okin

I will be flying from Paris to Sydney Return in 1Class on Swiss and Singapore (February - April).
Can I somehow enhance my points / status with the Star Alliance (I have no status yet)?
Thanks
Okin

petersjp

If flying 1st class you should be default earn 200%-300% (2x-3x) of the mileage depending on the program you accredit the miles towards.

Depending on who your program is will determine if you'll have flown enough to reach gold as each one has different tiers

dvs7310

There are quite a few partner airlines that will credit them both at 300%, unfortunately those aren't the same programs don't overlap for both LX and SQ unless you credit to Miles & More, problem is Miles & More requires 100k miles for Senator which is their lowest tier of Star Gold. Your total trip is around 21-22k miles (before bonus multiplier). You'll want to have a look at wheretocredit.com to see the multiplier for your booking code (should be either A or F).

Will you have any other Star Alliance flights this year? Also, do you always fly premium cabins? If so then Star Alliance Gold doesn't do much for you since you'd have lounge and priority service anyway. If that's the case I'd not worry about status and instead focus on the highest multiplier for a program that has a decent award chart, that's where Miles & More might start to look ok but their fuel surcharges are quite high on award tickets.

okin

Dear Petersjp,

this link to wheretocredit.com was very helpful for me. Thank you very much. I have found that Alaskan might give me a few more points (by a higher multiplier), but I do have no connection to there flying-program. Besides that Miles and More will give me the highest multiplier with flying Swiss and Singapore. hence, it seems that I will do right if I have the points credited to miles and more.

For the second topic (Status) you are probably right. If I am flying 1 or Business Class most of the time, I will get into lounges anyway. But. On some US airports there are NO business (first class) lounges which I could use, despite of me flying First. This is the reason why I would like to reach some Special Status with some Airline to get into Lounges all over the place. And flying First Class / Business Class a few times over the ocean should get me that - or am I wrong? Are there any special hints for me how to book or how to act to reach a better status?

best regards
Okin

Maux

If you credit to TK Miles&Smiles (i suppose your code are A or F) you earn 44000 miles. TK gives you Elite (Star Alliance GOLD) when you reach 40000

okin

Thanks a lot, but I talked to Miles&more and they will not honor the status of TK Miles&Smiles. No lounge-access and so on. Miles&More will give me about 65.000 status points for my Flights from Paris to Sydney and back.

Very unfortunately, still about 35.000 points away from SENATOR.

Do you have any idea how to get the missing points - any promotion etc?

Okin

Maux

okin

Maybe I understood Miles&More wrong! The told me that the Status at Miles&smiles does not have a relevance for Miles&More. .... What does that mean - I do not know.

dvs7310

Correct, it doesn't directly have any bearing with Miles & More, I think you're getting different entities confused. Miles and More is the mileage program of Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, etc. Miles and Smiles is the mileage program of Turkish Airlines. When you earn Star Alliance Gold status with any of the Star Alliance airlines by earning the status in their mileage program (Miles & More, Miles & Smiles, Eurobonus, Asiana Club, etc.) then you get Star Alliance Gold benefits when flying any Star Alliance Airline. The benefits you're actually trying to inquire about are from Lufthansa, Swiss, and Austrian, while I think that Miles & More did a poor job explaining it to you, if you get Gold status from Turkish Airlines (Miles & Smiles) then you get Star Gold benefits when flying Lufthansa, Swiss, Austrian, and any other Star Alliance airline, including United (which you mentioned by way of US domestic flights).

The main benefits there are Lounge access, priority boarding, check-in, and baggage, extra baggage allowance, priority standby, etc. Of those benefits, the only time you'd really realize the benefit is flying domestic in the US where you'd get access to the United Clubs. Additionally when you fly any of the airlines in the LH group you'll have access to the Senator Lounges vs the Business Lounges (flying business class), the Senator lounges are a bit nicer usually. Aside from that, you're already going to have the other benefits by way of your First or Business ticket. Something you may consider to counter the US lounge access if you won't make status is to just outright buy a United Club annual membership for the times you're traveling in the US (however it won't help if you're not flying UA, same with Star Alliance Gold, you've gotta be flying UA on US domestic flights to benefit).

I will warn regarding TK's program if you go that route is that the miles are sometimes difficult to use. I believe they still require you to go to a TK ticketing office to have award tickets issued, which is a quite onerous requirement considering most carriers do it all online or the phone.

Regarding your point of earning a lot of miles in Alaska's program, it's correct but it's also a quirky program that may or may not have awards that are useful for you. Definitely take time to read up on it before going that route. It's primarily built for US based flyers and doesn't have the same flexibility that most programs do in the alliance carriers. (Just one example is that they can book TN (Air Tahiti Nui) from the US to Tahiti but not Japan to Tahiti. Lots and lots of examples of regional restrictions like that when trying to book their partners, it's absolutely not the entire partner network.).

