Which Star Alliance Frequent Flyer scheme should YOU join? Part 2 - Which Scheme Will I Join? 

Thanks Rich - did take a while! The hardest part was leaving stuff out would have been the next thing I'd say on a particular topic if I'd not felt the pressure of time - 17 minutes was enough! I think I saw about this points transfer opportunity late on in the scripting process - a wee bit too late to include so thanks for reminding me of it. I'll note it in the pinned comment. Thanks again and thanks for watching!

I'd like to thank my agent, my publicist....

Hey hey hey!!! Looks like you enjoyed a double feature! That's why I picked the Aegean scheme!!!!!

Thanks!

Watch it twice. Or perhaps 3 times!!!

You're welcome! Simple is good....

Thanks Tony - will do!

Thanks Francois. Never sure whether people will click on a video that's 17 minutes long so very pleased when people do!

Fantastic! Pakistan is the one country I've "been to" that I don't count in my country totals - I flew Muscat to Karachi to Bangkok years back and wasn't able to get off the plane in Karachi as it was just a short stop to let more passengers on.... Really keen to go there properly as I hear it's amazing. I went to the Indian side of the Wagah border which is pretty close to being in Pakistan!! I'd certainly recommend making a video - you'll quickly tell if you enjoy it and if you publish it, you'll quickly learn if anyone else enjoys it!!! 36k points can be earned in any class - bit quicker in business... Flying Saudi you'll need to give some thought to which SkyTeam scheme you want to be accumulating into....

@@MattsPlanet ah perfect, I didn’t think where to accumulate Saudi into! Yes! Pakistan, great if you like mountains and natural beauty. Odd to say. Doesn’t everybody? :)

Thanks - it took a while!

Thanks Storm!

Nearly a year old this stuff!

Thanks for that - TK is certainly alluring, but will you travel enough on Turkish metal to solidify the status? Hope the video helped you make a good decision.

It was close, and there's been a lot of love for Turkish in the comments! But I'd have to change my plans (and spend a chunk more money) to travel enough on TK to complete a match, even if retaining status is then perhaps slightly easier than Aegean.

Thanks - glad I could help. Those P class fares are great as they're quite reasonable, but they do impact upon your choice of scheme. Good luck and enjoy Germany!

Thanks - hope it helps

@@MattsPlanet I called Aegean and now I have some questions: I have a bunch of chase ultimate rewards points and want to know if I buy Aegean points do those count toward the 48,000 required points? Or do I have to buy the flights and earn the 48,000 points?

Hi there. No idea I'm afraid... Usually, status only comes with flights and you can then acquire mileage points from other means, such as credit card spend, hotel stays etc. I don't know how Aegean handles this. Another subscriber had success tweeting Aegean a question so perhaps give them a tweet and see if they can answer - I think it's a simple enough question. Let me know!

Thanks. TK is certainly a good option... Aegean has worked well for me!

Thanks Peet - should perhaps have talked more about Ethiopian as they fared pretty well overall, But I had to draw the line somewhere - nearly 17 minutes was enough for 1 video!

Hope it lives up to expectations!

You are very welcome! Aeroplan gets some good coverage as I think they're generous with their points purchase options? Good to hear an actual user account, even if the experience isn't good!

Thanks again! When there's 27 schemes to consider, you're always going to have to skip some details!

Thanks for that - I think I recall that some schemes do have lounge access rules outside of the normal framework... May be remaking this video in the next few months so will bear that in mind.

Thanks Ryan. Asiana would have been quite an interesting option without the shadow of the merger... If you're happy to risk ending up with SkyTeam status after investing in getting to Star Alliance gold then go for it. Decent airline too! Not a lot of love for Aeroplan although I know some people maintain an account without pursing status as the earning / buying / spending equation is decent. Not something I've investigated myself but I know Trek Trendy uses an AC account.

Good choice Stephen. Not a bad choice at all! Time to start planning your renewal!

