Star alliance programs

[fod]

I am a member of UA and LH programs. I generally fly business once a year to North America for work so I do not pay for it. In the last few years I have taken the Swiss RTW business class deal and stopped in Europe on the way back. I also fly perhaps once a year to Europe for leisure so I have to pay for it, though sometimes this is also on business class for work. My question is should I credit all my points to one program and if so which program?

 

[Oneworldplus2]

All depends on what you want out of the program?

 

[fod]

Flights mainly. As I understand the options are flights and status. Interested in what the options are. If it is of relevance I have an Amex account which has about 400000 points in it too.

 

[anat0l]

With all that flying you do, surely you already have status on at least one of those programs (e.g. UA 1K or Premier Executive; or LH Senator or HON Circle)?

Much more often than not, it is desirable to credit all of your flights to one program.

Which airline(s) do you fly the most often? Considering you fly lots of Swiss I was tempted to recommend you credit to Lufthansa's Miles & More program. Whilst the redemptions are more expensive in points than UA's, if you are travelling a lot of Business or First class anyway then it almost evens out. On top of that, LH generally has better availability than UA in premium cabins (including very few SQ premium awards vs. UA that gets nothing, and LH Senators and HON Circle members are the only ones allowed to book First seats on the LH A380s). In addition, you can earn more miles (marginally) on intra-Europe flights on LH compared to UA.

UA, as said, has cheaper flight awards, but can be affected by Starnet blocking which restricts seeing some premium seats. The flight award routing rules are slightly more generous on UA. In addition to these redemption benefits, UA elites get "unlimited upgrades" (cash tickets only, AFAICT) on shorter flights within the Americas and 1Ks can get Systemwide Upgrade vouchers for use outside of America. Note that UA elites (Premier Exec and 1K) cannot access lounges on wholly North American itineraries, even though they are Star Alliance Gold.

Your Amex points (in Membership Rewards) cannot transfer to either LH or UA directly. The only Star Alliance programs your points can go into are SQ KrisFlyer or TG Royal Orchid Plus. My pick of those two would be SQ KrisFlyer. Whilst SQ KrisFlyer doesn't have great elite benefits (with their KrisFlyer Gold not offering more than the normal Star Alliance Gold benefits across all airlines of the alliance), their redemptions are quite reasonable (at times a little better than LH, but LH offsets this if you earn many points via flying premium cabins).

You should note that KrisFlyer points expire in 3 years. Once a batch of points is 3 years old, it will expire unless you use them before then. UA points never expire as long as your account ticks over activity once every 18 months or so. LH points never expire as long as you are a status card holder (e.g. Frequent Traveler, Senator or HON Circle Member).

Another option yet again is BD (bmi British Midland International) Diamond Club. Whilst they may not be around for much longer than 12 months due to their inevitable integration into LH Miles & More, Diamond Club has some of the most generous earn and burn rates in the alliance. They have great Cash+Miles redemption options. Before US started fire selling huge truckloads of miles, DC in some sense was the "consolidator" of premium redemptions in Star Alliance.

Hope that gives you a start!

 

[fod]

Thank you for all this information. Still very difficult to make a choice. i have just come back from a tri to europe with Lufhansa flying business whcih I credited to M&M, though now re-reading what you have said above I am not so sure this was the best option. The reason I do not have status as yet is that I keep changing who I credit to, and previously I did not credit to any programs.
I am unclear on a couple of things. Sorry I am relatively now to this.
1) The number of points and status credits I earn is specific to the program I nominate rather than the airline I fly with is that correct? In other words if I am an M&M member and fly SQ over a particular route but credit the points to M&M I get the same number of points as if I flew LH over that route.
2) Likewise if I take an SQ reward flight but use M&M points does this cost the same number of points as if I took an LH flight?
3) Can I transfer points between programs.
4) Do Etihad have a link with any *A programs?
5) what are SQ premium awards?


Thanks for your help again

 

[elbarto]

I asked this question a few months back and if you're chasing status then Aegean is probably the best as you can get to *G pretty quick, even in Y.

However, I asked if they would status match and they won't.

http://www.australianfrequentflyer....cussion/best-star-alliance-program-27503.html

 

[notzac]

I'm looking in to this myself now; I'll be doing a small amount of intra-europe flying in the next few weeks and it doesn't look like Scaryteam or oneworld airlines are especially convenient :-| I doubt I'll get enough mileage up to get to *G with anyone, but *S is entirely possible. BD I'm guessing is still an option, but I'm told they won't do status matches without having any flown *A segments credited to them (annoying, but fair play). I'm looking at A3 as I should be able to get to *S with almost no effort whatsoever -- does anyone else have different advice for someone purely looking for status benefits?