Please advise: best star alliance frequent flyer program?

[mrsluxtravel]

Hi Australian Frequent Travellers,

I have just discovered you!
I was wondering if anyone can advise me on the best Star Alliance frequent flyer program to join?
I have just booked a trip from BNE > SIN > Zurich > LHR
then Milan > Zurich > LAX > SYD on Business Class Discounted (Singapore/Swiss/United).
I'm a member of Qantas and Virgin, but I understand unfortunately Virgin isn't in Star Alliance.

I would really appreciate any advice on where I should sign up for best member benefits.

Thank you!

 

[Mwenenzi]

Welcome to the forum

United UA and Aegean A3 are the default choice for a lot of Star Alliance flyers
What Star flights are you likely to make in the future? A few flights on 1 trip does not make a frequent flyer

Best Frequent Flyer Program for you?
The answer to this question depends very much on your personal travel profile and objectives.
- what is your definition of best?
- do you value miles/points (or equivalent) for redemption over gaining status?
- do you fly enough to gain any meaningful status?
- what do you want to use the miles/points for (award, upgrade, hotels, what ever)?
- what sort of flight award is of interest (destination, class of travel)?
- are you interested in topping up by paying cash for miles?
- which airline and where do you normally fly?
- are you primarily a leisure or business traveller?
- where do you live?
- do you have other ways of earning points in the various programs, e.g. credit cards, shopping, etc,?
- etc, etc, etc

 

[mrsluxtravel]

Thank you for your response and warm welcome Mwenenzi,
I travel from Au to the US several times a year, generally on Virgin/United, sometimes AA/Qantas, and to EU at least once a year - twice planned this year, wherever I can find a good price and appropriate flights (business, or first if something good is available!). For AU > EU I like Singapore Airlines (of course!) Cathay sometimes, Thai too though not keen on going to Bangkok at present. Qantas great of course. I am lifetime silver qantas, my husband is lifetime gold, I am silver Virgin, my husband is gold.
To be honest I'm not sure re valuing status points more than miles - I think I would prefer miles so I can get free flights or upgrades. Though I guess higher status = earning more points. Definitely interested in using points for flights though, not hotels. Yes I am happy to top up miles with cash. Generally I would say I am a leisure traveller, my husband leisure and business. I live in QLD.
At the moment we have qantas credit cards visa and amex, though I would like to look into that too. I need to look into all of this more and am looking forward to being a part of this ff community and working out best ways of doing things.

 

[cove]

Going for Singapore Airlines you can go either of Citibank (non Qantas version) or Westpac Black Altitude credit cards all of which allow you to warehouse your points. Watch out for the points expiry in 3 years.

 

[Mwenenzi]

I travel from Au to the US several times a year, generally on Virgin/United, sometimes AA/Qantas, and to EU at least once a year - twice planned this year, wherever I can find a good price and appropriate flights (business, or first if something good is available!). For AU > EU I like Singapore Airlines (of course!) Cathay sometimes, Thai too though not keen on going to Bangkok at present. Qantas great of course. I am lifetime silver qantas, my husband is lifetime gold, I am silver Virgin, my husband is gold.

What FFP's do you currently credit the UA, Singapore or Thai to?

For OW (QF, CX, BA etc) some people are switching to AA after getting QF lifetime gold. AA has better earn/burn and no surcharges on awards, unless its an BA award flight.

This may be of interest Overview of Frequent Flyer Programms

 

[dajop]

The good thing about the Singapore Airlines program is the combination with CC points, and access to SQ business class cabins on most flights. Many star alliance programs (such as UA mileage plus) restrict you to "regional" cabins on SQ. Another option maybe to consider using Avianca Life Miles to accrue and buying extra miles (or using points plus pay) to get the awards you want,and it is one of the few star alliance programs (Lufthansa Miles & More being another) where you can redeem on SQ's long haul (A380 & 777-300ER) business class. There is a very long thread on this, but to illustrate it, you can if you take advantage of the right promos for buying miles you can get a return business class flight to Europe for around $3000. If you are flying mainly in business class, then you get a lot of the benefits of status (lounge access, extra/priority luggage) anyway.

 

[mrsluxtravel]

Thank you for your responses.
For SA the Avianca suggestion sounds interesting. Would this work with credit card spending too? Or would it be best to go with Singpore for credit card points?
For OW Changing to AA from Qantas also sounds interesting.