Thanks Arden. I think I might have leaned towards Asiana had they not had this cloud hovering but I'm 100% happy with my Aegean choice... I guess the channel gives me the luxury of being able to maintain two golds... But OneWorld is not a bad alternative, depending on where you live.

Thanks Elnur - kind of you to take the time to comment in such detail. It was a very close run thing. A good friend of mine (actually my beer buddy Steve from the Short video I uploaded a week back) did the TK match a few years back and has maintained it for a few years now. He found the whole process quite difficult as the website was not very good and not very clear, plus the redemption process was very, very difficult. Or at least it was - I gather both have been improved in the last few years but that first hand experience did weigh against TK to some degree. I've also seen several videos suggesting that TK has been scrimping on its inflight service, although once again I suspect that's been a temporary thing that will correct when things pick up. But Steve really liked the full soft product in business before the you-know-what and I have been to the "old" IST lounge which was spectacular - if the new airport is anything similar then that certainly is a plus. Thanks again - won't actually join anything until I'm making bookings so will see if anything changes in the next month or two. Had more people suggesting I reconsider Turkish than I've had endorsing Aegean!

@@MattsPlanet yes, TK IT has not been good in recent years. It had improved in recent times, but still not great. For the benefit of others - the TK lounge (I.e. the lounges) in new Istanbul airport is much better than the lounge in the old Istanbul Ataturk airport. There are 2 TK lounges: one for Gold members flying economy and another one - more exclusive - for those flying business on the day.

@@MattsPlanet Fully agree - match was cumbersome. Acc. to latest info the "cooks are back" for the meals I consider best in Biz class or even first?!

There seem to be very few covid restrictions on any airline now - I saw a few days back that even the Spanish airlines are lifting their mask restrictions... Not sure that needs a video!

Thanks - it is a close run thing. It would be nice if Aegean had a few longer haul routes...

Thanks - lot of work went into this one!

Thanks Philip - I'm very happy with my Aegean choice. And if you are flying regularly on other *A airlines you may find you renew gold without needing to fly with Aegean at all

@@MattsPlanet I fly mostly Lufthansa and ANA but its subsidiary Air Dolomiti is not accrued by Aegean, those are short connecting flights in EU but still a few miles a year and a good option from my local airport. I think after becoming silver with Aegean I can activate a Together account with that at least I can reach and maintain gold status if I can make a few planned holidays regularly. Turkish has 2 year renewal window but slightly higher tiers and mileage pooling is only for married couples I believe. Truthfully the program that grants me overall the most miles is still miles and more but its tiers are unreasonably exclusive and pretentious.

I think quite a lot of this would work for US residents - I excluded the US airlines as they are revenue based these days so there's no way they'd be competitive!

Thanks - hard to cover every element of every scheme - not without making the video hours long and even duller than it already was! Thanks for the info

Thanks - this is a bit old now and perhaps needs a refresh - lots of love for Air Canada, particularly when it comes to buying and spending points - I think the basis for status hasn't changed, which is how I chose to rank the schemes - the hotel angle sounds like something to consider.

You know it makes sense!!!

@@MattsPlanet Totally

I know you've specifically excluded NZ, but...they are currently offering a match, targeted at QF/VA I believe, but they are accepting matches from all but other *A carriers and CX, for some reason.

Thanks Ross. All the schemes are blurring into one, particularly as the video I am now working on is about OneWorld, but I recall Air NZ needs a certain level of flights on NZ metal for Gold?

@@MattsPlanet I must admit I haven’t jumped in yet so I’m not 100% sure - I believe it’s a straight match for 4 months, extended to a year with 100 status credits (it whatever NZ call them) - whether they have to be earned on NZ metal, I’m not sure

Thanks - that is certainly a positive to that scheme, but I renewed my Aegean gold almost without noticing and I would need to have done a lot more to renew SAS... But if you do travel a lot then SAS is worth a look

@@MattsPlanet I travel a lot for work and switches between Gold and Diamond depending on how many long haul business class trips I have during my 12 month qualification period. After watching your video Aegean seems temping to be sure I stay gold every year even if there is a downturn, but then I loose my chances to get lifetime Gold. Asiana is still a part of Star Alliance even though 2-3 years have passed, are they still on there way out? By the way, Eurobonus and SAS is to separate entities, so should SAS be restructured or go bust it shouldn't affect Eurobonus too much.

