Which *A program is the fastest way to gold?
 

Hello Everyone!

Does anyone know which Star Alliance airline program is the fastest to reach Gold Status from scratch?

I plan to fly 3-4 times in Economy Class this year from Australia to Europe and not sure which program to join. I think the most beneficial part of a Frequent Flyer program for me is to achieve Gold Status as soon as possible so that I can use the lounges. Otherwise, I will just be using my points to cash in for flights.

Suggestions welcome!! :D

Thank you in advance,
Daniel (Sydney, Australia)

Normally, the answer is BMI or TK.

I personally use TK as it gives more miles for Y-Trips and it gives 100% on all US and UA classes which helps me. Another point is that you can buy miles to keep your status.

But when you say you are going from Australia to Europe I guess the question is: which airline?
Then you could pick the programme which gives you maximum miles with your carrier.

But please be careful in picking one programme: I some it is easier to collect miles and get a status, but not to redeem the miles!

Usually when I fly to Europe I will fly with one of the following carriers...

Most Often: Singapore Airlines
2nd: Thai Airways
3rd: Lufthansa
4th: Air China

I am currently with Lufthansa Miles & More but a) it's near impossible to reach Gold and b) had problems with them redeeming upgrades.

I checked the miles you get with Air New Zealand with TK:

Y,B,M,H,E,Q,T,V,U,O,A %100

W %50

Now, depending on the route you fly you would be *Gold with TK after 3 to 4 one-way trips and get Elite Plus status easily with your 4 round trips.

But of course that's speculation without knowing the carrier and the route you are going to fly.

Yes, becoming SEN with MM needs 100.000 Miles, which is nearly impossible if you fly only Y.

With Singapore it could get harder, as they have some classes which give NO miles. But one can sort that out while booking of course:

Redeeming Miles with MM is the easiest thing on earth - so far my experience. You will surely find it harder with any other programme. Also is MM as far as I am concerned the easiest programme to earn miles by NOT flying. But to get a status - it is difficult.

As you can see in my profile I collect at MM (prio 1) and TK (only for the gold status). I made a Excel-Sheet to compare the miles I can earn for each of my flight between MM and MS. MM only wins with short (domestic or European) trips in C. In nearly all other circumstances, TK gives more miles.

Being based in Australia, why not achieve WP status with Qantas (quite easy) and then get comped to BD *G? Then you have status on Oneworld and *A :) Then you get domestic lounge access everywhere in aussie too. *A has very minimal presence domestically in Australia sadly

Great idea but getting to Platinum on QF just by flying Y in order to get to Star Alliance Gold is really doing it the hard way. Or was this the FT way? ;) :D

It's the FT way :D

Plus, you can do a few YUPP/KUPP's in the US (on AA in First) and get WP for about $4500 AUD or less... but that doesn't help with the AU-Europe stuff ! :D

Or, why not a DONE4 ? :)

Air Canada's Aeroplan only requires 35,000 miles to reach *G status. TK is 40,000 miles but renewal appears to be easier and (I think) status is good for two years once you reach it.

OZ requires 40K and it's valid for 2 years. Burn rates ain't that good though...

OZ's Gold is not *Gold, but *Silver. It is actually OZ Diamond that is a *G.
It requires 100,000 miles to attain *G with no time limits.
Once you are *G, then you need to get 40,000 miles every two years to stay *G. Quite easy.
But again, mileage spending rates are not good.

Aeroplan.

This is not true. You are referring to the old rules. The new rules went into effect on Oct 1, 2008. Now you only need 40K for Diamond which is *Gold and it is good for 2 years, plus the remainder of time on your 2-year qualifying period, so a total of possibly up to 4 years. If you joined today and took a full year to reach 40K, you'd get *G for 3 years.

Is this year an exception, or does it reflect your typical yearly travel pattern?.

An economy return from Sydney to Europe earns 20k plus miles. If you’re doing the trip 3 or 4 times a year you will qualify for Gold Status under any number of schemes. I don’t think it is particularly relevant whether you achieve status at 35k, 40k or whatever – your only requirement is that you can achieve and retain that status flying your typical 60-80k a year and you need to look at the other benefits that each scheme offers.

You mention that you mostly fly SQ. You will achieve Krisflyer Gold at 50k. As Krisflyer Gold you’ve got the best chance of getting an upgrade or OpUp on a SQ flight. KF Gold also gets you lounge access when flying Virgin Atlantic and Silkair (in addition to the regular Star Alliance carriers). Krisflyer also partner with Amex in Australia and allow you to redeem credit card points on a 1:1 basis into your Krisflyer account.

