Frequent Flyer Programs

[rob69in]

It is extremelly important to check ticket catagoreys before you purchase them. Airlines are now trying to reduce the number of gold card, platinum, emerald card holders as in there eyes there are too many & they are having to give too much away & actually supply decent service to too many people.

Thai for example has altered what economy tickets it will allow you to get miles on, & also allow you to upgrade from. Anything lower than Q class & you are not getting anything, except an inflexible cheap seat. All there latest promotions are below Q class, enticing people into cheap tickets they earn nothing from & cannot upgrade.

Like all things its a bit of scam! However work it right & it does pay dividends in the end.

[PigDogg]

(martin5915 @ Mar. 17 2007,12:10) But chap l know with Thai restaurant told me to fly China and registered for their Dynasty program, on first flight with them last Devember got upgraded to Business class, ABSOLUTLEY AWESOME.

How'd you get upgraded on your first flight?

[Guest]

I think FF programs are definitly a good thing. I fly from New York City at least two times a year. I belong to AA advantage and United's program . That gives me a lot of options. I prefer Thai air because they are the only ones who go non stop from NYC, but JAL or Cathay Pacific are a little better service and only one stop over. I always pick the best deal, but definitly collect all my miles.

[Snick]

Another bonus is the benefits you receive at certain levels. If you have 10K miles on Star Alliance, you qualify for a silver card on Thai airways, that give you an extra 10kg luggage allowance and priority for standby.

[moe666]

EVA just upgraded me to gold card after 5 trips. The only problem with EVA I tried to upgrade to business back to the states and the girl at the desk wanted to charge me to many miles. Up graded to business from Bangkok to Taipai she charged me 30,000 miles, recieved my statement and EVA corrected it back to 15,000. Nothing but good to say about EVA.

[rxpharm]

If you can reach Gold Status on Star Alliance, with any of the partner airlines, you also have the benefits of using the business class lounge (free food, booze, showers in certain airports like LHR, BKK, Frankfurt, etc), extra baggage allowance as mentioned by Snick and others, priority checkin (avoid the huge lines at Suvarnabumi), priority waitlist for standby (I was able to get on an earlier connecting flight once - ahead of two others who were waiting with non-Gold card status),
priority boarding (get on 1st and get your carryon luggage stowed away close to you!)

So I would recommend joining one!

[moe666]

If someone comes to Asia a lot they are fools if their not in a program. With EVA I had Silver card status in two flights this allows you to use the business lounge. I fly economy deluxe and you board after business and depending on the airplane you may have your own boarding door.
I have flown Korean Airlines China Airlines Singapore Airlines Thai Airlines and EVA . I will stick with EVA.

[Guest]

100% agreement with moe, cannot beat their service from the east coast of us

[kahuna]

Same..I fly Eva Air out of SFO and I have no complaints...In fact, wheels up in 14 days...

[moe666]

Have fun

[moe666]

Got my EVA gold card today.

[Guest]

I totally love it. China air sucks Moosecocks.

I lived in China for 2 years. The outstanding metric I remember is the following:

"It has been statistically proven that it is safer to walk the streets of Sarajevo than to fly South China Airlines."

(this was during the are in Sarjevo)

[SamplerDoc]

  Anyone know if you can add miles from different airlines all into one?

Example:  If you had miles in 4 different airlines, can you add three of them all up into your fav one and be able to redeem it for a free ticket  

[SukhumvitRoad]

If you fly with any airline in one of the marketing groups (Star Alliance and OneWorld are the biggest), you can credit mileage to any other airline within the group. There are also a few other special deals that allow cross-crediting (Delta has them with Singapore Airlines and Emirates, for example). The important thing is to pick the airline that you want to use as your 'master' account, and credit all your mileage into it when you fly. After it is credited, then you cannot combine it with mileage in other accounts to get benefits.