@@Mr.Engineer. If you travel with work then the 10 year goal is great - BA's lifetime would take 20+ years.... Asiana is topical - Virgin yesterday announced flights to Seoul which the UK regulator made a condition of allowing the Korean Air / Asiana merger. There's a couple more approvals to get but it looks like the merger should still happen.

Thanks David. It's hard to say - if you're doing that trip in business then you'd get there pretty quickly with Aegean... I'd run the flights you take through wheretocredit.com and the line that up with schemes you might look at, such as Air Canada, United, Avianca etc and see which one looks best. A bit of homework but I'm sure it would be worthwhile!

Thanks Dom. I haven't really looked at Star Alliance Lifetime Gold but its a good idea for a video - thanks!!!! Mainly as I'm in my 50's (I know that might come as a shock!!!!) so its unlikely to be a realistic goal for me setting out this late... Something I might take a look at although I'm not sure how mainstream a video it would make!!!

... 18 minutes later! I may well do a Sky Team version of this but BA is the dominant OneWorld airline I'm not sure how much interest there'd be in a OneWorld equivalent?

@@MattsPlanet Thank you. The main challenge, from Global aspect, majority, especially expats, will be primarily with One World BA. Your vlogs are excellent. Easy to understand. You are touching many. Have given me so much knowledge. Very grateful. Thank you 😊

Thanks - I have looked at it and do plan to do something similar but it is quite a significant project as you can imagine!!!

Congrats. I am planning to do an equivalent video for SkyTeam but its a ton of work so it keeps slipping down the to-do list! One reason why that's happening is that I don't have a great level of ambient knowledge on SkyTeam airlines so wouldn't recommend any of them yet... Watch this space!

Thanks for that - have you had any success using any miles earned with Turkish?

@@MattsPlanet yep. Used them on flight to Mauritius. Booking Turkish redemption on Turkish is extremely easy. Plus a lot of their EU to Istanbul flights are on flat beds and even their 737 have recliners with excellent soft product. Booking on other *alliance used to be a pain but now available online. I've not done that yet. One negative is that miles expire 3yrs after earning so you have to use them. But due to covid my miles keep getting extended. Currently status valid till July 2023.

Thanks Donald. "I'll make a video about Star Alliance schemes, how hard can it be?" Answer - very! No such thing as a stupid question... I know KLM and Lufty (particularly KLM) are targeting regional UK travellers who have to change somewhere as BA is so London centric. Why not change in FRA? So if you bought a business class ticket on (say) GLA-FRA-ORD they'd give you lounge access in GLA and FRA regardless of the scheme you were crediting too - miles wouldn't have to be posted to the Lufty scheme. Similarly GLA-AMS-ORD would post to any SkyTeam scheme. And yes, I have thought about doing the equivalent video for SkyTeam but I might give it a week... Or ten... Cheers and thanks for watching

@@MattsPlanet Thanks Matt I was eagerly awaiting Part 2 to see which option was best. I do think I will continue with BA and use Schiphol and Frankfurt as other options when looking for "deals". Keep up the good work I can only imagine the amount of prep and research involved in making these videos.

Don't know Air Malta's scheme at all, although I'd generally recommend against any airline scheme not in an alliance... If that's your home airline there may be benefit but its really hard to squeeze any value out of it. It's an interesting question so I looked on wheretocredit.com and the only other scheme you can credit to when flying Air Malta is a Miles and More member, which takes you back to Lufthansa! Or a partner, but none of the M&M schemes are brilliant...

