I am in need of your expertise. (might need to post this in the Star Alliance Group as well)
I have taken 6 months of work, just travelling and enjoying doing "nothing" and just started a new job that requires me to travel more internationally. Unfortunately, I managed to now have a points and status in various programs which I might lose if I don't get some consistency going and on that, I was hoping for the community's insight. Let me start with the status quo:
Qatar Platinum/Emerald 440pts needed to renew by late June
Virgin Velocity Gold / 500k points 480pts to renew status by late May
KrisFlyer No status 47kpts
Upcoming travel:
syd - nyc (already booked, Business on Asiana) syd - sin syd - orlando syd - Hong Kong syd - nyc
Long haul flights will be typically on Eco or Prem Eco and occasionally Business. Further I will have 1-2 flights to Melb/Brisbane per month and an occasional flight to NZ and Perth. There may be more Hong Kong flights coming up if I make that region work out...
I think I want to stick with One World but that Business Class flight with Asiana is giving me a bit of a head start with Star Alliance. If sticking with one world, should I go with Qantas (apparently hard to acquire status) or Cathay...? Qatar status does not seem to be sustainable given how little status credit I actually get when flying with Qantas...
What would you guys do given status quo and the travel outlook?
Asiana/SQ aren't my area of expertise, but could you apply your Krisflyer credentials to the Asiana flight, to take a bonus there, and your SIN flight obviously.
HKG, and NYC you could do with QF or CX and get those Credited to your QR points.
I can't be bothered crunching the numbers right now, but they could sort you out for the next wee while.
I have credited my previous 4 international Qantas flights to the Qatar program but I got very little. I can't see retaining platinum when flying CX or Qantas. But I am now wondering if it makes more sense to move to the CX, Qantas or other One World programs, given some airlines don't penalise members as hard for flying alliance airlines instead of the parent airline...
I would quickly match your QR with a *A airline's program while you've still got it. Take a gander at statusmatcher dot com. you'll generally only be able to do this across alliances. so suggest as Q is Oneworld you look at which *A. Oz, Tk are popular and the rest I'll leave you to find out. SQ has its fans but for transferring in not necessarily for accruing within the program.
Other than eliminating the bits and pieces setup you have now, which you are correct in saying is not doing you much good, what is your aim? Do you aim just to make travel more comfortable? so is your aim lounges, upgrades etc.? Or, do you want to focus on collecting miles that you can use to purchase tickets for private or family travel. You should choose your program based on what you want to achieve. Hint : to access lounges in OneWorld, silver equivalent (mid-tier) is generally enough. In *A for the same, you need pretty much to be Gold. Unless you accrue in Miles&More, which would let you into LH and a couple of their frirneds' lounges, with only Silver, which prob is not useful to you. Beware Oz "Gold" is only middle tier, they have another name for their Oneworld Emerald equivalent that you would need, for lounges.
That's why I advise you quickly to ask for a status match for your OneWorld Emerald (=Gold, pretty much) that you have with Q, before that expires. Or ask for status match from two *A airlines just in case one doesn't work out. Bearing in mind that these tend to be given only on a one in a lifetime basis by the issuing airline. Who knows, if you do enough flying maybe in the future you could ask for a status match in the other direction....!! it depends whether you fly enough to be able to maintain status in both the main alliances which is rare. I advise you to keep one status at at least Gold level before you put much into another airline's status in future.
Lastly as you will be travelling so much, should you be reading on here about which credit card to get? these can really boost your miles collection. There are some good articles on here so you can choose.
Personally I've found *A lounges a lot nicer in longhaul destinations than the great majority of the OneWorld ones, the great exception being Qantas Emerald-level lounges (not the Business lounges) (and where you can also enter with appropriate level of other-Oneworld-airline status) . Plus the assortment of CX lounges in HKG. Other than that, I prefer *A lounges slightly more overall. Up to you what you save for but please focus more in future.
Hi Guest, join in the discussion on
Should I swing travel more towards Oneworld or Star Alliance?
Sedat
Sedat
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 30 May 2017
Total posts 6
Hello everyone,
I am in need of your expertise. (might need to post this in the Star Alliance Group as well)
I have taken 6 months of work, just travelling and enjoying doing "nothing" and just started a new job that requires me to travel more internationally. Unfortunately, I managed to now have a points and status in various programs which I might lose if I don't get some consistency going and on that, I was hoping for the community's insight. Let me start with the status quo:
Qatar
Platinum/Emerald
440pts needed to renew by late June
Virgin Velocity
Gold / 500k points
480pts to renew status by late May
KrisFlyer
No status
47kpts
Upcoming travel:
syd - nyc (already booked, Business on Asiana)
syd - sin
syd - orlando
syd - Hong Kong
syd - nyc
Long haul flights will be typically on Eco or Prem Eco and occasionally Business.