If you are flying 50k plus miles, year-in-year-out and SQ are your preferred carrier I would go with Krisflyer. If this year is not typical and your mileage will be considerably less in future years then you really need to focus on which scheme will allow you to retain Gold for the longest period and has the least onerous conditions for requalification (possibly OZ?).

100k is for Diamond Plus.

Thank you everyone for your great input! People say for example you can earn Gold with Singapore for 50'000 points but don't you need to earn Silver first, then the points reset and then 50'000 on top of that?

Yes, it is typical I fly 3 times per year from Australia to Europe. At least 2 times, and sometimes 4 times.

Thanks everyone :) I'm a little confused now though! haha.

50,000 miles in 12 months. See this link for more information.

The Star Alliance Gold Chart linked to from this thread compares all the *A Gold Benefits and status qualification criteria.

The three easiest *A Gold are:
AC - 35k in a calendar year. Valid up till Mar next year?
OZ - 40k in 24+1 months since registration. Valid for up to 48+1 months
TK - 40k in 12 months. Valid for up to 24mths.

The *A Gold with the best earn/burn is:
BD - 57k, 38k within 12 months after qualifying for *A Silver. Valid for 12 months?

You might also want to consider whether the value of redemptions or status in case of irregular operations, is more important. Also consider the expiry date of the earned miles and the % of mileage bonus for elites. Finally, consider the value of lifetime status.

If irrops occur, generally status on the airline you're flying is more valuable.

If you want good value redemptions, generally BD has the best value redemptions in *A.

See this thread or this thread for a summary of lifetime status. 30-50 return trips from Australia to Europe, should get you lifetime status.

BD requires a total of 57k to hit Gold. Status is then valid for a year.

Then once you have achieved 55k status miles as a Gold, any status miles over this are converted to destination miles. BD also give a 25% base mileage bonus on destination miles on all *A flights.

The only concern is that within the next few years, BD diamond club may be converted to Miles & More, as Lufthansa is now the primary share holder.

Ah ha!.

Now you are starting to play the game of averages.

Typically 3 times per year, sometimes 4 times – no problem. 3 times per year will see you achieve 50k per year, and you will renew at Gold Status with KrisFlyer. 4 times per year you will renew easily with a couple of thousand miles surplus.

At least 2 trips a year – Oops. Suddenly you’re borderline. Depending on the dates of the flights, and the dates required for membership renewal you may fail to achieve 50k in the current membership year and the required Gold status. Averaged over the years, and taking into account the years you flew 4 trips per year, you probably deserve to achieve Gold Status – unfortunately that ain't the way it works. You failed to achieve 50k this membership year, therefore you’re downgraded. If you’re lucky and have sufficient time you can perhaps book a flight to NZ or Asia to log the required miles, otherwise you suffer until you hit a ‘good’ year and achieve the 50k balance.

I sympathise with your position. I’m enrolled in Krisflyer and ‘average’ 50k per year. Unfortunately I’m running short of miles this year and will not achieve Gold status renewal (and lack sufficient time to do anything about it). Next year looks like being a good year for me - I’ve got a couple of long haul flights scheduled in quick succession and at this point am looking to open an account and booking them to Asiana. I should be able to achieve Diamond (Star Alliance Gold) fairly quickly and will take advantage of the lounge access (up to 4 years) under this scheme. Once I achieve Diamond status I will direct miles to Krisflyer. In 3 years or so before my Diamond status expires I will review my position again – If I’m traveling well and am confident of logging 50k miles to Krisflyer that year fine, otherwise I’ll look at utilising Asiana to gain another 4 years of lounge access.

Only a little confused ? Heck you’re doing well !

As already written above I consider TK as the best option especially because the status is valid for 24 mnths.
I know however that is not easy to spend miles...but I consider the other benefits as the most important.

TK - 40k in 12 months. Valid for up to 24mths.

OZ requires 40k in 24 months for qualification and the status is valid for 24+a months. As A_Lee mentioned already, the status can be valid anywhere between 24 months and 48 months depending when one qualifies OZ*G. Hence I think it's a trashy program. OZ*G and TK*G are the two most undeserving *Gs.

Air Asia - Now everyone can fly
Asiana - Now everyone can become *G

I'm confused. You think it's a trashy program because it has potentially one of the longest validity periods, and for some of the fewest miles? How does that make it trashy? Many would agree with it not being the best program with respect to earn/burn ratio. So in exchange for easy qualification and long validity, you trade off some in how far your earned miles will go. It all depends on what you want out of a FFP.