"My Mate Steve" is with Turkish and was also very frustrated with the redemption side of Turkish, which did play a small part in my decision to err towards Aegean, even if I didn't mention it in the video. But he's reported that it has gotten a little better in recent months... Re your question, its really hard to advise without understanding your travel patterns for collection. I've had quite a lot of feedback from the comments that Aegean is working for a lot of people around Europe and although I haven't redeemed anything myself yet, I have had a look and it seems reasonable, both in terms of availability and cost... It is accelerated if you have to (or want to) go to Greece and is accelerated further if you travel during a points promotion... But SAS may make more sense as it's your home airline, even if the qualification thresholds are quite a lot higher than Aegeans... A few votes for Air Canada too, which is an option from left field... Sorry I can't give an immediate, obvious answer but it is a really complicated question for each person.

Hello! There are some occasions when flights don't bring points - Lufthansa has a discounted business fare under a P code which doesn't give any points to many Star Alliance schemes, including mine with Aegean. Almost every good Lufty fare you see is only good because its P so earns me nothing... Code share rules on earning can be tricky too... But it may also be because the systems failed or something went wrong. Saw somewhere that BA recently updated its systems so now if your middle name on a booking is different from your middle name on your passport then the points won't credit (an initial versus the full name as an example). So I'd double check on wheretocredit.com that you should have earned points and chase with SAS if they didn't credit. Annoying, but something we all have to do from time to time. Cheers and good luck!

Yyz-dps is a long slog!!! P class works into some schemes, just not aegeans. It does bring good value though. That's a long slog!!!!

You can have memberships in all the alliance's schemes if you want! But you can only credit a flight to one scheme.

A few people really like Air Canada's scheme... I'm happy with my decision to go with Aegean...

I went with Aegean - google still suggests Asiana will leave eventually... Do you have inside knowledge that they won't?

Absolutely! It'll require more miles to get status than if some of your flights are on Aegean but you never need set foot on an Aegean plane to get and maintain status.

Hi Thomas. I can't really comment I'm afraid - its hard enough to keep on top of the UK offerings... Plus answering that sort of question gets perilously close to financial advice which is regulated.... Sorry but there may be a US / Canadian creator that is better positioned to offer a comment. Thanks for watching though!

Hi there... Had to revisit the script to see what I said in this one!!! But I actually never asked them to match me... I expected disappointment, but as I was going to be travelling more for the channel I decided to get to Gold the old fashioned way - by flying! Currently in Cyprus as I chalk off the 4 Aegean legs I need to get from Silver to Gold I have a couple of videos planned about how I got there. Thanks for watching!

Not an expert on the United scheme I'm afraid....

No! You can be in as many as you want. I'm in 5 or 6 - I'm only collecting miles and points in Aegean so use that membership number when I fly, but I quite like getting the mailings from the other schemes to keep up to date on what is going on with other airlines.

Join what? Signing up for a frequent flyer scheme is easy and free on each airlines' website

I had planned to, but was running a bit short of short of time when making this video so made a call to exclude them. Have a video about US schemes planned in which I will cover them though - there's a few differences with US schemes that are worth specific coverage.

