I hope that this question has not already been discussed in this forum. As LX will become a part of LH, I will probably be forced to accept the LH conditions. However, I believe that LH M&M doesn't suit my travel needs. My main interest is to get a good value for my miles, especially for European flights.

Therefore my question: Which M&M airline offers the greatest benefits over all?

Did someone research on this topic? It looks to me as though US Airways are pretty competitive, aren't they? One needs only 20k miles for an intra Europe award flight in economy , open jaw is allowed.

What I need/would appreciate:
- As many segments as possible in one ticket (e.g. 8 segments with LX).
- Spend few miles for European awards.
- Get full amount of miles also for discounted tickets.
- Be allowed to do loop ways (e.g. WAW-ZRH-TXL instead of WAW-TXL).
- Get free upgrades as a status member.
- My miles must not expire as a status member.
- Relatively easy to become a gold member (prefer each year 50k instead of one year with 100k).
- Priority check-in.
- Lounge access also when travelling in economy.
- Lounge access for me and one guest, also when not travelling "my" airline.

With StarAlliance one collects status miles with each StarAirline, doesn't one?

Did I forget something important?

I don't think that this question really belongs to this section. There is not really the "best" m&m program, rather the "best" star alliance program.

Just a quick answer: the easiest way to qualify the gold status is to use Aeroplan of Air Canada (AC)

Moderatior, please move this question to the StarAlliance forum. I didn't see that such a forum exists.

This is an error on your behalf! Nobody forced you to accept the LH conditions. Your are free to choose whatever carrier you feel that suits your travel needs best. If the carrier of your choice participates in more than one FFP, feel free to choose this FFP you value best.

I never heard that any FFP will satisfy travel needs. I suggest you choose eg an alliance, a carrier first and than search for a FFP that offers you values you like best.

you may be interested in BMI Diamond Club and the FAQ in their forum - but things may change there.

zip,
in the *A forum you find a link to this excellent comparison site:

http://members.shaw.ca/deercroft/starall.html

I don't quite understand your question. You keep on telling us about all these cheap exTripolis flights in F you are doing. You must collect tons of miles and I thought you always fly F. So why do you need upgrades and suddenly become so concerened if a free european flight is 20k or 25k..........

And if I may quote you from a previous posting: (#111)
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...4&page=8&pp=15

You stated: " And finally: Those who cannot afford the difference between C and F: Better stay in Y where you belong to!"

So I suggest rathr than asking for free upgrades, stay in Y.......


Cheers, Stefan

Lets be helpful - every FTer is looking for the best deal for them.

I'll move this to the *A forum so the OP can have more complete answers.

Kiwi Flyer
LH Moderator

The eagerness to fight this constantly ongoing battle seems to sometimes obscure a sound amount of objectivity.

Of course we have good reason to believe that sooner or later STC will be merged with M&M. It is definitly not a misperception that in such a situation M&M will be forced on former STC members. As membership in a FFP is quite an important and long term aspect of somebodies overall travel arrangements (and often a big investment) a merger of programs can be an extremly unwellcome situation.

Furthermore as you never heard that FFP programs satisfy travel needs (or not), hear it now from a very frequent traveller: yes they do (or not). Actually this is their only purpose from a customer perspective. Because a customer gets certain aspects of his/her travel needs satisfied he/she in turn gives loyalty to a certain carrier. Nothing else.

de facto, STC members will be forced into M&M - there's really not much else they can do.

and of course FFP satisfy travel needs to a greater or lesser extent. It's why they exist.


