I am strongly considering defecting from OW, but I find the plethora of *A FF programs very confusing. It is fairly easy to be a top tier OW flyer with a single carefully crafted RTW in D. Would you guys please help me narrow down my research into what *A FF program to consider?

I am based in Australia and my annual flying pattern is generally:

1) Around 10 Australian domestic flights. These are are so short and provide so few qualifying miles that they don't really matter.

2) 1 RTW in A or C/D to visit family in ICN, TXL, CPH, ARN, FRA, ZRH, and DFW.

3) 2-4 return trips in Y or D to the US.

4) 1 return trip to the Philippines in discount Y, most often with SQ.

I would also like to visit Europe a second time each year. LH sometimes has some very cheap tickets to FRA from Australia. My wife really likes Paris as well , so that will probably be a frequent destination in the future.

So far I have looked into the FF programs of LH, UA and SQ. LH seems good, but it seems difficult to achieve top tier status with them.

I think lounge access, award flights, and upgrades are of similar importance in a FF program.

What are the chances of status matching a QF Platinum / OW Emerald with any of these programs?

First, check out the *A Useful Reference Links and in particular BlondeBomber's *G Comparison Guide (2005.

Likewise on *A for most (all?) programs too.

No *A currently for Australian domestic, except between SYD and MEL on TG and UA; both of which have no traffic rights (ie need to be part of an international itinerary).

All of these are readily accessible on *A. From Australia to ICN via BKK or SIN. Plenty of options to get to and around Europe - *A very strong there. UA or US for DFW.


UA flies directly from Australia, also NZ via AKL or CHC.

SQ is *A, although the cheapest economy fares are non mileage earning.

LH has the highest requirement for *G, but also the best earning rates for business and first class (alongside BD and NZ). You should have no problem qualifying SEN (*G) based on this pattern. (Their top tier is HON but requires a ton of flying on LH/LO/OS/UA/US/AC.)

UA has particularly good earn/burn ratios if flying mainly on UA metal. Not so good when flying mainly other airlines.

SQ is good if flying mainly SQ but earning in business and first is not as good as say LH, BD or NZ (or UA) and awards aren't so cheap as to offset this.

All *G status gives lounge access when flying on *A same day. Some FFPs also provide access for status members when not flying or when flying other airlines, to their own lounges only.

Reasonably good (but YMMV).

When evaluating which to programme to join keep in mind the smaller ones, e.g. BMI, SAS and Thai. All three have a fairly low thresholdfor *G when you are not living in their "home country" which you are not. BMI has a quite good "cash and points" redemption option. SAS has a fantastic exhange rate on Pacific flights - e.g. 40.000 point/miles for a return C from Australia to the South Pacific. Just a thought

just a note kiwi

Hon miles are accruable only when using AirRail trains operated by Lufthansa, Lufthansa Regional, Austrian Airlines Group, LOT Polish Airlines, Air One, Air Dolomiti, United Airlines, Adria Airways and Croatia Airlines.

** NOT AIR CANADA and/or US Airways **

Cheeerrrsssss
luke

IIRC for HON status AC was added a couple of months ago, and someone recently corrected me to say US counts too.

I think that was about Executive Bonus, not HON miles. It's quite confusing, actually.

Since these trips will most likely be on UA metal (SQ may be servicing these routes at a later date), you should consider UA MP. You'd easily reach 1K status, collect many RDMs and get 6 systemwide upgrades per year, which you can use on both UA and LH metal to get from Y to C or from C to F. Actually, with your travel pattern, it might be possible to make both UA 1K and LH SEN, because LH SEN has to be renewed only every other year. So, just like me, you could have both.

UA will probably match your QF Platinum with Premiere Executive (1P). That would give your *A miles an easy start, as you'd have *G status (= worldwide lounge access except USA) right from the beginning AND get a 100% mileage bonus on UA metal (and all LH transatlantic flights).

Thanks for all that good info Kiwi Flyer, OFFlyer, paffendorf, and flysurfer. It is much appreciated.

I am leaning towards the UA program because of the low cost award flights. They also seem able to status comp to *G as well. I like the fact that a company is keen to win new customers. Hopefully that is an indication that they will look after you as well.

Unfortunately the QF FF program is close to worthless for me now, except for award flights domestically in Australia. But with taxes and surcharges these "free" flights are almost as expensive as heavily discounted Y, or a LCC flight. And 3 years of begging for upgrades from Y using points on international segments has had no success at all.

I understand that non-transatlantic flights with LH does not qualify for UA miles. So what flights with what airlines qualify for UA miles?

QF has a simple (but expensive!) price list for OW award flights. How does this work with *A award flights from UA? For example a FRA-LHR with LH?

Apologies if these questions have been regurgitated lots of times before.

Nah, all paid *A flights in almost all booking classes do qualify for AT LEAST 100% status and 100% bonus miles (depending on the carrier it's up to 150% in full-fare Y and Z,D,C,A,F). However, the ADDITIONAL (= on top of that) 100% mileage bonus for 1P and 1K members can only be earned on UA metal and LH transatlantic.

No thats not right. Only UA and LH trans-atlantic count for bonus miles. But all *A count for base miles for both status and redeemable miles (plus selected partners for redeemable).

UA uses regions for award cost, rather than the distance you are used to for QF. So for example USA to Europe is the same cost regardless of where start and end (except Hawaii I think).

One that ozstamps often trumpets is south pacific, Perth to Tahiti is the same cost as Sydney to Auckland.

Yep, every *A bonus program has a similar standardized list for *A awards. As mentioned earlier, UA MP provides good value in terms of its mileage earn/spend ratio. A USA-Europe roundtrip in F costs 100,000 miles and 80,000 in C (LH MM: 140,000 and 90,000).

I'd never book FRA-LHR as an award, since you can ticket a roundtrip for about $100 on LH.

Additional bonus points as well! That is just amazing! OK, so a RT award SYD-JFK with UA in A is 120K points. This is compared with 384K with QF (if you can get it).

I have already booked an OW Global Explorer RTW in D ex Tonga this year. This travel will mainly be done in September. Unfortunately RTW in D or A with OW is going up about 50% in price from 15 June! *A RTW prices ex Tonga are still great! ^

The September trip will have a couple of domestic SK segments in Sweden.

My next overseas trip will be around 26 December this year. With a planned "see all the family" RTW trip in D or A around Easter next year. When do you guys think would be the best timing to ask for a comp upgrade to UA?

check UA forum and also the status match thread on Miles Buzz forum

Especially if you plan to do an A-class RTW, you might want to check out LH's program and compare it to UA. For A-class travel, LH gives you 300% (both status miles and spendable miles), compared to either 125% or 150% (I forget which) on UA. There are other differences to consider as well (award travel usually requires more miles on LH, SEN status on LH gets you into UA's lounges on both domestic and int'l flights, etc, etc); the better choice depends on what you'll fly to earn status and where you expect to fly and redeem after getting status.

OK, thanks for all the info. ^ I'll read up on the UA and LH forums.