Hello, I've been a lurker for quite a while and recently got *A gold with Turkish Airlines. Thanks to this forum

I had planned to get *G as quickly as possible. 1 year. Then go onto a different program for more specific perks. I've never flown TK and doubt I will do so in the future. I tend to fly to the Far East from London. I got my *G with trips to Hong Kong, Thailand and Singapore. Prefer premium economy with Air NZ & EVA, but fly economy with Thai Air & Singapore Air, and once business with Qatar Airways. Not sure I'll bother with eligible fares on SG as there's quite a premium compared to their cheapest fares. About �200 some times.

First question, any advice on whether to join another *A program and which one? From what I've read here UA and BD have good programs. I travel to Thailand a fair bit and am flying there this week. So TG would seem a logical choice, though I did fly premium economy with NZ twice recently. SQ is a consideration, but their non status cheap flights are too tempting. I doubt I would get to Elite Plus with TK since I don't fly business often and if I did, the miles would get me *G on another *A program.

After I've joined a second program, how do I juggle using my existing *G and the new *A card? Should I add my *G card when I book, but check in with my new *A card and then show *G card at lounges & gate? Or Check in with *G and change to *A card at the gate? Annoyingly I've waited over 2 weeks for my *G card to be delivered.

Thanks for any advice.

Cheers,
New Gold

Welcome to FT New Gold

It is normally not a good idea to spread your earning across multiple accounts - you get more value by having all your mileage earning (especially within an alliance) on a single FFP.

Thank you for the reply Kiwi Flyer. The thing is, I joined TK to get to *G as quickly as possible and get *G benefits. I just managed it too. Unfortunately, since I don't fly with TK, I'm not going to receive many member benefits from TK itself. Although, there are �181 flights to HKG and �248 SIN from LON on sale with TK. �287 to BKK? However, other programs like UA, BD & TG seem to offer more, like upgrade vouchers. I suppose TK would become my secondary program.

Off the top of my head, I can't think of any of the carriers for London-Asia that have a decent complimentary upgrade scheme for their elite members, so I doubt you're going to get very much in the way of free upgrades from anyone.

Even on UA, you need to be a 1K to get the complimentary systemwide upgrades, which involves flying 100k miles per year - same with Lufthansa Senator.

Flying on anyone but AC with the Aeroplan Elite card, I never felt that I was short-changed in terms of elite member benefits. After all, with the benefits offered by Star Gold, what more would you really want? (for upgrades, see above).

Thanks for the reply Star Gold.

Yes, I was considering AC, but then it would change my flying habits to incorporate Canada . Also they don't do *A upgrades, nor do BD.. TG give a gold return flight upgrade. BD give 4 upgrades. Perhaps I am expecting too much. It's just that I thought it would be more worthwhile joining a program that I actually fly with. Or might want to fly with. For some reason, I have a perception that being a member of an airline's program is better than a member of that airline's alliance, when flying with that airline. Hopefully, I don't come across as ungrateful, as *G has great benefits.

Yes, TG gives out a return upgrade, but there are also other considerations such as poor burn rates using TG FFP and requiring 50k per year vs. 35k on AC for example. The earn rates on each Star FFP varies so much especially in discounted Y that you really need hawk's eyes to find out exactly which program works to your best advantage.

At the end of the day, any extra benefits for being the operating carrier's own FFP Gold is mostly "nice to have" benefits that usually don't make a huge amount of difference. I think there are a ton of things more relevant such as earn/burn rates, qualification criteria etc, rather than one-off upgrades.

Indeed, stargold, there are many things to consider. To be honest, I don't fly that much. Even though this will be my 3rd flight in 5 months Also, I've only flown business once on Qatar and tend to fly premium economy if available; so that shouldn't affect my earning rates too much. TG do restrict some of their budget *A economy fare earning rates compared to other FFPs. Their burn rates aren't too hot either, but they do offer upgrades on their own cheap economy tickets. I think for me, the gold upgrade on reaching and maintaining gold balances out the poor earn/burn rates. I suppose the question is whether I can do 50k in 1 year or 80k in 2 years.