There’s always value in being strategic with the frequent flyer program that you credit your flights to. After all, you want to maximize your ability to earn elite status, and also want to rack up as many miles as possible. With that in mind, I recently got a question from a reader that I’d like to address more broadly.
If you fly Star Alliance airlines quite a bit, but don’t fly any one airline consistently, what’s the best program to credit to? Let me share some general tips and thoughts, for anyone who might be in this situation (and then I’d love to hear how others approach this). In no particular order…
Use the program of the airline you fly most
If there’s a single Star Alliance airline you fly most, it’s generally going to be a best practice to credit your miles to the frequent flyer program of that airline. That’s not always going to be the case, but more often than not, it’s the best value.
Why is that? Well, while alliances offer many reciprocal elite perks, generally the members of a “native” program will get the best perks. For example, some programs might offer upgrade or other perks for members of their own program, while not offering them to members of partner programs.
To give an example in the United States, United has its Economy Plus seating, with extra legroom. This can be reserved for free (with some restrictions) if you have status with United MileagePlus, but not if you have status with a partner program. MileagePlus elite members also receive complimentary first class upgrades, but actually clearing those upgrades is a different story…
Earn Star Alliance Gold status as easily as possible
The major airline alliances all offer alliance-wide perks, like priority check-in, priority boarding, lounge access, and more. In the case of the Star Alliance, the valuable elite tier is Star Alliance Gold. So I tend to think that crediting to a program that can easily earn you Star Alliance Gold is a great strategy.
Note that there’s a big incentive to credit to a program other than United MileagePlus, due to the Star Alliance lounge access policy. Star Alliance Gold members get lounge access on all Star Alliance itineraries, but the one exception is that Star Alliance Gold members through United MileagePlus don’t get United Club access on wholly domestic itineraries.
Now, determining the program that makes it easiest to earn Star Alliance Gold status isn’t necessarily so straightforward. That’s because many programs require you to fly a minimum number of miles (or spend a minimum amount) for flights on the “native” airline, so you can’t earn Star Alliance Gold status exclusively through travel on partner airlines.
Generally you can expect that Star Alliance Gold status requires somewhere around 50,000 elite qualifying miles in a year (for programs that still use such a system). However, there are some programs that potentially make it a bit easier, though each has a catch. To give a few examples:
- Turkish Miles&Smiles lets you earn Star Alliance Gold status with just 40,000 elite miles in a year, and status is even valid for two years
- Aegean Miles+Bonus used to be really compelling for earning Star Alliance Gold status, but now has a much more complex system for maintaining status, which heavily incentivizes flying with Aegean; you either need to fly Aegean 32 times per year, or you need to earn 18,000 elite miles and fly Aegean 12 times per year, or you need to earn 72,000 elite miles on any partner airline per year
- EgyptAir Plus lets you earn Star Alliance Gold status with 60,000 elite miles, though what’s unique is that you can set up a family account, and pool your direct family’s elite miles to your account, which is kind of fun
- Asiana Club lets you earn Star Alliance Gold status with just 40,000 elite miles in two years, which is very compelling, though keep in mind that Korean Air has acquired Asiana, so the airline is expected to leave Star Alliance and join SkyTeam in the next couple of years
- Copa ConnectMiles lets you earn Star Alliance Gold status with 40,000 elite miles, though you do need to complete four segments per year on Copa to qualify
I don’t think there’s a single perfect program, but hopefully the above gives people some ideas. Honestly, I find the whole situation kind of sad at this point. Asiana is leaving Star Alliance, so probably isn’t worth focusing on. Aegean isn’t nearly as lucrative as it used to be. EgyptAir is oddly lucrative, but… well, EgyptAir, and good luck redeeming those miles. I think Turkish is probably the sweet spot in all of this, and the all-around most lucrative option.
If you don’t mind earning status with a program in the United States (and then not getting United Club access on domestic itineraries), there’s always United MileagePlus Gold status. It requires 12,000 Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs), and best case scenario, you can earn one PQP per $15 spent on a United credit card. It’s hard to get too excited about that, since that comes out to $180K worth of credit card spending, but it’s at least worth mentioning.
Consider points earning rates with different programs
Different frequent flyer programs have vastly different mileage earning rates, so that can be worth keeping in mind, especially if you frequently fly one particular airline in a consistent fare class. The website wheretocredit.com lets you enter your airline and fare code, and then shows you the mileage earning rates across different programs.
So I’d rather credit to a program that awards miles equal to 100% of the distance flown, rather than 25% of the distance flown, for example. Along those lines, keep in mind that the requirements for elite miles mentioned above aren’t necessarily all 1:1 in terms of elite miles earned vs. distance flown. So that’s definitely something to be aware of.
Credit to programs offering valuable & useful points
Another major consideration is that you want to earn mileage currencies that are most valuable to you. The way I see it, there are a few ways to go about this, as not all mileage currencies are created equal (and my valuations reflect that):
- For some people, it could be worth collecting unique mileage currencies that they wouldn’t otherwise easily be able to earn with transferable points currencies; for example, maybe you want to earn Lufthansa Miles & More miles, so that you can redeem for Lufthansa first class awards more than a few days in advance
- For some people, it could make sense to collect a mileage currency that you can combine with transferable points currencies, so that you can actually get value from the program through redemptions
- While some programs have amazing redemption rates, the actual booking process can be a pain, and there could be restrictions on redemptions, regarding who you can redeem your miles for, etc.
- Also keep in mind mileage expiration policies, since with some programs, miles expire automatically after a certain amount of time, with no way to extend them
I wish I had a Star Alliance elite status strategy
While American is the airline that I fly most (due to living in Miami), I’m not really loyal to any airline, and quite to the contrary, I like to fly as many airlines as possible. I’ve written about my airline elite status strategy, and I think my approach with both oneworld and SkyTeam is pretty straightforward:
Meanwhile I struggle to get excited about going for status with a Star Alliance program. I’m just looking for a program that doesn’t have any requirements to consistently fly any one airline. Maybe I should focus on Turkish Miles&Smiles? Because other than that, all the other programs seem like a non-starter, at least for me. The thing is, Turkish’s mileage currency just isn’t that valuable anymore, so I kind of hate crediting flights to the program.
Bottom line
There’s never going to be a “one size fits all” answer as to which frequent flyer program is best. The Star Alliance has lots of frequent flyer programs to choose from, and personally I think there’s value to trying to pick a program that earns you Star Alliance Gold status as quickly as possible.
Even that isn’t so straightforward, though, since programs have different restrictions around earning this status. There aren’t many Star Alliance programs that let you earn status exclusively through travel on partner airlines, at least in a way that’s lucrative.
I tend to think that if you don’t want to deal with any airline-specific flying requirements, then Turkish Miles&Smiles probably offers the all-around most practical pathway to Star Alliance Gold (though I’m curious if others have a different take).
What’s your take on the best Star Alliance frequent flyer program for anyone who isn’t loyal to one particular program?
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