I am trying to advise a friend who lives in SYD on which Star Alliance FF program she should join. She currently flies a lot to SIN, PVG, and HKG mostly on SQ. She also flies to FRA on LH at least twice a year, and to LAX/SFO on UA once a year or so. She is not currently a member of any program (hard to believe, I know).

She was complaining about sitting in Y most of the time, and I told her that on UA should would probably make 1K and get some SWU's. But since she spends more time on LH and SQ she might not get that many chances to use the SWU's.

Do you think she would be better off joining either the LH or SQ program since she is on their metal more often, or would she be better off just joining MP and using the SWU's for the UA travel and for standby LH travel? I think she would be more interested in the upgrade possibilities than mileage redemption for free travel.

Does she fly paid C or F? What kind of fares would she make 1k off of?

If she flies C or F, then I would suggest SQ PPS. Since she only flies a combined three trips a year on LH and UA, I think she will get more out of the SQ PPS club. Judging from the SQ thread, SQ do go out of their ways to serve and the PPS club members.

If she flies mostly Y, I would suggest UA.

Hey DCA_not_Reagan (funny handle by the way).

I take it she is not flying in paid C of F much, otherwise I'd suggest SQ's PPS and say UA, where she would credit her flight sectors to PPS and the miles to MP or another program...

I would suggest two things right now. The first is that you quiz your friend about what important to her, her expected future flying, etc. Check out this post as guideline for that.

The second is that you pose your question in the *A forum (maybe ask a moderator to move your thread over there). On this forum you will get a lot of answers about the good and bad of UA's MP, but not necessarily a comparative view.

Good luck.