Moving to Thailand, should i sign up to Thai or Singapore frequent flyer program?

[6"6Flyer]

Hi all,

I'm moving from Sydney to Bangkok for work. I'm leaving as QF Platinum and have checked with Thai, they will not status match i'm not sure what SQ are like with this..

As i will be starting from scratch with star alliance, was wondering if the group had thoughts or experience on whether i should sign up with Thai's program or SQ (or even other). I will be flying weekly within Thailand and monthly within SEA and back to OZ quarterly in J, so i should get up to status quick enough..

As my Thailand travel will be with TG, does the group see any benefit in signing up with them? Or do they think signing up to the best program is the best strategy?

I know Amex have offers to get Thai gold quicker if you sign up with them and i do have 600k in VA points i could transfer to SQ as another consideration.

Thanks.

 

[Quickstatus]

Welcome @6"6Flyer

Im not in *A so cannot comment specifically and I have never flown with TG.
I know that SQ FF award seats are easy to come by even without status.
Where are most of your FF points going to come from?
Does TG status confer anything special - there will be the usual extra luggage, priority boarding and checkin, and maybe some upgrades.
Apart from BKK , there are basic domestic lounges at CNX,HKT,KBV,HDY and international lounges in SIN,KUL,ITM,MNLHKG
Other destinations rely on other *A lounges or third pary lounges.

As status is recognised across the Alliance I would suggest using one *A friendly FF number. Either SQ or TG. Probably SQ

 

[6"6Flyer]

Thanks for the response quickstatus.

I would be flying predominately within Thailand with TG. Within SEA i would imagine TG would be easiest out of BKK also. Internationally (back to Oz) i think would be based on who ever was best value for J at the time.

I think i read with TG Gold you are given an upgrade to business from economy for any flight booking.There also may be a special TG check in at BKK..

As there is the AMEX link with TG in Thailand, i was thinking this may be the kicker to maximize earn.

 

[Quickstatus]

Have a look at how you harvest most of your FF points.
Its seems best to warehouse points within the credit card- outside of Royal Orchid and/or Krisflyer and then transfer when you want to redeem for flights

SQ Krisflyer FF points accrual have a rapid use by date - months. Not sure with Royal Orchid.

Are your flights self funded or business related?

Additionally I think the FF points cost of an award SYD-SIN-BKK is the same as SYD-SIN

 

[Wanderlust_tim]

How about Asiana? Matt Graham posted an interesting article this morning which might be of interest (i assume this is @Mattg) - particularly with the amount of flying you will be doing. It might take some legwork to determine how the fares will post but i'd be considering it if i were in your shoes.

Asiana Club is the Most Underrated Star Alliance Program

 

[6"6Flyer]

Thanks again.
Flights will be company funded.. Exuding maybe 1-2 of the return trips to Oz.
I did think SQ have a larger network of destinations which may be of benefit and SQ is always a nice travel experience.

The earn rates in reading all look that same.

 

[6"6Flyer]

How about Asiana? Matt Graham posted an interesting article this morning which might be of interest (i assume this is @Mattg) - particularly with the amount of flying you will be doing. It might take some legwork to determine how the fares will post but i'd be considering it if i were in your shoes.

Asiana Club is the Most Underrated Star Alliance Program

Thanks, I did notice this article, which sparked my interest.

Being historically a QF FF, i know your earn rates on partner airlines on OW are lower. But i have since noticed *A are not like this and are a bit more even across the board.

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Appreciate SQ might have better coverage, but the extra 3 or so hours to transfer via SIN would probably wear you down after a while? (2 hours to fly BKK-SIN and v.v, and hour transit). I believe TG also offers platinum status, giving access to the TG F lounge, which would be a pretty big advantage, coupled with non-stops.

 

[Mattg]

How about Asiana? Matt Graham posted an interesting article this morning which might be of interest (i assume this is @Mattg) - particularly with the amount of flying you will be doing. It might take some legwork to determine how the fares will post but i'd be considering it if i were in your shoes.

Asiana Club is the Most Underrated Star Alliance Program

You assume correctly.

If status is the end goal, Asiana Club is very difficult to overlook!

If earning/burning miles is more important, then maybe KrisFlyer could be a (marginally) better option. But it's much harder to earn status with KrisFlyer.

 

[6"6Flyer]

You assume correctly.

If status is the end goal, Asiana Club is very difficult to overlook!

If earning/burning miles is more important, then maybe KrisFlyer could be a (marginally) better option. But it's much harder to earn status with KrisFlyer.

Thanks Mattg. The best outcome would be both gold and good earn and burn rates .
Lounge access and express check in and boarding are always important when travelling for me.

I think i'm leaning to joining Thai, as they will be the predominate airline i fly and i can link in a Thai Air Amex to get to gold faster.

 

[Mattg]

Thanks Mattg. The best outcome would be both gold and good earn and burn rates .
Lounge access and express check in and boarding are always important when travelling for me.

I think i'm leaning to joining Thai, as they will be the predominate airline i fly and i can link in a Thai Air Amex to get to gold faster.

IMHO Asiana Club is better in terms of both earn and burn rates than Thai's frequent flyer program. However, beware that Asiana doesn't award any miles on the cheapest TG fare classes. According to the Asiana website, these TG fare classes don't earn anything: L, O, R, I, E, N, X, V, W, G

So if you're mostly flying TG on cheap tickets, might be best to use TG after all (assuming they will award miles on the aforementioned fare classes).

 

[6"6Flyer]

IMHO Asiana Club is better in terms of both earn and burn rates than Thai's frequent flyer program. However, beware that Asiana doesn't award any miles on the cheapest TG fare classes. According to the Asiana website, these TG fare classes don't earn anything: L, O, R, I, E, N, X, V, W, G

So if you're mostly flying TG on cheap tickets, might be best to use TG after all (assuming they will award miles on the aforementioned fare classes).

Thanks Mattg.
I dare say there would be a large percentage of domestic flights that would be booked by the company that would fall in that category. So probably another supporting fact for TG.

 

[coriander]

SQ Krisflyer FF points accrual have a rapid use by date - months. Not sure with Royal Orchid.

I think SQ points have a 3-year life.

 

[ajw373]

If you are flying domestically in Thailand many/most flights (depending on where you are flying) would be on Thai Smile which is not part of Star. So if you want lounge access and points etc you need TG status.

 

[ctrunfree]

One advantage of Thai's Royal Orchid Plus is that it's easy to earn points for hotel redemptions. You can also nominate up to 5 people to whom you can transfer these rewards.