Hi,

I am a Lufthansa Gold member, flying 70% Lufthansa/Swiss, 20% Edelweiss / Eurowings and 10% Turkish, 80% EU - US. I have barely made it to Gold status in past years, but with the new Miles & More rules I believe I will not make it anymore.

I am thinking about switching to Miles & Smiles programme as it seems to be easier to get to the Gold status. My main motivation for Gold are airport lounges - unfortunately Lufthansa Silver status wouldn't give me access to some more exotic lounges where Gold status does.

1. Would it make sense to switch to Miles & Smiles, if the majority of my flights are with Lufthansa group companies? Assuming I've done 80-120k miles per year with Miles & More so far, that should easily get me to 40k with Miles & Smiles?
2. Do Edelweiss / Eurowings flights bring Miles & Smiles miles? They are not listed on Turkish website as partners?
3. If I decide to switch to Miles & Smiles in 2024 for all flights, can I still use my Miles & More Gold status for lounge access on those flight, or is that not going to happen, since I will be using Miles & Smiles number for those flights?
4. Any other thougts about the idea?

Beware of the infamous P class on Lufthansa. It credits 0% to TK (and other *A ffps). You can also forget about gettings miles and status credit from the likes of Eurowings.

TK Elite (*G) is certainly better than M&M Silver, but it will be a drop down in what you are used to with M&M Gold. It will be hard to recommend M&S when the plan is to continue flying almost exclusively on LH Group airlines. If you switched some of your business to TK it would be different.

Thank you craigthemif!

One thing to keep in mind - I won't be able to maintain M&M Gold status with their new rules, while it looks I could maintain M&S Gold. So we are comparing M&M Silver vs M&S Gold long term.

Also a slight note that TK*G has zero benefits on non-*A LH Group carriers such as Edelweiss, Eurowings, Discover, Air Dolomiti, Luxair, etc...
On those flights, you would be no different than a non-status person.

Have a look at you old LH flight bookings to see the exact booking classes they are in. That way you get a good idea if Turkish M&S is worth it for you.

Not only do you get 0 miles when flying discounted Lufthansa business class (P) with Turkish, but also the lower economy booking classes (O, I, R, X, K, L, P) earn 0%. As said before, you won't get anything either when flying Eurowings, Edelweiss etc. That said, with premium economy there is a sweet spot in earnings, and that would earn well.

Truth be told, I almost never fly Lufthansa, mainly because I can't seem to find any decently priced flight in either economy or business class that actually earns miles with Turkish Miles&Smiles! The two aren't a great match in many cases... If it's a Lufthansa flight that gives some credit, I usually find the flight prohibitively expensive and I just take a much cheaper flight on another Star Alliance carrier where you can get at least 50% or so of the miles flown. Of course, all of this is assuming you are paying for your flights. If your flying activity is on company dime and includes relatively last-minute bookings in high booking classes, you could easily make it to gold. But try to do the math first!

Austrian mileage accrual isn't great either - Swiss is a bit better for crediting to TK. Easily the best of the LH group for crediting to TK.

SAS premium economy is perfect earning sweet spot for TK - 150% mileage (same as SAS business class). Unfortunately SAS might leave Star Alliance soon.

Might leave? I'd say "will almost certainly be leaving"...

As others have said check your recent flights for the booking classes. wheretocredit.com might help. But if you can achieve TK Gold that would surely be better than LH silver.

I'm not sure what customer service / support is like with LH but it can be a battle at times with TK. It's often better if you have a good local sales office.

If Gold is your main driver have a look at the new HSBC Star Alliance credit card. It's not yet available in all countries but it gives you a fast track to gold. Also A3 might be worth looking at particularly if you fly to Greece each year. Asiana was also pretty generous but they're in the same boat as SK and I presume will leave *A soon.

Yet another option is ditch airline loyalty altogether, get an Amex Platinum card. It gives you lounge access (mostly priority pass which is less than ideal), but of course you don't get luggage, fast track etc etc. It also has a host of other benefits handy for a frequent traveller. They offer good discounts on business class airfares through their travel service and of course you're free to fly which ever airline you want thus potentially saving money.

Just some options to consider. Having said all that I'm TK but channel excess miles beyond requalification to another program and have an Amex Platinum for those times I fly with a different alliance.

SAS IS leaving *A.

Generally speaking, since LH engaged in destructive telekenesis.......................in 2013 or so, it is almost never a good idea to credit TK flights to M&M or viceversa. Furthermore if your fares were high enough and frequent enough to make it make sense, then you probably would not be needing to ask the question (not a swipe at you, but just the way that LH and TK have set it up). As mentioned above, LH subsidiaries such as Euro, Edel, etc credit nowhere but LH.