have to 'pay' for our upgrades. I wouldn't count the oneway upgrade within Europe after accruing 50K miles generous.

AC's programme runs better if one likes the system wide upgrades. But that may all change in the future I see. I am not familiar with UA's programme so I won't say much here.

Now if you want to ..... about something - it's ANSETT's programme. I was downgraded from Diamond (STAR GOLD) to Platinum (also STAR GOLD). The only benefit that I will not be getting in dropping one level is ONE domestic upgrade coupon, and 5kg less in excess luggage allowance (on international flights) which is only 10kg extra. Other than that - zilch in promos, additional points, or even preferred seatings or even last seat availability. That is one of the reasons why the Lufthansa Miles and More dept in Sydney is getting swamped with more new members each day!

Footnote: I earned roughly the same number of qualifying miles in 1998 (105000) and 1999 (107000) but only earned 245000 air miles in 1998 and a whopping 318000 air miles in 1999 (not including car rentals, hotels and credit card purchases).

AC had two significant promos this year that I was able to take advantage of.