Comp, Program Possibilities Switching from UA to AC or LH
 

As a UA 1K, at least half of my mileage is international (Europe, Asia, Australia, Canada), but virtually always on the lowest available economy fare, as it is 95% leisure travel. The exception might be a purchased RTW ticket in C class. What are the odds of getting comped to a specific elite tier in the AC program (where I'm currently a non-status member) or the LH program (not presently a member). And which program is likely to be more attractive for this travel profile, whether comped or not?

AC may be possible. You'd have to ask. But it is fairly easy to get to Elite at only 35k miles.

LH is no way, no in our lifetimes as far as anyone knows.

Sorry to disappoint you - AC specifically will not comp members from other *A airlines. Doesn't hurt to ask though.l

LH doesn't comp other airlines status (they may 'give away' HON status to high ranking HR people like our FT merry who are deciding about Mio £ travel budgets ...)

AC (in Switzerland) did offer me to comp my 1K status with AC highest status, but that was 3 years ago and I declined.

What about the other alliances/carriers, ie.AF,BA, etc.

Anyone getting status comps these days with non*A carriers?

We got comped to Plat with AA...

If you are an Asian resident, NW will match status.

Dave - Japan

If AC started comping UA status, I would expect to see a run on their program as you guys scramble to "protect" yourselves from the possible collapse of UA and Mileage Plus. This would be a very dangerous precident for AC or any other STAR carrier to set, and would be like announcing a "run on the bank" vis a vis the viability of UA. It could also swamp Aeroplan which in 2001 had about 10K top tier SuperElites [1K], 83K Elites [PremEx] and 210K Prestiges [Premier].

AC and other STAR carriers might consider comping a non-NAmerican UA elite, on a basis such as Empress has explained: contact a sales office and guarantee a certain amount of business to AC.

Another reason such comps, particularly to Elite [SE would be highly unlikely], would be difficult for AC to rationalize is that, with STARGold status from another member carrier, one gets access on UA domestic/NAmerican flights to all the RCCs. This would be a savings of several hundred dollars a year to UA fliers who would no longer have to buy separate memberships, and thus become a substantial liability to AC since it would be billed every time such a [former UA] member used a RCC.

Another suggestion that I read somewhere here is to book flights with your UA number to get the 1K perks then switch to an AC or LH number at the gate to build status on that airline. A 35K miles *A gold level on AC WITH free RCC access is pretty tempting. Of course, you will forgo the mileage bonus on UA flights but it may still be worthwhile...

I'm actually playing around with doing this for next year. I'll be 1P on UA this year and would probably repeat next year but it may be close. I'd miss the double miles (only about 4000 miles on AC this year) but free RCC access sounds good. Any advice give the current situation?

Mike

While we AC elites don't get 100% mileage bonuses like M+ flyers, our threshold bonuses work out to 95K bonus miles after 100k qmiles flown.

Those threshold bonuses are earned on all q-mile flights, not just AC flights.

mpc1

Thanks....this is useful info.

Also lots of useful AC-specific information in response to similar questions posed here and here.

Mike

just wondering if anyone has considered or gone for TG ROP? i'm looking at it as a secondary FFP....

no elite level bonus miles, but apparently you get a round-trip UG upon reaching Gold - basically the equivalent of 2 UA SWUs. gold seems pretty painless to reach too - 50k miles in 1 year or 80k miles in 2 years, plus the F/C/J bonuses count towards status...

any thoughts?

niels