Theoretical Minimum Spends for Status
 

So, im with the rather bad ROP at the moment, and once (if!!) i get it to *Gold (lasts 2 years) i was thinking of changing it to AC purely because of the 35k needed for gold, however, almost all of my travel of any distance takes place to the states and on UA. So depite it taking more to get to it may(??) make more sense for me to be getting a UA FFP since i'll get a credit card etc too.

Now since i dont build massive mileages (lots of european flights, and no company to pick up the tab!) im wondering what a realistic spend would be to generate approx 20k miles. The main airport i tend to use is LAS, but get routed through LAX, Dulles or ORD so i guess i could MR from any of those cities...

If most of your flights are Europe based BMI might be the best ideal for you, 38000 gets you *Gold.

I’m making that next year with 2 x Flights on UA 1 x LHR – SYD (£637 all in) upgraded to business all the way with 2 SWUs, and 1 x LHR – LAS (£349 all in) gives me 37,000 just a few short, which I’ll make up with a few short hops to DUB.

And BMI’s part miles and cash are a great deal.

actually bmi takes 16K to get silver THEN 38K to get gold.

So are you saying it takes 54k to achieve BMI gold? In hope this is'nt the case. This is certainly not the way it’s worded on the BMI Website

“Once you've earned 38,000 membership status miles your membership will be upgraded to gold”

“You can automatically retain your gold membership when you collect 38,000 membership status miles during your 12 month membership period.”

Yes that is exactly what I am saying. It takes 16K to achieve silver status with bmi then an ADDITIONAL 38K to achieve gold status. After that it is 38k to renew status.

fyi the airline is bmi, not BMI.

Details can be found on the silver page . The Gold status pages talkes of earning that status once you have achieved silver status.

MapleLeaf is right im afraid, I thought that too a while back but when i called them i found out its 54k, its 38 to requalify, but thats still less then the 35k for AC.

Besides, the main mileage accruing flights that I make are too and from the US.

Gosh... I'm glad I got status matched to gold now then. Hopefully with my 38k I will re-qualify next year.

The BMI website is very misleading in this case. Thank goodness for FT, how did people manage before the internet?


Whats the difference?

Just branding, but it is always bmi never BMI. We should all be glad anyway as it means you don't have to hold down the shift key :p

Just to add that whilst it is 38k to retain gold or achieve gold once silver, BD appear to be very willing to offer status matches. Even if you were just matched to silver thats then only 38k to get to the promised land.

As this has to do more with the Star Alliance programs than actual mileage runs, I'm going to move this to the Star Alliance forum.

Please continue discussion there.

bhatnasx
Mileage Run Moderator

Fast start with bmi credit card
 

If you end up choosing bmi, they have an MBNA-operated Visa credit card with no-fee that gets you 20,000 miles on first use within 90 days

By the way, very impressed with poster who got upgradeable LHR/SYD for under £700

Sometimes living at the a55 end of the earth has advantages! :)
Can make *G from down here with just a AUD2059.00 base airfare spend as example, although that has diddly squat to do with the OP's requirements, but does answer the thread question.

I'm also down that end, but am very confused as to how you'd every make gold with 2059AUD?

Kael

These are destination miles, not status miles = no good for getting to gold.

Still there on travelocity.co.uk for £636 books into W

AC has a SYD-BUE fare at that level for most of the year. One heck of a trip via YVR and YYZ but it gets the job done for the 35K AC *G qualifying level.