[stainforth]

Hi Frequent flyers

Will be traveling to Ireland and London 5 to 6 times a year in economy from Johannesburg which airline alliance do you suggest my frequent travel mates say one world as I could use BA and Qatar what your thoughts.

[MarkivJ]

In terms of frequent flyer and on the ground perques, oneworld. In terms of a more homogenous consistent in-flight experience, Skyteam.

[LuganoPirate]

My suggestion would be Swiss /Lufthansa so Miles and More (Star Alliance).
I frequently book Economy tickets for my boys (Jnb/ZRH/MXP in our case) and find them to be very competitive with consistency of service and an easy transit in Zurich (my favourite) and slightly harder in Frankfurt.

The saving over Qatar is minimal if any, as the last two trips were both cheaper with LH/LX, and you save perhaps R. 500, but that is better than a more cramped aircraft, being churned out at 1am in Doha and sometimes a 5 hour wait for the next leg.

[Swissdiver]

Given your pattern, it has to be Star Alliance or OneWorld. Miles&More is to be avoided since it is the worst of the programs. And I agree with LP regarding Qatar’s So it leaves you with South African’s program (that I don’t know) or BA Executive Club. The latter is my first choice for now 20 years. One of the things you might want to calculate is the tier you could reach with your 5 or 6 long haul flights a year, as this could be a decisive factor.

[LuganoPirate]

The SAA FF programme is called “Voyager” and is not particularly exciting. From that point you’re much better off with Miles and More. However another programme to look at is Aegean’s Miles and Bonus as you can achieve Silver and Gold with a much lower threshold.

If you’re making 6 return trips in Economy I think you’ll get Silver status with Miles and More where you need 35,000 miles to qualify. Not a lot of benefits compared to Gold, but you do get lounge access and I think you can choose your seat for free.

[Swissdiver]

MM Silver: lounge access for one indeed; free selection for some seats (the best ones being blocked for the Senators).
Aegean doesn’t represent so much of a freeway nowadays.
Another aspect to consider: BA vs. SAA seat comfort and service…

[ajs1874]

No real need for an alliance in my opinion Emirates offer a direct service and have a codeshare agreement with SAA. I am not sure but you could possibly book through SAA and fly on Emirates metal. I used this one time from Glasgow to Sydney, booking with Qantas, flying on Emirates, collecting Avios on my BA account.

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