BTW - my understanding is STC will transfer only to M&M, not other STAR programmes (makes sense). But I am often wrong: feel free to correct me

No, this will not work as you believe.
LX launched STC 2003 and outsourced the loyalty programme to Loyalty Gate Ltd., a significant subsidiary of LX (57,9%) which was formerly known as Qualiflyer Loyalty Ltd. Two months ago LX finally decided to introduce M&M as LX�s FFP. Consequently STC will go out of business from Q2/2006 onwards.
No, that does not happen, M&M is not involved!
Next week STC will inform their members (email or letter) that STC will be terminated in 2Q. Further more, they will ask for permission to transfer theirs profile to M&M (as QG did as they split up into three programs). STC members options are:

• To spend their STC miles (STC TOS) until 03/06.
• To transfer the balance of their STC account into their (new) M&M account (M&M TOS).
• Do nothing: STC miles will expire on March 31st 2006

Traveller I know call payments for transportation expenses. If someone travels for the main purpose to accumulate some kind of assets in hopes of getting a future return from it (= investment), chances are very high, that his especations will not be fullfilled. To make money basiclly in selling long haul rewards in primium classes is a business for mileage brokers.
Web-Flyer Travel Information: Coupon Brokers

In generall, privileges of a FFP are recognition (eg elite benefits) and rewards [eg (upgrade-) awards). That�s it.

If you ask a travel professional �what are your clients� needs when it comes to air travel�? there is a good chance you get an answer like this:
�If they fly long-haul, they ask for non-stop flights, travel time, schedules (time & frequencies), aircrafts, and last not least price. My clients know the FFPs they are enrolled much better than myself; if the price difference and inconvinience is doable for them, they choose the carrier linked to their preferred FFP, otherwise they choose major Asean or European based carriers. If the price difference between non-stop and transfer price is significant, sometimes they go by price (and are complaining afterwards that they were not satisfied).

So here we go again

Thanks a lot, but it works exactly as I think. The only difference is just the usual marketing talk, nothing else. Why do people on your end of the world always think John Doe is dumb enough to fall for that? Of course, after you gave us this great insight, we are all convinced now that LH did not take over SWISS and M&M is just some Caribbean company that has nothing to do with LH.

Ok, you know travellers. Your dentist who goes on vacation three times a year? Sorry, I am on vacation right now, so I just couldn't resist....... But I am not a dentist!!!

But really, this is pure nonsense. Your response has nothing to do with my statement you quoted. You are talking to the wrong person. Do you really believe I easily requalify for HON and make AMC Platinum and SIA PPS and DELTA GM and fly a lot of LCCs lately based on your assumptions? Please think again. I have more miles and upgrades in my accounts than I can possibly burn in the next 5 years. As you seem to suggest, I could start selling them, but that is not my trade. I do give quite a bit away as presents, however.

The investment I was talking about is, however, the time and hassle it takes to live with an airline long enough to finally get the recognition that makes your life a little easier. An airline is just one supplier of travel services I need, besides hotels, rental car companies and others. (I don't think you can even begin to imagine what a live looks like, where you spend on average 300 nights away from home per year) Travel services is by far the biggest cost factor in my business. Of course you buy where you get the best value for your money and today loyalty programs are a major part of the equation.

Therefore, managing my expenses as good as possible also means to try and keep my options open by "investing" in more than one programs. I sometimes even have to pay a higher price, to reach all my goals, instead of just burning a few miles. Making a rough estimate, I could probably cover one full year of regular travel only using miles, but then I would lose all my investment in "recognition". I am always very eager to keep my expenses down, as I am paying for them out of my own pocket. But I also need to set aside some of my expenses (investment) to buy status = recognition, otherwise I couldn't handle the requirements of my business anymore.

I hope, you are a little more enlightend now what "investment in FFPs" stands for.

Is it really necessary to roll your eyes? I think we should all be appreciative for the information that Kerstin has brought forth - to me it has been far more valuable than your comment directly to her. Maybe she does have marketing talk as you say. The smarter ones of us can filter that out without attacking the member. I really think you owe her an apology.

Regards,
Randy

Thanks for the recognition and guidance. I suggest, the "roll eyes" should be taken off the smilies selection if its use is considered inappropriate.

.........Just the humble opinion of somebody obviously not smart enough to follow.