How much more Star Alliance flying will you do this year? Do you live in a city with a TK booking office? Also what's the mix of SQ and LX flights on your itinerary? Is it LX from Europe to Singapore or are you also using SQ metal on those flights?

okin

.....

okin

"How much more Star Alliance flying will you do this year? Do you live in a city with a TK booking office? Also what's the mix of SQ and LX flights on your itinerary? Is it LX from Europe to Singapore or are you also using SQ metal on those flights?"

I will get the 66.000 status points with miles and more with our Europe - Sydney First Class return flights (Swiss from Europe to Singapore and then Singapore Air to Sydney).
Currently I am looking at a Europe - US Trip in Business Class to see Memphis and hear the good music again.
Does it make a difference how I fly in regards to the status points I can earn (only depending on miles and class)? Will it always be certain points for so many miles in a certain class or can I somehow optimize reg. the status points?
Best regards

Mwenenzi

For any particular flight the status earning and the redeemable/award ff miles/points earning will/can vary with each freq flyer program.

Some ffp's require that you fly X qualifying flights before status is given. X = 4 is common, but can be another number. What is a qualifying flight varies.

dvs7310

The problem with Miles and More is that unless you'll add the last 34,000 status miles before the end of the year then it's all wasted in regards to status earning. It sounds like you'll have to make a choice, either maximize redeemable earnings or obtain status, it doesn't sound like you'll be able to do both if Memphis is your only other trip for the year. With your Memphis trip you'd be able to make status on OZ which only requires 40k every 2 years to maintain, but you don't get the large multiplier for First Class. If you want to prioritize earning status, then you're going to have to forget about Miles & More (unless you take more Star Alliance flights than currently planned, but then it's still 100k a year to maintain).

Yes, you'll need a certain number of miles every year or 2 years to requalify depending on the program you choose. Each program has a set qualification period, and some go by calendar year while others have a rolling year based on when you sign up. Some require you to requalify annually, and some others have a two year qualification (OZ and TK for example). A3 is now a bit steep for initial *G qualification if you don't fly Aegean ever, but the annual renewal is very easy. If you fly to Greece on A3 once a year (need 4 flights so one of the islands connecting in Athens) then it cuts in half. If you can make the qualification, honestly A3 is one of the better ones out there still because of the easy *G annual renewal plus their miles are actually pretty worthwhile (high multiplier for premium cabins, good award chart and now online booking). The problem is if you don't have any Aegean flights this year (4) then you need 72,000 miles to make Gold the first time (24k for Silver then an additional 48k for Gold). After that it's just 24k a year to maintain Gold. For your First Class trip to SYD, they credit Swiss at 300% and Singapore at 150%, so you'll have to do the math on that since you haven't mentioned which fights are which carrier. This trip, assuming CDG-ZRH-SIN and SIN-ZRH-CDG all on LX metal and only SIN-SYD-SIN on SQ metal is 51k miles to A3. Memphis if you fly Business Class and avoid LH (their P fares earn 0% in most programs), then you're likely around 10k-15k more to A3 (for example LX Z fare is 150% and LX P fare is 100%, UA P and Z are both 100%). It's pretty easy to come up with another 10k or so miles if needed for your initial qualification just to get in the door.

okin

So much good information. Thank you a lot.

I understand that if I am going to fly Aegean on four sections, which you refer to as A3 (?); this year, than I will only need "half of" 72.000 status points for Gold - is that correct? So about 36.000 Points for Gold?

To maintain the Gold status with Aegean I will need 24T points to be credited to Aegean every year?

Will I have to fly Aegean again?

Will my points expire in the Aegean Program (I have the M&M Gold credit card now)?

Will I be able to make good use of my accumulated mile-points in the Aegean Program - eg. flying with other Star Alliance partners?

Thank you so much.

Okin

dvs7310

If you fly A3 (Aegean) on 4 segments a year then, correct your number of miles needed to qualify for Gold is cut in Half, in that case it's 12k miles to get Silver then a further 24k miles to get Gold (36k total). Your annual renewal is also cut in half by flying the 4 A3 segments per year, so then it's only 12k to renew if you have the 4 segments or 24k if you don't.

A3 miles don't expire as long as the account stays active, it's one of the few outside of North America like that.

Correct, you can use your miles on any Star Alliance partner airline, booking via the Aegean website. They have a pretty decent award chart as well, so the miles you earn will go farther than some other carriers. Unfortunately you do have to pay the fuel surcharge on award tickets, which can be significant but that's the same with M&M also.