I will be taking some *A flights soon and want to add another program.

What is the best for long haul premium class flying in terms of:

- fastest getting Star Gold
- Most miles (cos bonus


Thanks.

It all depends on your travel patterns.
What airlines you fly, what routes you fly, how much you pay for your tickets, in what class you fly.

It is impossible to give a general answer.
All programs have pros and cons, more information is needed to give a good answer, your profile does not even indicate in what part of the world you live.

As jacob_m points out need more info. Not only where & with which airlines you fly, but also what is most important to you - FFP with fastest way to status may not necessarily provide the most status miles or most redeemable miles. Do you want to use miles for upgrades (where?) or awards or companion tickets or ...?

I have a similar problem as well. I`m a US Airways dividend miles member but USAir doesn`t fly to Switzerland. I mostly fly on Swiss and UA both, short- and longhaul and would be interested in a fastest way of getting status, lounge access and awards. I`m trying to compare USAir and UA or maybe someone can recommend a better program? Thank you.

I hear that bmi has a really low miles threshold to reach Star Gold, maybe around 38k or something like that. AC is a bit lower than the others too but I'm not sure. Also, I am not sure how many miles you need for *gold on TG but I am pretty sure that once you get that status TG let you keep it for two years.
I could be totally wrong about all of this but I know that people talk about BD, AC and TG as good for getting gold.

AC requires 35K for *G. COS bonus for J is 150% status miles on international routes, I believe. If you hit Elite (35K), you can select a package that offers a 25% bonus on miles (non-status) and 50% if you hit SuperElite (100K). Check www.aeroplan.com for details.

TG *G requires 50k miles in 1 calendar year, or 80k in 2 years, and is valid to 2 years afterwards. (slightly more complex than that, but pleanty of Threads in TG ROP forum)

It seems that AC is the only program in ALL alliances, not only in *A, where you get *G for 35K. The disadvantage of AC seems to be that it requires more miles for an award ticket, for example for flights with *A partners within Europe.

Yes, you are probably right but what does it matter? You can not only have a look at the miles needed to be *G. There are a lot of other things that are important e.g. the class of service bonus, elite bonus and the duration of the elite memership. On BD you'll get *G for 54k but you'll get 200% COS for F flights. So when you are silver which means to earn 16k you only need one FRA-SFO flight in F (~34k) and a short trip to earn another 4k and that's it. If you credit the same F trip to AC it's just ~17k.

Or have a look at LH M&M if you have an adress outside germany you need 100k to be SEN (and *G) but it will last at least 2 calendar years! Or have a look the OZ program. You only need 100k in your life and then you'll be *G for 3 years. You only need to earn 40k in 3 year to renew your status!

Just a few examples. I could have add much more. As I said above it depends which program is the best! Have a look at BlondeBomber's *G Comparison Chart, which is quite helpful.

Cheers
totti