Interesting to look at *Silver 'benefits' as described on their website:

My questions are:

Does anybody actually hope to gain *S status in order to gain these 'benefits'???

Why don't * throw in a couple of real benefits to encourage more people to strive to make the grade?

Good point. Especially when the benefits, especially "priority waitlisting" are so intangible that you never really know whether you are receiving them at all.

What would you have them give you? Remember that competing alliances give pretty much the same perk. Given Silver is the lowest tier of elite status (above base) it only really serves as an incentive to get more - and given you can earn it with as little as 15k miles on TG I've no doubt there are Silvers galore out there. Yes, it might be nice to issue, for example, a "Star ALliance Lounge Guest Pass" valid for entry to one * lounge on a trip (to get a feel for the experience) but perhaps the pariticipating carriers would find this too costly in terms of people using lounges (and remember, the issuing carrier pays for each access of a partner lounge) and the numbers trying to get into lounges. Let's not forget that UA, AC, LH (the big 3) must have tens of thousands of lower level elites - it may be too costly to give out anything more - and anyway, they want you to go higher, so it makes sense to give not much for this level.

I also think the big incentive is for the host carrier to provide the perks - for example, UA Premiers get 25% mileage bonus, Y+ seating and 500 miler e-upgrades. I think TG gives an upgrade voucher, etc.

Incidently Silver isn't that bad. Heck, I got Op Opped twice as a UA*S (by UA, and TG).. I never got one as a UA*G at the 2 higher levels of the Mileage Plus program. Go figure!

AFAIK each FFP provides its own benefits for *S

For example Miles & More provides lounge access (but only to M&M lounges).

Elite check-in and priority boarding would be two typical low level perks that tend to be offered at the first rung of the ladder. I had assumed that this were *A S benefits and am really surprised that they are not.

I believe Silver also gets you into Economy+ seating on UA v. knees-in-your-chest Y-.

Once I missed a domestic Swedish flight when I was UA *S. The next flight was fully booked and it would have been a complete disaster if I didn't make that flight. It put me on the top of a very long standby list.

But that's the only time I used the priority standby perk.......

As mentioned, the E+ on UA makes it very important here but as an SAS *S, for example, it's quite pointless.

Silver on NZ gives you a free UG voucher and one lounge pass. But it's not that easy to get when flying economy. I too have been upgraded as a S, but only on the carrier on which I had status.

The E+ is only 3" to 5" of pitch with no upgrade in service. It is a nice gesture though and the + does give it a bit of status. But I often venture back to E- and take a whole row to sleep while they are packed like sardines up in E+.

SK EB has been pretty dismall this year with all the changes and the truth is I am quite happy with the Diners Club lounge compared to SK business lounge in ARN. CPH is another story.

SAS wont even standby you with their own EB silver card if you are booked in discounted economy. The 10 kg extra baggage is the only benefit that I would dearly miss and that is sad. I would have thought they would be more agressive in their marketing after reaching *silver with offers to make you want to strive for gold.

All alliances need to find a system to sort out the leisure elites as a private traveler racking up 50000 miles out of their own budget is probably a much higher "status" traveler than a road warrior whos company is sending him out on few business class trips a year. I would imagine that a large % of *A silvers are very frequent leisure traveler and not so frequent business travelers.

Eastern Airlines, when they started OnePass in the 80's, had an elite leisure club in DCA, ATL and a few other hubs. We would be offered package deals every weekend. Had even offers where you didnt know where you were going until boarding. It was very social with frequent parties and required a paid membership.

American and Delta still recognize the status I accomplished in the �80s and SAS doesnt even recognize last year to my satisfaction.

Sorry but this makes no sense to me. If you're an airline, some guy flying 10 discount Y trips at say $200 roundtrip is worth less than the business pax doing 4 trips at $1000 each. Sure, it would benefit us (and yes, I am one of those "Elite status out of my own pocket" guys who ONLY flies for leiisure), but from the airline's POV, we're of no interest/worth (relatively speaking) than the company road warrier. Not only do leisure passengers tend to purchase on price, and loyalty is fleeting at best, even the most loyal leisure passenger is still going to fly the discounted Y fares. Compare to corporate road warrior who not only represents likely good revenue (consider regular trips on business routes and/or higher average yield from more flexible tickets purchased) means the airlines want these folks more. That's why United has it's UGS program in part - if you or your company is worth a lot to the carrier they will spoil you to keep you (and your company, and travel budget) witht hem. Someone flying discount Y for 50k a year is not attractive to the airlines in loyalty terms - heck, I worked out flying * RTW's actually costs the carrier to fly me about, given that the revenue from those trips is way below the CASM to deliver it - not even including upgraded sectors! eg: if I pay 3c/mile and the carrier's average CASM is 9c/mile, the airline is effectively losing 6c/mile to fly me about.... To be honest, they don't want people like that. They want the guy who yields them 15c/mile on a D/C/F fare (as an example).....

I totally see what you mean, but that raises an interesting question. Why DO alliances (or partnering airlines) offer RTW tickets then?

I fully agree with you, but I think that * airlines should have seperate desks for J class pax and *S/*G as J class pax bring in that profit.

Several airlines do this (but not always at all airports, obviously). SQ springs to mind.

star should offer Silver members biz class checkin even with eco ticket.

the KG on star has changed to 30KG for star silver on staralliance. ( i was told in china and japan)

lounge acess with silver not good idea, as the lounges would get more and more croweded.

So would those biz class check-in queues with all those silvers checking in there!