If you just want a *G card, OZ could be excellent if not the best. If you just want to earn miles towards free trips, then OZ is probably not so good. If you never fly OZ then it won't offer you any extra perks. If you do fly OZ a lot, as I do, their FFP can provide some excellent perks. For me, it's an excellent program, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it to just anybody, and even for myself I don't use it exclusively as it's earn rates for C and F are very poor compared to the likes of BD or LH's programs.

It seems that, on balance, UA is best (for both earning and redeeming), especially if you normally fly Y (or lower Econ classes). You never have to worry about what class you fly to get 100% of the miles, and redeeming is still a good deal in my opinion (TK, for example, required 5K more miles to redeem a saver North American or Hawaiian award than UA). I always redeem for Saver Awards as a rule, and I've gotten my desired flight almost everytime I wanted to (about 2-3 NA Savers a year, an occasional Hawaiian saver, or South American saver -- I never redeem for Europe).

Redeeming with UA on other *A partners, I believe is very difficult since UA try to restrict awards to UA. If you are based in the US, its not too much of a problem, but if you are in Europe then its a much bigger deal.

You need to be very careful with your booking classes. Always check which booking class you are on, and maybe spend a bit more to get to a higher booking class. I just checked accrual for you between Turkish Miles&Smiles and Asiana Club, and Asiana Club comes out slightly ahead in terms of mileage by booking class. Since Asiana also allows two years to accumulate the flights, this is maybe a good programme for you as it will allow you to keep your status even in years where you fly less.

However Asiana Club is not such a good programme if you fly business or first class, or on short flights. Also, redemptions are not great. But to keep *G, perfect.

hehe wow thank you everyone for your wonderful help and feedback :P what a raging debate.

i'd like to clarify a few things hehe.

- I currently have Miles & More Silver (expires Feb 2010) but I've had issues redeeming points and also the Silver perks are not great for the routes that I fly.
- I have redeemed points before but not on Lufthansa, I only redeem points usually for use on other Star Alliance carriers
- At present I only ever fly Economy Class

Maybe this info above will help :) It looks like UA, OZ and TK are looking good. I am concerned with SQ because on their website it says you must make Silver (25,000) and then a further 50,000 for Gold (=75,000?).

Another question I have... if I become a Gold *A member and therefore can access lounges, if I am travelling with a guest who is not a Gold member, can I invite them to the lounge with me?

Thanks everyone for your amazing help! You have no idea how happy and appreciative I am to you all :)

Daniel.

Yes, generally. See the Star Alliance Lounge Access Policy:

Heck, my head is starting to hurt.

I think I probably made Silver in my first year, and then progressed to Gold the following year. However, as I understand it you can make Gold in one year by earning 50k miles in the appropriate class:-

"What are the qualification criteria for the different tiers of membership?

KrisFlyer Elite Gold

A membership upgrade to KrisFlyer Elite Gold status is attained by earning 50,000 Elite miles any class of service on Singapore Airlines, SilkAir or any Star Alliance airline during your 12-month Elite qualification period, and crediting them to your KrisFlyer account. In this case, an Elite qualification period is a 12-month period which is tracked from your date of enrolment as a KrisFlyer member, or membership upgrade to Elite Silver."

I've bolded the bits of the rule which seem to support the 50k in one year rule and are particularly relevant to your situation.

I just wanted to remind you that as Elite member on TK (*Gold) you are allowed to buy miles to maintain your status.

Definetly also a "plus".

Of course everyone should decide the programme from his oder her pesonal needs. For me, TK is in all points "OK" and as I am frequently in IST the benefits from being Elite (separate passport control, separate entry to the airport) also count for me personally.

Ah, I just saw this on www.thy.com:

The Star Gold Chart also mentions it.

I think it's the only *A program that will let you buy the EQM.

I am quite sure it is the only one....! ;)

UA sort of lets you buy EQM via the Visa Choices program.

Thank you so much everyone! I will think a little more on all of this an keep you posted on my decision! :)

You can get *G on UA for 15,000 miles via the fast track promo: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/unite...ast-track.html

However, it costs $350. After one trip you will have *G status until then end of the year. 50K miles flown is required to retain the status for the following year. IMO, if you want the status quick, and will end up flying the 50K this year, its worth it as you'll be *G after one RT.