I think it depends on what you want out of the program. To me, having access to more award seats, F Lounge and F check in counters are important. *A can't give me all of them. I am heading to Dubai next month and I will empty a bottle of Chateau Margaux or equivalent in the emirates F lounge.
You are quite right that one cannot compare the benefits from OneWorld to Star Alliance, irrespective of member level. Star Alliance has way more carriers and a more robust route network than OneWorld. However, in terms of benefits, OneWorld does a better job segmenting the elite crowd offering First Class service to their top tier levels (whereas top tier Star Alliance flyers are lucky if they can access a Business class lounge and check-in). In addition, OneWorld and certainly SkyTeam does a better job of providing reciprocal benefits for other airlines. For instance, you won't get complimentary seat selection on Air Canada as a United Premier Gold, but you will get complimentary seat selection on American or BA as a Qantas top tier elite.
Another key consideration is what the acquisition cost for the status is. In this respect, I would argue that Qantas makes it quite easy for someone to attain status with its status credit scheme and the now annual double status credit promotion. If you compare that to United, for instance, you need to be spending anywhere from $8,000 to $10,000 USD on United fares for you to be earning Premier Gold status with them now. A similar thing is happening with other Star Alliance partners like Lufthansa and Air Canada. SkyTeam is interesting since many of those airlines base status on mileage flown (i.e. Delta) or status credits (i.e. Air France). But in the end you need to factor in how often you'll be flying a given airline and their alliance and compare the benefits and cost to getting elite status.
A final point of consideration is to consider what the costs of flying business (by purchasing and redeeming points from an airline like AC) is versus purchasing a cash coach fare. A couple of times now, I've found flying business to be comparable in price to flying coach, in which case things like status frankly don't matter. Who cares about accessing an F lounge if you're gonna have a lie flat seat for the next 25 hours and access to a Polaris lounge which arguably is as good as your F lounge?
I will be making 4 trips a year to LA and NYC starting early next year. I should have another look at UA and AA again.
I would respectfully encourage you to consider Delta. Their status is based strictly on miles flown (aka MQM), they have great reciprocal benefits with other SkyTeam partners including complimentary seating, and they have a number of non-alliance partners that may be worth your while like LATAM. In addition, they are running a
status match promotion which will let you earn Medallion Gold status through 2024 after flying 12,500 miles with them.
I feel the largest cohort of upset people are still domestic fliers with irregular travel.
Once they get bitten by Virgin will realise domestic is commoditized and you fly on flight timings and price and perception of reliability.
Indeed, if you fly enough times you will get bitten by delays and IRROPS. The key thing us mature travellers have learned is what to do when that happens. Many folks love to whine and complain on FB or this forum, instead of plucking the eggs from the golden goose known as IRROPs.
except virgin is that much cheaper the bite doesn't hurt... I've been getting vurgin business cheaper than qantas economy... Lots of padding there for the bite...
Depends on routes I suppose - I've snagged red e-deals to MEL and BNE as low as $99 one-way in Y, then proceed to use points to upgrade to J. What I will say is that Virgin can't hold a candle up to Qantas in terms of hard product, especially their wide body A330s with their lie flat seating. In addition, there are small things QF does which make up for their short comings, such as offering premium security or premium entrance at certain airports to us elite flyers instead of us having to mingle with the kettles in terminal 2 of SYD.
-RooFlyer88
australianaviation.com.au
(sorry if that comes across as a bit entitled - I just mean it as an example).
