[hardya]

I will be travelling on a "mini" Lufthansa RTW flight (ie: Air Canada from SYD-HNL-YVR, then Lufthansa to Europe, Lufthansa on to Asia, then back to SYD on Lufthansa). Funny how Lufthansa managed to use JAL as their partner back from Japan, seeing as they are non Star alliance.

Anyhow, can anybody recommend the best Star Alliance program for this journey? All flights are in Economy "H" class.

I am currently a member of All Nippon Airways ANA Mileage Club, however it would appear to only give me 70% of miles flown.

SIngapore Airlines Krisflyer looks good, but their reemption chart seems to rle out small-hop award bookings, eg: SYD to AKL on Air NZ.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[arun]

If you are looking at SYD-AKL, United gets you there for 20K. Thai will take 25K. Please confirm the number of points you will earn on these programs.

[Lindsay Wilson]

hardya, friends of mine just did a very similar trip (SYD AC HNL AC YVR AC LHR BD DUB LH FRA LH ZHR SQ SIN SQ BNE) and I advised them the best *A carrier is UA's Mileage Plus program for earning as well as redeeming (at present). They credit 100% for just about any type of fare basis on any *A carrier.

They now both have Premier Status for the next year and never cared before about flying. They may now have caught a bug....

[tanyavu]

If you fly solo i think united mileageplus you have to keep it active otherwise it expires after 3 years. However if you fly as a family i think asiana club is the best as the points don't expire, you can pool the points together with other family members, you earn 1:1 in economy class and also you can transfer points from Diners Club at 2:1.

[cbourl]

What about LH miles and More - star alliance? are they ok The restructure of their program due on 01.08.04 may make it harder to earn points?

[youngflyer]

From memory United Airline Card does the trick.

I used it when I was pflying on Emirates. Emirates are not affiliated with any one.......

On the UA card you can get points for heaps of non affiliated airlines.....
Most prob majority of airlines flying into the US and connect on UA domestic service

[Tim M]

I actually think Air Canada is the best. I almost exclusively fly north/east to go snowboarding, so the ability to get to Canada is paramount.

So I checked Cathay, JAL, Singapore, Thai, AC, UA, Qantas, AA.
The best, I think, in terms of generosity is Aeropan.

Your points never expire.

If you fly 18000 miles per year you get at least Prestige membership, which means I get 2 x System Wide Upgrade (to Business or First) certificates.

Then again, after reading all this above, I may revisit UA.

With UA Mileage PLus, your points never expire as long as you fly once every three years? Is that right?

When joining a new program...think "ANSETT"

[clifford]

It actually depends on what kind of flying you do.

If you fly mainly bus/first class, then LH or SQ will pamper you to death with their FF offerings.

If, on the other hand, you are more of an ordinary mortal, Air Canada is probably quite a resonable option, with the liklihood of UA going out of business within the next 12 months.

As for me, I've put my money where my mouth is, ie I've blown all my UA miles (1 million +) on awards recently. I also did that with Ansett before they were killed off by Air New Zealand. Just intuition I guess!

Good luck.

[Kiwi Flyer]

Originally Posted by d00t

When joining a new program...think "ANSETT"

Not all *A airlines are in financial difficulty.