Further I will have 1-2 flights to Melb/Brisbane per month and an occasional flight to NZ and Perth. There may be more Hong Kong flights coming up if I make that region work out...
I think I want to stick with One World but that Business Class flight with Asiana is giving me a bit of a head start with Star Alliance.
If sticking with one world, should I go with Qantas (apparently hard to acquire status) or Cathay...? Qatar status does not seem to be sustainable given how little status credit I actually get when flying with Qantas...
What would you guys do given status quo and the travel outlook?
Thanks in advance
Sedat
Chris C.
Chris C.
Member since 24 Apr 2012
Total posts 1,116
Hi Sedat, no need to post the same thing in another thread as we remove duplicates. :)
MRYJDrake
MRYJDrake
Air New Zealand - Airpoints
Member since 31 Oct 2016
Total posts 206
Hi Sedat,
Asiana/SQ aren't my area of expertise, but could you apply your Krisflyer credentials to the Asiana flight, to take a bonus there, and your SIN flight obviously.
HKG, and NYC you could do with QF or CX and get those Credited to your QR points.
I can't be bothered crunching the numbers right now, but they could sort you out for the next wee while.
Sedat
Sedat
Virgin Australia - Velocity Rewards
Member since 30 May 2017
Total posts 6
Thanks @MRYJDrake
I have credited my previous 4 international Qantas flights to the Qatar program but I got very little. I can't see retaining platinum when flying CX or Qantas. But I am now wondering if it makes more sense to move to the CX, Qantas or other One World programs, given some airlines don't penalise members as hard for flying alliance airlines instead of the parent airline...
highflyer
highflyer
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 10 Apr 2012
Total posts 186
Given your international itinerary and that you are Sydney based, your flights seem to be very OneWorld friendly.
Wingflex
Wingflex
Qantas - Qantas Frequent Flyer
Member since 13 Feb 2015
Total posts 12
...and don't forget QR might be leaving oneWorld soon...so I would stick to QF FFP and would keep SQ for any Star Alliance related travel
h15t0r1an
h15t0r1an
Member since 29 Jan 2015
Total posts 12
I would quickly match your QR with a *A airline's program while you've still got it. Take a gander at statusmatcher dot com. you'll generally only be able to do this across alliances. so suggest as Q is Oneworld you look at which *A. Oz, Tk are popular and the rest I'll leave you to find out. SQ has its fans but for transferring in not necessarily for accruing within the program.
Other than eliminating the bits and pieces setup you have now, which you are correct in saying is not doing you much good, what is your aim? Do you aim just to make travel more comfortable? so is your aim lounges, upgrades etc.? Or, do you want to focus on collecting miles that you can use to purchase tickets for private or family travel. You should choose your program based on what you want to achieve. Hint : to access lounges in OneWorld, silver equivalent (mid-tier) is generally enough. In *A for the same, you need pretty much to be Gold. Unless you accrue in Miles&More, which would let you into LH and a couple of their frirneds' lounges, with only Silver, which prob is not useful to you. Beware Oz "Gold" is only middle tier, they have another name for their Oneworld Emerald equivalent that you would need, for lounges.
That's why I advise you quickly to ask for a status match for your OneWorld Emerald (=Gold, pretty much) that you have with Q, before that expires. Or ask for status match from two *A airlines just in case one doesn't work out. Bearing in mind that these tend to be given only on a one in a lifetime basis by the issuing airline. Who knows, if you do enough flying maybe in the future you could ask for a status match in the other direction....!! it depends whether you fly enough to be able to maintain status in both the main alliances which is rare. I advise you to keep one status at at least Gold level before you put much into another airline's status in future.
Lastly as you will be travelling so much, should you be reading on here about which credit card to get? these can really boost your miles collection. There are some good articles on here so you can choose.
Personally I've found *A lounges a lot nicer in longhaul destinations than the great majority of the OneWorld ones, the great exception being Qantas Emerald-level lounges (not the Business lounges) (and where you can also enter with appropriate level of other-Oneworld-airline status) . Plus the assortment of CX lounges in HKG. Other than that, I prefer *A lounges slightly more overall. Up to you what you save for but please focus more in future.