Skyteam Status Discussion

[Longtoo]

Hi Brain Trust,

i am a newly minted platinum member with Garuda (Skyteam Elite Plus). However, most of my travel with Skyteam is with Vietnam airline.

Should I prioritise maintaining my Titanium (Skyteam Elite) over the other membership with Garuda?

And a lounge related question: for future flying, if i credit points to vietnam airline, can i still use my Skyteam Elite Plus benefit with Garuda? (flying skyteam of course).

TIA

 

[pauldab]

Your benefits will only attach to the program you have on the booking.
So if flying with VN and you use your Lotusmiles number you'll only get the Titanium benefits.
To access the lounge you'll need to use your Garuda membership (with Sky Team Elite plus) and credit the flying there.

If you are more likely (like me) to be using VN for travel you should focus accruing with them. I have to say the very generous double qualifying miles program this year earned me Platinum and re-qualified with only 12 legs in J and Y+ for my Vietnam and Japan travel.

 

[MELso]

As far as I can tell, Garuda is one of the easiest Skyteam airlines to obtain Elite Plus status on (along with Air Europa). It requires 30,000 miles initially and 25,000 to renew (if I'm reading this correctly). By contrast, to get Elite Plus on VN requires 50,000 miles. BUT VN's Skyteam's Elite status at Titanium kicks in at 15,000 miles vs 20,000/15,000 for Garuda Gold.

The question I guess is whether you reckon you can get 25,000 miles and therefore be eligible to maintain your Elite Plus status with GA (even if you don't, GA will still allow you to retain Elite for the same amount of VN's titanium status).

I'm looking into this as I'm likely to try China Eastern's business class to Europe early next year as it's quite cheap and looks to have a good hard product (this should generate just under 30,000 miles once the business class bonus is accounted for, so not too far off Elite Plus).

Initially, I'll credit to QF to get the points, but if China Eastern proves to be okay, I'd like to use the flights to get recognition of status. It seems that GA will be the best option unless there's a 'gotcha!' I've missed (e.g. a minimum number of flights on GA).

 

[Longtoo]

Thanks paulab and MELso! it's always great to get insight from this group. I did not realise that LotusMiles Gold is not yet Elite Plus (thus the lounge access is only with Vietnam Airline).

I don't think i will fly enough to ever get to LotusMiles Platinium. I will stay with Garuda then, at least until i drop down to the entry level.

 

[MELso]

Probably the only reason to choose VN Gold is if you fly in Vietnam domestically. As Elite Plus only covers international lounges (there are some domestic lounges available now including HAN and SGN, but not all), if there other VN lounges in Vietnam, VN Gold might give access where GA platinum doesn't. It does seem that VN offers Elite Plus lounge access at all domestic ports though.

 

[Longtoo]

Apparently, my first overseas trip next year will involve Garuda. I will stick to Garuda for now.

 

[Haplo]

I too have moved across to skyteam from Oneworld, however I chose Delta instead. It's miles doesn't expire, and you actually get quite good elite progression if you mainly fly PE or J with alliance airline.

For example I did a Europe return in J with China Eastern, and I was credited with 6600 EQD, which is more than a full level in the delta program. 5000 is Elite and 10000 is Elite Plus.

 

[MELso]

I too have moved across to skyteam from Oneworld, however I chose Delta instead. It's miles doesn't expire, and you actually get quite good elite progression if you mainly fly PE or J with alliance airline.

For example I did a Europe return in J with China Eastern, and I was credited with 6600 EQD, which is more than a full level in the delta program. 5000 is Elite and 10000 is Elite Plus.

One downside of DL is that you don't get lounge access when flying DL internationally, which is annoying. Also, in GA's program, a return MU flight MEL-PVG-CDG in I (business) would net ~27,000 miles which is almost enough to qualify for Elite Plus and enough to re-qualify for it; a short hop over to DPS as a status run would probably get the remaining miles.

One program that we Aussies may find useful is Virgin Atlantic's, given that it's the only Skyteam airline Virgin Australia partners with. VS Gold Members get priority check-in and boarding, as well as lounge access. However, to use the MU example above, it would only net 300 tier points, while 1000 tier points is needed for gold.

I looked further into Air Europa's SUMA program, but it has a requirement that four flights be flown on Air Europa itself to advance through the tiers something I'm unlikely to do that's out.

This selecting a Skyteam program is hard, but I think I'm increasingly leaning towards GA!

 

[Haplo]

DL only doesnt allow you to access Delta Sky Club when flying DL, you can still access other Skyteam lounges. It is not relevant unless you do a lot of flying within US.

Have you looked at Garuda miles redemption process? You need to print out a form and go to their ticketing office in Melbourne to book award flights with partner airline. That itself is a turning off for me.

I would say AF have a really good redemption table, even better than Delta. However it has the stupid rolling rule on elite status like how Cathay used to work. 65k one way in J to Asia (similar to Delta, compare to 95k with VA)