After almost a year of spectacular blunders by Flying Blue - this ex-Flying Dutchman Gold is leaving FPoo and is searching for another alliance to build up membership status again from 2006.

I live in the UK and LGW is nearest airport although LHR is not too far either. I have been an SQ Krisflyer for many years but have rarely earned any points with them since I do most of my flying with Malaysia Airlines via KUL. I am also a Virgin Flying Club basic and BMI basic member - both of which I haven't earned miles again for years - since I fly mostly with KLM (and BA when necessary) for flights around Europe and across to the USA.

Now that I am making a clean break, I am thinking of making all future bookings with Star Alliance partners.

Q. Which Star Alliance member should I start banking miles with - in terms of earnings and redemptions here in the UK. Should I stick with BMI or restart my KrisFlyer account. What about Miles&More?

many thanks

This may not answer your question ...

North West,a SkyTeam member, is partner with MH. I mention this since you've said you do most of your flying with MH. Further, Continental has partnerships with many airlines. So, you do have quite a lot of choices for your trip across the pond to the US.

At least, you don't have to start form scratch since you have elite status within SkyTeam. Perhaps only transfer your allegiance to another airline within the alliance.

I can only tell you my own experience on this having agonised over your question for a long time myself (before learning about FT!) by the end of this year I will have flown nearly 40,000 miles on *A (since Nov 04) yet I'll have nearly 80,000miles banked - and that's without a FFP visa card. Plus the excellent miles + cash feature - which makes 'upgrades' across the *A very obtainable. BMI. If you actually want to use BMI regularly however.... that's a different matter. And as to how long BMI will stay in existence........

I'd agree with LapLap that BD has a very attractive FFP in the UK. One caveat, though, is that earning on discounted economy fares on *A European airlines have been savagely slashed in the last 12 months or so, but that is not specific to BD. If you do a lot of intra-European flying in discount economy, you will, as a rule, be better with ST schemes. While I would not be too worried about BD disappearing, I would be somewhat more concerned about the possibility that they may further change their FFP. For now, though, I find them hard to beat FFP wise (although actually flying with them is another story). See what works best for your flying pattern but there is a high probability that your earn/burn ratio will be better with BD than with other *A airlines. Also, achieving elite status (16K *A S and 38K *A G) is not too difficult if you fly long-haul.

are you still gold ? or may be silver , than you can request a statusmatch at bmi. they do this if you can prove your status with a statement or print of the homepage.

dp

for all your replies. NWA is not a possibility as WorldPerks do NOT register UK customers - they MUST join FPoo.

Looks like I shall be reinstating my Star Alliance cards.

Next problem - which Star Alliance card should I keep/ditch?

Am a blue (basic) member with Krisflyer, BMI and Miles&More. Seem to think I have a Swiss Travel Club card stuffed in some drawer too (though LX is not specifically a member - yet) .

Great tip about asking BMI to upgrade my card as I am switching alliances. If you read my latest post on Flying Blue's forum - I actually now have 2 (yup - TWO) Gold Elite cards as they messed up again and by the time my correct Platinum card arrives - it is likely to be 2006 (when it expires end-Jan2006) - but if BMI can match my Gold Card status - would be more than happy to swap.

Am likely to do most of my flying with SQ now (although I still think MAS service is hard to beat). Would BMI Silver/Gold cards get me into the necessary lounges?

Do miles expire with BMI (as my Krisflyer miles have all expired)?

thanks in advance as Star Alliance FFPs seem more complicated.

If you fly SQ C a lot, Miles and More is a better option. BD gives 1.5 times flown miles in C and 2 in F with SQ. With M/M, it is 2 in C and 3 in F.
That said, M/M needs more miles to attain/retain status (35k for silver and 100K for Gold- you need about 5 round trips in Y or 3 in C to KUL for LH Gold) it is valid for 2 years. Miles don't expire so long as you are gold or silver. I don't know LH comps or not.

Not if you still have a Asian address.

No need to rolleyes, thank you (!) - my question was simple - as a UK-based member - ie. resident. If I had an Asian or US address - I wouldn't have asked the question. Besides - whether WorldPerks was good or not - my recent Flying Blue experiences (with AF, KL, AZ) have been so awful - I am considering never flying with AF, KL, AZ ever, ever and ever again. With Alitalia, I have never been subject to nor observed such atrocious service.

I would go for BD's Diamond Club and get the bmi/MBNA Mastercard, for which you get 20,000 miles for simply obtaining and using the card.

Regardless of whether you fly them much as Nick says the Cash+Miles redemption is very hard to beat, and with a 20,000 mile head start you're on you're way. The one thing that is of concern is if the lunatics at Donnington Hall decide to mess around with Diamond Club the same way they have with the airline itself.

If you go on a lot of C/F trips Lufthansa is not a bad option. If you go a lot in discounted Y then that might be a bad idea.

Personally I'm with United and very happy with them. You get *S at 25k and *G at 50k miles. Awards are relatively cheap compared to Lufthansa, as a rule of thumb you get more miles with them in Y and less in C/F fares (again compared with LH).

A lot of people seem to thing BD is pretty good right now, but I just can't be bothered to switch over. Quite happy with UA.

I agree. Lufthansa has a graded system for earning miles, so you do much better if you fly the premium cabins. United has a flatter system, so is more helpful if you fly economy.