Time to change frequent flyer program from VA? Status Match?

[jyavenard]

Hi.

I've recently relocated from Melbourne to Grenoble in France for a period of 2-3 years. Grenoble is about 50 minutes from the Lyon international airport, 1.5 hours from Geneva one.

I was (well, I still am) a platinum FF with Virgin Australia (and about 650k points there left).

My trips mostly take me to New Zealand, Taipei, US (mostly CA) and London. Problem is that from France, VA is pretty much useless unless I fly back to Australia.

I'm looking at which frequent flyer program would be the most advantageous to me. Of the few itineraries I looked at, on what would be a typical flight for me, going to Lyon airport leads me to a connection in Frankfurt via Lufthansa (to go either to the US or Asia)

I do like the idea that when I'll get back to Oz, I won't have to switch again to a new frequence flyer program.

So I'm eyeing at Singapore Airlines. I don't believe they would be keen on matching my VA platinum status there. However, Singapore Airlines is Star Alliance, and has a good relation with VA for future trips...

Any suggestions on which FF programs would take me the quickest to gold status? I do like not having to queue, my company only paying for economy class, I get no perks other than what the FF program gives me.

Or tips on how I could get an airline to match my VA status ?

I read so many tricks here, that surely someone would have some ideas about what to do...

TIA
Jean-Yves

 

[JohnK]

The are existing threads that cover status matches.

Turkish (TK) may provide a status match to *Alliance. From memory Aegean (A3) or Asiana (OZ) could be the easiest to gain status from scratch.

 

[RooFlyer]

For Status matching, have a look here.

Status aside, I'd say SQ Krisflyer would be your new program. Flying SQ via FRA to Asia and flying LH to London and USA and crediting to SQ. Then convert SQ miles to VA points, so there's a seamless earn

 

[jyavenard]

For Status matching, have a look here.

Status aside, I'd say SQ Krisflyer would be your new program. Flying SQ via FRA to Asia and flying LH to London and USA and crediting to SQ. Then convert SQ miles to VA points, so there's a seamless earn

I called SQ, and they would only match Shangri-La status...

I agree that SQ KrisFlyer appears like the best program for me... All routes I'm likely to go can be reached with a Star-Alliance carrier.

Thanks guys for your help...

 

[Mattg]

I do agree that Singapore Airlines has the best program for your needs in the long term. Unfortunately they don't really offer status matches (or any other shortcuts), but as a long-term strategy I would say that building up your status with them is worth the short-term pain.

In terms of programs that do match Velocity status, you might want to have a look at this recent thread: http://www.australianfrequentflyer....a-velocity/fun-with-status-matches-81618.html