I wonder if you can help? I am a rather disgruntled member of the oneworld alliance (Sapphire status) based in the UK and Spain, and would like to move to the flexibility and greater range of the *alliance.
Do you have any recommendations as to which of the members' FF plan I should join (I mainly do intra-european and transatlantic routes), and do you reckon there is any chance they will comp me to equivalent/similar status for lounge access?
Many thanks,R

I suspect if you're based part time in Spain, Spanair, which joins April 1st, might be a good bet - as part of them joining they may well comp you status, specially if it's across from IB. BD might also be worthwhile, but you need to match the value of thee program to your travel patern to decide what is best. eg: Perhaps LH would be good if you fly a lot of paid C/F flights.

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RichardMEL, UA 1K
A Star Alliance Member.

As RichardMel says, it's down to your travel pattern. What airlines can you fly within Europe? Assuming you can do everything you need on the *A, then you really have 3 options:

BD: This is a great way to get status. Cross the atlantic with UA 3 times in deep discount economy and you're *G through BD (or 4 and a bit times if you're starting from blue).

UA: Obviously there's a lot of concern at the moment about the bankrupty etc. The big advantage of UA over the others is upgrades: if you're flying UA over the pond it's only their FFP (and Lufthansa's) that can get you upgraded with miles). That said, I have been op-upgraded as a *G before.

Lufthansa: I'm not an expert on their FFP (but do a search and you'll find one of Rudi's posts), but I believe they are the most generous with miles.

Good thoughts - I don't often fly Spanair, but I could always change! My OW is through BA in the UK at the moment, though soon to move to Spain, don't know if Spanair would like to claim a BA scalp?
The LH option I'll have to explore - I've never flown LH!
thank for the help, R.

Regarding the LH (and Austrian Airlines including Lauda, and LOT) miles&more program.

How fast, flying paid business (on any StarAlliance carrier), will you make Senator with miles&more?

For paid business flights you get credited (regardless with what StarAlliance partner you fly), starting with 0 status miles on LH per jan-1-2003:

from 0 to 35'000 miles&more status miles:
*100% 'basic' flight-miles, counting as status miles
* + 100% (business-) class bonus, counting as status miles
* total of 200% status miles

you need 17'500 flight miles (200% of 17'500 = 35'000 status miles) to reach Frequent Flier status

from 35'000 (Frequent Flier status) to 100'000 status miles (Senator-status) you get credited, again for paid business:
* 100% 'basic' flight-miles, counting as status miles
* + 50% status miles bonus, counting as status
* + 100% (business-) class bonus, counting as status miles
* total of 250% status milesmiles

you need another 26'000 flight miles in business-class to get the other 65'000 status miles credited (250% of 26'000 = 65'000).

In total you need (17'500 26'000) = 43'500 flight-miles in paid business, between jan-1-2003 and dec-31-2003, to get miles&more Senator status. That Senator status is than valid more than 2 (TWO) years, until feb-2006! (For requalifying afterwards you have to do, either in 2004 [b]or[b/b] 2005, 40'000 flight miles in paid business again (250% of 40'000=100'000 status miles).

The above get's even better, if you can include some paid business in UA-two-class flights. Such flights will be credit:
* before Frequent-Flier-status: 300% status miles
* after Frequent Flier status: 375% status miles

and minimum miles on short UA flights get, with miles&more (before / after Frequent Flier status):
1'000 / 1'250 in paid eco, 2'000 / 2'500 in paid business, 3'000 / 3'750 in paid first (= paid business on UA 2-class-flights).

All of a sudden the LH option is looking rather interesting! Thanks for that info Rudi.
I will phone the Spanair people later this afternoon to see what they say about *alliance membership - I'll post back with what they say.
Thanks to all for your help,R.