Qantas Star Alliance back up

[sadlier]

With my work taking me to Asian cities that OW has limited/no direct services to, I'm looking at joining a Star Alliance airlines FF program as a back up to my QF OW membership...

Just wondering if anyone else has recently looked at the airlines in the Star Alliance, had the same problem as me and done the same thing? At the moment I am leaning to Singapore or Thai...??

Does anyone else wish QF would join the Star Alliance instead of OW... Just over the last 12 months, I've found the destinations that I travel to, covered alot better by the Star airlines.. might just be my patterns of travel..

Anyway any pointers would be appreciated.

Cheers

I am one of the old Ansetteeers with a UA Gold Membership with similar questions.

I do think that SQ offer the best network and services in the region and in addition Singapore is a base for other regional airlines such as Tiger and Valueair.

But I get double miles out of actual UA flights and I would probably have to give up this benefit in order to earn status on SQ.

Anyone with some experience/guidance?

 

[sadlier]

Another issue is the airports -SIN is the most efficient in the region and BKK is a shambles which will not improve with the new facility. Once spent 50 mins taxiing on TG trying to find somewhere to park the plane - let alone a gate.

I have been flying SQ economy but logging the miles with UA. I now have UA gold secured for next year and am thinking of logging with SQ the rest of this year but the benefits seem pretty thin unless you fly business to get PPS credits.

Can anyone comment -especially on the use of SQ points for upgrades on SQ?

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

Another issue is the airports -SIN is the most efficient in the region and BKK is a shambles which will not improve with the new facility. Once spent 50 mins taxiing on TG trying to find somewhere to park the plane - let alone a gate.

I have been flying SQ economy but logging the miles with UA. I now have UA gold secured for next year and am thinking of logging with SQ the rest of this year but the benefits seem pretty thin unless you fly business to get PPS credits.

Can anyone comment -especially on the use of SQ points for upgrades on SQ?

Elite Gold is still *G and so get all the *G lounge, extra baggage, etc benefits. Kris Flyer miles to upgrade on SQ is not bad - not as good as UA MP (on UA metal) but much better than QFF. The longer trips are the best value to upgrade (eg all the way through to europe).

 

[Altair]

Well I have being thinking about this as well especially as NZ is dropping SIN as a destination and ESPECIALLY after they dropped the Air$ rates for flying on non-ANZ metal.
Now I know OZ has an interesting program where you get to Gold by flying 100K over three years....I also understand that that you keep the Gold status for 3 years. :shock: The problem with OZ, besides the state of some of their aricraft interiors, is the poor redemptions process.
TG which I have, you get to keep the Status for 2 years. They are slowly improving their aircraft but their cabin service is far behind SQ and OZ IMHO.
I have NZ program because of the Koru Club membership which made it free. The only benefit that I see is when I fly NZ domestic seems to have a higher value than giving the miles to another program, my friend pointed this out for me. I know Thai does not have a minimum miles guarantee and with NZ being so small you really do not get that many miles.

 

[justinbrett]

I'm a member of both QF(ow) and NZ (*a).

However, since the demise of Ansett I've not flown with *a at all - I'm still a member if I ever do but just about all of my business goes to ow.

If Virgin Blue had of joined the *a I may have flown with them more, but to me velocity is a joke.

 

[Kiwi Flyer]

I'm a member of both QF(ow) and NZ (*a).

However, since the demise of Ansett I've not flown with *a at all - I'm still a member if I ever do but just about all of my business goes to ow.

If Virgin Blue had of joined the *a I may have flown with them more, but to me velocity is a joke.

If you are not flying *A then I suggest you use your airbucks and close your account asap. NZ airpoints has an annual charge for any member who doesnt fly at least one NZ flight per year.