Which Star Alliance frequent flying programme

I'm flying to Shanghai with Swiss Air in November and don't want the miles to go to waste. I'm currently a member of BAEC and Flying Club, neither of which, as i understand it, are partners with Swiss Air/Lufthansa. I did join Diamond club a while back but find their website infuriating to use. who would you suggest joining in the star alliance?

[Scrooge]

Firstly I moved this to a different forum as it really has nothing to do with VS.

But to answer your question, I would stick with BMI, yes the website is not the best, but in many regards they do have the best redemption rates which to me counts for more.

BMI is as good as any. It really depends on whether you are looking to eventually use miles for a redemption, or whether you are looking to obtain useful status in any way (if you think you might fly this route a couple of times a year, for example). Redemptions are better with european programs, and I agree with Scrooge about BMI especially in light of the fact you can also redeem on VS with their points. You can get marginally useful status with 25k miles on a number of *A carriers, and then the choice of program would depend on what your normal traveling patterns are.

If you're looking for status, best options seem to be Air Canada or Turkish Airlines. They have the lowest elite qualification barrier of the *A programmes, and accrue qualifying miles/points on almost all revenue fares.

If you're not chasing status, you may as well stick with BMI, even though redemptions have gone up to bring them more in line with LH.

Mike

quote:Originally posted by mike-smashing
If you're looking for status, best options seem to be Air Canada or Turkish Airlines. They have the lowest elite qualification barrier of the *A programmes, and accrue qualifying miles/points on almost all revenue fares.

If you're not chasing status, you may as well stick with BMI, even though redemptions have gone up to bring them more in line with LH.

Mike


Quite so, *Gold at 35k miles with AC, IIRC. Gives you worldwide access to *A lounges on international travels, and access to all RCC in the US regardless of destination, I seem to recall. In fact I am surprised they get away with this level, probably because they have far fewer elites than other programs.

I have a similar dilemma...

March-June next year, I'm going to be flying BRS-BRU on Brussels Airlines for at least 16 round trips.

As LH now own SN, SN have transferred all their Privilege programme members to LH's Miles & More at a 1:1 mileage transfer (which is nice).
So, in terms of *A membership, I'm now in both BD and LH - no status in either, and unlikely to achieve any with the amount & type of flying I do these days (i.e. mileage redemption is really my goal).

My flights are all going to be operated by SN but probably booked under a BD codeshare (cheaper that way for some reason) and all in the cheapest fare classes.

The question is - I know I can also earn BA miles on SN (at a measly rate though), so which FF membership to present for the flights???

Oh, if it's any help, my paltry mileage levels in each FF are as follows:
BD: 10900
LH: ~3400 (won't know for definite until the transfer is completed)
BA: 7251

TIA

Cheers
Michael

quote:Originally posted by mcuth
I have a similar dilemma...

March-June next year, I'm going to be flying BRS-BRU on Brussels Airlines for at least 16 round trips.


Michael, 16 round trips = 32 segments. On United you can become Premier by flying 30 segments, so in theory this could make it worth your while joining the UA programme. UA Premier/*S is about as useful as VS Silver unless you're in the US, though, so consolidation to bmi might still be more useful.

quote:Originally posted by MarkedMan
Michael, 16 round trips = 32 segments. On United you can become Premier by flying 30 segments, so in theory this could make it worth your while joining the UA programme. UA Premier/*S is about as useful as VS Silver unless you're in the US, though, so consolidation to bmi might still be more useful.

Thanks - but I'm more thinking about best mileage collection for future redemption, rather than status (since these days I don't fly enough to worthwhile places for status to really mean anything).

To add to the mix, I've just found an old UA MileagePlus card - the account had 3k miles, but they expired in May 2008!

Oh, if only I could find the right programme and then a decent way to move miles around...

Cheers
Michael