@@MattsPlanet pre-pandemic, I was seriously considering re-qualifying for United Premier status (which prior to 2020 was solely based on miles flown with them and Star Alliance partners). My thinking at the time was to fly Air Canada and some of their partners on cheap P fares, and earn the requisite PQPs (which is simply milage divide by 5) to earn status that way. Then the pandemic hit and being based in Australia it's now impossible to fly United or Star Partners. Then a couple months ago QF had a status match offer for UA Elites like myself, basically, fly 100 status credits and get QF Gold. When combined with a lucrative double status credits offer they had I literally matched my status with QF through November 2022 by flying Sydney to Darwin in discount economy with them (total cost ~$700 AUD). Granted, that might be a bit pricey for acquiring mid-tier status but I wanted to have a program I could actually use and wanted to get off the ground having been stuck in Sydney for over a year due to various travel restrictions. Having tried QF Gold status I'm not sure what to make of it. On the one hand there are things I like about having QF Gold, certainly the QF lounges are leagues ahead of the UA domestic lounges I frequented pre-pandemic. On-board service is good too. However, for things like seat selection, frequent flyer upgrades and a few other perks (e.g. complimentary same-day changes) I feel like I'm getting a bit of a downgrade there. Route network is a wash, right now QF's route network is way more relevant than Star. However, when international travel opens up, I suspect * will end up being the better network, especially when I can continue flying NZ domestically in Australia once again (NZ borders have reopened but there's a ton of asterisks and cabotage seems harder to pull off now than it was before with all the screenings). In terms of accruing retaining status, it's 600 status credits I need to earn by November 2022 to keep my Gold status so that shouldn't be hard, particularly if international borders open up in 2022 - I reckon a few clever routings within the Americas should net me the credits needed at an agreeable price. Things I won't look forward to if I do make the switch over to OneWorld entirely would be having to fly AA whose customer service and baggage service is towards the bottom of the list, or BA which ranks as one of the worst in Europe for handling bags. Coming into/through LHR, an airport that seems designed explicitly for Star Alliance is also something I won't look forward to either. The Queen's Terminal is amazing both in terms of the lounges but also how smoothly everything runs from baggage to immigration. The other terminals in contrast seem tatty to put it mildly. Would be curious if you had any thoughts on the QF programme, given you lived in Australia for some time? Are there any sweet spots or things I should look out for?

Thanks for that. New winner for longest comment received! I lived in Aus for 7 (ish) years and have had QF FF membership since 99, although I leaned strongly towards *A when I was down under and never really got any status within the QF scheme. Just realised I can still remember my QF FF number, even though I've not used it for perhaps 10 years... Odd how the memory works! US airline schemes have a good reputation for upgrades which few others can match. I've been quite lucky with the BA scheme but a good friend of mine in Aus got to QF Platinum by flying economy (lots and lots of economy) and he never/very very rarely got an operational upgrade. I think QF are really stingy about giving you the good seats in economy, and charge everyone to reserve them, even their high status flyers? But the lounges are good as a gold/emerald... It sounds like you've got a great handle on how to approach this and the major consideration will be where you are flying regularly (plus perhaps what your employers travel policy dictates!). If you cross the pacific regularly in business, could you maintain status in both schemes? Bottom line is that no scheme is going to be perfect all the time. Made it to Darwin on my last trip down under and really, really liked it!

@@MattsPlanet I figured my comments should match my style of travel long haul with very few breaks 😛 Agree with your assessment on all of this. Certainly having multiple status potentially across all alliances is not a bad idea. One particular benefit I have living down under is all international trips by definition are ultra long haul so with the right routing, fare class and frequent flyer program I suspect I could snag status across multiple alliances. In particular, your Star Alliance video which covered getting Aegean status for next to nothing is certainly tempting especially if I’ve got a week in Europe to take a couple Aegean flights. Unsure on SkyTeam, perhaps that’s a topic for a future video? Speaking of United the upgrades for me were really the silver lining here. In particular the last international flight I had before the borders closed LHR > SYD (via LAX) on United was all in Polaris J from a cheap k fare that cost like $1100 AUD return. Upgrade was $650 USD + 35,000 miles to upgrade the whole trip into Polaris J. I would challenge you to find a comparable upgrade deal on BA or any other airline you fly - I simply don’t think it can be done. And the best part? I’ve still got an unused coupon SYD to LHR to be booked by November this year due to COVID which cancelled my return. Another example - Back in 2017 I was in AKL flying back to the US and got an upgrade to Polaris J for AKL > SFO for $900. Again I challenge you to find a better deal. One interesting thing I’m looking at is the possibility of using BA’s buy and upgrade feature on Executive Club that lets you buy a normal fare (e.g Premium Economy) whilst at the same time using points to get a confirmed upgrade into J at time of booking. If I can swing that for some of my long hauls whilst getting the mileage to credit to QF I’ll be on cloud nine. I’d also be curious to see if that program works for AA and QF operated flights booked through BA. Perhaps a future video?