Best airline club

[rogermark]

Hello everyone
We need advice as to the best airline club to join
We have recently returned from around the world trip on Star Alliance carriers
We need to pick a Club which will give us access to all Star Alliance lounges and hopefully give us some credit for the miles recently travelled
We are economy class travellers but would like to get into a lounge when the opportunity is there
Roger and Pat

[Optics]

Hello everyone
We need advice as to the best airline club to join
We have recently returned from around the world trip on Star Alliance carriers
We need to pick a Club which will give us access to all Star Alliance lounges and hopefully give us some credit for the miles recently travelled
We are economy class travellers but would like to get into a lounge when the opportunity is there
Roger and Pat

Welcome to QFF .

I am not an expert in this, but do not believe you will find any club that will credit you for miles flown before joining. Pity, but you should have joined prior to taking an ATW trip.

Deciding on the best club to join will depend on your future flight requirements (airline, routes etc), what you want out of the membership and whether you want to link membership to credit card spend etc. Provide some details and there is a wealth of experts here that can assist.

[littl_flier]

We need to pick a Club which will give us access to all Star Alliance lounges and hopefully give us some credit for the miles recently travelled.

Hi Roger and Pat, welcome to AFF.

Neither am I an expert of this but my advice is to join the club of the airline that you anticipate you will fly with the most in the future. Generally, no airlines will give you access to all of their partner lounges without having status with them first. By joining the airline you fly with the most, this will give you maximum benefit. Whilst I can't recomend any in particular, some may have access to partner *A airlines, similar to the way that Qantas Club members can use the lounge when flying BA and AA.

As for crediting points, quite a few airlines will credit points for flights flown but usually within a time frame that is around 1 month.

Hope this helps and sorry to provide really general advice but some is better than none.

[dot]

Hi Roger & Pat, welcome to AFF. I would have thought you would need to be a member of the frequent flyer program before your flights for them to count toward any rewards (including lounge access).

You should also check on the class that your recent trip was booked under - deep discount flights may not earn any miles/points. To quote the SQ Krisflyer site:

Most booking fares are eligible for accrual of KrisFlyer miles. However, Economy Class tickets issued in V, Q, G, N or T booking classes on Singapore Airlines and V, Q, G, N, T, W or L booking classes on SilkAir are ineligible for mileage accrual. Please check with your travel agent or the relevant airline before making a reservation to determine the eligibility of your booking fare for mileage accrual.

The Krisflyer site also talks about presenting your krisflyer card at check-in and making the booking in the same name as your krisflyer acount - all of which suggests to me that you will have little chance of redeeming miles flown prior to becoming a member. I am no expert, but I would imagine Air NZ, United, Thai etc would have similar restrictions in place. If I were you, I would contact the airline you flew most of your miles with in your AWT as they would be most likely to credit you with points/miles earned prior to membership.

Past flights aside - I guess the best club to join will depend on where you intend to fly and with whom in the future. Certainly going with a Star Alliance or One World partner program will give you the most choice worldwide, but if most of your flights are going to be on Emirates and only the occasional QF or NZ flight, then Emirates might be the better way to go... it';s all about maximising your miles/points earning capacity so that you can maximise the rewards.

[QF009]

Quite a few FFPs allow retroactive credit of miles for flights flown up to a reasonable period of time before the commencement of membership. I know for a fact that Krisflyer allows flights flown in the 6 months prior to joining the program to be credited. [Claim form here if you happen to take an interest in Krisflyer: https://www.singaporeair.com/saa/en_UK/docs/krisflyer/Customer_Service/KFRetroActiveMileageClaimForm_Dec06.pdf]

Best to compare the FFPs with the carriers/fare classes you were booked in and projected earn/spend ratio therein before banking your miles IMHO.

AC, UA, US, NH and NZ offer paid lounge memberships however I have no idea what other lounges you're able to access other than the lounges of the respective carriers. Alternatively, AC 's Star Alliance Gold tier ('Aeroplan Elite') can be achieved with 35 000 status miles and allows access to all designated Star Alliance Gold lounges.

Now paging the *A experts....

[littl_flier]

I would have thought you would need to be a member of the frequent flyer program before your flights for them to count toward any rewards (including lounge access).

Both QF and Singapore offer credit for prior flown flights and as QF009 pointed out, there is some leeway but they are obliged by their T&C at KrisFlyer Terms & Conditions -- Singapore Airlines to offer at least 30 days. Take this up with the consulant if you join by phone.

Retroactive mileage claims that are made prior to enrolment in KrisFlyer are only valid for Singapore Airlines flights and must have taken place no longer than 30 days prior to enrolment.

[QF009]

Both QF and Singapore offer credits and as QF009 pointed out, and there is some leeway but they are obliged by their T&C at KrisFlyer Terms & Conditions -- Singapore Airlines to offer at least 30 days. Take this up with the consulant if you join by phone.

I've confused manual mileage claim during duration of membership [duration for which is 6 months prior to claim and for any partners] with retroactive claims for flights flown before membership [30 days and SQ only flights].

[littl_flier]

I've confused manual mileage claim during duration of membership [duration for which is 6 months prior to claim and for any partners] with retroactive claims for flights flown before membership [30 days and SQ only flights].

Don't worry QF009, I know of a friend that managed to get her past three months of flights credited when she joined QFF. Let's just say, she had a great telephone consultant.

Bottom line is, you may be able to back-credit some points but depending when you flew, you may need to hurry!

[dot]

Quite a few FFPs allow retroactive credit of miles for flights flown up to a reasonable period of time before the commencement of membership. I know for a fact that Krisflyer allows flights flown in the 6 months prior to joining the program to be credited.

There you go - I learn something new every day. Maybe I am too cynical - I expected the airlines to be using any means possibly to minimise their liability...

Like AAMI refusing to cover me because my car had a dealer tart up kit on it (badges and seat covers!)... but then that's another story.

[JohnK]

I am not an expert in this, but do not believe you will find any club that will credit you for miles flown before joining. Pity, but you should have joined prior to taking an ATW trip.

I was lucky with QF in that flew with them in April 2003 and did not join QFF program until mid May 2003 as I was flying again end of May 2003. I got credit for the April flights and also an end of May QFF review date!