Hi,

I would be interested if somebody could help me with a recommendation for picking a *A FFP program to concentrate my miles.

The easy things, my reward goals are free flights (likely within North America), and all flights are going to be in Economy.

My flight pattern is a little bit more tricky:
the easy part is about twice a year from the US to Germany (MUC), (including this christmas on LH, JFK-MUC-JFK, Q/S booking category).
the hard part, early next year I'll likely have a couple of flights from NYC (or BDL) to random locations in the US (academic jobmarket, no clue where I'll have to go...), and after that each year a couple of flights in the US (again, no clue about routes/locations.....)

Complicating factor, I've got a Starwood Amex, another potential source of miles.

Currently I have a LH M&M account (about 30k miles,close to a flight award) but the redemption costs for *A award flights seem to be relatively high (and I am miffed because the few miles I actually have keep expiring...)

I thought about using UA, but I don't like the SPG conversion ratio.

Another possibility is AC, any drawbacks I should be aware of there?

So I'd be grateful for any recommendation about whether I should stick with LH or use UA/AC or any other program I haven't mentioned?

Thanks

Did you consider US?

BMI Diamond Club could a good option for you. Unlike LH, it is easy to keep the account active for the infrequent traveller. You can buy some cheap miles or some other stuff in their online portal. Moreover, rumors indicate that LH and BMI will merge in the near future, and both accounts could be combined.

Aeroplan is great as far as being able to get status easily, and its earn rates that haven't been degraded (i.e. still get 500 miles on the cheapest tickets for many carriers) but the redemption rates are rather poor, and some of the nifty features of other programs aren't there.

I'd hesitantly second the suggestion to look at bmi Diamond Club, though. I've been using it as a secondary program and my girlfriend's primary, and it's been great so far. Only a few downsides to it, but there's a lot of benefits in the near future.

On the plus side to DC:
- Miles + Cash. Can't say enough about Miles + Cash!
- Decent earn rates on flights, but great earn rates on things that aren't flights. Hertz rentals (when they post) start at 1700 miles/rental.
- There's been a new survey every few months for 2500 miles, which is how I've been able to build up close to 20k miles without ever crediting a flight to BD.
- Membership year based on when YOU cross the line, so if you join in December, your first month's travel isn't lost when the year rolls over. This may help you with the Christmas flights.
- Soft landings if you don't make the status cutoff for the next year.
- One-way awards are not only bookable, they're encouraged.

On the minus side:
- There's not a lot of benefits if you're based in NA. Most of the easy ones that you get with Blue+ (fly 3k in a year) are only on BD metal, and all the benefits you'd likely be able to make use of if you did hit *G (and at 2 flights a year to the EU you may be able to) require connecting in ORD at best.
- Uncertainty of the program. I'm just hoping it holds out long enough that I can use up these miles we're earning.
- I haven't done the math, but the earn rates seem to be lower than Aeroplan for the same flights. I do know that its far more profitable, as far as earning status goes, to credit the low-fare BD flights to Aeroplan.

Now, if you think you can swing 35k miles a year, then Aeroplan is a decent enough program, not to mention the fares US-YYZ-Europe are often a lot better than the fares YYZ-Europe, and YYZ is a fine for transiting these days. Plus domestic lounge access in the US, unlike (afaik) most US-based carriers.

But other people may have more opinions.

Never recommend US! Not that UA is that good, but I can't really think of anything where US would be better than UA. Please enlighten me if you can think of any.

LAX

Friends don't let friends fly US. (And congrats on #2,000, LAX!)

Hi,

thanks to everybody who replied

US seems to be universally despised (and given the few times I did fly with them it seems deservedly so)

I'll have a look at Diamond Club, the Miles + Cash option seems to be a great feature (and even if they merge with M&M, not that much lost for me)

Given my low flight activity I didn't care about status till now, but since it seems to be possible to get *A Silver, what exactly are the benefits of that ? Looking at the comparison charts the main things seem to be bonus miles and lounge access on that particular airline ? (Aeroplan seems to allow trade these things off for upgrades)

thanks

Overview of Star Silver Status

*S doesn't guarantee worldwide lounge access (although it might for individual airlines and their clubs). That requires *G.

Chris

Chris,

I did realize the issue with Lounge access, in general the main benefit of *S seems to be just bonus miles. (the only reasonable benefit lounge-wise for me would be on LH, but then it seems that with the same miles Aeroplan gives me *G when LH only gives *S)

In my situation it pretty much seems to come down to whether I want status benefits (with the low bar for *G, Aeroplan seems to be the best) or redemption, which seems to be better with bmi DC.

In general I think converting SPG to airlines mile is of poor value. Better used for hotel awards. If you really don't need hotel awards then keep them in SPG. When you need an award and star alliance is inconvenient or unavailable you will have SPG to transfer to the program of your choice.

So I think that SPG to UA ratio is not a great reason to not credit to UA. If UA is good for the other areas, then go with it.

Also why star. domestic redemptions I feel that AA is much better. I'd much rather have their miles. Personally my travel and goals sound similar to yours and I believe its not worth paying a lot to consolidate all into one FFP.

Although maybe you are asking where to put your miles for star flights only, and are already using other alliances too.

SPG conversion ratio. It is 1:1 for US.

We are talking about FF program for infrequent flyer. I would never recommend US as an airline to any frequent flyer. However in my experience participating in FF program of Unites States based airline for somebody based in US (Unites States, not US Airways) has advantages over participating in a program of a foreign airline. Most FFPs are tailored for domestic customers. I have some first-hand experience. Of course most of us agree that UA MP is better than US DM but this is because we are (at least relatively) frequent flyers who want to fly the airline of our choice and use the benefits of the status (I would say, most important for me is help in case of IRROP and of course upgrades in the second place). Those are not available for the infrequent flyer anyway. Also, note that most of us will never consider redeeming miles for saver coach award. In case of OP an FFP should be considered just as a cash-back program like in COSCO or REI. UA is not a good choice because they use SPG AmEx. The only other US-based FFP is, unfortunately US and it does offer 1:1 ratio with AmEx. And though I am no longer a member of their program I sometimes play with their award booking engine to find if there are availabilities for the dates I need before calling 1K desk (yes, there are places where UA does not fly) and it is more convenient than UA engine.

Yes, I am not necessarily trying to force everything into *A (and I do have accounts for other alliances), but based on my previous flights I usually ended up flying *A when booking for price & convenience. So it's at the moment the most relevant one and I am looking for one *A FFP to pool.

And about the SPG Amex points, yes I realized that there are other awards which are more cost effective than converting into airline miles, but I like the ability to transfer into multiple programs to be able to get awards without forcing additional expenditures to get the required mileage.

I am both LH SEN and BMI *S.

When making a comparison I would list the following points:

BMI:
+ Good burn ratio
+ Ability to book o/w awards
- Horrible Indian Call Center
- 5 business days advance booking
- No through fares to continental Europe

LH:
+ Better earnings on LH's cheaper fares
+ Excellent CC in Kassel (always call the German line)
+ Lounge access when making *S (35k miles)
- Worse burn ratio

2 r/t to Europe a year plus some domestic flying should bring you close to LH FTL (*S at 35k) which gives you Lounge access (in several LH US stations) and slightly higher service levels.

In addition to that, miles do not expire anymore.

So I would just stick with LH

Your miles do not expire only if you meet certain criteria. The best way is to be a holder of a miles and more mastercard...

AC or TK are good, you get to *G pretty fast