star alliance again but..

[catysoro]

Hi, have economy THAI- melb -BKK, then business SWISS BKK-Zurich -Barcelona. Was going with Swiss frequent flyer as figured more points flying business. (new at this game).

Question: transferring points from swiss FF to star alliance- is it 1 for 1 ? and if I fly to koh samui later in the yr with a member airline is it worth joining swiss- how far do the points get you? (calculator on the website made the conversion difficult)

cheers
Catysoro

 

[Moopere]

Hi, have economy THAI- melb -BKK, then business SWISS BKK-Zurich -Barcelona. Was going with Swiss frequent flyer as figured more points flying business. (new at this game).

Question: transferring points from swiss FF to star alliance- is it 1 for 1 ? and if I fly to koh samui later in the yr with a member airline is it worth joining swiss- how far do the points get you? (calculator on the website made the conversion difficult)

Hi Catysoro,

Welcome to AFF.

Swiss is part of StarAlliance as you know, but one never transfers FF points to an alliance per se. What happens is that you accumulate points in an alliance airline and can use those points to fly with any airlines in the alliance. You would arrange this through the airline you are accumulating points with ... in this case Swiss.

So, for example, once you have enough points accumulated for a MEL-BKK return Star Alliance rewards flight, you might choose to fly to BKK on Thai Airlines (another Star Alliance member), you'd arrange this by contacting Swiss and using your accumulated points.

The earn rate and burn rate of points is distinct between airlines and is the subject of much chatter in forums like this.

I have not personally investigated Swiss so can't offer any opinion on them.

 

[Fantic125]

Hi catysoro,
Swiss FF program is Miles & More (same as Lufthansa, etc) and is part of the *Alliance team.

Flight distance from MEL-BKK is 4,545 miles so depending on what booking class your Y flight is in, you will either earn 0.5 miles (S,V,W), 1.0 miles (G,H,K,M,Q,T) or 1.5 miles (B,U,Y).

Flying J class with Swiss you will earn 2.0 miles, so for your flight from BKK-Zurich-Barcelona will give you a total of 12,306 miles.

Assuming your MEL-BKK earns 1.0 miles, your total miles accumulated (1 way) will be 16,851 miles. If your return flights are the same, then you will have 33,702 miles to use for award flights or upgrades. Incidently, that also gets you 2,300 miles off achieving the M&M Frequent Traveller status, which (I think) is equal to *Silver.

Using Moopere's example of MEL-BKK on Thai Airways you would need 60,000 miles for an economy return flight (30,000 for one way).