Help with FF credit card + points discussion

[Bar]

Hi guys I am new at this and have a few questions.

I want a card that is aligned to Star Alliance and have narrowed it down to:

-Westpac Altitude Gold or Platinum
-Westpac Singapore airlines Gold or Platinum

What is better?

I also see that Aegean Airlines has the lowest qualification criteria for Star Alliance Sliver and Gold status, how do I get the Aegean FF points connected to my credit card?

I feel like I am missing something here.

Can I only use KrisFlyer OR Aegean points? or do they all go into the same 'pool' of points? I am a little confused. Any help appreciated.


EDIT: Maybe I should be a little more specific I am about to get a RTW ticket MEL-->BKK-->ZRH-->GRU-->AKL-->SYD-->MEL through SWISS (star alliance) and would like to try and get silver or gold status and good points.

 

[Bar]

Ok so after doing a bit more research:

- Get the 20k miles on Aegen to get Star Alliance Gold Status
- Then use the KrisFlyer points after that and just use the Gold Status card for the benefits.

My trip is Melbourne --> Bangkok --> Zurich --> Sao Paulo --> Auckland --> Melbourne which is about ~25k miles, on the Aegean website it says the Accrual for SWISS (who I will be flying with) is 150%. Does this mean I only need to fly 13k miles to get Gold Satus?

Does this sound right?

I think I am on the right track now.

 

[Bofter]

My personal experience of Aegean is that it is a little more difficult and less reliable to use as a frequent flyer program, but while there seem to be others who have had similar difficulties there are also a number who have managed to take advantage of its low status thresholds.

150% earn on Swiss for Aegean is only for booking classes Y and B. I am not sure if such flexible (and expensive) booking classes are common for RTW economy fares so check carefully.

I am pretty sure no Australian credit cards link to Aegean, even through multi-step transfers through hotel rewards programs. The booking.com hotel booking connection works quite well, but other non-flight points earning opportunities are limited.

 

[Bar]

My personal experience of Aegean is that it is a little more difficult and less reliable to use as a frequent flyer program, but while there seem to be others who have had similar difficulties there are also a number who have managed to take advantage of its low status thresholds.

150% earn on Swiss for Aegean is only for booking classes Y and B. I am not sure if such flexible (and expensive) booking classes are common for RTW economy fares so check carefully.

I am pretty sure no Australian credit cards link to Aegean, even through multi-step transfers through hotel rewards programs. The booking.com hotel booking connection works quite well, but other non-flight points earning opportunities are limited.

Thanks I will check with my travel agent what booking class my trip is.

I just want to get the Gold Status then use a different FF program. Probably Singapore Airlines.

 

[Moopere]

Despite really not wanting to split myself across two alliances, I can see that oneworld has a massive big hole in SE Asia and if I want decent price/decent quality flights I'm going to have to think about Star Alliance.

I don't really understand why you want to switch FF program to Kris after getting Aegean Gold??? Local CC's are likely to be easier to find sweeping to Kris, but if Gold is easier to get at Aegean then why not build your Tier Miles with Aegean and keep Kris as your Awards building program? Is there any advantage to swapping things about after Aegean Gold is attained?

 

[Bar]

Hi moopere,Are you able to explain how I would use Aegean for my tier miles and Kris for awards program? I am quite new to this so just trying to work out what is best at the moment. Thanks!

 

[Moopere]

I am very new Bar, and don't have any status with Star Alliance, so be cautious of anything I say. However, like you, I am now considering my options to gain some status with *A.

Having scanned over the Aegean site, it appears that there are a couple of things going on which you probably already know, but which other readers might like repeated.

1) Gaining status requires something called "Tier" Miles. These are miles accrued from actual flying. You should be able to accrue Tier Miles from any Star Alliance member flight, but not necessarily on every booking class, so some caution is required.

This Tier Mile accrual is at the heart of the popular opinion that Aegeans requirements for Star Alliance gold are low (only 20,000 Tier Miles required).

2) Confusingly, Miles are also referred to in relation to the more normally spoken of Frequent Flyer Points. These are "Award Miles". They seem to have nothing whatever to do with gaining status. These "Miles" are the ones you would accrue with credit card spend. So, presumably, one could earn Award Miles on the Krisflyer (Singaporean) program, and use these miles to book against flight with any Star Alliance members. So long as whenever I book a flight I quote my Aegean FF number, I should direct my Tier Miles to Aegean (and thus promote my quest for Gold status), whilst at the same time use Krisflyer FF Miles to book seats.

This would be the equivalent, I think, to using my current QFF points to book a CX flight (oneworld) whilst directing my status credits to AA which I believe is possible.

 

[Moopere]

Actually, I hope I won't steal the thread by asking a pretty general question to any Star Alliance holders.

As I say a few posts above, am looking at my options for *A status. Have snooped about on Thai and SQ and Aegean. From what I can see, *A status benefits are pretty much lounge access and priority boarding/checkin. Individual programs offer small niceties like extra luggage and similar little things that I have a tendency to care a bit less about.

So, my question, as a complete *A newbie is, with Aegean offering Gold for 20,000 miles, and almost everyone else offering the same at 40-50,000 miles what would be the compelling reason to choose anyone in *A other than Aegean to gain status? I understand there is considerably more variation between member airlines when it comes to earn and burn, but is there any reason I can't accrue award miles with Royal Orchid or Kris and status with A3?

Here in Australia Kris miles are pretty easy to earn, but getting status under Kris looks pretty darn difficult, even maintaining gold (let alone qualifying) looks too hard for my traveling.

So, someone; please sell me on achieving status with another *A carrier.

