What is the best Star Alliance pgm for a RTW on Swiss?

[dbielik]

Hi there,
I’m about to do a RTW Business class cheapie booked via Swiss.
My routing is:
SYD-SIN on SQ
SIN-ZRH-LHR on LX (Swiss)
LCY-ZRH-MIA on LX (Swiss)
MCO-LAX on DL
LAX-SYD on UA
I’m Gold on VA, but nothing useful on any other program. What would be the best program for me to join to gain as many miles / status credits as possible?
Thanks.

 

[dajop]

I'd suggest SQ and DL to VA, the rest to UA.

 

[RooFlyer]

Welcome to AFF .

Hard to nominate 'the best' program based on one trip. What are your future flying intentions, for instance?

If you are more likely to travel to the USA than, say, Asia, then United would be a good choice. American programs tend to be a bit more generous than Asian ones, but they are tightening up, with either segment number of $ spent hurdles in order for you to keep your hard-earned. If you are going to be more of a Euro-traveller, then Lufthansa/Swiss/Austrian's Miles and More program may be worthwhile.

That said, I think dajop has it about right. You should focus on the minimum number of FF schemes (to maximise eventual benefits), and your current VA one should be fed as much as possible. The other flights to UA or LH/LX, depending on your likely future plans. If none, then UA.

Oh, and if its a cheapie Biz fare, watch the earning capacity on the programs you plan to credit in respect to the fare class bought. A D Vs J class fare for instance may have much less earning capacity on one scheme compared to another. It may not make much difference in this case, but the potential difference is a good thing to be aware of, and check beforehand. Also, the airline doing the marketing on a particular segment (the airline that has its code on the flight number, as opposed to the airline actually doing the flying) comes into relevance when you are trying to maximise earn in future. For instance, the same flight with a LH1234 flight number will probably earn much more if credited to Miles and More then the same flight called UA4321 and credited to Miles and More; and vice versa.

If your coming trip is ticketed, then you are locked in, but something to think about in future.

If all this is confusing, welcome to ask some more questions!

 

[dbielik]

Thanks very much dajop and RooFlyer. This is very helpful.

I don't have any future plans on any of these carriers. I prefer to feed my VA, and hopefully after this trip my SQ and DJ sectors should tip me into Platinum!

I guess I was looking for a StarAlliance program that would allow me to easily gain status credits and use them at some time in the future. At the same time, the SQ / VA tie up might mean that I could tip points from VA into SQ for an upgrade at some future date, in which case I should sign up for SQ (but only use it for the LX and UA sectors) - is that a good strategy?

Or would I just be better off using the UA program and be done with it?

Many thanks.

 

[RooFlyer]

<snip>

I guess I was looking for a StarAlliance program that would allow me to easily gain status credits and use them at some time in the future. At the same time, the SQ / VA tie up might mean that I could tip points from VA into SQ for an upgrade at some future date, in which case I should sign up for SQ (but only use it for the LX and UA sectors) - is that a good strategy?

Or would I just be better off using the UA program and be done with it?

Many thanks.

Not sure what you mean by the part I have bolded; I think you may have meant miles/points, rather than Status Credits? Most FF programs have two components (apologies if the below is the bleeding obvious but it might help other readers).

a) 'Miles' or 'points' which are earned, usually per mile flown at a rate set by your status and the cabin flown in, or with hotels, shopping etc. You can redeem points for 'award' flights (and having high status usually gets you better chances of getting an 'award' seat) or for merchandise in most FF programs. Miles or points usually last as long as you are active in the program, usually.

b) 'Status credits' or similar. This is a second currency, usually earned by a set number per sector, usually related and reflect the cabin flown in (can also be number of sectors flown, in some schemes). They nearly always expire at the end of the membership year. Accumulating these gets you higher and higher up the airlines totem pole and gets you progressively better perks, such as better seat selection, lounge access, more baggage allowance, but only for the particular year. (Krisflyer requires certain numbers of 'Elite Miles' to be earned per status tier. I don't know how thay related to miles flown.)

So, the more you focus your flights on one program, the more points/miles you will acquire long term, and the higher status you might earn in one particular year.

If you have no other plans to fly internationally, then definitely credit as much as you can to Velocity. Getting to Platinum there would be very worth while. And then, yes, sign up to Krisflyer and credit the other flights to that (as long as they will earn on Krisflyer, with the fare you have chosen); good thinking. I think you can flow your Krisflyer miles back into Velocity??? If you aren't planning to fly internationally anytime soon, they may expire sitting in Krisflyer so would be better off in your Velocity account (again, if I have that right).

UA may have the same issue with miles expiry and you can't send them to Velocity!

 

[dajop]

Also, the airline doing the marketing on a particular segment (the airline that has its code on the flight number, as opposed to the airline actually doing the flying) comes into relevance when you are trying to maximise earn in future. For instance, the same flight with a LH1234 flight number will probably earn much more if credited to Miles and More then the same flight called UA4321 and credited to Miles and More; and vice versa.

Actually in the realm of star alliance, this is incorrect, it is the operating carrier that determines earn (the notable exceptions are codeshares on non alliance partners). As per quote from Miles and More:

In each case the number of miles earned is set out in the miles chart of the airline operating the service. This could result in discrepancies between the booking class booked and the booking class that determines the number of miles earned.

And UA:

The award miles accrued on codeshare flights are based on the operating carrier and their equivalent fare class.

Now, as that doesn't look it will affect dbielik anyway, and after the extra information provided, unless planning a lot more star alliance flights, I'd probably just suggest sending the LX and UA flights to SQ, that way they can be combined with VA points one way or the other. I forgot with UA's new accrual method, @ 5x $USD amount, and presumably this is one of the Swiss discounted business RTW fares, then the dollar apportionment to the UA sector would be low anyway.

As for SQ upgrades, unless someone else is paying I'd aim higher than that - go for SQ biz award outright. The upgradable fares on SQ (Y) are rather expensive to start with.

 

[andye]

Do check the flight numbers as this will determine to which programme you can credit (eg if the SQ flight has a LX flight number as a codeshare, you can only credit it to a Star Alliance (UA, SQ etc) and not to VFF).

You can convert KrisFlyer miles to VFF 1.3 to 1 so may be worthwhile crediting the LX and UA flights to SQ.

The alternative as dajop says is to credit the LX and UA flights to UA. UA have quite frequent offers to buy miles which can make sense to top up for premium redemptions

 

[dbielik]

Wow, thank you all so much! I have signed up for KrisFlyer since I can transfer points with Velocity which gives me the ultimate flexibility. Per the questions above, the ticket shows LX, UA, SQ sectors with a separate DL ticket. There are no codeshares on the ticket, which i guess is one of the StarAlliance benefits. Each of the fare classes is a points class, so I should be fine.

I'm going to allocate my DL and SQ sectors to Velocity to get my status credits - fingers crossed for Platinum.

I'll update you after my trip and let you know how it went.

Many thanks again.