Which Star Alliance Mileage Program is the best

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  • Anonymous
    Guest

    Rabbz_Staralliance
    Participant

    Calling all Star Alliance pals out there in the world wide web. I’m Rabbz_Staralliance. I’m UA’s Mileage Plus and Thai Royal Orchid Plus member. Judging from the two I like UA’s more because of how simple it is (if you want *A Gold just travel .5K miles). I just want to know the rankings of Mileage Program is these categories. Maybe if other program have enough benefits, I would consider appling them and do some MR’s to gain some more status apart from Thai’s Silver and United’s almost Gold (I need 20,000 miles in which I will completed the requirements in Sept.)

    -Straight policy no small prints disclaimers
    -Difficulties in gaing a status
    -How hard to Burn and or Earn miles
    -Callcentres, can those guys solve your problem in 5 seconds?
    -etc, etc feel free to add your own ranking categories

    Thanks for your reply in advance and enjoying using the perks that you earn plus the MR trip to gain it for next year !

    Rabbz_*A


    Senator
    Participant

    Rabbz_Staralliance,

    I don’t think there is a simple answer to this. From my point of view it depends on:
    Where you live?
    Which airlines you normally travel with?
    Which class or service you normally travel in?

    Let me give you some examples:
    If you live in the US, and travel 50/50 domestic/international a US based programme like UA/CO is a good choice. You get free upgrades, and earn bonus miles.

    If you live in Europe, and travel mostly intra-EMEA flights then M&M is a good scheme if you travel in premium cabins.

    There are just examples. I know little about the TG, SQ, and ANA programmes to decide if they are worthwhile.


    sky-rat
    Participant

    Agreed, there’s a trade off, you won’t get all or even most, as “best” in any one program… and with 27 (or whatever the count is today) there’s a lot of different variations.


    PatJordan
    Participant

    Rabbz_Staralliance,

    I find BMI’s Diamond Club pretty good. Their call centre (based in India) can be a bit problematic, but any issues I have had were resolved by their customer service people via email.

    The bonus miles awarded to Gold card holders make it a very worthwhile programme.


    RichardB
    Participant

    I would choose the program with the airline you fly the most since carriers treat their own members better when it comes to upgrades. When travelling with my colleagues on luftahansa, I am upgraded (with lufthansa senator card) well before they are chosen (with their SAS gold cards).
    My only exception would be if one airline has substantially lower qualification level or something like two year renewal cycle (like LH).


    VintageKrug
    Participant

    If you actually fly an airline regularly, you can’t go far wrong sticking with that scheme.

    If you’re just in it for the promos and points, it is received opinion that bmi is the way to go, though this scheme was scheduled for merger with M&M in 2011 it has received a stay of execution, though not a pardon!

    You do need some patience and be prepared to do quite a bit of personal research to get the most out of bmi.


    Aredondo
    Participant

    I’m based in Australia and a friend did some research recently (I didn’t see what he’d worked out) but as a result he and his wife joined TG Royal Orchid saying they were the most generous.
    I’m a KrisFlyer and not really impressed. And Singapore Airlines have quite gone downhill in the previous few months so I’ve also joined Royal Orchid and will start accruing points with them from here on.


    Rabbz_Staralliance
    Participant

    Thanks for reply my fellow *A friends.
    My intention in creating this post is to tried to compare 20+ Frequent flier program on Star Alliance AIrlines in which other could also used for reference.

    My scenario is that I live in the US and my flight is 30% Transpac and 60% Domestic. The UA/CO program is treating me fine, but all I want is just a quick way to gain Gold Card so that I can sneak into the lounges everytime I fly.

    Second scenario for you guys to figure out for fun

    My AUnts lived in Bkk and is a Thai ROP. She travel to Europe roundtrip twice per year to Oceania twice per year and once per year to HKG and NRT. She just want a Gold Card.

    What do you guys think

    Rabbz_*A


    Aredondo
    Participant

    Rabbz, I would say under your circumstances it’s a no brainer. TG Royal Orchid, esp. if your travel takes you to Thailand. And it should be pretty easy for your Aunt to clock up her points OK.


    bobbycslin
    Participant

    ROP used to be good. Lately, it has changed some mileage accrual policy such as booking class and surcharge on award ticket…etc.

    I have been ROP Gold member for the past 6 years. I am going to switch to other next year when my membership expired.


    JasonMyers
    Participant

    I belong to ROP and have been a Gold member for about 10 years, compared to other airlines which I have Gold memberships with like Emirates Skywards, Cathay’s Marco Polo/Asiamiles (oneworld), KLM’s Skyteam, I would say that Thai’s ROP is the best reward programme and easiest to get miles and rewards.

    One thing I find when booking Thai as opposed to other airlines is that they never seem to have blackout dates, never charge for changing reservations on different dates (I book from Thailand, UK may be different as everyone charges) and the only charges you pay when redeeming miles for flights are for tax.


    Rabbz_Staralliance
    Participant

    Kudo’s to Aredondo, bobbycslin, JasonMyers

    Ok so I agree with you guys on that scenario on some terms.

    So how about this scenario?

    This might be slightly off topic

    I don’t know if this happens to you guys or not. My Aunt is visiting me on June 10th and the most efficent airport for her to arrive is BDL in which Thai doesn’t serves. So she went to Thai’s BKK HQ which is near her house and tried to book it her flight which ROP miles. The agent tried to search for possible routes and the furthest that they can get my Aunt to the USA is to LAX direct on their A340’s, the agent declined to reroute her on thier partners flights or change routings as she claimed it is full. Think: my Aunt is just a temporary airline customer who knows that she is collecting miles and she can use miles plus she isn’t an airline expert like some of us here.

    We manage to get her to use her miles because I use ANA’s web to search for avialability and e-mail her the evidence to the TG agents who then later give us the green lights! She got the BKK-LAX on TG and LAX-ORD-BDL on UA.

    Other fun facts:
    Thai’s codeshare flights on (its always have their TG 6XXX flight code displayed) UA and NH to ORD, JFK, BOS can’t be search from their web compared to United’s in which the folks in United will just show the flight and show a little brackets saying that their fellow star alliance friends is operating the flight.

    Rabbz_*A


    russbern
    Participant

    Sadly, BMI who were in my opinion the best Star Aliiance scheme, have now been taken over by BA & thus will be leaving the scheme at the end of this month.

    Ideally I am looking for a scheme which enables one to reach Silver & Gold card status relatively quickly. Any suggestions?


    dsatrio
    Participant

    I’d like to hear what you guys think about the ‘cost’ of redemptions. I’m a member of both UA’s Mileage Plus and SQ’s KrisFlyer. I find that UA charges only taxes, while SQ slapped fuel surcharges in addition to applicable taxes, making redemption of KrisFlyer points quite expensive. A recent KrisFlyer point redemption for a flight from CGK to Moscow cost me more than USD350…

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