 

[cove]

If you can make it to have plenty of points in your Kris account status ceases to matter provided you do J or better redemptions on points. You get the wonderful lounges and meals so I don't think about status ever.Keep moving with the Westpac Kris Amex and or a Citibank Kris denominated card. Then you biggest and only concern would be the three year point expiry so to help with that Citi can warehouse those points until you need to transfer them without the clock ticking down.

 

[Moopere]

Extremely rude for me to be sitting here talking to myself, but heck, wouldn't be the first time

Bar, I suspect I have a valid cautionary tale in relation to gaining *A gold with Aegean. Did a lot of searching yestrday and have been struggling to find economy fare with local *A carriers that use booking codes which Aegean will recognise for Tier Miles.

This may partially answer my own quesiton in the post above. Aegean, of course, don't fly anywhere near this part of the world. Local carriers being TG and SQ and whatnot. Zillions of flights to SE Asia and everywhere else, but mostly using the wrong codes to credit Aegean.

Full fare economy is better, Business and First has no problems of course.

As always, nothing is as straightforward as it appears to be at first glance. More investigation required.

Tempted to go for TG's Royal Orchid because their FF cards are so beautiful

Infrequent but full fare or higher class travel would get you across the bar with Aegean, but then, the J and F will get you *Gold benefits and more besides. Unless a short stint of flying J was to be followed by a couple of years of discount Y perhaps this is not the right strategy for this region?

 

[Moopere]

If you can make it to have plenty of points in your Kris account status ceases to matter provided you do J or better redemptions on points. You get the wonderful lounges and meals

Yes, I can see the sense of this. Kris, in particular, has special lounges that are not shared with the general *A membership. A decent drawcard. My problem will be in gaining enough Kris miles.

so I don't think about status ever.

Its a smart move.

I don't travel enough to honestly split myself between two alliances, I always knew this, so I was not originally really looking for status in *A ... but the problem seems to be the huge SE Asian 'hole' left behind by QF retreating and JQ expanding. Not being interested in JQ travel is leading me towards *A.

Keep moving with the Westpac Kris Amex and or a Citibank Kris denominated card. Then you biggest and only concern would be the three year point expiry so to help with that Citi can warehouse those points until you need to transfer them without the clock ticking down.

The 3 year expiry is what kept me away from Kris in the first place. I am really loathe to go the Citi route. I tried for Platinum earlier this year and the interaction with the bank leading up to denial of Plat but acceptance for Gold was such a bad experience that I actually breathed a sigh of relief when I cancelled the unwanted Gold card immediately upon receipt. I'm out of patience with Citi just reading other peoples tales of woe here

I've really got to find my way to Amex MR. Direct Amex cards don't seem to like me for some reason. I'll try again in the Dec-Feb 2012 points season.

 

[travelislife]

Moopere, earlier you were talking about crediting 'Tier Miles' to Aegean but the FF miles to SQ for the same flight. I have never heard of a program allowing this to occur. Essentially the Tier Miles are BIS miles, so ones actually flown and don't include credit card spend, etc., pretty much the same as status credits on QF.

So if you do a flight that is 5000 FF miles on *A in the right booking class, this will also equate to 5000 Tier miles, there is no way to seperate the two.

Another advantage of Thai's ROP program if you can reach gold is that you get 1 guranteed upgrade voucher per calendar year, and also 1 half price reward redemption, which means 50000 points return Business Class East Coast Aus to Asia.

The Aegean idea for gaining status first up and then moving to another Star Alliance program is a good one I think, if you then feel that you will be able to gain status on the new program before your Aegean status expires.

One does have to be very careful with the booking class within Star Alliance though.

 

[serfty]

Note that *A has a general alliance additional baggage allowance for *G of 10Kg or one PC.

Note that is some cases, like Air NZ "Seats to Suit" it's only available if you purchase a baggage inclusive option.

 

[Moopere]

Moopere, earlier you were talking about crediting 'Tier Miles' to Aegean but the FF miles to SQ for the same flight. I have never heard of a program allowing this to occur. Essentially the Tier Miles are BIS miles, so ones actually flown and don't include credit card spend, etc., pretty much the same as status credits on QF.

So if you do a flight that is 5000 FF miles on *A in the right booking class, this will also equate to 5000 Tier miles, there is no way to seperate the two.

Ah, yes, my apologies for giving this impression. This is not what I meant. In my mind, I understood that the FF miles earned whilst gaining Tier Miles on Aegean would go to the Aegean account. Credit Card spend would gain FF (non Tier) miles, and as an Aegean FF miles credit card would be next to impossible to gain here in Australia I realised I'd have to use a local (SE Asia/Oceania) FF program to store points from sources other than BIS miles.

Another advantage of Thai's ROP program if you can reach gold is that you get 1 guranteed upgrade voucher per calendar year, and also 1 half price reward redemption, which means 50000 points return Business Class East Coast Aus to Asia.

I didn't know that. I have to fully investigate both Kris and ROP.

The Aegean idea for gaining status first up and then moving to another Star Alliance program is a good one I think, if you then feel that you will be able to gain status on the new program before your Aegean status expires.

One does have to be very careful with the booking class within Star Alliance though.

Yep. I guess you could spend less time without status. 50K Tier Miles is still, IMHO, a pretty high bar though. My problem is that Oneworld generally looks after my very modest travel requirements and QF points and points earning possiblities are all pervasive here in Aus. The only current requirement I have for StarAlliance is SE Asia, and even this will get better once MH joins Oneworld.

I guess, as you say, if a lot of your flying was likely to be *A, and if 50K miles was a reasonably easy for one to maintain, then go Aegean first, to get status quickly, then comfortably pick up status with TG or SQ during your Aegean Gold period.