Which Star Alliance Frequent Flyer
Scheme Should YOU Join?
I made 2 videos asking the question of which Star Alliance programme you should join. Everyone's decision process will be different, but you will probably consider three factors:
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Achieving Status
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Retaining Status
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Spending Miles Earned
Certain schemes offer additional benefits that may be significant to your decision.
Video 1 provided a background to the Star Alliance, and discussed the best way of achieving status in a Star Alliance programme, which is by matching existing status across from a competing scheme.
Video 2 then talked about which programme offers the quickest route to status without matching across. It also discussed renewal of status and redemptions, and concluded with an explanation of which scheme I am going to join, and why.
Video 2 included some data I assembled about the various programmes and I promised to include some data tables for those interested.
Table 1 lists the 26 Star Alliance Members, and shows the miles that you'd need to earn to achieve Gold status with each program as a new joiner.
Table 2 shows the 15 airlines I analysed in detail. Using www.wheretocredit.com, I found the mileage earned for 11 business class Star Alliance flights I am contemplating in coming months. I compared that total to the miles needed to achieve Gold in each programme, and ranked the schemes accordingly.
I also present the total miles earned in each scheme and ranked the airlines on that basis too. You can see the number of miles earned does vary quite widely, although this information in isolation is of little use as the miles required for status also varies widely. And finally, as the 11 flights considered totalled around 25,000 miles of actual flying, I show the ratio of miles earned to miles flown. Not actually relevant to anything, but I thought it was interesting and thought you might too!