mahasamatman

Even if it's easier to earn, it's also less useful. And if you're flying 60 segments, you'll have no problem in either program.

I don't know about LH, but F on UA is 300%, so 1,500 mile minimum. A is 200%, so 1,000 mile minimum. (These are PQM, not RDM. I don't know which you care about.)

SFflyer123

In many ways, I would almost take the club benefit over the 1K perks. The club value is around $400/year. I am 1K, and I only get upgraded about 5% of the time, and those usually are on flights 1 hour or so (SFO-LAS, SFO-LAX, SFO-SAN).

I have tried to use my RPU and GPU. So far, I have 6 GPU's and I have not been able to use them at all; they will all be in the garbage can come Jan 31 2017. I have tried international and domestic, and the GPU failure rate is 100%, even for SFO-ORD. Impossible for SFO-EWR.

So, the only perks I get as 1K are:

1) Free flight changes 24h before flight
2) Free cancellation of award flights
3) priority boarding

I never check bags, so that is a useless perk for me.

But the lounge is something I would use, so it may not be a bad thing to get the lounge since GPU, RPU, and space available upgrades are basically useless.

Kacee

This is a valid point (though upgrade experiences vary wildly . . . my success rate is over 90%).

But one thing I'm not sure is fully appreciated is how difficult it is to use M+M miles compared to MP. The one really good use is LH J/F, but the fuel surcharges are very high on those awards.

Jeffw5555

I work for the US operations of a very large German company. I don't know how other German companies work, but there is a world of difference being a US-based road warrior vs a German one. My German colleagues cannot book their own flights, they are given the lowest cost option no matter what the situation is, they don't keep their miles, the company owns them. They must have a hard copy receipt for everything to submit, and god forbid if the company name is missing from the hotel receipt. They have to pay out of pocket if they cannot get the perfect details on the hard copy receipts.

televisor

But travel also counts as work time in Germany, so the flight booking and miles aspects could be considered fair.

polabear

My company is also German based (not nearly as large as some), and all of the US employees have the same flavor of restrictions as the German ones. I'm sure that's where they come from. I do have my own MP account, so it's honor system based. And flying does count as working time, which I can't sneeze at.

I'm excited about the possibility of using my GPUS to upgrade lufthansa flights to first. I honestly had been sticking to Swiss and Austrian with longer layovers/extra hops to make the flights to germany affordable because I've not been crazy about United and LH business class. I really like not having to fight for aisle access.

notquiteaff

Does it not in the US?

I don't get paid by the hour and I don't submit time cards, but if I travel outside my normal work hours (e.g., after a full day of work), there is no problem working a bit less the next day.

televisor

In the US that seems to be employer dependent. My understanding is that, legally, travel doesn't count as work, see:
https://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs22.htm
"As an enforcement policy the Division will not consider as work time that time spent in travel away from home outside of regular working hours as a passenger on an airplane, train, boat, bus, or automobile. "

Whereas under EU law I *think* time spent travelling is considered as work. No wiggle room for employers.

joshwex90

But the OP has the Club card and therefore already has UC access, making that not a differentiater

SebastianMUC

Not true. Work time is leisure time unless otherwise negotiated, like in a union contract - which are the majority of industry people are under. lets say metal/autoworkers or public workers... and... it get more complicated... when you are driving, it is always work time - and when you explicitly where ordered to work while traveling...
reference: FAZ summary (German)

as far as I understood it: keeping the miles is kind of a "gray zone" - technically, there are three options:
a) explicitly taking them from the traveller
b) explicitly not taking them - and the employee has to state these as taxable items
c) not saying anything...

all in all... kinda complicated.

WineCountryUA

And starting to get off topic, or atleast not related to UA or the OP's question.

The issue of employer "ownership" of miles for flights (or hotel points or ...) they paid for is controversial and is a regular topic on FT (duh ) but best in TravelBuzz or MileageBuzz

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...g-company.html

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/miles...employers.html

So let's return to the OP's query -- MP vs M&M.

WineCountryUA
UA coModerator

aaronc84

Hi all, Pittsburgh based United FF here. I do a good amount of domestic travel each year, mostly to the United hubs. So it has made the most sense to stick with them. I also have 2-3 international trips per year, usually pushing me into gold status. I really depend on these international trips to make Gold, but now Pittsburgh has a Condor flight to Frankfurt (miles & more partner) that I would really love to do my part to support. Is there any way to remain star alliance but still put that flight to work for me? If I joined Lufthansa's Miles & More instead of MileagePlus, would all of my domestic United flying help qualify for elite status on miles and more because of star alliance partnership? Or only international codeshares?

Sorry if this is a ridiculous question – just trying to figure out if there's any way to support the local TATL flights but not lose my gold status.

WineCountryUA

Yes it is possible to earn LH status instead but there are a number of downsides.

LH M&M status will not get you the same benefits on UA domestic flights as UA Gold will. A major difference is no E+ access, not CPU, poorer support in irrops, access to elite economy award space, .... . But LH *G would get you UC access on domestic flights

If you are a deep discount flyer, it is much harder to obtain status with LH. LH M&M is better for the premium cabin flyer.

This thread has further thoughts on the issue.

findark

I think you have a couple questions nested in here.

You cannot fly Condor (DE) while earning United miles. You can, however, credit to Miles & More. You may also credit your domestic United flying to Miles & More.

The problems here are many. First of all, the best benefit of United Gold (free Economy Plus at booking) is not available to non-UA Star Alliance Gold customers. Second, Lufthansa awards Star Alliance Gold at the Senator (SEN) level, which is a 100,000 mile tier. Even worse, you will earn zero status miles for flying Condor and usually 25% to 50% of the distance flying United, assuming you fly in discount Economy. Therefore, you would need to fly between 200k and 300k miles on United to make LH *G. It's not really tenable.

aaronc84

Cool, thanks all. That's what I suspected, but wanted to make sure. There's a lot to read with these programs. I'm a tall guy so I'm not willing to give up the free E+. That's a lot more important to me, personally.