madaret

Hey folks. We're a family of 4 flying [P] with Lufthansa. MXP - MUC - SIN - SYD. 2 adult, 2 children (>2 years)

I was wondering:
(a) What the best Star Alliance rewards program is to get Star gold on this trip?
(b) Is there a Star rewards program that allows for family pooling of Status points (as opposed to reward points)?

At this time I'm thinking Asiana, but I don't think they have family pooling.

Any help would be appreciated.

dvs7310

To my knowledge, family pooling in Star Alliance programs is only MS, LH, A3, TK, and NH. Of those, you can immediately rule out A3 and TK since you have to be some level of elite member already to get a family account. You can also rule out NH because it requires 50% of the premium miles (to gain elite status) to be flown on NH metal. That leaves only LH and MS. For *G on LH you need 100k miles, which you probably won't accrue on this trip. I don't know the details of the LH program as it's brand new, but be aware that many family programs are for earned miles only, not elite qualifying miles. Finally that brings us to MS, which does allow pooling of elite qualifying miles and redeemable miles both. The biggest issue with that is that you are on P fares which earn zero in EgyptairPlus.

Since you no longer have any available options for family pooling, then I'd be looking at earning rates. Pretty much for redeemable miles, most *A carriers offer 100% redeemable for LH P, however UA does give 200% Premier Qualifying Miles if you could get 50,000 miles (PQMs) within this year, and also have 4 flights on United metal. If you won't have 4 United flights, then maybe just stick with your OZ plan and hope to earn *G with more flights over their 2 year qualification period.

vbroucek

I don't think there is any chance receiving Star Gold out of this trip, not even if it is return... IMHO, you will struggle to get even Star Silver out of it...

Mwenenzi

SIN to SYD will not be on LH, as they do not fly that route. More likely a codeshare on SQ
Earning status & redeemable miles on codeshares can be different
With Star Alliance earning is based on the operating carrier.
https://www.wheretocredit.com/lh/p
https://www.wheretocredit.com/sq/p

Star Alliance: Need advice on which Star Alliance FF scheme to join? - please post here

madaret

Yes thats correct. The legs are:
MXP MUC: LH
MUC SIN: LH
SIN SYD: SQ
SYD SIN: SQ
SIN MUC: SQ
MUC MXP: LH

Considering three out of the four long haul flights are P on SQ metal, any thoughts on family pooling to achieve *G?

SK AAR

Are you sure LH codeshare P class maps into SQ P class?

vbroucek

AFAIK, AFAIK, family pooling usually pools only award miles, but not status miles... IMHO, you WON'T get *G from this trip no matter what you do or think!

dvs7310

As I mentioned in my earlier post, the only Star Alliance program that gives status miles for family pooling is Egyptair Plus. SQ does not have a P fare for business class, so your SQ flights are likely mapped to D. That would mean your SQ flights will earn 125% in MS's program, but your LH flights will not earn anything. (you need to check this for certain, I would call up SQ and ask them what fare class those are in).

FRA-SIN-SYD-SIN-FRA is a bit over 20,500 miles, so if you can get your FRA-SIN flight changed over to SQ metal then you could get 102,500 miles in Egyptair Plus. If you can not change the flights then you'd be looking at 14,200 miles for the SQ flights x 4 x 1.25 = 71,000 miles total in Egyptair plus. You need 30,000 first to upgrade to Silver then another 30,000 to get Gold from there (60,000 total). From there you only need 30,000 miles ever 2 years to keep Star Alliance Gold.

I'd really try to get that FRA-SIN flight changed to SQ metal, it's a lot of extra miles and a nicer business class seat. Also, as for your LH flights, I'd claim them into another program retroactively since they won't count for MS.