Where to move for star alliance Gold

[Becb18]

Please let me know if this is in the wrong section.
I'm looking for help to see if I should move programs again... and maybe outside star alliance, or maybe just do the HBSC card to get gold and time to not bother with any of the FF programs.

I do a few trips a year from Melbourne to LAX in premium economy for work, tend to book Air NZ or United. I have some say in which flights, but if it's significantly (<$500-1000) more to travel on one my choice then I will get questioned.
I was gold on velocity prior to covid but dropped off, then virgin/qantas flights were way more expensive than Air NZ or United so I've been mainly travelling on them. I thought united would work because for any internal flights in the US I could upgrade etc but I since realised how hard it was to get to gold on united!! Currently silver on united. I've moved to velocity and silver there now almost gold, but realised with the changes and I don't do much AU domestic travel so the new rules mean even if i get to gold, I won't stay there.
Looking for some help, I don't really travel a lot other than for work so not lots of other opps for getting points/ status.
Main reason to get status is lounge and priority boarding, potential points upgrades for myself or buy flights for family on points.

 

[Mattg]

I personally use the Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles program for my Star Alliance status. Not every fare class on Air NZ is eligible to earn miles with TK, but if you're in Premium Economy that would usually be eligible.

Overall, it's much easier to earn Star Alliance Gold with TK than it is with United these days. With TK you need to earn 37,500 status miles every 2 years to earn/renew status for another 2 years. No minimum spend and those status miles can be on Star Alliance partners.

If you have existing status with a Oneworld or SkyTeam airline (must be Emerald or Elite Plus), you might be able to get a TK status match. That gets you Star Gold straight away, but you need to do a bit of TK flying to maintain it initially.

Star Alliance Status Match with Turkish Airlines

Did you know that Turkish Airlines offers a shortcut to Star Alliance Gold status?

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

As an alternative to all of that, the HSBC Star Alliance card really isn't a bad option.

 

[Scarlett]

I’d be going for SQ for the dual use across both *A and domestic with VA. Not having a * partner in Aus does limit joint *A/Aus domestic status recognition to SQ and UA though.

The other option, if you have some say and flexibility in the flight bookings, is to go with VFF but try to get the UA flights to the US booked under the VA code. These will make progress through to higher VFF status much easier. (and they get counted in the 400 VA SC you need, not the partner 400…)

 

[Becb18]

Thanks for the ideas, I've never looked into Turkish airlines, so looking into it now, and will look at SQ, although I'm not sure what you mean about limiting domestic status recognition.
I liked into getting VA tickets on Z United, but united don't allow VA tickets for premium economy on united flights, only economy or business

 

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks for the ideas, I've never looked into Turkish airlines, so looking into it now, and will look at SQ, although I'm not sure what you mean about limiting domestic status recognition.
I liked into getting VA tickets on Z United, but united don't allow VA tickets for premium economy on united flights, only economy or business

The HSBC card is a good option… if you join and elect for Aeroplan as your star gold, you’ll get the remainder of the current year PLUS the year after as gold. So join in Jan 2026 will give you gold until Dec 2027 (it actually runs a little longer than that, till like Feb).

The card if free for the first year, and $499 for the second.

Aeroplan is better than SQ because it has 2 years of gold, and any points you accrue don’t have a hard expiry after three years like they do on SQ.

Aeroplan gets you VA lou be access domestically.

The other major advantage of aeroplan is that they sell cheap miles and have good redemption rates. anything you accrue through actual flying, plus credit card spend, can be topped up for good availability to asia and europe.

To maintain gold after two years you’d need to either qualify through flying, or spend AUD48k. But in year three you would drop to silver anyway… although the benefits might not be that great.