[Str8Talking]

I am not a member myself so I can’t say what earning/spending miles is like, but Asiana Club miles don’t expire for 12 years, the period within which you can achieve status is 24 months and they are partners with Etihad and Qatar on top of the usual *A suspects.

It has already been mentioned in this forum, but Aegean does provide the fastest way to Gold – although they have pretty bad redemption rates!

[goalie11]

RussBern

Picked up on a great thread posted earlier, which alerted me to the fact Aegean were offering bmi Gold card holders a status match.

I tried it two days ago and got confirmation today of acceptance. I also got enough tier miles to give me two full years. I had treid many other *A carriers prior to this and they weren’t interested.

I got the BA status match but to be honest they gave me 10 months and I prefer *A carriers so they can keep it – it will do while I spend my 750,000 Avios I’ll transfer later.

The Aegean programme also looks similar to bmi’s Diamond Club in qualifying rates and spending, so a result.

You have to join their Miles&Bonus scheme but very easy online, after that send the following details to <a href="mailto:[email protected]“>[email protected]

Miles and Bonus number
BMI Diamond Club Gold card
A copy of my Diamond Club gold card is attached

[LuganoPirate]

I’m just wondering if any BMI silvers and golds have contacted Lufthansa, SAS etc and asked if they will match the status they held before the takeover.

I’m curious at to the response or if there’s a no poaching clause in the takeover agreement?

Otherwise Russbern, not sure where you fly out of or to, but a return business class trip in Europe with LH or LX via their hubs would give you 8,000 (2,000 per leg, increasing to 2,500 when you are silver) miles. 4 trips and you’re almost there.

Or a long haul flight to the states or Asia plus a couple of european trips would also get you there. Just 1 First flight to Asia or S. Africa from UK via Zurich would get you silver immediately.

[goalie11]

Lugano Pirate

See my post sent about same time as your one. I tried LH and got a very frosty NO

[PatJordan]

I also approached LH and got a similar frosty NO!!

[LuganoPirate]

Goalie, Pat, I wonder what would happen if you called Swiss instead of Lufthansa? They are both Miles and More but issue cards separately.

[PatJordan]

Worth a try, thanks LP.

[goalie11]

Tried that LP – got the impression that it went to the same centre, maybe wrong but the answer was the same.

It all rather surprised me as my last few years of qualifying for the bmi gold card were through LH and LX flights from the Middle East where I’m working just now, to Europe and USA. You would have thought they would be screaming for the business.

[Senator]

Given the changes to the LH Miles & More programme, I am not particularly surprised of the rebuke from LH. My understanding looking through information from other sources that LH growth plan for M&M did not include a massive surge in SEN and HON members.

From what I gather, LH never expected to have more than 2,000 HON and there are presently roughly 8,000 world-wide which is far more than expected. The LH SEN lounges in FRA/MUC are constantly over-crowded leading me to believe there are too many for them to handle.

So, I draw the conclusion with the changes to M&M (lower earn on discounted business fares) and no earn potential for HON miles in the economy cabin as a move to make the programme more exclusive.

I will probably still use Swiss as my preferred carrier. The lower earning on discounted business fares will hit me as this is what I have the room for with my budget. I will still qualify, but it will become harder until they day (if it comes) I can afford to buy F 🙂

I do find these moves odd. It looks like LH is pushing away elite members rather to cater to them. However, some consultancy has probably told them to focus only on the top of the top.

[LuganoPirate]

In my case I usually obtain about 200,000 miles a year, and this year on present plans will hit 250,000. Not enough for HON but more than comfortable to qualify for Senator. It’s mainly (60%) with Swiss, maybe 15% with LH and the rest with SAA, TAP and Austrian and a mixture of F and C with the occasional Y fare on short routes where there is really no difference other than the quality of snack, which I don’t eat anyway!

It’s getting very hard to find a seat in the Senator lounge in Zurich, though Geneva is a lot better. FRA is just as bad and I’ve seen people standing by the entrance using the semi-circular receptionist’s desk to place their plates. A sorry state to be in and frowned on by the lounge dragons!

Also at Zurich I’ve been waiting for the car to take me to the plane, then joined by other people, all HON who then travel on economy tickets. In fairness they must travel a fair bit to get HON on Y tickets but I begin to understand the problem Miles and More now has.

I suppose the only answer is to either increase the size of the lounge, but where they would go to I don’t know, unless they reduce the size of the Business Class lounge but I can already hear the howls of protest on Flyer talk, this forum etc.

The alternative is to make the programme more exclusive, say 50,000 miles for Silver, 150,000 for Senator and 400,000 for HON. But again, at the risk of repeating myself, I can already hear the howls of protest on Flyer talk, this forum etc.

I think it’s a lose/lose situation for M&M whatever they do but from a cost factor if I were the CEO I’d go for increasing the qualification.

[Senator]

Dear LP,

I agree with most of your points. If I look at some of the last couple of deals from ARN being booked in “P” or “Z” inventory, I have no fundamental issue with lower earning and not being able to upgrade from C to F. For example, I recently travelled ARN-FRA-IAD for less than €1300 and upgraded to F. I understand why this is an issue for LH and why it is going away.

My biggest concern now is the lack of decent fares to North America due to the Star JV (LH, LX, SN, OS, UA, AC). The cheapest LX fares to NYC area have increased by 50% in business class since the JV was introduced last 1 July. The price I have to pay for a “Z” fare to the US of A certainly warrants 200% earning, and not 150%. To Asia, the fare difference on LX from Z to D is manageable, but the JV certainly is not making it better for customers.

To a degree; you could say that LH is a victim of its own success:
** Big drive to increase membership in M&M have generated more than 15m members
** The exclusivity of HON has driven customers to the LH Group with loyalty

In balance, I think you and are aligned.

[LuganoPirate]

I agree Senator (we have to be careful agreeing with each other like this, lest the conspirationalists among us think we’re one and the same 🙂 ) about M&M being a victim of it’s own success,

I could imagine though many are one off flyers who signed up but only take 1 or 2 flights a year. My older children fall in this category, and my son will now fly KLM to CPT as it’s the same price but more convenient for him.

My two younger children will lose their silver status as Mrs. LP now flies QR with them. She had a fall out with Lufthansa and refuses to step on their planes again.

I signed my mother, sister and her family up with M&M as they were visiting us in Lugano, and M&M had a promotion of 2,000 miles for each person introduced. I had a total of 22,000 miles from that promo but most will never fly Swiss again, not due to any reason, but my mother is now too old to fly, and my sister says she cannot afford it anymore!

And that’s just me. How many others are there and how many blue members do they have?

I have to go to NYC in November. Just checked and the fare is € 2,700 ex Malpensa for the cheapest C ticket, though it shows I’ll earn 200% of the miles for the trip. It seems not much more than I paid last year though in Swiss Francs it’s a lot cheaper. I imagine they are under price competition with Alitalia, BA and AA which may not be the case for you ex ARN.

[Author]

Posts