Help with * FF Programme please!
 

Hi all

I've done a search on *Awards and the various FF programmes, however I'm still at a loss as to what to do and which one is best.

I'll be taking my first *Alliance flight this Sunday (with Thai) and they have comped me to Gold based on my OneWorld status. (Thank you to Thai - wonderful people who handled my request and got approval same day!)

Anyways - I then had a look at the reward charts for *Alliance (ie as distinct from the rewards limited to the airline whoes programme you are a part of) and see that someone like Mexicana has a much lower *A redemption level for flights than TG. Are these charts going to be standardised at some point?

Question 2: should I look at joining another *A programme if a reward between Europe and North America in F is 40,000 miles less?

My upcoming flights will all be TG First.

If your advice is to join another programme (and I do feel a little bad about asking this question because TG have gone out of their way to comp me status) - how do I manage the process? Do I take my TG FF number out of my bookings, save the boarding passes and then send them to a new programme?

All advice, as always, much appreciated.

Cheers in advance

WG

I read that you (this time, often?) fly paid first-class.

For paid first-class I would use LH miles/more frequent-flier program that 'pays' 300%status miles (and once you got their basic status = Frequent Flier status with 35'000 status miles you would be credited 375% miles in paid first). But don't expect LH to comp your status (I have yet to see/read about somebody having been comped by LH.

[b]BlondeBomber[b] has a nice comparison of most Star FrequentFlier programs:
http://members.shaw.ca/deercroft/download.html

Changing FrequentFlier programs for credit is easy: just ask for the changement at check-in time.

For first travel, LH M&M is definitely the way to go, 300% plus an extra 25% if you are a SEN or FTL.

Rudi, Kawoh - thanks for the advice.

Question - do I need to do a certain number of minimum flights with LH to qualify for status?

Regards

WG

As a non-German, it is 35K miles or 20F (40Y) segments for their base tier, and 100K miles or 60F (120Y) segments for Senator.

Here's a vote for LH M&M.... I'm a latecomer to the M&M bandwagon, but fully on for the ride. The status miles racks up really quickly and status last for 2 years IIRC.